How to open file dialog in Flash 10 "without" user interaction - javascript

I want to open a file dialog via FileReference.browse() but I get #2176 error which means that this action can only be invoked upon some user interaction. I'm aware of security considerations but in my scenario I have a thin flash movie which merely displays an image and the whole UI is in javascript (I heavily use javascript <-> actionscript communication).
So the question is - do you think it would be possible to invoke FileReference.browse() upon the user interaction coming from javascript?

No. If it is anything like accessing the clipboard, then you are stuck out of luck. I have tried all sorts of hacks to get around that, from setIntervals to using apply, I even tried using a ByteArray to manipulate code directly. No soap.
For that matter, you'll have to upload the file to a server using FileReference (unless you're using AIR). This is really annoying if you need to have Flash look at it.
The problem is that when Flash makes this type of decision, they are not making those aspects of the classes accessible by code directly. The code responsible for actually accomplishing these things is locked in the native code which is built into the FlashPlayer. We're black-boxed out.

Back when Adobe first updated their security model, and in turn broke quite a few running flash based upload services, there was a
pretty
big
stink.
I believe that some people were working around the new limitation by essentially creating a transparent flash movie, and overlaying on top of an otherwise normal HTML element, to 'trick' the user into giving the flash app input from which to trigger the interaction (where they think they are clicking on a simple html button labeled 'upload' they are actually clicking on the invisible flash element sitting on top of it.)
I've not tried this method myself, but it may give you a direction in which to search for a solution that might work for you.

Isn't this the purpose of object and embed tags in html? When you say the whole UI is in javascript I am assuming you are using html markup as well, though I guess this may not necessarily be the case.
How to embed a flash file in html
How to start a flash file with javascript

Ok. I've found this link: Flash Player 10 FileReference Changes. Apparently there's no workaround for this limitation. I guess I'll have to display a prompt for the user from within the flash movie, so that he/she can "interact" and allow to open the dialog.

Related

Controlling JavaScript from user's end

I am working on a website where I have to repetitively attach an image file one by one and click submit for it to be uploaded. I looked at site's JavaScript code and found the right buttons, and I even used AHK's COM object tutorial here to click() those buttons using JavaScript. I wanted to know is there any sophisticated way to control webpages using javascripts from user's end on browser other than Internet Explorer?
(I am looking for something better than putting focus on url-bar, and typing javascript:alert())

hide source of HTML page using javascript

I saw How to hide html source & disable right click and text copy? . One of the answers say use ctrl+u to view the source. But, using shortcut.js I can override ctrl+u as well. How do I view source in that case.
There is no way to prevent this. Someone could easily download the page using a non-browser tool like curl or wget, or log all HTTP traffic with Wireshark.
Use this. http://www.fiddler2.com/
Depends on the browser, but you can go to View -> Page Source in most to view the source. You cannot override that, however.
Furthermore, it's considered bad practice, and someone could also just as easily override the functionality through a tool like Firebug.
You can't stop people. It will be passed over the network, and sniffable through Fiddler, or someone can use a text based browser, or disable Javascript entirely, or look through their cache folder for the files they downloaded from your site.
You cannot stop people from seeing your source.
Well it's not possible to prevent users from seeing your script. But what you can do is to make it mire harder that user quits trying after few common methods.
I recommend you to load an initial page. Then load the whole page by using ajax. You can show a friendly loading gif too. This technique has following adanages,
browsers don't show generated HTML. Developers knw how to see this. But Normal user will not find it easily
if any user just press Ctrl+u it'll show the initial page.
wget, curl tool will not work at the first time.
additionally you can obfuscate the main page (which you are going to load by Ajax).
It's nearly impossible to stop people fetching the HTML from your website. I don't see any reason you'd want to hide it in the first place anyway. Hiding something?
Want to view the source no matter what javascript is being used to hide it? cURL the page.
Even if you disable right-click, you can still do a snapshot by pressing the prt scrn key on your keyboard then pasting it into an image editor.
You can't disable it. There are ways to encrypt it, but way more trouble than it's worth.
It's impossible to hide the source, HTML and Javascript are interpreted languages, that mean the browser will "compile" the code on the clients machine.

Can a piece of code be dynamically placed on every webpage a user visit

So we have a program that the user can use by copying text from a webpage they visit, alt+tabbing to the program, then pasting it as input. It would be more convenient for users to be able to do it directly in the site.
We were thinking of a panel that would be small and expandable, following them to each site they visit. Is this possible? Either a snippet of code that is auto pasted, or a JavaScript command called that would dynamically paste the code (is Scratchpad any help here, at least in FireFox).
We've never made a FF add-on, but it seems like if the dynamic panel idea falls through, an add-on would be the next best thing.
Basically, users should ideally be able to copy text, either enter a key combo or click a button, see the interface and paste in the text. Would either of these methods work?
A browser add-on or a userscript could certainly do this.
You can also write a userscript and use a user script compiler (such as this one) to convert it to a "true" Addon.
Alternatively your application could act as a HTTP proxy and inject it dynamically, but I'd guess that this would probably be more complicated than the other two approaches.
This site Polyvore used to do something similar, although in the 2 mins hunting around I could not find it, but I have used it and I think the technique was used by Google and Digg for a while. From what I recal it involved iframes and a bookmark in your browser.
Basically you could download a small piece of code that would sit in your bookmarks bar and this would allow you to navigate to a fashion website click on the bookmark copy a picture and insert it back into Polyvore.

mini javascript browser

I was wondering if there was anyway I could make another browser within my webpage. Basically I want this browser to be an interactive area on my webpage (about half the page).
The main page should be able to detect where every click was made within the mini browser.
Is there some apis that would help me out? Or would my best bet be to stream a remote desktop?
Programming your own browser engine in Javascript will take you years, and it will inevitably be slow, cumbersome, and prone to errors. Furthermore, your Javascript cannot really have direct access to other website's HTML code, it will have to go through your own server anyway.
You can use an
<iframe>
tag. To detect clicks and mouseovers, you could transform the HTML on your server first, potentially adding "onclick" events. This would let you have XSS access too, and cookie control.
You can embed another page within yours using an <iframe>. Once you do, however, you can't control much of what happens within it, or detect where clicks are made, unless the page within the iframe is from the same domain, for security reasons.
You could try the <iframe> tag.
No, it really can't work that way. My suggestion would be to embed an iframe and then control it using JavaScript. However, you won't be able to control it very well (like, for example, limiting where the user can browse with it).

How do you make a flash movie to play full screen mode using javascript?

I have a .swf file I am including in my html document. I'd like to be able to play it in full screen mode. (No browser showing).
Is it possible to do this using html / javascript or is this a component of the flash movie itself?
The ActionScript that initiates full-screen mode can be called only in response to a mouse click or keypress. If it is called in other situations, it will be ignored (in ActionScript 2.0) or throw an exception (in ActionScript 3.0).
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/full_screen_mode.html
So you cannot do this using Javascript.
No, you can't. I understand that preventing people from making annoying auto-fullscreen movies and the like sounds good, but this is really crippling... You have a whole navigation bar (standard across the site) in HTML and then for this one flash component, there's one button that's not in the bar because... because other people might do something scurrilous with it? What's the real harm in a video taking full screen unprompted? Will a user lose files? Will the computer shut down? Sometimes I think Adobe's too paranoid for their own good...
I think you have to use SWFObject to control it from javascript.

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