Sending POST variables via an AIR application - actionscript-3

Question

I'm trying to send data via POST, since it's far too long to send via GET.
Here's the code I'm using...
pdfUrl.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
var vars:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
vars.html = data;
pdfUrl.data = vars;
navigateToURL(pdfUrl);
The problem is that it always sends as GET, and the data in vars.html is too long for my server to receive.
To make matters worse, it seems like AIR can only send GET via navigateToURL.
The issue with this is, I need to open a new browser window and send the POST data so that a script on my server can create a PDF file for the user.
What workarounds are there for this?

Answer 1

I'm not aware of any way to open a new browser window with a POST request, with GET being the default HTTP method used to open pages (which makes sense, really). An alternative, however, would be to POST the data using a simple HTTP request in AIR and once you get a response to the POST request in AIR, you can open a new browser window using a GET request.
So:
POST to your server directly from AIR.
Have your server return some kind of value that you can use in step 3.
Open a new browser window using navigateToURL and attach the value you got from step 2 to the URL.
This should work well, I think.

Answer 2

// Upload MP3-Byte-Array
private function uploadFile():void
{
var uploadURL:URLRequest = new URLRequest();
uploadURL.url = "myfile.php?var1=var1Value&var2=var2Value";
uploadURL.contentType = 'application/octet-stream';
uploadURL.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
uploadURL.data = heavyDataThatyouWantToPass;
var urlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
urlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
urlLoader.load(uploadURL);
}
private function completeHandler(event:Event):void
{
var loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
}
myfile.php will be like this:
<?php
$var1 = $_REQUEST['var1Value'] ;
$var2 = $_REQUEST['var2Value'] ;
$heavyData = $GLOBALS[ 'HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA' ];?>