Category: Flash

Upgrading to SWFUpload 2.2.0-beta

SWFUpload 2.2.0-beta has been released to fix the issue that has occured after the release of Flash 10, where regular SWFUpload-based applications ceases to work. This is because of a security update to Flash Player, where the plugin refuses to show the upload files dialog unless the plugin has focus — and the request to show the dialog is in response to an user event. This means that the user now has to click somewhere in the flash file before we’re able to show the upload dialog.

The way most file upload components solve this is by overlaying a transparent flash file over the regular user interface element, so that the user clicks the flash file instead of the visible HTML element. SWFUpload 2.2.0 supports this, in addition to creating a styled flash based button instead of the regular HTML elements.

To upgrade from our previous 2.1.0 based installation, I did the following:

Added in the settings object for SWFUpload:

        button_placeholder_id : "selectFilesButtonPlaceholder",
        button_disable : false,
    	minimum_flash_version : "9.0.28",
    	swfupload_pre_load_handler : swfUploadPreLoad,
    	swfupload_load_failed_handler : swfUploadLoadFailed

Swapped out the previous references to graceful degradation and SWFUpload 2.1.0:

Remembered to update flash_url in the settings object:

flash_url : "/flash/swfupload_f10.swf",

Added three new callbacks functions instead of using the references to the previous degradation elements (swfupload_element_id, degraded_element_id):

function swfUploadLoaded()
{
    // set the dimensions of the button to match the outer container element (jQuery!)
    swfu.setButtonDimensions($("#buttonContainer").width(), $("#buttonContainer").height());
}

function swfUploadPreLoad()
{
    // hide HTML interface, show Flash interface..
    $("#regularUploader").hide();
    $("#flashUploader").show();
}

function swfUploadLoadFailed()
{
}

Added a container element in the HTML that the Flash app will simply take control over (it will NOT lay itself transparent over this element!):

.. and remove the old reference to swfu.selectFiles();.

That should be all.

Free Flash Based File Upload Applications

When I started writing Swoooosh, the main reason was that after needing a free component for a project for a customer of mine (where uploading multiple files were not an original part of the specification, but was added later), I were left with a few components with dubious licenses and weird attribution requests that left you guessing. Instead I hoped someone would release something under an MIT-based license (or LGPL, BSD, etc) to be free for all kinds of usage, and could be further extended by the community.

Luckily a few alternatives has emerged since then, and Swoooosh isn’t really that relevant any longer (it was a good exercise for writing Flex and ActionScript, tho):

And Yes, Christer, I’m going to implement one of these and commit to SVN any moment now. :-)