Adobe open sources Flash Media framework

Adobe's Open Source Media Framework and Text Layout Framework will be available as open-source software

Adobe has announced plans to make its Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) and Text Layout Framework (TLF) freely available as open-source software for developers, media companies and publishers.

The two initiatives are aimed at helping users push their online media by creating more robust, feature-rich media players and sophisticated typography capabilities to web applications on the Flash platform.

"Adobe is committed to providing core Flash platform technologies to the community as open source," said Dave McAllister, director of standards and open source at Adobe.

"By releasing OSMF and TLF as open source, we are helping to facilitate the creation and sharing of best practices for media players and rich text-based web application development. We believe these efforts will strengthen the industry, and lead to the next generation of web applications, content and video experiences."

Adobe claimed that the OSMF architecture will help developers create plug-ins for advertising, reporting metrics and content delivery, along with standard video player features such as playback controls, video navigation, buffering and dynamic streaming.

OSMF includes an application programming interface for partners to build plug-ins for value-add services, and offers plug-ins from third parties so that content providers can more easily tap into other revenue generation models.

TLF, meanwhile, is an extensible ActionScript library built on top of the text engine in Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR 1.5, and provides support for complex languages, bidirectional text, multi-columns and other advanced typographical features and controls.

Source code and component libraries for both OSMF and TLF are available under the Mozilla Public License.