AS3 Print Job Not Working With Chrome - actionscript-3

So I have run into a strange problem with Chrome and I haven't been able to find any posts online speaking to a similar issue. I have a script in an AS3 app that takes a screenshot as bitmap data and sends it to the printer with the PrintJob object. It works fine from within flash, locally on my desktop, and in every browser but Chrome.
When I print with Chrome the bitmap image just displays as a grey box instead of the actual image itself. If i add the bitmap to the stage and view it from Chrome I can see that the bitmap actually contains image data other than a 50% grey fill but as soon as it is sent to PrintJob Chrome seems to strip it of this data.
This is the code I am using:
function printImage(clip:Sprite){
var printJob:PrintJob = new PrintJob();
printJob.start();
printJob.addPage(clip);
printJob.send();
};
var clip:Sprite = new Sprite();
clip.addChild(bitmap);
printImage(clip);
Also it is worth noting that when I set the PrintJobOptions.printAsBitmap to be true the grey box begins appearing in all instances not just Chrome
Thanks so much for any help!!

It is a known issue with Chrome that any DisplayObject that is being assigned for print needs to be on the stage.
Simply add it to the stage and remove it afterward and you should be go.
However, I typically like to set up a holding container buried behind everything to prevent the blink of adding/removing the child.

Related

StageWebView Flash's White when Displayed

StageWebView Flash's White when Displayed
So I've been working on a project using Adobe Animate to create a universal Air application that can be ported to multiple platforms i.e. Mac, Windows, and iOS.
It uses StageWebView to display videos embedded on HTML pages that have their own custom html5 video player and everything works well except for one simple but annoying thing.
Whenever I display a Stage Web View you'll see a flash of white before the page displays.
Now I originally thought this was an issue with checking for a URL load completion or a poorly formatted HTML document but that doesn't seem to be the case.
What I did notice after several attempts of trying to remove the issue is that it did go away if I used the embedded Air WebKit opposed to using the native WebKit from the desktop device.
(Code Below) Causes white flash on load:
var webView:StageWebView = new StageWebView(true);
(Code Below) This gets rid of the issue but my HTML tags like video and progress are not supported by the embedded WebKit and no longer function properly.
var webView:StageWebView = new StageWebView();
Information from about the setting from Adobe:
useNative:Boolean (default = false) — When useNative is false, a version of WebKit embedded within AIR is used as the source of the
StageWebView created. When useNative is true, then AIR will use the
the system's default web engine. Mobile platforms only support using
the system web engine, so useNative is ignored on mobile platforms.
The frustrating thing is that I've set a listener to check for load completion and that doesn't get rid of the issue. So as a workaround I've hidden the displayed StageWebView off the screen and then moved it's location to where I want it to be after a delay which is not great.
Other attempts to display it small as a pixel resize it in place cause the issue still.
/* Check for Stage Web View Errors */
webView.addEventListener(ErrorEvent.ERROR, onError);
function onError(e:ErrorEvent):void {
trace("Stage Web View error: " + e);
}
/* Function to not show Stage Web View until loaded. */
function onCompleteHandler(e:Event):void {
webView.assignFocus();
// Delay the Stage Web View to fix white flash issue.
setTimeout(callWebView,500);
webView.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,onCompleteHandler);
}
/* Multi-Function Stage Web View Loader, Just add file path string to call */
function webviewFilePath(path:String):void {
webView.stage = this.stage;
// Prep filepath
filePath = new File(new File(path).nativePath).url;
// Load file path
webView.loadURL(filePath);
// Add listener for Complete URL Load then Show
webView.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,onCompleteHandler);
}
/* Function to call Stage Web View independantly so it can be delayed with a timer */
function callWebView() {
webView.viewPort = new Rectangle(posX(viewX), posY(viewY), viewWidth, viewHeight);
}
Any hints or tips on how I can alleviate or fix the issue would be great.
Of course if Adobe just actually updated the embedded Air WebKit that would probably fix the whole issue in the first place but I doubt that's happening anytime soon.
Partial Fix
So the issue still exists when I initially load up the Stage Web View but I've managed to minimize its appearance during app use.
One major part of the issue was how I reset the StageWebView in preparation for a new page I wanted to load or when I wanted to close the view.
I went a little overboard on resetting StageWebView because audio in StageWebView has been known to continue playing even when it's hidden.
/* Function to Reset Stage Web View */
function resetWebView():void {
webView.loadString("<!DOCTYPE HTML><html><body></body></html>");
//webView.viewPort = new Rectangle(0, 0, 0, 0);
webView.stage = null;
//webView.viewPort = null;
}
I realized I could just simply hide the StageWebView and load up a blank page while it was hidden from view to stop any audio playing. That was easy enough to accomplish with a simple string loaded into it.
Although from time to time I'll still see that white flash it's occurrence is minimal.
private var webView : StageWebView;
webView = new StageWebView( true );
webView.stage = this.stage;
webView.viewPort = new Rectangle( 0, 0, 1024, 768 );

Flash var Loader issue - animation changing

So, I've use a loader action script for a few banners I've been working on, and usually things go relatively smoothly (for Flash). However, the animation changes once I guide the image to the code. Has this happened to any one else? Below is the code I am using:
var imageLoader:Loader = new Loader();
var image:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://972b6ac7e316515e1890-2848ccf658e0edc35f614dd3380d9fcb.r27.cf2.rackcdn.com/Background_othersizes.png");
imageLoader.load(image);
addChild (imageLoader);
I assume you have created animation in the Flash IDE with static image (linked from the library), and now you try to add image in runtime. Loading of the image is asynchronous process, so I would recommend account it in your animation and logic.
Also place in your MovieClip where image will be loaded, transparent shape as a background, of the same size as image, so environment will be aware of display object size, and all your transformations over MovieClip will be accounted accordingly. Also check placement and scaling of the image.

WriteableBitmap.Render() not capturing when control not in visual tree (all black pixels instead)

I'm trying to capture the content of a WebBrowser control that is not in the visible tree, but the WriteableBitmap.Render() is capturing a (correctly sized) bitmap of all black pixels. If I put the WebBrowser into the visual tree, the capture works fine.
WriteableBitmap doc is emphatic that it works on controls not in the visual tree, and I'm making the required calls to Measure() and Arrange(). Relevant code (originally in WebBrowser_LoadCompleted event, for demo moved to renderButton_OnClick)
hiddenBrowser.Measure(new Size(hiddenBrowser.Width, hiddenBrowser.Height)); // pretend there's plenty of space.
hiddenBrowser.Arrange(new Rect(0.0, 0.0, hiddenBrowser.Width, hiddenBrowser.Height)); // pretend we know where this is going.
//noHelp hiddenBrowser.UpdateLayout();
WriteableBitmap _bitmap = new WriteableBitmap((int)theImage.Width, (int)theImage.Height);
_bitmap.Render(hiddenBrowser, new ScaleTransform());
_bitmap.Invalidate();
theImage.Source = _bitmap;
A complete project demonstrating the problem is available at: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=193BF22F5BBA1A84!10526&authkey=!AGeH6YC_NttOmj0
Press Unhide (webBrowser shows in visual tree), then Go, then Render --> render captures OK.
Then press Hide (webBrowser disappears), then Go, then Render --> Black Screen of Ignorance.
Originally, I thought this was a timing issue (e.g maybe browser hadn't finished painting the web page even though LoadComplete event fired), but it cannot be; in the demo, I wait for 10s of seconds before pressing 'render' button which does the render, and still get black image.
I reproduced your problem. It seems like the Control isn't rendered if not necessary.
Do you really need the WebBrowser to be in the Visual Tree?
If you just want it to be invisible, setting the Visibility to Collapsed won't work either (I tried).
An ugly trick that works for the WebBrowser to be invisible to the user but still allows a WriteableBitmap rendering is to translate the control out of the ViewPort. To do that, just use a TranslateTransform:
hiddenBrowser = new WebBrowser();
hiddenBrowser.Width = theImage.Width;
hiddenBrowser.Height = theImage.Height;
hiddenBrowser.LoadCompleted += hiddenBrowser_LoadCompleted;
hiddenBrowser.NavigationFailed += hiddenBrowser_NavigationFailed;
hiddenBrowser.LayoutUpdated += hiddenBrowser_LayoutUpdated;
hiddenBrowser.RenderTransform = new TranslateTransform { X = 2000, Y = 2000 }; // this is the code I added.
Ugly but working solution!
This turns out to have been doomed from the start.
You can't run the WebBrowser control in the background on WP8, period. It's an Unsupported API.
And, as noted above, there's the issue (maybe not a bug?) that WebBrowser won't provide a bitmap when it's not in the visual tree, anyway.

Externally loaded images in AS3 un-clickable?

I'm loading in an external image (a book cover from goodreads.com) into a library viewer AIR app (used on ipad and in-browser) running on Starling (in case you need to know). After it loads, the cover should be clickable to take further action.
This all works fine on ipad and when directly built from FlashDevelop, but when it's viewed in-browser, click events don't do anything on the loaded images. It'll work on my embedded placeholder bitmaps no problem (sitting in a "Book" class extending Sprite).
It seems to be a security problem, but if it was, I'd expect the image to not load at all. But instead it loads but isn't interactive anymore. I've tried various things like:
Add loader and click listener to the Book object
Add loader.content as Bitmap and click listener to the Book
Create a BitmapData and draw the Loader.content, then add the resulting Bitmap (it's blank in-browser, but works perfectly when built from FD)
Add loader and place a transparent sprite on top of it, add listener to the sprite
Has anyone had this problem? Would anyone know a work-around?
Thanks!
This was a sand-box problem.
I think it's intentional; you shouldn't be able to hot-link other site's assets unless given express permission.
I fixed this by only pulling images hosted locally and using crossdomain.xml to make sure there was no lookup issues when www.domain.com and domain.com were different.

AS3 Camera input gets distorted when exported to AIR

I've built an AIR application with flash/as3 that has a webcam display on the stage. While building the app, and in all my tests everything looks and works just dandy, but when I publish for AIR the image gets stretched. The bounds of the image seem to stay the same, but the actual cam output is what's distorted. Has anyone come into this problem before?
I should add, this is a desktop app, which is permanently installed on one machine, so device compatibility should not be an issue.
this is the camera setup:
var cam:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
cam.setMode(280,380,20);
var video:Video = new Video(380,380);
this is where i first call the camera...
video.attachCamera(cam);
video.x = 355;
video.scaleX = -1;
video.y = -100;
addChildAt(video, 0);
the reason for the odd sizing, is that it sits behind a frame, that changes positions throughout the interactive.
Not necessarily the answer you are looking for, but you should keep this in mind:
You are asking the camera to capture at the resolution of 280 x 380, which is not a standard 4:3 aspect ratio.
When you call cam.setMode(280,380,20); the docs say that Flash will try to set the cameras resolution to your specifications, and if the camera does not support that resolution it will try to find one that matches. So you may or may not be getting this actual resolution.
setMode() has a fourth parameter, which can disable this functionality. Read the docs on that so you understand the implications :)
Then you display the video in a Video object that is 380x380. So I would expect the image to be stretched in the horizontal direction (b/c the original source is only 280).
It's not clear why this behaves differently: are you saying that running the debug version of the app works, but when you export the release build and run that it looks funky?
Finally, what is scaleX = -1 doing? I recall this as some sort of nifty trick I used in the past... but it's purpose here is escaping me :)
Yep, source code would be cool. Btw, i suggest you, as soon as you get the video streaming running, to set by hand the video.width and video.height property.
This will force the cam to display at the correct size.