Play local file with local flowplayer ? Created Oct 13, 2009

Maybe you triple checked the paths, but did you know the FLV is relative to the flowplayer.swf location and not the HTML file?

Try putting all your stuff into one folder and just put all relative names without any paths.

Oh, thanks for you answer.
I didn't realize the paths were relative to the flowplayer install.

So i did what you told me, put everything in the same folder,
My first item in my playlist (an image) now show up, but my second item (the video) get me a 201 error, unable to load stream or clip file.

Here is my code, maybe you'll have a clue !, anyway thanks a lot...

<object width="320" height="250" data="flowplayer-free-3.1.2.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="flowplayer-free-3.1.2.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="flashvars" value='config={"plugins":{"controls":{"url":"flowplayer.controls-custom.swf","autoHide":"fullscreen","hideDelay":1000,"opacity":1,"time":true,"mute":true,"tooltips":{"buttons":true,"play":"LECTURE","pause":"PAUSE","fullscreen":"PLEIN ECRAN","fullscreenExit":"SORTIR DU PLEIN ECRAN","mute":"COUPER LE SON","unmute":"ACTIVER LE SON"}}},"playlist":[{"url":"test.jpeg","scaling":"scale"},{"url":"toto.flv","autoPlay":false,"bufferLength":5,"scaling":"fit"}],"play":{"replayLabel":"Revoir"},"clip":{}}' /></object>

I stared a bit at your code, and it LOOKS ok.
Try swapping the flv and jpeg, or try only one playlist item (the flv). Get a very basic case working good, then add your other options later.

Using the object tag and embedding the player makes it very hard to read the code, is there a reason you are not just using the regular flashembed method?

Well i tried very basic as you said and with flashembed.
Anyway the player give me a 201 error if i specify a local file (i want to run my .html in local, without a webserver)...

So my conclusion are :
1/ It s not possible to play a localfile without a webserver
2/ Maybe there is a special params to tel flowplayer that this is a local file, and so the clip params should take a path and not a web url...

thanks for your help.

Ok the problem is with flash security !
the strange thing is that flash doesn ' ask me anything...
but if i authorize my directory from flash security it works...

Is there any way to by pass that restriction ?
(my player, my file etc. are only local, there should not have any call to the Internet)

If you are just "testing" then you should upload your FLV for real, and use the full path to test.

If you are trying to develop some sort of offline browser site (like a CD-Rom Course) then you will need to look more into running a local server.

I know there are products (hopefully freeware) available that let mini HTTP servers run on the local machine just for the purpose of serving HTML onhttp://localhost and nothing else. This will let the security issues go away.

So "what do I need this for?" is the quesion to ask yourself. If it's trivial then just host the FLV somewhere online.

yes i do need it for CD but not only...
My customers download a .zip archive where there run a QT application that simulate a web browser and read my local html file.
It does work on Mac and PC... so the "fake" server is not a good way to do it.

If i use JW player it works well, unfortunately it does'nt with flowplayer...

Adobe provides a utility (LocalContentUpdater) that is designed to change the sandbox bit in a Flash file so that you can tell it to access local content.

If the bit is 1, then a local SWF can access network content, but cannot access local content. If the bit is 0, then a local SWF can access local content, but not network content.

I tried running the utility with Flowplayer and didn't get a satisfactory result, so I'm not sure if there's something else in Flowplayer preventing it, or I simply rushed the test and botched it. However, it might be worthwhile for you to try it yourself. Just search for LocalContentUpdater.exe on the Adobe site and you should turn it up.

Be sure to apply the utility against both the flowplayer SWF and the controls SWF. Let us know if you have any success.

@degenerate: I know my anti-virus program would go into high gear if I ran a local server without providing explicit permission, and I think a lot of regular-joe-type users won't have the technical background to realize what's needed if the warnings happen to them. Would be a support nightmare.

Flash is perfectly happy running local content, as long as the sandbox bit is set. I do this all the time with my reference player. If the bit is set for local-with-filesystem sandbox then you should be able to access local assets. Here's more info from Adobe on the concept:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00000350.html

For this issue I have found a solution! It is possible to access local files, and play them. :)

And this is the flashembed.js, it can be accessed athttp://flowplayer.org/v2/tools/flash-embed.html

I have used it locally, and was working.

1. somwhere at the top put <script type="text/JavaScript" src="flashembed-0.31.js" ></script>
2. place a placeholder like: <div id="videoplayer"></div>
3. call the function: flashembed("videoplayer", "flowplayerlp.swf",{config:{autoPlay:false, videoFile:'mod_01.flv', initialScale:'orig', showMuteVolumeButton:true, hideControls:false, controlsOverVideo:'ease', showMenu:false}});

the video file: mod_01.flv, I have had in the same folder as the flowplayerlp.swf, and the script as well.

I can't tell how old my "flowplayerlp.swf" is, but it did work.

Also you could do the above, that would work on some browsers - I guess, as follows, however in this case you don't need any javascript call:

<div id="videoplayer" href="mod_01.flv">
<embed id ="videoplayer_embed" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="flowplayerlp.swf" width="100%" height="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" pluginspage=http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="config={ "autoPlay":false, "videoFile":"mod_01.flv", "initialScale":"orig", "showMuteVolumeButton":true, "hideControls":false, "controlsOverVideo":"ease", "showMenu":false}">
</div>

This may or may not be the best solution, it worked.

Z:

Thanks for posting your results :)
Always good to have a solution in a thread even if it's not the best.

Unfortunately your solution doesn't seem to work for me. :(

Any luck with this one?

I'm trying to run flowplayer locally from a cd and the videos from the same cd too. No connection to the internet

I've been trying using the adobe local content updater without any luck. The solution posted by tortexy doesn't work for me either because this needs to add the videos dynamically depending on what the user clicks.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

There are at least two more threads discussing the same problem.
Cross-reference:http://flowplayer.org/forum/1/21086