[swfmill] SWFMill bug with filters applied to movieclips and importing (version 0.2.12.4 and earlier)

[Alex H]

Hi SWFMILL developers,

First, thanks for creating SWFMILL. It's an awesome little tool and I 
use it almost every day for one thing or another.

I'm experiencing an annoying bug and have been able to debug it until 
I'm at the very basics. To sum up, the problem is as follows:
When using SWFMILL in "simple" mode, and using a <clip> and <place> 
statement to import a SWF into the new swf file, if the SWF being 
imported has any symbols on the stage that have filters applied (such as 
drop shadow), the import breaks and creates a wonky file.

Please see my example file here:
_http://www.avbrand.com/pub/swfmill%20bug.rar_

Inside, you will find:
in.xml - the XML used to generate out.swf
test.swf - Created in Flash CS3 -- viewing this file, you will see two 
purple boxes with drop shadows and the text "Hello from _level0.bb1  
Hello from _level0.bb2" in the text box.
test.fla - source file
out.swf - the file created by SWFMILL version 0.2.12.4 (earlier versions 
also have the same problem). Note how only movieclip "bb1"'s code ran.

If you remove the <place> tag and run SWFMILL again, theoretically the 
SWF should never appear since it was imported but not placed. However, 
the rightmost purple box appears anyway.

*Conclusion:*
It seems that having any type of filter applied to a movieclip at design 
time breaks SWFMILL's import routines.


I'd love to help fix this, but I am not that familiar with SWFMILL's 
source code and modus operandi, so I will hopefully leave my involvement 
to reporting this bug and donating to your project.

Notes:

    * It does not matter whether or not the SWF is placed with a <place>
      tag -- merely importing it gives the bug.
    * Using the <component> tag or placing the <clip> tag into the
      <library> tag or outside the <frame> tag makes no difference
    * Publishing for Flash 9, Flash 8 AS 1, Flash 8 AS2, all exhibit the
      problem. Flash 7 and below does not since filters are not supported.
    * The drop shadow on the left box is applied at runtime, which is
      why it functions properly.
    * It seems that two problems happen: 1. Any actionscript on the
      object is gone (and doesn't run) and 2. The object is imported
      into the base frame of the new swf, rather than into the submovie
      where it belongs, regardless of whether or not a <place> tag is used.

Please let me know if you need more explanations or help. I'd love to 
see this fixed, since it has stalled my SWFMILL development.

Thank you very much,
Alex H
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