how to get a function to activate which is ment to be used with - actionscript-3

Question

I have this code were I take from a external XML file a Link of an Image load it with ...
<mx:Label
id="textboxLink" text=""/>
private function loadRemoteImg(url:String):void {
textboxLink.text
.....
loader, completeHandler etc.
Save Image(), with ByteArray, JPEGEcoder and then to the location - filestream etc.
This works all fine yet it is only possible (due to supposedly Flash Player 10 onwards) by MouseEvent so of a Click of a button!
As mentioned it works all fine, but I really would need this to activate on start up like in a creationComplete or else!
Any help or any ideas would be appriciated! regards aktell

Answer 1

Ah, sorry, I thought you were just trying to load the image; I didn't see that you were trying to save it as well.
For both of the following cases, you'll need to load the image as Binary:
var urlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader(new URLRequest( myURL ));
urlLoader.dataFormat = URLLoaderDataFormat.BINARY;
...
This is because if we load it normally (using a Loader), then what we'll get is a Bitmap object, i.e. Flash's representation of your image, rather than the jpg/png data itself. Loading it using this method will give you a ByteArray when it's loaded.
If you're using AIR, you should be able to use the FileStream class: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/filesystem/FileStream.html
Something like:
// NOTE: you can use any of the other File constants to get your path (e.g.
// documentsDirectory, desktopDirectory...
// myImageFileName is the name of your image, e.g. "myPic.jpg"
var file:File = File.applicationStorageDirectory.resolvePath( myImageFileName );
var fs:FileStream = new FileStream;
try
{
fs.open( file, FileMode.WRITE );
fs.writeBytes( imageBinaryData ); // imageBinaryData is a ByteArray
fs.close();
}
catch ( e:Error )
{
trace( "Can't save image: " + e.errorID + ": " + e.name + ": " + e.message );
}
If you're using Flash, then the only way you can save something without user interaction, is through a SharedObject. This will mean that you data won't be available outside the app (it'll be a .sol file), but depending on how you're doing it, this might not be a problem.
// get our shared object - if you're saving a lot of images, then you might need another shared
// object, whose name you know, that stores the names of the other images
var so:SharedObject = null;
try { so = SharedObject.getLocal( this.m_name ); }
catch ( e:Error )
{
trace( "Couldn't get shared object: " + e.errorID + ": " + e.name + ": " + e.message );
return;
}
// NOTE: it's possible you may need a registerClassAlias on the ByteArray before this
so.data["image"] = imageBinaryData;
// save the lso
try { so.flush( minDiskSpace ); }
catch ( e:Error )
{
trace( "Couldn't save the lso: " + e.errorID + ": " + e.name + ": " + e.message );
}
To actually use your image later, load your file(in binary mode)/get your SharedObject, and convert the saved binary to an image:
var l:Loader = new Loader;
l.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, this._onConvertComplete ); // you could probably also listen for the IO_ERROR event
try
{
// NOTE: you can pass a LoaderContext to the loadBytes methods
l.loadBytes( imageBinaryData );
}
catch( e:Error )
{
trace( "Couldn't convert image: " + e.errorID + ": " + e.name + ": " + e.message );
}
...
// called when our loader has finished converting our image
private function _onConvertComplete( e:Event ):void
{
// remove the event listeners
var loaderInfo:LoaderInfo = ( e.target as LoaderInfo );
loaderInfo.removeEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, this._onConvertComplete );
// get our image
var bitmap:Bitmap = loaderInfo.content;
this.addChild( bitmap );
}
If you can't use any of those methods, then you're going to have to have some sort of user interaction (e.g. mouse click). (Out of curiosity, have you tried just dispatching a MouseEvent.CLICK on the relevant object, to see if it would work?)