An SWC file is a package of precompiled

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

symbols and

ActionScript ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. (later acquired by Adobe). It is influenced by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard. It is now an implementation of ECMAScript (meaning ...

code that allows a Flash or Flex

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to distribute classes and assets, or to avoid recompiling symbols and code that will not change.AdvancED Game Design with Flash
Apress, 01-Sep-2010
Adobe LiveDocs. SWC files can be generated by the Adobe Flash Professional authoring tool, and by

Flash Builder Adobe Flash Builder (previously known as Adobe Flex Builder) is an integrated development environment (IDE) built on the Eclipse platform that speeds development of rich Internet applications (RIAs) and cross-platform desktop applications, parti ...

(or its companion compiler MXMLC).Flash CS3 For Dummies
John Wiley & Sons, 13-Aug-2007 They are sometimes referred to as class

libraries A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...

and cannot be directly executed by the

Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...

. SWC code libraries are typically included in an ActionScript 3 project, and compiled into the final SWF file alongside the developer's program, by the ActionScript 3 compiler. Only the classes that have been used by the project (and their dependencies) are transferred into the resulting SWF file.

Format

A SWC file is compressed by means of the ZIP archive format.Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst: The New Workflow
Apress, 20-May-2010 Renaming the extension of a SWC file to "zip" will allow any ZIP-compatible decompression software to show the contents of the file. An uncompressed SWC file contains at least a catalog.xml file, and a SWF file, usually named "library.swf". It may also contain other files, such as CSS files. The catalog contains a list of the ActionScript classes contained in the library, their dependencies, and modification dates.

Example catalog.xml

This is a simple example of a catalog.xml for a SWC created in Flash CS4 which contains two sounds.

References

{{Adobe Flash Adobe Flash