Chapter 20. Browser Communication
In many cases, you may find it necessary to communicate with the
browser that contains your application. Browser communication enables you
to build applications that go beyond the Flex application itself; you can
link to existing sites, communicate with other applications via
JavaScript, and enable interaction with your browser’s history, as a
start. The ExternalInterface
class lets you call out to the browser containing the Flash application,
get information about the page, and call JavaScript methods, as well as
letting JavaScript methods call into the Flash application. This chapter
focuses on the functionality contained within the core Flex Framework,
though there are other tools to assist with integration of the browser and
the Flash Player—the Adobe Flex Ajax Bridge (FABridge), and Joe Berkovitz’s UrlKit among them.
20.1. Link to an External URL
Problem
You need to navigate to a separate URL.
Solution
Use the navigateToURL
method to navigate the browser to the new URL.
Discussion
The navigateToURL function
enables you to navigate the browser to a new URL in either the same
window, a new window, or a specific window frame. This is one of the
most common communications with the browser from a Flex application.
To invoke the navigateToURL
function from within your Flex 3 application, use this
approach:
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"> <mx:Script> <
