Flex navigateToURL from iframe POST - apache-flex

Question

Let me explain my current issue right now:
I have a webapp located at domain A. Let's call it A-App. I open an iframe from A-App that points to a Flex app on domain B. We'll call it B-FlexApp. B-FlexApp wants to post some data to another app located on the same domain, we'll call it B-App. The problem is that in IE the communication breaks somewhere between B-FlexApp and B-App while B-FlexApp is opened in the iframe. This only happens in IE.
However when opening B-FlexApp in a new window, posting the data to B-App works just fine. How to overcome this? Dropping the iframe is not possible.

Answer 1

There´s a issue with AS3 navigateToURL and IE. You can try calling javascript to navigate: I have a little utility class to handle this:
//class URLUtil
package com
{
import flash.external.*;
import flash.net.*;
public class URLUtil extends Object
{
protected static const WINDOW_OPEN_FUNCTION:String="window.open";
public function URLUtil()
{
super();
return;
}
public static function openWindow(arg1:String = "", arg2:String="_blank", arg3:String=""):void
{
var browserName:String = getBrowserName();
switch (browserName)
{
case "Firefox":
{
flash.external.ExternalInterface.call(WINDOW_OPEN_FUNCTION, arg1, arg2, arg3);
break;
}
case "IE":
{
flash.external.ExternalInterface.call("function setWMWindow() {window.open(\'" + arg1 + "\');}");
break;
}
case "Safari":
case "Opera":
{
flash.net.navigateToURL(new URLRequest(arg1), arg2);
break;
}
default:
{
flash.net.navigateToURL(new URLRequest(arg1), arg2);
break;
}
}
return;
}
private static function getBrowserName():String
{
var str:String="";
var browserName:String = ExternalInterface.call("function getBrowser(){return navigator.userAgent;}");
if (!(browserName == null) && browserName.indexOf("Firefox") >= 0)
{
str = "Firefox";
}
else
{
if (!(browserName == null) && browserName.indexOf("Safari") >= 0)
{
str = "Safari";
}
else
{
if (!(browserName == null) && browserName.indexOf("MSIE") >= 0)
{
str = "IE";
}
else
{
if (!(browserName == null) && browserName.indexOf("Opera") >= 0)
{
str = "Opera";
}
else
{
str = "Undefined";
}
}
}
}
trace("Browser: \t" + str);
return str;
}
}
}
and you call it like:
btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onBTNClick);
function onBTNClick(evt:MouseEvent):void
{
URLUtil.openWindow(YOUR_URL_STRING);
}
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

It is better to let the browser actually does the "navigate to URL" function instead of Flex.
For example, in the page that contains the Flex app, the page would contain a Javascript function call handleNavigationRequest(pageName, target). In the Flex application, you may utilize ExternalInterface, and call the handleNavigationRequest.
By using this paradigm, the Flex application would not have to figure the details as to how the external implementations such as frame setup, etc, and you end up having a cleaner and less-coupled design.

Answer 3

I've found out that i can use swfObject to embed the flash object thus the iframe implementation is completely useless. Embedding the flash component in the overlay, instead of opening it in an iframe, makes IE behave properly.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and I solved it simply passing the second argument (browser window) to the function:
navigateToUrl(url,"_blank"); , in my case I use "_blank".
It works with IE8 and IE9.
Davide