This looks like an extremely silly question even to me, but anyway, I'm curious:
Is there a way to protect an Adobe Air application with hardware key (aka Software Protection Dongle)?
I'm looking into developing a certain application that would require such key as a protection from being pirated (I can't change that fact), and it looks like that using Adobe Flash is the easiest way to write what this particular application should do.
If you are writing purely in Flash then you could use a product like SWF Studio (or Zinc ) which encrypts the flash file and produces and executable file. It needs to be encrypted because in a standard flash executable file the swf data can easily be extracted. Then you can protect this executable file using a Shell wrapper which ties it to a dongle. I did this using SWF Studio and Dinkey Dongles with my flash executable and it worked very well.
Links:
SWF Studio
Dinkey Dongles
AIR applications have no support for hardware dongles and don't even possess decent protection from decompiling. I imagine the dongle can be detected with some helper application called with NativeProcess, but this will require different helper for each OS. Also, without obfuscation all this will be pointless. See Trillix SWF Decompiler for decompilation and SecureSWF for obfuscation.
Related
So I have this bit of a project planned for Windows Store and Android. Basically, a networking multi-tool coupled with a scripting engine to implement protocols and behavior. Ideal uses being things like "my embedded device uses this simplistic network protocol. I'd like to quickly prototype a way to control it from my tablet".
It's my understanding that the Android market should have no problem with this. However, the Windows Store policy includes a vague clause concerning remote code execution
3.9 All app logic must originate from, and reside in, your app package Your app must not attempt to change or extend the packaged content
through any form of dynamic inclusion of code or data that changes how
the application interacts with the Windows Runtime, or behaves with
regard to Store policy. It is not permissible, for example, to
download a remote script and subsequently execute that script in the
local context of your app package.
Of course, the scripting engine will be sandboxed and such and should be "safe"(completely intepreted, no reflection), but does it violate this policy?
If you build in your scripting engine, and only run local scripts, you will be good. However, if you were thinking to have a repository of scripts that could be downloaded and subsequently run, that would be in violation of the policy as we understand it.
Unfortunately I don't think anyone but someone on that team can answer that (or someone with direct experience in that) because of the closeness to the legal language. Have you tried the Windows Store Appl Publishing forum at: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsstore/threads
In the context of scripting engine example given, unless the app modifies the scripting engine after deployment on user's system such that the representation of protocol/behavior (the script artifact's format) is made to change then it'll be policy violation. Its as if you submit Python interpreter, and at some point in time it abruptly moves onto interpreting ecmascript.
Is it possible for a website to automatically find a folder on usb stick and upload all the files in it to the web server by clicking only one button?
The problem is that I don't know how to make upload form automatically detect usb stick as the drive name(ie. G:, F:, etc) may vary from computer to computer, so hard coding path is not possible.
Ps. I'm using yii framework for site development, but can add a new page that will handle this in any other language as the client really wants this feature.
Web sites are not allowed to set default files to upload (it's a major security risk!). Also, web sites cannot scan the hard drive/enumerate what file systems exist on a system, again, for security purposes.
It might be possibly to do this with Flash/Silverlight/Java. Java seems the most likely to allow a web developer to do this (Java plugin seems to be quite willing to give out every permission under the Sun).
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Allowing automatic uploads in web browsers would be a huge security hole so the browsers intentionally prevent it. Even if you manage to find a hole that permits it, the browser makers will break it as soon as they find out.
However, if you have an environment where an actual separate program can be installed on the end user's computer you could easily write a program to do automated uploads of specified directories when launched.
How can I develop an installable desktop application on top of the Mozilla Engine or the Webkit engine.
We want to have best of both worlds, ease of development with DOM+Javascript+RenderingEngine+ContinuedImprovements in a Browser and user's control as in a desktop app
I looked at using C++ XPCOM for Mozilla but it seems to be quite complicated, Is there any other way to code like a WebApp using Javascript but burn it into the browser and dress it to give a feel of a desktop app. Also I require that javascript is compiled into native so that one cannot sneak into the source code
Are there any examples of desktop applications done this way ?
Web apps are fine but there are concerns of piracy, privacy, security and version control. The moot point is that in a web app the control lies with the software vendor, moreover the data is also with the vendor. Not only these, any changes to the application may also necessitate another around of training. What we want is that once the customer buys a version he is sure of what he owns and that he is in total control of it and we as software developer do not exposed our source code.
The issue is we have expertise in Web App development and we want to utilize that to develop a Desktop App
Your last point is that :
The issue is we have expertise in Web App development and we want to utilize that to develop a Desktop App
Well then BowLine can be an option though it requires Ruby, so you need to consider that. You can also take a look at WebKitDotNet if you are with .net Background.
Use XUL for the user interface and code your functions using JavaScript. You problably only need C++ to expose native functionality not yet available in Gecko. Examples of software that works this way: Komodo IDE, Songbird, Firefox and Thunderbird.
I'm a C programmer and a total newbie to Flash/video/web world. Don't know where/how to start, and so would greatly appreciate your initial help.
Question
If I need to host flash videos off of my website (instead of embedding YouTube links on my webpages),
AND
If I need to provide player API like YouTube's that can be used, say, for supporting chromeless player versions customizable via this custom API of mine...
THEN
What do I need to do essentially...?
Write a custom Flash video player?
If yes, how? I mean, using which Adobe products / tools / SDKs / language(s)?
Is there anything free/opensource available for doing this? Especially, for Linux platform?
Write a new browser (firefox) plugin for users visiting my site?
Not sure how my custom Flash video player will get to the user visiting my site for the first time?
Any books, resources that cover this problem well?
Does the Flash content need to hosted off of a Windows server only?
Currently lost. Thanks in advance,
/SD
Flash has video playback support built-in, so all you need to do is use the Flash authoring environment or Flex to compile a .SWF file that uses the video API, with some buttons to stop and start the stream, volume, seeking, anything else you want your player to do.
Many people have already done this for you, in a way you can easily use from simple HTML. See eg. OSFLV, Flowplayer, JW...
Write a new browser (firefox) plugin for users visiting my site? Does the Flash content need to hosted off of a Windows server only?
Lord no! Flash video would never have taken off if it was just another custom-server+custom-plugin piece of unpleasantness. Though special streaming servers are possible, for the most part it's just an FLV file sitting on a web server.
(FLV is the video format supported by the Flash video playing functions. There are many, many tools you can use to convert other formats to it; I use Avidemux.)
If you are planning to use a "Progressive Download" approach, then your FLV files can be hosted on a Windows or a Linux box. Be aware that:
it is no as efficient as true
streaming.
you may not use it for live events
nor only for stored video files.
it cannot automatically detect the
end user's connection speed.
it is not possible to jump ahead to
another part while it's downloaded.
the video file will be saved on the
end user's computer.
If you are planning to use a "Streaming" approach then you can either buy and use Adobe's solution (Flash Media Server, available on both Windows and Linux box) or sign up for a hosted solution. On this page you will find recommended providers by Adobe. I personally have been using Influxis's hosting with success for a couple of years already.
You can also write your own streaming server but that would be a lot of hard work. If you are interested in that, I would recommend you have a look a Red5 which is an open source Flash Server written in Java.
The Adobe Air introductory documentation and samples seem to separate Air development into 3 different categories:
HTML/Ajax
Flash
Flex
I've read the tutorials and examined some of the code, but I'm not totally clear what the differences between them are, and more importantly why you would choose one approach over the other. Sorry for asking such a basic question (please bear in mind I come from a Windows development background).
I will answer this myself since I've done the research. Here's a summary:
HTML/Ajax, Flash, and Flex are
different approaches to developing
web apps. These technologies can be
combined in a single web app.
Adobe AIR is a runtime which allows you to take those web technologies and run them as a desktop app instead of in the browser. You can combine them in the same app.
Flash is a runtime that was originally created to provide a rich UI to browser based apps. AIR brings the Flash runtime to desktop apps.
Flash runs compiled SWF files and is scripted via ActionScript. Flex is a tool
(SDK, MXML schema for defining UI, etc), which makes it easier to create apps that run on the Flash runtime (it generates SWF files).
Further details see: Adobe AIR FAQ, Adobe AIR (Wikipedia), Adobe Flash (Wikipedia), Adobe Flex (Wikipedia).
As for deciding which approach(es) should be used when developing for AIR, I think that should be based on the experience and preferences of the developers working on it. I don't think Adobe gives any guidance here, because their goal is simply to provide the same options for desktop developers that web developers already have.
I haven't used Flex myself, but I know that you can use it to interact with HTML elements, rather than providing the interface itself via Flash. I'm not clear on what Flash vs. Flex is though.