Sending byteArray and variables to server-side script at the same time

zedia.net — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:53:05 +0000

While using the URLLoader classyou can send two types of data to the server. You can either send variables through the URLVariables or by giving a ByteArray to the data property of the URLRequest class. Here is how you would send variables:

package {
  import flash.display.Sprite;
  import flash.net.URLLoader;
  import flash.net.URLRequest;
  import flash.net.URLVariables;
 
  public class URLVariablesExample extends Sprite {
    public function URLVariablesExample() {
      var url:String = "http://www.[yourDomain].com/receiveFile.php";
      var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
      var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
 
      variables.exampleSessionId = new Date().getTime();
      variables.exampleUserLabel = "guest";
 
      request.data = variables;
 
      var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
      loader.load(request)
    }
  }
}

If you wanted to send a ByteArray, let say to save an image made in your flash on the server, here is how you would pass the data (I’m using the coreLib to convert bitmapData to JPG format which will return a ByteArray) :

package {
  import flash.display.Sprite;
  import flash.net.URLLoader;
  import flash.net.URLRequest;
  import flash.net.URLRequestMethod;
  import flash.display.BitmapData;
  import flash.utils.ByteArray;
  import com.adobe.images.JPGEncoder;
 
  public class ByteArraySendExample extends Sprite {
    public function  ByteArraySendExample() {
      var url:String = "http://www.[yourDomain].com/receiveFile.php";
      var someBitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData();//let say we have some bitmapdata
 
      //using the jpeg encoder from the core library
      var jpgEncoder:JPGEncoder = new JPGEncoder(80);
      var myByteArray:ByteArray = jpgEncoder.encode(someBitmapData);
 
      var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
      request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
 
      request.data = myByteArray;
      var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
 
      loader.load(request)
   }
  }
}

The thing is, there is no actual documentation when you want to send both a byteArray and variables. As you can see in the examples, when you send variables, you set the data property of the URLRequest equal the your URLVariables, but when you send a byteArray you also set the data property equal to your byteArray. So you cannot send both type of data at the same time this way. The way I found is actually pretty simple and I don’t why others have not blogged about this (trust me I have looked for this). What you do is you set the data of the URLRequest equal to the byteArray, but you put your variables in the url String of the URLRequest. Here is some code showing it:

package {
  import flash.display.Sprite;
  import flash.net.URLLoader;
  import flash.net.URLRequest;
  import flash.net.URLRequestMethod;
  import flash.display.BitmapData;
  import flash.utils.ByteArray;
  import com.adobe.images.JPGEncoder;
 
  public class   ByteArrayAndVariableSendExample extends Sprite {
    public function  ByteArrayAndVariableSendExample() {
      var url:String = "http://www.[yourDomain].com/receiveFile.php?exampleSessionId=" + new Date().getTime() + "&exampleUserLabel=guest" ;
 
      var someBitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData();//let say we have some bitmapdata
 
      //using the jpeg encoder from the core library
      var jpgEncoder:JPGEncoder = new JPGEncoder(80);
      var myByteArray:ByteArray = jpgEncoder.encode(someBitmapData);
 
      var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
      request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
 
      request.data = myByteArray;
      var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
 
      loader.load(request)
    }
  }
}

Then in your server-side script you recover the variables in the query string and the byteArray in the post part. It’s that simple.

zedia flash blog » JPGEncoder

Sending byteArray and variables to server-side script at the same time