Bytearray – Programming, Computers and Technology

It is really very easy to gain access to Javascript via Flex, the Javascript API is made available via flash.external.ExternalInterface flex class. There are a couple of methods you can use, you can either:

• Make calls to pre-existing functions (yours or exists JS ones) using the flex ExternalInterface.call function where the argument to call is a string which represents the normal Javascript function invocation.
• Defined a whole Javascript function inside Flex as a string and pass that string to call, ExternalInterface.call will then automatically execute the function.

There is of course no real use in passing in arguments if you are pre-defining the Javascript function as a string because you can just use those value during the generation of the string.

Below is an example of creating and fetching a Javascript cookie, you never know it might come in handy

// ************************ START EXAMPLE *****************************

/**
 * Flex class ExternalInterface does all the magic
 */

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;

public function createCookie(name:String,value:String,days:int=0):void{

    var js:String = "function createCookie(){" +
                     "var expires = '';" +

    "if (" + days + " > 0){" +
        "var date = new Date();" +
        "date.setTime(date.getTime()+(" + days + "*24*60*60*1000));" +
        "expires = 'expires = ' + date.toGMTString();" +
        "}" +
        "document.cookie = '" + name + "=" + value + "; expires=' + expires + '; path=/';" +
    "}";

    ExternalInterface.call(js);

}

public function getCookie(cookieName:String):String {

   var r:String = "";

    var search:String = cookieName + "=";
    var js:String = "function getCookie(){return document.cookie;}";
    var cookieVariable:String = ExternalInterface.call(js).toString();

    if (cookieVariable.length > 0) {
        var offset:int = cookieVariable.indexOf(search);
        if (offset != -1) {
            offset += search.length;
            var end:int = cookieVariable.indexOf(";", offset);
            if (end == -1){
                end = cookieVariable.length;
            }
            r = unescape(cookieVariable.substring(offset, end));
        }
    }

    return r;

}

// ************************ END EXAMPLE *****************************