nw-flash-trust

nw-flash-trust

Cross-platform solution for node-webkit to make your Flash plugins trusted, so they can run smoothly.

Why this is needed?

Node-webkit uses local file:// protocol to render pages. Unfortunately, for security reasons Flash Player doesn't like SWFs embedded locally and applies very restrictive policy to them. Such SWF lands in one of two possible local sandboxes, and communication via ExternalInterface is blocked.

Fortunately there is officially supported way of making your local SWF trusted, so previously mentioned restrictions don't apply. Full explanation can be found in Adobe Flash Player Administration Guide.

Long story short: you have to put text file in special directory provided by Flash Player and save to this file paths of SWFs you want to be trusted. This library provides cross-platform API for doing just that.

Tested on

• Windows XP
• Windows 7
• OSX 10.8
• Linux Mint
• Ubuntu
• Fedora

Installation

npm install nw-flash-trust

Usage & API

For simplicity API is fully synchronous. It does a little of I/O, but so little it shouldn't be an issue.

var path = require('path');
var flashTrust = require('nw-flash-trust');

// appName could be any globally unique string containing only
// big and small letters, numbers and chars "-._"
// It specifies name of file where trusted paths will be stored.
// Best practice is to feed it with "name" value from your package.json file.
var appName = 'myApp';

try {
    // Initialization and parsing config file for given appName (if already exists).
    var trustManager = flashTrust.initSync(appName);
} catch(err) {
    if (err.message === 'Flash Player config folder not found.') {
        // Directory needed to do the work doesn't exist.
        // Probably Flash Player is not installed, there is nothing I can do.
    }
}

// adds given filepath to trusted locations
// paths must be absolute
trustManager.add(path.resolve('path-to', 'file.swf'));

// whole folders are also allowed
trustManager.add(path.resolve('path-to', 'folder'));

// removes given path from trusted locations
trustManager.remove(path.resolve('path-to', 'file.swf'));

// returns true or false whether given path is trusted or not
var isTrusted = trustManager.isTrusted(path.resolve('path-to', 'file.swf'));

// returns array containing all trusted paths
var list = trustManager.list();

// removes all trusted locations from config file
trustManager.empty();

Pitfalls

On Windows 2 Flash plugins can coexist: ActiveX plugin for Internet Explorer and second one, for all other browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera). If only ActiveX plugin is installed there is flash-config-folder on this maschine, so this library will instantiate withou throwing any error. But node-webkit uses the second plugin so in this case there is no Flash for him. Dont rely for Flash detection on what nw-flash-trust tells you.

To be sure Flash is available in node-webkit use something like this:

function isFlashAvailable() {
    return navigator.plugins.namedItem('Shockwave Flash') != null;
}

License

MIT