Re: Serving up a Flash file
Thanks to everyone for their responses. It's amazing how large some of the gaps in my knowledge truly are. Paul p.s., Sorry I didn't mean to disappear ... water is an amazing thing, given enough volume, it can get into all sorts of places you wouldn't expect; so I've been learning all sorts of things about filling sandbags, their proper placement, and how tired one can get carrying those puppies around. Ahh, sunny southern California, where it hardly ever rains. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
It's amazing how large some of the gaps in my knowledge truly are. Words of a wise man. I find myself thinking the same thing daily. I'm sure we are not alone :) - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
Shey Rab Pawo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your conclusion is not correct. What Mr. Bainbridge told you is true, but that does not restrict where you can store the files on the server. Ok, now I'm confused ... [Bainbridge]: What you need to do is generate the Flash file in in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. My interpretation of the first part of the above is that the generated Flash files need to reside in the web app's directory structure. However, you're saying that that's not the case -- they can reside wherever on the server. So, is it the second part of Mr. Bainbridge's statement that provides the clue for accessing these files? That as long as the Flash file's path is specified relative to the location of the JSP (which includes the embed tag), then I'm good to go. Paul - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
You need to break things down and to see what the browser is doing, what your server is doing, what the web application is doing and what your business logic is doing. These all have differing parts to play in this kind of a situation. The URL is merely the communication between the browser and your web server. Your web server can cooperate with your web application and do anything it wants independent of the actual URL returned. The HTTP URL is not like a FILE address. I use a Struts action, which involves a URL like resource.do?file=whatever.swf. My web server, being aware I am running Struts, notices that the URL ends in .do and sends the URL to the Struts controller class, ActionServlet. The Struts ActionServlet, having read the configuration details for resource.do, sends the request to a class I call ResourceAction. ResourceAction is a request processing class that retrieves resources like swf files and returns them as an output stream to the client browser. ResourceAction does not care about the restrictions the server has in grabbing files and can go anywhere on my server. ResourceAction sees the name/value pair file=whatever.swf and uses preprogrammed logic to go get the called whatever.swf. You can do this a lot of different ways. This is one. Do you understand? It is best to get an idea of how it all works. This takes a while. You will get it but you have to make sure you understand what is happening, if you want to keep from being confused. On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:03:40 -0800, Paul Erion [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Shey Rab Pawo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your conclusion is not correct. What Mr. Bainbridge told you is true, but that does not restrict where you can store the files on the server. Ok, now I'm confused ... [Bainbridge]: What you need to do is generate the Flash file in in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. My interpretation of the first part of the above is that the generated Flash files need to reside in the web app's directory structure. However, you're saying that that's not the case -- they can reside wherever on the server. So, is it the second part of Mr. Bainbridge's statement that provides the clue for accessing these files? That as long as the Flash file's path is specified relative to the location of the JSP (which includes the embed tag), then I'm good to go. Paul -- The radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon's radiance, likewise, good deeds giving us merit, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the merit of loving-kindness.. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
Another way of responding to your question would be to say that your conclusion about Mr. Bainbridge's remarks is only true if you let the web server do all the work in retrieving the file. Then, of course, the reading of the entire request URL must be with the server. That is what you seem to have assumed must happen. But, that is not necessary. That is not, in my opinion, even desirable, because it ties your web application to the logic and the relationship between the browser and the web server. The web application ideally should be decoupled from those assumptions, even if they are usually not. On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:03:40 -0800, Paul Erion [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Shey Rab Pawo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your conclusion is not correct. What Mr. Bainbridge told you is true, but that does not restrict where you can store the files on the server. Ok, now I'm confused ... [Bainbridge]: What you need to do is generate the Flash file in in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. My interpretation of the first part of the above is that the generated Flash files need to reside in the web app's directory structure. However, you're saying that that's not the case -- they can reside wherever on the server. So, is it the second part of Mr. Bainbridge's statement that provides the clue for accessing these files? That as long as the Flash file's path is specified relative to the location of the JSP (which includes the embed tag), then I'm good to go. Paul -- The radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon's radiance, likewise, good deeds giving us merit, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the merit of loving-kindness.. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
Just think out of the box a little on this one. Your .swf file can be literally anywhere on the web and on any web server as long as it's accessible. Then just write your code as: HTML BODY bgcolor=#ff OBJECT width=300 height=200 align=center PARAM name=movie value=http://www.some.webserver.com/someDir/test.swf; EMBED src=http://www.some.webserver.com/someDir/test.swf; type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=300 height=200 /EMBED /OBJECT /BODY /HTML You could also use relative urls such as /someDir/test.swf, ./someDir/test.swf or test.swf if you want as long as your .swf file is available on the same server as your .html or jsp. As far as avoiding having serveral copies of the same file, that's really a matter of how you handle the dev project. You could place them all in a directory on a server separate from your webapp and just link to them. This option is a favorite of people who put their Tomcat service behind Apache and have Apache serve static content. Or (and I like this one better) have a one directory repository for all of the shared .swf files and use an ant compile task to copy them so they are included in building the .war file. when you change one of the files, just re-run the ant builds and deploy your new .war files. At your level, this might be one to keep in mind but not try until you have some other successes first. --David Paul Erion wrote: Shey Rab Pawo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your conclusion is not correct. What Mr. Bainbridge told you is true, but that does not restrict where you can store the files on the server. Ok, now I'm confused ... [Bainbridge]: What you need to do is generate the Flash file in in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. My interpretation of the first part of the above is that the generated Flash files need to reside in the web app's directory structure. However, you're saying that that's not the case -- they can reside wherever on the server. So, is it the second part of Mr. Bainbridge's statement that provides the clue for accessing these files? That as long as the Flash file's path is specified relative to the location of the JSP (which includes the embed tag), then I'm good to go. Paul - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Serving up a Flash file
I'm using JBoss/Tomcat and JSP to serve up Flash (swf) files, but I'm running into a little difficulty. The Flash file plays fine when the browser is running on the same machine as the server; but, is a no-show when I access the web page from a different machine -- though the rest of the page (such as it is) is displayed. Oh, and the Flash files are generated dynamically; in other words, there's not just one flash file that I can squirrel away. Following is the HTML that gets generated by the JSP (which fills in the name of the Flash file to be displayed): HTML BODY bgcolor=#ff OBJECT width=300 height=200 align=center PARAM name=movie value=file:/C:/FlashFiles/test.swf EMBED src=file:/C:/FlashFiles/test.swf type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=300 height=200 /EMBED /OBJECT /BODY /HTML I've tried a couple of different values for the file specification (for example, file:///C:/FlashFiles/test.swf and C:/FlashFiles/test.swf), but this hasn't had any effect. Is this a security issue? Any thoughts on what could be going on? Thanks, Paul p.s., I'm using JBoss 3.2.3/Tomcat 4.1.29 on Windows XP Pro - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 18:37:01 -0800, Paul Erion [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Following is the HTML that gets generated by the JSP (which fills in the name of the Flash file to be displayed): HTML BODY bgcolor=#ff OBJECT width=300 height=200 align=center PARAM name=movie value=file:/C:/FlashFiles/test.swf EMBED src=file:/C:/FlashFiles/test.swf type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=300 height=200 /EMBED /OBJECT /BODY /HTML Okay that scares me, you're developing web applications but don't know what the file:/ URI does? Anyway why it works on the localhost is that it is trying to load the file from the C: drive of the machine the page is opened on and well it's there on the server but obviously not on the client. What you need to do is generate the Flash file in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. Regards, -- Jason Bainbridge KDE - Conquer Your Desktop - http://kde.org KDE Web Team - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
Jason Bainbridge [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Okay that scares me, you're developing web applications ... Don't worry. No one's paying me for this -- I'm just fooling around on my own, trying to learn some stuff ... but don't know what the file:/ URI does? Well, I *am* kind of an idiot -- and I'm also pretty sure that nothing that I write here will disprove it. Anyway why it works on the localhost is that it is trying to load the file from the C: drive of the machine the page is opened on and well it's there on the server but obviously not on the client. Thanks for the explanation. I was erroneously assuming that the URL would be evaluated in the context of the server. What you need to do is generate the Flash file in a directory that Jboss/Tomcat serves files from like webapps\yourwebappname\flash_files or similar and then the value= in your embed needs to be relative to the location of the JSP that includes the tag. This makes it interesting ... in the scenario that I'm envisioning, the Flash files are generated prior to a user's request to view the file, and there's not a fixed number of files (that is, new files will be continuously generated). Consequently, I didn't want to store the files in the same directory hierarchy as the web app (somehow that didn't seem like a good idea). So, if I understand you (and remember I'm a bit dense) it's just not possible, via the embed/object tag to specify/access a file that doesn't reside in the directory hierarchy that JBoss/Tomcat serves files from. Once thanks for the info, it was helpful. And if you have any other thoughts, suggestions, or pointers to docs, I'd love to hear them. Paul - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Serving up a Flash file
Your conclusion is not correct. What Mr. Bainbridge told you is true, but that does not restrict where you can store the files on the server. So, if I understand you (and remember I'm a bit dense) it's just not possible, via the embed/object tag to specify/access a file that doesn't reside in the directory hierarchy that JBoss/Tomcat serves files from. -- The radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon's radiance, likewise, good deeds giving us merit, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the merit of loving-kindness.. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
