Research possibilities of FP10 automatic Flash Player and SWF version matching

[GoogleCodeExporter]

FP10 File reference runtime access: 

Bring users into the experience by letting them load files into your RIA.
You can work with the content at runtime and even save it back when you are
finished through the Browse dialog box. Files can be accessed as a
byteArray or text using a convenient API in ActionScript without
roundtripping to the server. You no longer have to know a server language
or have access to a server to load or save files at runtime.

More: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/index.html

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Via http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/swfversioncom/

Utilizing the new Flash Player 10 file features, you can browse to any
local SWF and get both Actionscript and Flash Player version.

An example website: http://swfversion.com/

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This means that from FP10 onwards we have the possibility to do automatic
version matching, using the above and the Capabilities object, which might
be very interesting, especially for static publishing. However, some
problems will endure:
1. Author either needs to implement class in his own SWF or we would need a
sniffer SWF to do the work for us
2. FP10+ only
3. Preserve 2 fallback options:
A. Adobe Express Install (optional)
B. Fallback to alternative content (integration with object element)

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If anyone additional info, code examples, thoughts, questions or ideas on
this topic, feel free to add them to this report

Original issue reported on code.google.com by bobbyvandersluis on 17 Oct 2008 at 10:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I believe you can only access a file once the user has explicitly selected it 
from 
a Flash file browse dialogue.

Original comment by tom.chiv...@gmail.com on 17 Oct 2008 at 12:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I agree with tom, the filereference requires active user input, which is why 
all the 
file-uploaders are now "broken" (needing to be hacked).

Interesting idea, though.

I still really wish there was a way to have signed flash assets which could 
have 
exemptions to some of these strict rules.

Original comment by get...@gmail.com on 17 Oct 2008 at 7:15

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Guys, you are right, active user input is required here, so this is a dead end.

To me the most ideal way of embedding Flash content for a certain version is to 
use
the object element's MIME type, e.g. <object 
type="application/x-shockwave-flash;
fp9.0.124.0" ..., because this method would integrate very nicely with the 
object
element's fallback content, however IE doesn't support this generic MIME type
notation, and I don't think they ever will, so that is nothing more than a 
daydream
either :-( 

Original comment by bobbyvandersluis on 27 Oct 2008 at 5:02

• Changed state: Impossible

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by bobbyvandersluis on 27 Oct 2008 at 5:03

• Changed state: Verified