The external API is the portion of
ActionScript that provides a mechanism for communication between
ActionScript and code running in an “external application” that
is acting as a container for Flash Player (commonly a web browser
or stand-alone projector application). In ActionScript 3.0, the
functionality of the external API is provided by the ExternalInterface
class. In Flash Player versions prior to Flash Player 8, the
fscommand()
action
was used to carry out communication with the container application.
The ExternalInterface class is a replacement for
fscommand()
.
Note:
If you need to use the old
fscommand()
function—for
example, to maintain compatibility with older applications or to
interact with a third-party SWF container application or the stand-alone
Flash Player—it is still available as a package-level function in
the flash.system package.
The ExternalInterface class is a subsystem that lets you easily
communicate from ActionScript and Flash Player to JavaScript in
an HTML page.
The ExternalInterface class is available only under the following
conditions:
-
In all supported versions of Internet Explorer for Windows
(5.0 and later)
-
In any browser that supports the NPRuntime interface, which
currently includes Firefox 1.0 and later, Mozilla 1.7.5 and later,
Netscape 8.0 and later, and Safari 1.3 and later.
-
In an AIR application when the SWF is embedded in an HTML
page displayed by the HTMLLoader control.
In all other situations (such as running in a stand-alone player),
the
ExternalInterface.available
property returns
false
.
From ActionScript, you can call a JavaScript function on the
HTML page. The external API offers the following improved functionality
compared with
fscommand()
:
-
You can use any JavaScript function, not only the functions
that you can use with the
fscommand()
function.
-
You can pass any number of arguments, with any names; you
aren't limited to passing a command and a single string argument.
This gives the external API much more flexibility than
fscommand()
.
-
You can pass various data types (such as Boolean, Number,
and String); you aren’t limited to String parameters.
-
You can receive the value of a call, and that value returns
immediately to ActionScript (as the return value of the call you
make).
Important:
If the name given to the Flash Player instance
in an HTML page (the
object
tag’s
id
attribute)
includes a hyphen (
-
) or other characters that
are defined as operators in JavaScript (such as
+
,
*
,
/
,
\
,
.
,
and so on), ExternalInterface calls from ActionScript will not work
when the container web page is viewed in Internet Explorer.In addition,
if the HTML tags that define the Flash Player instance (the
object
and
embed
tags)
are nested in an HTML
form
tag, ExternalInterface calls
from ActionScript will not work.
