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Chipleh
Chipleh
Inspiring
April 9, 2013
Answered

Flash Player Security Settings per your D:/ drive...

  • April 9, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 923 views

Hi,

For anyone who read my post earlier in the day, I apologize for the redundancy; this is a new issue for me.

I've been working on an e-learning product using Flash Builder; it was developed to be web-based, but the client has changed the requirement and now they have requested a stand-alone dvd drive-based deliverable.

The project consists of a Main.html(launched per autorun.inf), Main.swf(which loads into Main.html no problem from the disk), and multiple .flv files - so Main.swf loads into Main.html from D:\ , but none of the .flv's will load. However, once I trust D:\ per going to the [Flash Player Settings Manager>Trusted Location Settings>add my D:\ drive to the Trusted File or Folder Location], everything runs well.

My questions are:

Why is that an issue?

Is there a way around it?

What am I doing wrong?

Since everything is fully contained and running locally from the  D:\ drive, why does the Flash Player need me to trust that device in order to run the content? I t seems completely counter-intuitive which leaves me boggled.

When I build a release, everything works perfectly locally(without trusting the C:\ drive(obviously)), once I burn the files to disk the external content won't load until trusting D, and what's even MORE, when I copy the content "burned to disk" locally, it won't play either until I trust the C:\ drive!!

Little help, please? I know I'm doing something wrong, but I can't find anything online.

Thanks in advance,

~Chipleh

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Chipleh

Good luck with working around your initial requirements


Woohoo!!! I found a way around the security settings issue and thought I'd post it here for anyone interested; it took some serious searching(mainly because I didn't properly know what I was looking for), but I found it!

In Flash Builder>Flex Compiler>Additional compiler arguments>add: -locale en_US -use-network=false

- which explicitly tells Flash(obviously) to ignore any network settings and assume the computer is offline, guaranteeing that no external threats will intrude during runtime, since there is no network connection and Flash will never try to instantiate one.

Cheers, and thx again for your help mocco,

~Chipleh

1 reply

M
moccamaximum
Inspiring
April 10, 2013

Why is that an issue?

Because the users system settings should always override anything that comes from a disk,

why should a flash program from a disk that for example wants to access my camera, override my personal setting that forbid such a usage?

Same with any programm on my computer, if somwhere from a network/external drive wants to open my browser without my consent, why should it?

Is there a way around it?

1. If you publish to AIR and use its HTMLLoader class you won`t need the system browser to show your content. The only caveat for this is that a first time user might have to through installing the Integrated runtime once (but you would have the same porblem in your case with no flash insatlled on your useers computer.

2.Make a splash screen that is a compiled (exe/app) projector that leads the user through a short tutorial how he has to adapt gis flashplayersettings for your application to work properly from disc.

Chipleh
ChiplehAuthor
Inspiring
April 10, 2013

Hi mocca,

Thanks again for your reply. You are giving me things to re-think about, I thought about all these options yesterday, but now that you mention them as the solutions, I will re-think with more gusto. A few things I'm still dwelling on:

Why is that an issue?

Because the users system settings should always override anything that comes from a disk... Same with any programm on my computer, if somwhere from a network/external drive wants to open my browser without my consent, why should it?

Agreed. It should not. However, per the paradigm of my project on disk, the user launches the browser, the browser loads the swf, but the loading of all the other content is restricted. That seems counter-intuitive - since the user has already launched the main app, they obviously trust the app to run on their box, but they now have to go through an extra 'security layer' step in order to load the accompanying content.

As per publishing to Air, I tried yesterday and Flash Builder kicked all sorts of errors. I'll try publishing to air more today...

In the mindset of the great John Peterman: "Ah, the 'client changing requirements', where the client's expectations are high, the knowledge of the "level of effort" is low, and the process is terribly frustrating."

Thx again,

Chipleh

M
moccamaximum
Inspiring
April 10, 2013

Good luck with working around your initial requirements

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