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accessing local swf file

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I have an odd problem that doesn't seem to be addressed. I have a web site that uses a combination of js and swf files to load and display thumbnails which then uses flash to resize them and flash player to display them. With the latest flash player and Firefox update, everything works fine when live. It also works fine when opened locally in IE8 and Chrome. However, these files won't load locally in Firefox since the updates, although they work fine when live.

Rolling back flash player might work, but I hesitate since everything is working except for this one thing

I have an odd problem that doesn't seem to be addressed. I have a web site that uses a combination of js and swf files to load and display thumbnails which then uses flash to resize them and flash player to display them. With the latest flash player and Firefox update, everything works fine when live. It also works fine when opened locally in IE8 and Chrome. However, these files won't load locally in Firefox since the updates, although they work fine when live. Rolling back flash player might work, but I hesitate since everything is working except for this one thing

All Replies (6)

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Are you using the file:// protocol or http://localhost/ ?

What was the last version of Firefox in which this worked? It's possible that some security-related changes were made in the interim.

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How are you accessing your website? Directly by double clicking HTML files it should work fine. If you try to connect locally by directly typing the address on your web server or on a computer on the same network, you may have NAT problems. Type the IP address of your server instead of the hostname.

Finally make sure you link to the SWF file with relative paths.

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See also:

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Just to clarify..the problem occurs only in the flash section of the page. It will not load this section.

I'm using file://protocol and have no problems with anything else. I don't know the number of the firefox version, but this only occurred with the latest update. I allowed both flash and firefox updates at the same time.

I use relative paths which work everywhere else and open the html in the browser locally by either clicking the html file or File>Open File>Page Source

Flash trusted locations is one of the first things I did. Works fine for all other browsers.

I'm wondering if there is some connection to the new protected mode. Flash site says they are not supporting WindowXP with this, but it also says it will allow old security rules if on trusted location. Totally baffled.

The only other possibility I can think of is the coding. I have some problem there that I haven't addressed yet. But in saying that, it does work when live, so that doesn't seem overly likely.

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Then I think the source of the issue is located on your Flash plug-in. With all the respect and merits to Adobe, I think Flash is the worst and most used plug-in ever created. It works bad, but many websites use it. It is very unstable and heavy for most computers...

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I suspect it's a security restriction applicable to local files. For example, relative paths to parent or sibling folders may fail under the file:// protocol. You might or might not see an error in Firefox's Error Console (Ctrl_Shift+j).

Could you install a web server and use http://localhost/? Windows XP Pro includes IIS, or if it's more similar to your real hosting environment, you could get a "WAMP" package.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WAMPs