mod_swf2html 0.1

mod_swf2html is a module to incorporate Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK into Apache 2. Using this module, you can extract text and link informations from a flash file and return them in HTML format.

Only tested on the HEAD of httpd-2.0 and FreeBSD-current but it will work with any version of Apache 2 and many UNIXen with a few modifications.
mod_swf2html is currently considered in alpha level.

Installation:

Before compiling mod_swf2html, you should get Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK and PCRE library, and Apache 2 of course.

After getting and making Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK and PCRE library, extract source files from the tarball, which you can get from the bottom of this page, and edit Makefile to change values of FLASH_SEARCHDIR, PCRE_INC, and APXS.
try ``make.

If you are succeeded in making mod_swf2html, install it by ``make install. It will install mod_swf2html.so in the appropriate directory (e.g. /usr/local/apache2/modules).

Configuration

Add following two lines to load mod_swf2html.so.

LoadFile /usr/local/lib/libpcre.so
LoadModule swf2html_module modules/mod_swf2html.so

Next, add the following line inside a Directory or Location section in your httpd.conf and restart your Apache 2.

AddHandler swf2html-handler .swf

e.g.

< Directory /usr/local/apache2/htdocs >
AddHandler swf2html-handler .swf
< /Directory >

If xxx.swf exists in a directory under which mod_swf2html is enabled, accessing it adding ``convert=html to the URI causes the conversion of xxx.swf into HTML by this modules. There are two options so far; one is option=textonly and another option=linkonly. If you add option=textonly, only text informations will be extracted. On the other hand, option=linkonly make mod_swf2html extract only link informations. Both text and link informations will be extracted with no option.
e.g.

< http://www.foo.com/xxx.swf >
--> no conversion.
< http://www.foo.com/xxx.swf?convert=html >
--> extract text and link informations in HTML format.
< http://www.foo.com/xxx.swf?convert=html&option=linkonly >
--> link informations only.
< http://www.foo.com/xxx.swf?convert=html&option=textonly >
--> extract just text informations.

There are other directives, Swf2HtmlForceConvert and Swf2HtmlConvertIfBrowserMatch. Both take one argument as follows;

< VirtualHost * >
ServerName www1.foo.com
DocumentRoot /usr/local/apache2/htdocs
ErrorLog logs/www1.error_log
CustomLog logs/www1.access_log combined

AddHandler swf2html-handler .swf
Swf2HtmlForceConvert yes
< /VirtualHost >

< VirtualHost * >
ServerName www1.foo.com
DocumentRoot /usr/local/apache2/htdocs
ErrorLog logs/www1.error_log
CustomLog logs/www1.access_log combined

AddHandler swf2html-handler .swf
Swf2HtmlConvertIfBrowserMatch w3m
Swf2HtmlConvertIfBrowserMatch googlebot
< /VirtualHost >

As you can imagine from the name of the directive, setting Swf2HtmlForceConvert to yes makes all swf files converted.

On the other hand, you can choose when the conversion occurs by using Swf2HtmlConvertIfBrowserMatch directive, which make swf files converted if User-Agent header matches the string in case-insensitive manner. This matching is done usgin PCRE library and you can write perl compatible pattern.