Probable issues with running flex application/swf in local mode.

Question

Hi All,

We are developing client application for our solution. Its a desktop client. We are using flex for same. (Although I know flex is meant for web application and air application is best suited for desktop clients, but due to some build issues we can't go for air applications). Now according to our use case we required to read file from local file system which is not allowed in flex application due to sandbox policy. To override it we had planned to use it in local mode (i.e. running from local file system instead of deploying in web container). So after running application in local mode it bypasses sandbox policy and allows to read local file. Eventually we requires remote services call (either using web services or blaze ds) also in our application. To avoid sandbox restriction for network access in local mode we are planning to explicitly grant network access permission to our flex application. So does anybody finds any issues in this approach which I may encounter ?

Thanks,

Ankur Shah

Answer 1

We had to avoid any of these kinds of issues by using Air with C# WebServices and HttpServices (twas an Air GUI with C# server-side running on Windows). Although not much help to you.

Another possible solution might be to use JavaScript within Internet Explorer to access the local file system via ActiveX controls (which I hav'nt done), and then use Flex's ExternalInterface API to grab the JavaScript/Html data from within the same browser (which I have).

Answer 2

As long as you make sure to use the local-with-networking security sandbox. This will allow you to access both the local file system and the network.

You can see more about the different sandbox types here: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=05B_Security_04.html