All I don't know » Flash in Browser

Safari Flash Player detection problems with ClickToFlash

derRaab — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:52:39 +0000

I really like the concept of blocking Flash, mainly because I don’t see these unwanted, crappy developed Flash adds sucking performance, but also because it’s a nice way to recognise Flash parts in websites. You’ll have your own reasons.

Safari is, except for testing purposes, my browser of choice, but I was having trouble on different websites accessing Flash content because the Flash plugin was not detected correctly. Since I had to update the Flash Player on my system again, I decided to figure out what the problem is.

According to Playerversion.com an older Flash Player version – MAC 10,0,45,0 – was found first, then the display switched to my installed Flash version – MAC 10,3,181,14 (Debug player).

I used the Flash Player Uninstaller but Flash Player version MAC 10,0,45,0 was still displayed in Safari.

After some research I figured out that ClickToFlash doesn’t display the correct Flash Player version and therefore doesn’t work in all Flash detection scripts. Just check Safari - Help - Installed Plugins and search for "Flash" and you’ll see that ClickToFlash simulates somehow an outdated Flash Player version (seems to be hardcoded).

So until ClickToFlash will be updated displaying the correct installed Flash Player version I’ll use AdBlock For Safari. More Flash but less problems – hopefully.

YouTube about Flash and the HTML5

derRaab — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:35:47 +0000

Interesting YouTube API Blog post explains why YouTube uses Flash Player for video playback:

http://apiblog.youtube.com/2010/06/flash-and-html5-tag.html

Open Source Media Framework 1.0

derRaab — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:30:19 +0000

Adobe recently released OSMF version 1.0! Again just some links:

OSMF Blog – Announcing OSMF 1.0!
Source ZIP
Release Notes PDF
ASDocs ZIP

Flash Performance Visualizer

derRaab — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:43:48 +0000

Mr.doop’s Hi-ReS! Stats is a must have for every ActionScript developer. Seems to be still no. 1!
And I don’t want to search again… So here just the links:

Mr.doop’s blog | Hi-ReS! Stats
~~Mr.doop’s Stats.as @ GitHub~~

Update – Most recent version I found:
http://code.google.com/p/mrdoob/source/browse/trunk/libs/net/hires/debug/Stats.as

Undocumented XMLUtil class in Adobe Flash CS5?

derRaab — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:39:14 +0000

I tried to recompile an older Flash CS 4 project with Flash CS 5 but got this compile time error 1061: Call to a possibly undefined method reuseNodes through a reference with static type Class caused by the usage of one of my utility classes:

This didn’t work

import de.superclass.util.XMLUtil;
...
XMLUtil.someMethod();

This still works

...de.superclass.util.XMLUtil.someMethod();

So there was no error in my class because it’s still usable when I use the full class package but it didn’t work when I just import it with the import statement.

After some research I found an undocumented XMLUtil class which avoids the correct access to my de.superclass.util.XMLUtil class.

This class doesn’t exist in Flash CS 4 but is available in Flash CS 5. Simply create a new FLA in Flash CS 5 an run this code on timeline

trace( describeType( XMLUtil ) );

and you’ll get this result:

 name="XMLUtil" base="Class" isDynamic="true" isFinal="true" isStatic="true">
   type="Class"/>
   type="Object"/>
   name="kAttrYMin" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrXMax" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrYMax" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrObj0" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrObj1" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrX0" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrY0" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrX1" type="String"/>
   name="kTagGravity" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrY1" type="String"/>
   name="kTagCollideSpace" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrType" type="String"/>
   name="kTagRigidBody" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrPin" type="String"/>
   name="kTagRect" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSlider" type="String"/>
   name="kTagJoint" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrLength" type="String"/>
   name="kTagSpring" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrStrength" type="String"/>
   name="kTagFrames" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrDamping" type="String"/>
   name="kTagFrame" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSimSpeed" type="String"/>
   name="kTagFluid" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrAxis" type="String"/>
   name="kTagEmitter" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrAsset" type="String"/>
   name="kTagOrigin" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSpring" type="String"/>
   name="kTagKeyframes" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSpringStrength" type="String"/>
   name="kTagKey" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSpringDamping" type="String"/>
   name="kTagView" type="String"/>
   name="kTagGeom" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrIndex" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrCollideType" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrCellSize" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSpringValue" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrCollideSpace" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrRowDimen" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrDensity" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrColDimen" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrPosX" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrTimeStep" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrPosY" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrTime" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrAngle" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrColor" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrVelX" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrStrokeColor" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrVelY" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrAlpha" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrVelA" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrFPS" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrCOR" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrSprings" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrCOF" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrLimits" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrFixed" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrMinAngle" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrID" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrDBlend" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrPoseStrength" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrPoseDamping" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrBodyDamping" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrX" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrY" type="String"/>
   name="kAttrXMin" type="String"/>
   name="prototype" access="readonly" type="*" declaredBy="Class"/>
   name="nodeHasAttribute" declaredBy="XMLUtil" returnType="Boolean">
     index="1" type="XML" optional="false"/>
     index="2" type="String" optional="false"/>
  >
   name="getIntAttribute" declaredBy="XMLUtil" returnType="int">
     index="1" type="XML" optional="false"/>
     index="2" type="String" optional="false"/>
     index="3" type="int" optional="true"/>
  >
   name="getNumberAttribute" declaredBy="XMLUtil" returnType="Number">
     index="1" type="XML" optional="false"/>
     index="2" type="String" optional="false"/>
     index="3" type="Number" optional="true"/>
  >
   name="getBoolAttribute" declaredBy="XMLUtil" returnType="Boolean">
     index="1" type="XML" optional="false"/>
     index="2" type="String" optional="false"/>
     index="3" type="Boolean" optional="true"/>
  >
   name="getStringAttribute" declaredBy="XMLUtil" returnType="String">
     index="1" type="XML" optional="false"/>
     index="2" type="String" optional="false"/>
     index="3" type="String" optional="true"/>
  >
   type="XMLUtil">
     type="Object"/>
  >
>

So I had to rename my class to de.superclass.util.XMLUtils.

You might run into the same problems when using mx.utils.XMLUtil (Flex Framework) or com.adobe.utils.XMLUtil (AS3CoreLib) but I didn’t test it!

UPDATE:
I found XMLUtil classes in
Adobe Flash CS5/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/libs/ik.swc and
Adobe Flash CS5/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/libs/PffLib.swc

Removing the $(AppConfig)/ActionScript 3.0/libs directory within the ActionScript export settings avoids the problem. But I have no time to test if this directory is necessary. If you run into problems please leave me a comment!

Aligning Flash TextField instances visually correct

derRaab — Sun, 16 May 2010 01:44:12 +0000

I was looking for an easy way to align TextField instances with different font sizes visually correct. I really thought this wouldn’t take much time but it turned out to become really frustrating.

So think about a simple scenario: Try to align two TextField instances with different font sizes side by side. If you just set the TextField.y property to the same value you will recognise that different font sizes have different top margins. Well, you might fix that by hand if you have a static layout but what if you don’t know what kind of Text will be displayed? In my case I needed to align text always on top with the same margin regardless of the headline font size.

I tried hard to get this done by using different methods provided by the TextField class. Then I tried to work with the TextLineMetrics class as well. Nothing worked properly for me. I needed to work with CSS formatted HTML text so I was looking for a margin-top style or something similar. Not available. Hm.

Then I remembered my solution about finding the alpha bounds within external loaded PNG files and used that. Well, the main downside is that I need to create a BitmapData instance to determine the exact text bounds but otherwise it worked out very well.

It all comes down to two simple methods that will slip into my library. At the end you will receive a rectangle representing the bounds on the TextField instance.

If you know a different way to obtain the same exact result please leave me a comment!

Here’s my solution:

function getDisplayObjectAlphaBounds( displayObject : DisplayObject, smoothing : Boolean = true ) : Rectangle
{
    var bitmapData : BitmapData = new BitmapData( displayObject.width, displayObject.height, true, 0 );
        bitmapData.draw( displayObject, null, null, null, null, smoothing );
 
    var alphaBounds : Rectangle = bitmapData.getColorBoundsRect( 0x01000000, 0x01000000 );
 
    bitmapData.dispose();
 
    return alphaBounds;
}
 
function getTextFieldTextBounds( textField : TextField, smoothing : Boolean = true ) : Rectangle
{
    var background : Boolean = textField.background;
    var backgroundColor : uint = textField.backgroundColor;
    var border : Boolean = textField.border;
    var borderColor : uint = textField.borderColor;
    var opaqueBackground : Object = textField.opaqueBackground;
 
    textField.background = false;
    textField.border = false;
    opaqueBackground = null;
 
    var textBounds : Rectangle = getDisplayObjectAlphaBounds( textField, smoothing );
 
    textField.background = background;
    textField.backgroundColor = backgroundColor;
    textField.border = border;
    textField.borderColor = borderColor;
    textField.opaqueBackground = opaqueBackground;
 
    return textBounds;
}
 
var textFormat : TextFormat = new TextFormat();
    textFormat.align = TextFormatAlign.CENTER;
    textFormat.color = 0x0000FF;
    textFormat.font = "Arial";
    textFormat.size = 30;
 
var textField : TextField = new TextField();
    textField.border = true;
    textField.borderColor = 0x0000FF;
    textField.background = true;
    textField.backgroundColor = 0x000022;
    textField.defaultTextFormat = textFormat;
    textField.height = 260;
    textField.text = "\nThis text\ncan be\naligned\nproperly!";
    textField.width = 300;
    textField.x = 30;
    textField.y = 30;
 
addChild( textField );
 
// Get bounds
var textBounds : Rectangle = getTextFieldTextBounds( textField );
 
// Draw bounds
var shape : Shape = new Shape();
    shape.x = textField.x;
    shape.y = textField.y;
 
var g : Graphics = shape.graphics;
    g.lineStyle( 1, 0x00FFFF );
    g.drawRect( textBounds.x, textBounds.y, textBounds.width, textBounds.height );
 
addChild( shape );

FFK10 – Flashforum conference notes

derRaab — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:59:10 +0000

Every year I spend two days sitting in the audience of the Flashforum conference (FFK) listening to great speakers and getting impressed by their experiments and thoughts. It’s also a good way to renew some of the basic knowledge in Flash development and of course to meet some friends in the Flash scene.

So this are most of my notes:

Flash / Flex development:

Jessee Freemans Flash Augmented Reality Debug Tool provides an easy way to start with augmented reality development.
Use stunning Hype-Framework effects.
Dive into dynamic sound generation with André Michelles Audio-Sandbox.
Have a look at the PushButton-Engine for component based development.
Remember that Flex 4 includes a lot of performance features! It’s highly recommended to switch as soon as possible. For example the Embed-tag reduces PNG file size and lots of improvements are made within the Flex components.
Watch the Adobe TV video preview: Flex for mobile devices
See Christian Cantrell’s blogpost One Application , Five Screens (Including the iPad)
Great tip: ByteArray.org – Why cacheAsBitmap is bad
Adobe’s Mobile Development Guide for the Flash platform (applies also to desktop applications) contains performance tips like:
- DisplayObject.width / height should be divisible by 2 as often as possible
- Try to avoid Events and / or stop propagation as soon as possible
- Set DisplayObject.mouseEnabled=false if possible
- Stop MovieClip animations when removed from stage
- Use TextField.opaqueBackground=true if possible
- Use final statement (final class ClassName {})
- Use BitmapData.get / setVector()

HTML / JavaScript basics:

Use “Sprites” with HTML / CSS (load only one bitmap graphic containing all the asset images for your page and show only the particular relevant parts) and preload next page assets using AJAX while your current page is idle.
Since usually only 2 simultaneous domain http requests are supported by browsers it’s a good practice to distribute contents from various ip addresses (use asset-servers for example).
Load only visible parts of your site using JavaScript viewport events.

Useful workflow utils:

Subversion Server – Hosting
Omni Focus – Personal task management
Planning Poker – Consensus-based estimation technique for estimating
Pivotal Tracker – Agile project management tool
IDEO Method Cards – iPhone application
Basecamp – Get projects done

Flash Player Security

derRaab — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:53:31 +0000

Just some helpful links:
Understanding the security changes in Flash Player 10
Policy file changes in Flash Player 9 and Flash Player 10

Flash and Amazon SimpleDB

derRaab — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:05:28 +0000

I did some research about using Amazons SimpleDB service within a Flash based application and found these basic facts:

http://sdb.amazonaws.com/crossdomain.xml is not available. This means no direct calls from Flash clients in browsers are possible!
Even if it would be possible some day, you would need to find a secure way to deliver your AWS key to the Flash client.
Using a web proxy is a solution that would cause a lot of traffic on your server.

So using Amazons SimpleDB for browser based Flash applications makes not much sense to me.
It might be more useful for Flash applications running on local machines like Flash projectors or Adobe AIR applications but there is still a security problem with hiding your AWS key.

Anyway, I found two ActionScript libraries that might be useful:
http://code.google.com/p/actionscript-simpledb-library/
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=1365

And this thread in Amazons discussion forums:
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=19698

URLRequest with HTTP authentication

derRaab — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:14:26 +0000

I found a good explanation how to support HTTP authentication with URLRequests here.

That’s the most interesting part:

Best I can tell, for some reason, this only works where request method is POST; the headers don’t get set with GET requests.

Interestingly, it also fails unless at least one URLVariables name-value pair gets packaged with the request, as indicated above. That’s why many of the examples you see out there (including mine) attach “name=John+Doe” — it’s just a placeholder for some data that URLRequest seems to require when setting any custom HTTP headers. Without it, even a properly authenticated POST request will also fail.

You’ll almost surely have to modify your crossdomain.xml file to accommodate the header(s) you’re going to be sending. In my case, I’m using this, which is a rather wide-open policy file in that it accepts from any domain, so in your case, you might want to limit things a bit more, depending on how security-conscious you are:
 version="1.0"?>
>
     domain="*" />
     domain="*" headers="Authorization" />
>
… and that seems to work; more information on this one is available from Adobe here).

Apparently, Flash player version 9.0.115.0 completely blocks all Authorization headers (more information on this one here), so you’ll probably want to keep that in mind, too.

So this little code snippet explains the basics:

// Base64Encoder contained in Flex SDK
import mx.utils.Base64Encoder;
 
// Encode username and password
var base64Encoder : Base64Encoder = new Base64Encoder();        
    base64Encoder.encode( "username:password" );
 
// Create authorization request header
var urlRequestHeader : URLRequestHeader = new URLRequestHeader( "Authorization", "Basic " + base64Encoder.toString() );
 
// URLRequest setup
var urlRequest : URLRequest = new URLRequest( "url" );        
    // Needs to send some data!!        
    urlRequest.data = new URLVariables( "name=John+Doe" );        
    // Only supported with POST method!!        
    urlRequest.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;        
    // Apply authorization request header        
    urlRequest.requestHeaders = new Array( urlRequestHeader );