Installing FlashSpring Server under Windows Server 2003

Installing FlashSpring Server most probably you need to configure the system on your server computer. While running FlashSpring Server at desktop computer everything may be ok, but when you deploy the product under Windows Server 2003 (Win2003) you can meet some issues caused by security restriction of this operating system. You should realize that each process running under Win2003 is associated with particular user account and this account should have a number of privileges to access files, registry, run processes, etc. By default some operations you need to run FlashSpring Server under Win2003 are forbidden. You should carefully check all possible issues to ensure all required security privileges are provided.

We have prepared the following step-by-step instructions which will guide you through the process of configuring your system.

First of all try to install the latest release of FlashSpring Server on your computer. Sometimes old builds can be not compatible with latest Win2003 service packs or have known issues which are already fixed in the most recent builds. You can check the FlashSpring version you currently have using Version property of FlashSpring Object or running flashspringSE.exe without parameters via command line. You can always download the newest releases on FlashSpring web site.

2. FlashSpring requires Microsoft PowerPoint 2000/XP/2003 to be installed on your computer (PowerPoint is not needed on client computers to view generated Flash presentations). All components of PowerPoint and all shared components of Microsoft Office marked on the picture below must be installed as well.

Required PowerPoint components

3. First of all you can try to perform the conversion using the command line tool FlashSpringSE.exe. To use it correctly, please read FlashSpring Server Help for detailed information on command line syntax and make sure if the command line options you entered are correct. If the conversion succeeded, your system was set up properly to perform basic interactions with FlashSpring Server.

If you plan to use FlashSpring Server within your Web server environment such as Internet Information Services (IIS) or Apache, you may need to configure security restrictions of your web server to allow FlashSpring work properly. In this case please follow recommendations below.

4. Web pages working under Web servers are usually running under user account having minimum privileges for accessing file system and using system components. If you use FlashSpring Server within code in your web pages, the mentioned restrictions are applied to FlashSpring Server as well.

FlashSpring Server connects PowerPoint via OLE Automation. This technology allows one program (FlashSpring Server) to control another program (PowerPoint) and read/write its data. The default security restrictions of Win2003 do not allow FlashSpring Server to interact with PowerPoint. So you need to enable PowerPoint Local Activation for user account that runs FlashSpring Server and PowerPoint. This is the same user account that is used to execute web pages code.

The process of Local activation permissions set up on Windows 2003 Server is illustrated below.

First of all you need to determine which user account is used to execute your web pages. Open Internet Information Services Console (Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Internet Information Services). Right click on Web sites item and chooseProperties option in popup menu.

Web site properties

Web Sites Properties window will be opened. Go to Directory Security tab and click Edit button on it.

Directory Security->Edit

You will see Authentication Methods window with User Name of Win2003 account that is used to run your scripts with FlashSpring Server. Please remember (write down) this User name for further configuration.

Remember User Name for futher use

Then you should configure DCOM security settings for this user account. Open Component Services management console (Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Component Services)

Choose Component Services->Computers->My Computer->DCOM config option.

DCOM Config option of Component Services window

Choose Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation from the list of available DCOM components, then right-click on it and choose Properties.

icrosoft PowerPoint properties option

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation properties window will be opened. Go to Security tab. In Launch and Activation Permissions field switch on Customize and click Edit button.

Go toSecurity tab and edit Launch and Activation Permissions

You will get the Launch Permission window with a list of groups and users allowed to run Microsoft PowerPint Presentation object types. Click Add button to add a new group.

Add new group in Launch Permission window

Enter the User Name you remembered into edit box under the Enter the object name to select label. Or click Advanced button.

Enter User Name you remembered or click Advanced button

If you clicked the Advanced button will get Select Users or Groups window. Click Find Now button to search for your user account.

Click Find Now button to get your User Name

Choose the User Name you remembered and then click OK.

Choose your User Name

You will return to the Select Users or Groups window. Click OK button to confirm user account selection.

Confirm user account selection

You will come back to the Launch Permission window with your User Name added. Choose your User Name from the list of users, and enable Local Activation privilege in the Permissions for Internet Guest Account list, then click OK.

Enable Local Activation for your User accont

Thus you have enabled Local Activation permission for Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation object types for you User account.

Starting from FlashSpring Server 2.3 you need to enable local activation for 2 more components in a same way. Thes components are:

ActiveSWF Local Server
VideoToSwfConverter Local Server

File system permissions.

FlashSpring Server creates temporary files during conversion. By default these files are created within current user temporary files folder. For user account which is used for running web pages it is usually c:\windows\temp folder. User account can have some restrictions on maximum file size created in default temporary folder. In this case you can specify temporary files folder for FlashSpring Server via -temp command line option or TemporaryFolder property of FlashSpring object and grand necessary Win2003 privileges for writing in this folder.

If you steel need more information to resolve any issues with running FlashSpring Server, please contact our Support team and you will get personalized help in solving your problem. Please specify the versions of Windows, PowerPoint and FlashSpring Server you use in your message.