SWFLoader quirks

Two issues regarding the SWFLoader / Image component are highlighted here. One of which has already been floating around forums with no concrete solution.

1. Image resizing: While resizing images in both components if the iamge size is too large to be accomodated in the conrtol’s display area and scaleContent is enabled, using horizontalAlign and verticalAlign properties displace the image from its expected location. Workaround/hack: check the contentWidth / contentHeight after loading the image through code. You’re out of luck if you’re trying to do this through MXML alone.

2. No control over audio: After unloading a swf with embedded video the audio channel continues playing. Using flash.media.SoundMixer.stopAll() might do the trick but only if the loader and the loaded swf belong ot the same security sandbox. For a swf loaded from filesystem loading a remote swf, it fails miserably. Thanks to no control over the loaded content when using the SWFLoaded and Image components there’s little that can be done to avoid this. Workaround/hack: use a Loader object to load the swf if you’re willing to give up the ease of component usage. Not sure as to whether it completely resolves the problem. Adobe is still silent about it … I’m off to look for a registered bug report.

Fullscreen flash on Linux

If you’re using a linux machine with a full-install i.e. all libraries in their proper place and a nice window manager session running in teh BG, you probably wouldn’t come across this problem. However, if you’re running a linux machine to render a flash interface for interactivity instead of loading a proper window manager session, fullscreen with fscommand probably won’t work. This problem started with flash player 9 r115. When made to go fullscreen, the projector clips the display area to a little square on the top left corner of the screen.

Why does this happen?

After days of trying to figure out why, we had a eureka moment. Linux loads TWM (a lightweight window manager) as a failsafe window manager. Thus, when all other sessions are disabled, TWM loads anyhow (even if the chrome isnt available). If you have TWM installed on your linux machine you can test this out.

Workaround

Use a different lightweight window manager and it works like a charm.

htmlText quirks in mx:Text component

Just submitted a bug report to Adobe regarding problems with using <img> tag in the htmlText property of mx:Text component. In a fixed width component with variable height, the component only resizes itself based on the text and does not take into account the image’s height. A description of the problem can be found at the Flex Bug and Issue Management System. I haven’t found a workaround for the issue