I would like to know if there is a way to drag and drop an attachment file from an outlook email that is open into an AIR application and for that file to be then accessible to the AIR application.
When I experimented with this the drag operation is giving AIR a File Promise List. But I'm not exactly sure how to make use of it once it is dropped. All the examples out there explain how to manupilate File Promises from an AIR application to the desktop. Nothing that explains a file promise into an AIR app. Any help is much appreciated.
AIR is like any other desktop application in this aspect: you are notified that a thing of type File Promise List is in the clipboard. You have to deal with this type (as any other desktop application would).
If this is the Windows clipboard call-back thing, then AIR's limitations might be a problem. Applications have the option, through the Windows API, to put a token in the clipboard rather than actually moving the data into global memory, which is what the clipboard is. If anyone actually wants the data, the original app gets a callback and supplies the byte stream.
If this is the case, AIR could do whatever the consumer application is supposed to do asynchronously, but I don't know if it does. Or it could be some particular Outlook thing.
Cheers
No, there is no way to drag and drop an attachment file from an outlook e-mail.
#Richard: AIR doesn't allow dropping message files to an AIR-Application.
Instead you receive a String, containing some mail info like subject, size, recipient.
No content, no attachments.
That's a pity...
Please feel free to correct me, but I have searched for a solution for a while and no solution found....
Greetings steelheart
Related
I've been searching around web and so far found many tutorials/docs on how to install or open air application from a web page. This just opens a new AIR-browser window and that's not what I'm looking for. I'd like it be opened inside a browser frame (even if downloaded first) much like a plain swf file.
I know air file is more or less plain zip, so maybe I could unpack it? What AIR features shouldn't I use for this to work?
Impossible. Air is a separate application. It's like saying "I want Microsoft Word to open within a browser frame".
I'm testing alivePDF 0.1.5 and till now everything's been fine.
I'm super interested in the new function writeFlashHTMLText() cause it makes my life so much easier! xD
I'm now trying to display the generated pdf in a browser tab/window instead of just saving the file (using the filereference class' save function). I saw that there was a PDF.save() function that allowed that specifying the argument Download.INLINE.
However I don't want to use the save function of the pdf class cause I don't want to use a script.
Is there any other way to achieve what I want?
Thanks a lot for your answers.
Regards,
BS_C3
Because of the way Flash works security-wise you have two options:
Generate and save the PDF to the local machine - this can be done entirely client-side using FlashPlayer 10+ (see the FileReference class).
The user can then navigate to, and launch, the generated PDF file.
Save the PDF to a server and link to the PDF from your Flash application. This will let you open the PDF in the browser.
Obviously this requires a server of some sort.
Build your app as an AIR application - this will let you save the file and, as far as I'm aware, launch it from the local machine.
The current state of things: you cannot generate a PDF and open it in the browser completely client-side (i.e. FlashPlayer in a browser) unless you are using AIR.
I'm new to web development so please, could you help me to understand if I'm working in the right direction?
There will be a webpage intended for our customers (not intranet) from where they can print labels. Some of the larger customers will have special label printers where configuration and printing using COM-port is the only acceptable option. Basically we have very limited knowledge and control over their environment.
The web-page itself will be a pretty simple html-page or more complex AJAX.
After the customer inputs all the data and happens to chose this type of printing we have following tasks:
1) get data about the printers on the customer's system installed to a comport and if possible get printer settings (like paper size and orientation). Ideally would like to be able to adjust the settings, but if it is a pain can just put into requirements that your printer must be installed to COM1 and configured correctly.
2) send commands and read answers and send PCL code to the selected com port
As I understand I'll need to install something on the customer's machine to be able to talk to com port and get any settings. Just HTML+Javascript are not capable of doing that. Right?
I found RXTX library which seems to communicate to com port on most platforms. Can it be called from JavaScript or I still need to do a Java plugin? Are there technologies other than Java plugin that would solve the task?
The web-page will be used in different environment - platforms and web-browsers. We would like to minimize the number of customized solutions. Will Java allow us to do the same plugin for all environments with minimal customization?
If we require the user to install a plugin will the user be prompted with our credentials to confirm the installation? Will our web-site require higher trust settings?
Thanks for you help!
Well, I've had to do this in the past. Here is what I did and the circumstances
1) I knew that our customers were in a windows environment so I wrote win32 software to handle the printing.
2) I created a file format to be read by the win32 software that allowed me to specify print parameters and the label data. XML works ok for things like this.
3) My web app created a file in the format used by the win32 software and returned it to the user when they clicked on the "Print Labels" button. The file extension on the file returned was registered by the installer of the win32 software. That means when their browser looked for a default app handler for that file, it found my win32 software.
Bottom line is that the browser is handing off the printer communications to a native application instead of talking directly to the printer.
Obviously you need to be able to dictate your end user's are using a windows machine (or mac or whatever you can write native code). Associating a file extension with my program and returning that file to the user was the key to making the process work for me.
Whether your native code sends pcl directly to the printer or translates into a print api (like the win32 api as mine does) is another consideration.
Another approach you could consider is instead of sending PCL codes, you could create a PDF of the document. Format the document to the size and orientation of the label printer. The user will still have to hit the print button, but that might work. I have done this for printing to bar code printers and it works fine. Sometimes getting the margin and orientation correct is a little tricky, but that can be figured out.
I have to make an application that will do the following:
Open a video file embedded in the application
Open some pdf files, preferably embedded in the application, but if it will have to open externally, it's no problem.
Work in fullscreen on the user computer, with a minimum resolution of 1024x768. I'm thinking about a resolution of 1024x768, centered on a black background.
I was thinking of using Flash, but I don't have much experience, so if there is another easier IDE that creates a Flash application, I would prefer that.
So, if anyone knows any Flash component to do this, I'll be very thankful.
Creating a Flash CDROM takes a little bit of care, but from my experience it's well worth it. From your requirements, the Flash IDE is well up to the task. The common requirements are as follows:
Windows / Mac platform
Flash Projector file
Autorun file (For the Windows platform)
Net access or all local
If your client is happy with creating the CDROM just for Windows, there will be very few dramas - but if they want to create a Mac-friendly version, you can do that too and I will explain afterwards.
Your Flash should preferably be an .exe projector file - the reason for this is so that the Windows user can open your app without downloading a Flash player (If the client wants a CDROM, they probably have limited net access, so this is a good thing!)
Within Flash, you can perform all your standard fs commands including full-screen.
You will likely need an Autorun file so that the user sees your application as soon as you put in the CDROM - simply create a file named 'autorun.inf' in notepad and enter the following:
[autorun]
open=yourProjector.exe
Where 'yourProjector.exe' is the name and path of your projector file.
It sounds like you're going to embed your videos and content in the CDROM - this is usually the ideal case, since your client won't receive annoying security messages, but this can also be a bad thing if you want to correct your content later (spotting errors after a thousand CDROMS have been distributed can be a PAIN).
You can serve some of your content online to avoid this, but it would give your user some ugly messages, so as long as you triple-check your content and embed everything, it would be the best scenario.
Now for a Mac, Apple has done away with autorun features years ago - there is a way to turn it on through Quicktime, but this is off by default for almost all Mac users, and turning it on is not recommended because it makes the Mac vulnerable to the 'Hong Kong Virus', one of the few Mac viruses around.
You can make your CDROM mac-friendly by creating a Mac Projector and adding instructions for how to use it by changing the background image of the CDROM window. I haven't had to do it before, but I hear that it's not too difficult.
You can use the Flash Projector. Here is a tutorial to get you started. Now, you won't be able to embed the PDF files but you can open them easily enough using fscommand("exec","foo.pdf")
You can create an Adobe AIR Application; however it won't run off the CD ROM; it'll need to be installed locally.
If creating a projector from Flash Pro doesn't work; look at a tool like Janus or Zinc
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?
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.