Re: flash and asp (was FLASH: 4.0r26 HAS AUDIO PROBLEMS NOW . . . .)

[Cheri Harder]

Ummm, I think that _is_ what Redstar was saying.  It _should_ parse as 3 (as

Perl would do) but it _does_ parse as 2 with ASP...



~~~~Cheri Harder~~~~~

charderawsolution [dot] com

Advantage Web Solution

"Developing your internet storefront"

www.awsolution.com

----- Original Message -----

From: "Matt Wobensmith" <

mwobensmithmacromedia [dot] com

>

To: <

flasherchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2000 5:06 PM

Subject: flash and asp (was FLASH: 4.0r26 HAS AUDIO PROBLEMS NOW . . . .)



> Hello redstar and all,

>

> Thanks for the tips on this issue.

>

> Just for discussion.... you wrote:

>

> >Now using the same decoding principal what should :

> >// http://www.domain.com/page.asp?&name=john&status=single

> >parse to ?

> >Well the correct answer is a set of three pairs of (variable name,

> >variable value). The first group is an empty pair the second is

> >(name,john) and the third is (status,single).

>

> I'm not an ASP or CGI expert, but my tests on this actually make this

*two*

> name/value pairs as far as ASP is concerned. I would normally agree with

> your statement (3 pairs), but my findings have showed me something else.

>

> You can set up an ASP page with a For/Each loop that can return every

value

> passed from a Flash movie. With the r20/r25 player, you'll see that the

> first variable name includes the ampersand first. It is not treated as a

> seperate name/value pair, but as part of the first variable name.

>

> A good example of this (and the bug in general) is the Flash Chat that

ships

> with every copy of Flash 4. It's in the Flash 4:Sample Pages: Chat folder

on

> your hard drive. It includes the SWF, HTML and an ASP page - straight off

of

> your HD and onto an IIS server, it will work as a real-time chat program

> would. With the ampersand bug, you'll notice that typing in your user name

> and sending comments to the chat, your name gets cut off. Your comments,

> however, will post. This is because the ASP page is expecting a name/value

> for the user, and it's getting the &'d variable instead. The user's name

has

> not been defined in the ASP page.

>

> Again, I'm not an expert, but I've seen very simple workarounds for this.

> CGI, as I understand it, can be more sensitive. Perhaps it *does* treat

the

> ampersand as a new name/value pair? I dunno. This stuff is not easy... the

> solutions in the TechNote are meant for people who are obviously

high-level

> enough to make these kinds of changes.

>

> Regardless, thanks for sending this!

>

> -Matt

>

>

>

> ---------------

> Matt Wobensmith

> Macromedia Tech Support

> Flash Team Lead

>

> ----------

>

>From: RedStar <redstarclix [dot] pt>

>

>To: flasherchinwag [dot] com

> >Subject: Re: FLASH: 4.0r26 HAS AUDIO PROBLEMS NOW . . . .

> >Date: Wed, Jan 26, 2000, 6:21 PM

> >

>

> >Matt,

> >

> >I did start out with a clear 'troll' warning.

> >Anyway to follow your suggestion :

> >"please send responses to the list for the benefit of all.

> >do not write to this address for technical support."

> >and as it has to do with recent discussions I would like to bring up a

> >few points if I may.

> >Referring to tech note 14234 and clarifying some things for the benefit

> >of this lists subscribers.

> >Flash when sending data with the get or post method encodes this data in

> >what is know as urlencoded form. The variant used is the one that

> >defines the '&' (ampersand) as a separator so if we have in the case of

> >a get :

> >// http://www.domain.com/page.asp?name=john&status=single

> >this should be parsed as two groups of name value pairs with the

> >ampersand acting as the separator.

> >Now using the same decoding principal what should :

> >// http://www.domain.com/page.asp?&name=john&status=single

> >parse to ?

> >Well the correct answer is a set of three pairs of (variable name,

> >variable value). The first group is an empty pair the second is

> >(name,john) and the third is (status,single).

> >If you try parsing a query like the one above with perl you will get

> >these results as would be expected from something as stable and reliable

> >as perl.

> >Now sending this type of query to asp is something else.

> >ASP decides that this is a group of two pairs the first one (&name,john)

> >the second (status,single).

> >Notice how ASP chokes while parsing the first '&'. But this is something

> >that should be considered quite normal, after all ASP originates from

> >Microsoft...

> >Enough on this...

> >The same tech note also states :

> >"...Therefore, a "dummy" variable could be created in the Flash movie

> >whose name would be prefixed by the extra ampersand when passed...."

> >and "...this should be experimented with, due to the complexity of some

> >Flash projects and some server-side scripts. ...".

> >This advice is very good and should be given in a more positive way.

> >Why the alert ? Let's see when would this not work...

> >OK let's say the asp script counts the number of variables passed ok

> >this could be a problem , but it is easily solved and if the scripter

> >knows enough asp to implement a variable count routine he also should

> >know how to adapt it...

> >Sometimes it's not what's said it's the way it's said.

> >

> >.redstar.




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