URLRequest.data format

1

I have a preloader that is supposed to pass any FlashVars given to it to the SWF it is loading. Simple, right? It works dandy fine with Flash’s built-in Javascript embed. It sits there, twiddling its thumbs, if using SWFObject’s embed Javascript function.

It hangs whenever I assign the URLRequest.data to anything. If it is blank ("") or null, it works great. If I pass a non-empty string or URL variables, it just sits there and does nothing. There are no errors. I have tried a single key/value pair, fails. The browser just spins and the progress meter does not move. It is as if the URLRequest was never sent.

HTML with embed:


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
    <head>
        <title>Rawr</title>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
        <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/swfobject.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            
            function showFlashVarValues(postScoreURL, checkEmailURL, startGameURL, userID, userDetailID,  gameSessionID, gamePlayID)
            {
                alert(postScoreURL);
            }
            
            function setCookie(name, value, expires)
            {

                // no expiration date specified? use this date and it will just be deleted soon.

                    if (!expires) expires = new Date(); 

                document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) + "; expires=" + expires.toGMTString() + "; path=/";

            }


            function setCookieFromFlash(userID)
            {
                var expdate = new Date (); // pre-set to the current time and date
                
                expdate.setTime(expdate.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365); // add one year to it 
                
                //365 days/year * 24 hours/day * 60 minutes/hour * 60 seconds/minute * 1000 milliseconds/second
                
                // = howevermany milliseconds/year. So this adds one year, it'll expire in one year.
                
                setCookie("userID",userID,expdate);
            }


        
        
        
            //swfobject.embedSWF("Preloader_BB.swf", "flashHolder", "550", "400", "9.0.0", "expressInstall.swf");
            var flashvars = {
                postScoreURL: "http://games.rawr.com/rawr/postScore.asp",
                checkEmailURL: "http://games.rawr.com/rawr/lookupByEmail.asp",
                startGameURL: "http://games.rawr.com/rawr/startGame.asp",
                userID: "0",
                userDetailID: "0",
                gameSessionID: "0",
                gamePlayID: "0"         
            };
            var params = {};
            var attributes = {};
            swfobject.embedSWF("Preloader_BB.swf", "flashHolder", "550", "400", "9.0.0", "expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes);
        </script>
    </head>

    <body bgcolor="#000000">
        <div id="flashHolder">
            <h1>This game requires Adobe Flash.</h1>
            <p><a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"><img src="http://www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif" alt="Get Adobe Flash player" /></a></p>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

Actionscript: (The code block seems to break formatting)


try
{    
    stop();
    
    var myRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest("Stripped.swf");
    var myLoader:Loader = new Loader();
    
    myLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, LoadProgress);
    myLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, LoadComplete);
        
    BeginLoading();
}
catch (e:Error)
{
    txtError.text = e.message;
}

function BeginLoading():void
{
    txtError.appendText("begun loading...
");
    myRequest.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
    
    var variables:URLVariables = GetObjectVariables(this.root.loaderInfo.parameters);
    
    if (variables != null)
    {
        myRequest.data = variables; //GetObjectVariables(this.loaderInfo.parameters);
        txtError.appendText("data = '" + myRequest.data.toString() + "'
");
    }
    myLoader.load(myRequest);    
}

function LoadProgress(event:ProgressEvent):void 
{
    var percentLoaded:Number = event.bytesLoaded / event.bytesTotal;
    percentLoaded = Math.round(percentLoaded * 100);
    txtLoading.text = "Loading... " + percentLoaded + "%";
    txtError.appendText("Loading: " + percentLoaded + "%
");
}
function LoadComplete(event:Event):void 
{
    txtError.appendText("Complete
");
    this.visible = false;
    this.parent.addChild(event.currentTarget.content);
    event.currentTarget.content.Initialize();
}

function GetObjectVariables(object:Object):URLVariables 
{
    var variables:String = "";
    var key:String;
    var value:String;
    for (key in object)
    {
        value = String(object[key]);
        
        variables = variables + key + "=" + value + "&";
        break;
    }
    
    var decoded:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
    if (variables.length > 0)
    {
        decoded.decode(variables.substr(0, variables.length - 1));
    }
    return decoded;
    //return variables.substr(0, variables.length - 1);
}

Flash and I have a hate-hate relationship! Only one will prevail.

EDIT:

I attached an event to listen for IO Errors, and I do receive one. But ONLY if I set the URLRequest.data to be anything. It appears URLRequest.data causes the IO error.

Why in the world is assigning some data via a POST in a URLRequest breaking the URL?!?

Cheers.