File Header

Tag Info
Tag Number: 
-1
Tag Type: 
Format
Tag Flash Version: 
1
Unknown SWF Tag: 
This tag is defined by the Flash documentation by Adobe
Brief Description: 

Although it isn't a tag per say, we consider the file header as being a tag because it represents a block in the flash file. Since version 8, it can be complemented by the FileAttributes tag.

Tag Structure: 
struct swf_header {1
	unsigned char		f_magic[3];	/* 'FWS' or 'CWS' */
	unsigned char		f_version;
	unsigned long		f_file_length;
}

struct swf_header_movie {2
	swf_rect		f_frame_size;
	unsigned short fixed	f_frame_rate;
	unsigned short		f_frame_count;
};
  • 1. This part is never compressed
  • 2. Although considered part of the header, this part is compressed in the 'CWS' format.

The file header is found at the very beginning of the file. It should be used to determine whether a file is an SWF file or not. Also, it contains information about the frame size, the speed at which is should be played and the version (determining the tags and actions possibly used in the file).

The f_magic[3] array is defined as the characters: 'FWS' (it is going backward probably because it was supposed to be read in a little endian as a long word). A movie can be compressed when the version is set to 6 or more. In this case, the magic characters are: 'CWS'.

The f_version is a value from 1 to 10 (the maximum at time of writing, the maximum will continue to increase).

The f_file_length is exactly what it says. That's useful for all these network connections which don't give you the size of the file. In case of a compressed movie, this is the total length of the uncompressed movie (useful to allocate the destination buffer for zlib).

The f_frame_size is a rectangle definition in TWIPS used to set the size of the frame on the screen. The minx and miny are usually not necessary in this rectangle definition.

The parameter in the swf_header_movie structure are part of the buffer that gets compressed in a movie (in other words, only the very first 8 bytes of the resulting file aren't compressed).

The f_frame_rate is a fixed value of 8.8 bits. It represents the number of frames per second the movie should be played at. Since version 8 of SWF, it is defined as an unsigned short fixed point value instead of an unsigned short. The lower 8 bits should always be zero (see comment below.) This value should never be set to zero in older versions. Newer versions use the value zero as "run at full speed" (which probably means run synchronized to the video screen Vertical BLank or VBL.)

The f_frame_count is a counter representing the number of SHOW FRAME within a movie. Most of the tools will compute this number automatically and it can usually be wrong and the movie will still play just fine.