This is a problematic area for sure. It's technically impossible to completely protect the data in a swf from being cached and decompiled. If you do use the _url property, it is entirely possible for someone to decompile and rewrite the "viewer" swf to send back whatever they want instead of the _url property.
With regard to the PHP script that was mentioned earlier: scripts like these that prevent caching may not work the same across different browsers and OS's. Also, they can be defeated with other tools. Essentially, if the bytes can get to your machine, they can be captured. You have to understand the level of risk involved and decide what lengths you wish to go in order to protect your data. It may be appropriate to use one of the methods suggested already, or it may be that something more robust is in order. Since we're talking about maps, I would think that you wouldn't need to go to great lengths to protect them (unless they are maps to buried treasure!). That said, Flash Player 9 will have the ability to load a swf over a socket into a ByteArray and then display it with Loader.loadBytes. This would be a pretty bullet-proof way to prevent the swf from being cached, and make it much more difficult to capture. But, you may not want to wait for Player 9. Present day, you could look at rendering the maps using the Drawing API - then you'd just be passing coordinates instead of whole swfs. But, that would take significant effort, and it sounds like it's pretty late in the game. -tom -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bieniasz, Myles Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 1:09 PM To: Flashcoders mailing list Subject: RE: [Flashcoders] How to hide SWF Assets from Internet users One way is to use the _url property, which will point to the .swf's location on the file system, then just have each map check if it's residing at the proper url. If it is allow the map to be view and if not don't display anything. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Anderson Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 12:51 PM To: Flashcoders mailing list Subject: [Flashcoders] How to hide SWF Assets from Internet users Hello All, I have an intense situation right now, and I must come up with an answer ASAP. I wrote a map viewer application for my client, in which my viewer can load .swf Vector Maps from a predetermined directory on the server. >From within my viewer, the users can perform drill-down queries, by selecting contents of multiple dropdown boxes - State, Region, then Lake Name. Paid subscribers, have full access to their maps - but it's imperative that they can ONLY view these maps from within the viewer app. Since the Flash Map Viewer, needs to retrieve these maps from the server using a public URL (unless I am overlooking something), how can I hide these maps from the world - if the outside users are able to figure out which path to type into their browser, and snatch up maps? I know that server-side scripts, can access local resources - like "D:\Documents", etc. - but once the Map Viewer is running from a Remote Browser, how can I bury these maps under some type of file system that is not directly accessible by the outside world (but only through the Map Viewer app)??? Also, once the user views a particular map, how can I prevent the map.swf file from being Cached on their hard drive? If any of you could help me out regarding this, I'd be very appreciative. Thanks, Mike _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com ************************ MLB.com: Where Baseball is Always On _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
