How does Adobe CONNECTNOW load and run acaddin?

Question

I am looking for options to download, Install and run a custom plugin/add-on(an exe or an installer) from my Flash Movie similar to how the connectnow does that?

When we initiate the screen sharing for the first time, connectnow prompts us for mandatory add-in by showing the message "To use this application, you need the Adobe ConnectNow Add-in.Would you like to install it now?". Once we agree, it downloads and installs acaddin.exe at the location %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\acaddin on our local machine. Then automatically launches the acaddin.exe and allows the user to close the browser window from where the acaddin.exe was launched.

From the next time onwards, when we login to connectnow, it launches the exe directly.

In this context: If I were to load my own exe/add-in from flash, How can I acheive that? How does connectnow application/flash determine whether an add-in was already installed or not?

Answer 1

Connect, and I assume ConnectNow, use hidden, undocumented, private APIs for much of their functionality.

You will not be able to do this.

The best you can hope for is to pass the location of your executable to the browser as a local URL and let the browser handle it. I assume in most cases the browser will reject its' execution. Can you imagine the potential for abuse of such a feature?

Instead of using a browser based app, you may want to investigate using AIR and Native Process.