Adobe AIR, how to open a scene in a new window - actionscript-3

I'm developing a networked AIR application in Flash Professional. I need to open two instances of the application and after searching I found that launching the app multiple times just causes an invoke event to be sent to the currently running app.
Up until now I've been using NetConnection & NetGroup (Supported by Flash Player 10.1+), now that I'm using ServerSocket & Socket, it requires the AIR 2+ runtime.
I found a solution to open a window on invoke.
my solution would be to launch a new window on invoke
function openWindow():void
{
newWin = new NativeWindow(init); //Initialize the Native Window
newWin.activate();
newWin.height = 200;
newWin.width = 300;
newWin.title = "My First New Win!";
}
and have it
gotoAndPlay(1, "Scene 1");
Is there a way to execute that on the new window? Or is there a way to open two instances of an AIR app?
Edit
You can open two instances of the same air app by changing it's ID. However, this is a very involved process every time I want to debug!

Turns out AIR on Android doesn't support ServerSockets. This means I must use non-AIR flash methods to achieve communication.
I can then achieve network testing through multiple Flash Player instances.
I don't believe ADL has the ability to run more than instance at a time.

Related

In flash as3 webcam how to get newly connected webcam name at run-time?

I have a flash as3 based webcam video recorder that publishes the webcam video stream and to do this i am using the following codes :
var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera(0);
var arr:Array = Camera.names;
if(camera != null)
{
videoWidth = topBorderContainer.width;
videoHeight = topBorderContainer.height;
camera.setMode(videoWidth, videoHeight, 30, false);
camera.setQuality(0, 100);
if (camera)
{
videoDisplay.videoObject.attachCamera(camera);
}
}
But problem is that if i am connecting a new document camera at run time and running my webcam tool then Camera.names returning the previously connected document camera name instead of returning the new document camera name.
And to get new document webcam name i have to restart my application again.
But i have no knowledge how to get newly connected document camera name at run time so if anybody know how to get the newly connected document camera name at run time please help me to solve.
It is very likely that you will not be able to pull the trick:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/media/Camera.html#getCamera()
"Scanning the hardware for cameras takes time. When the runtime finds at least one camera, the hardware is not scanned again for the lifetime of the player instance. However, if the runtime doesn't find any cameras, it will scan each time getCamera is called. This is helpful if the camera is present but is disabled; if your SWF file provides a Try Again button that calls getCamera, Flash Player can find the camera without the user having to restart the SWF file."
It is possible that Flash Player treats Workers (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/system/Worker.html) as separate Flash Player instances and thus a new Worker would be able to access the renewed list of Cameras. You might want to try it.

iOS 8 - Starling context loss on open camera roll gallery

I am creating an app on iOS in Flash Builder, with as3.
The app uses the Starling plugin: http://wiki.starling-framework.org/start
My app allows users to take photos and customise them. When attempting to access the camera or camera roll on iOS 8, I get the error message "The application lost the device context!".
On Android, I can get around this problem with this line:
Starling.handleLostContext = true;
But I am told that iOS should never lose context (and I haven't seen it lose context on iOS 7 or below).
If I include that line in iOS 8, the application crashes at around the same point, but in this case the app crashes completely, and returns me to the home screen rather than displaying the previous message.
I have heard there are restrictions on iOS 8 with regards to the use of 64 bit/32 bit plugins and extensions, but I am not using any ANEs in this particular app. Are there any other areas where 32-bit could be causing problems or is that strictly related to ANEs?
I don't get this error on iOS 7 or below or Android, unless I set handleLostContext to false.
Adobe Scout provides no error message.
Any help would be appreciated.
UPDATE:
This code calls in the camera functionality:
var cameraRoll:CameraRoll = new CameraRoll();
if(CameraRoll.supportsBrowseForImage) {
trace("camera rolling");
cameraRoll.addEventListener(MediaEvent.SELECT, imageSelected);
cameraRoll.addEventListener(flash.events.Event.CANCEL, browseCanceled);
cameraRoll.addEventListener(flash.events.ErrorEvent.ERROR, galleryMediaError);
cameraRoll.browseForImage();
} else {
var alert:Alert = Alert.show("Image browsing is not supported on this device.", "Error", new ListCollection([{label:"OK"}]));
}
UPDATE 2:
I've switched from AIR SDK 17 to 16, and it is now more stable but has similar issues
There is a known issue with the camera roll in iOS which will cause stage3d to lose context. Your options:
Set Starling.handleLostContext = true, it is possible to lose context in iOS.
Find an ANE (Supposedly these exist) that handles the camera roll without losing context.
More Information:
http://forum.starling-framework.org/topic/starling-and-cameraui#post-77339
I can confirm on ios 8.3 a Context3D is not lost when opening the CameraRoll using AIR 18.
Make sure you are using AIR 18.
Make sure you are using the latest Starling Version.
If the problem persist it's likely Starling is the cause.
Either report the problem and wait for an update.
Do not use Starling when requesting the CameraRoll (turn Starling off and Display normal Bitmaps).
Don't use Starling and use another engine or create your own.

Unauthorized Access Exception when Creating an instance of SpeechSynthesizer in WP8.1 Emulator

I was trying to recreate the simle Text to Speech example used on the MSDN website. However whenever the code came to create the instance of the SpeechSynthesizer class it failed with a Unauthorised Acception error when running on the WP8.1 emulator. I currently do not have an actual device to test on to see if this makes a difference.
My code was simply:
private async void TTS()
{
// The media object for controlling and playing audio.
MediaElement mediaElement = new MediaElement();
// The object for controlling the speech synthesis engine (voice).
var synth = new Windows.Media.SpeechSynthesis.SpeechSynthesizer();
// Generate the audio stream from plain text.
SpeechSynthesisStream stream = await synth.SynthesizeTextToStreamAsync("Hello World");
// Send the stream to the media object.
mediaElement.SetSource(stream, stream.ContentType);
mediaElement.Play();
}
I know there was an issue with the SpeechSynthesizer in Windows 8.1, and I found solutions to this when looking to fix the problem, but found little about the problem with WP8.1 SpeechSynthesizer. Has anybody else came across this problem and found a fix?
You should add one DeviceCapability in Package.appxmanifest file:
In DeviceCapability Tab, check the microphone, because it will provides access to the microphone’s audio feed, which allows the app to record audio from connected microphones.
Look at this library: App capability declarations (Windows Runtime apps)

Flash AS3 and webcam: problems with AIR

I'm having some problems getting the Flash AS3 Camera to work correctly. If you could help, much appreciated. I looked at olThe details:
I'm able, when publishing to a SWF, to get the webcam up and running and all works fine, popping up the 'may I access your camera dialog' which returns muted or not.
• First question: is there any way to make it so I can bypass the user permission, that is always grant it? We are running a kiosk app. Will the following method work for an AIR app? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3266939/flash-grant-access-to-webcam-programmatically-behind-the-scenes
• Second question: as I said, I can get the webcam/Camera hookup to work fine when publishing for SWF in IDE, and in browser. But if I switch the project to publish for AIR and run the air app, or test in the IDE, I don't get the security permissions dialog coming up at all. Nothing. Perhaps the security box is off screen? Is there some way to control the placement? Is there something different about using the webcam from within AIR?
I'm happy to NOT publish to AIR, but to use SWF — simply need to be able to read/write to XML files on local disk and think that AIR only way to do that?
Thanks for any help!
The code:
private function initTracking() : void
{
var camW : int = 840;
var camH : int = 640;
// Create the camera
_cam = Camera.getCamera();
if (_cam == null)
{
trace("Unable to locate available cameras.");
return;
}
else
{
trace("Found camera: " + _cam.name);
_cam.addEventListener(StatusEvent.STATUS, camStatusHandler);
_cam.setMode(camW, camH, stage.frameRate);
// Create a video
_vid = new Video(camW, camH);
_vid.attachCamera(_cam);
trace("camera ", _cam, " attached to video ", _vid);
// Create the Motion Tracker
_motionTracker = new MotionTracker(_vid);
// We flip the input as we want a mirror image
_motionTracker.flipInput = true;
}
}
private function camStatusHandler(event:StatusEvent):void
{
trace("camStatusHandler::");
if (_cam.muted)
{
trace("Unable to connect to active camera.");
}
else
{
trace("able to connect to active camera.");
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrameHandler, false,0,true);
}
// Remove the status event listener.
_cam.removeEventListener(StatusEvent.STATUS, camStatusHandler);
}
If you publish as AIR, there is no security dialog (the security box for swfs is there to stop 'hackers' gaining control of a users webcam without their knowledge).
If your code works in a swf, it should also work in an AIR app without needing any changes - assuming AIR is running on the desktop and not a mobile device?
If you are not seeing the webcam output when you publish as an AIR app, post the relevant code.
Edit:
The StatusEvent.STATUS event does not occur with AIR apps - it fires when user closes security dialog - hence camStatusHandler never gets called.
So remove camStatusHandler function completely and also this line:
_cam.addEventListener(StatusEvent.STATUS, camStatusHandler);
And add important code from camStatusHandler to the end of initTracking:
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrameHandler, false,0,true);

Saving flash game state to server after window.onbeforeunload when swf is cross-domain

My Facebook app is a flash game. I want the game swf to save its latest state to the server when the window unloads. Since I embed the swf with swfobject, I use its embed handler to add a onbeforeunload listener to window:
function embedHandler(event)
{
shell=event.ref;
window.onbeforeunload=function(event)
{
shell.message("save", null);
//delay the unloading a bit so flash has time to contact server
var now = new Date().getTime();
var later=now+50;
while (now < later)
{
now = new Date().getTime();
}
}
}
Here's the problem. This works every time when the swf is loaded directly from the app (a rails app). It never works when the swf is loaded from Amazon.
All the cross-domain issues are worked out between the swf and the app--the rails app accepts calls from Amazon swf, and the Amazon swf loads data from the rails app.
ExternalInterface also works for both outgoing and ingoing calls. But I suspect this is nonetheless a browser security issue, since the inward-going ExternalInterface call only fails when:
it is called from inside the window.onbeforeunload handler
the swf originates from Amazon.
What is the problem? How does one unobtrusively save game state when the game is from a CDN and the save is triggered by onbeforeunload in Javascript? Or is there a better way to accomplish this same thing?
Testing in Firefox.
ExternalInterface also works for both outgoing and ingoing calls. But
I suspect this is nonetheless a browser security issue, since the
inward-going ExternalInterface call only fails when:
it is called from inside the window.onbeforeunload handler
the swf originates from Amazon.
From the sounds of it you worked out all the security issues.
It is more likely a lack of understanding on your part on what is going on behind the scene when onbeforeunload is triggered.
This is a function that will not wait for your "game.swf" to finish the call back via ExternalInterface.This is why you added a stalling mechanism to delay that process. However, I will assume here that this works from the rails app because that is a local server and you are not subject to the lag monster.
Now you might be thinking well I put in a delay it should work. Well that delay is on 50 milliseconds. Try increasing to to 5000(5 seconds) and you should see it start to work on the cdn.
The saving of data should be controlled via the flash app and not triggered by an outside source.
In the game itself you should have milestones that should trigger a save event.
In closing I do want to add that is by far the worst method you could use to save information up to a server. onbeforeunload is unreliable and is subject to cross browser issues let alone putting a lag loop in the JavaScript is just a bad idea and in the end just annoy your users to the point that they won't return.