How to navigateToURL from Flex application contained within an Adobe AIR wrapper?

Question

I have a Flex application loaded into AIR with an htmlLoader . The Flex application displays a link that when clicked, calls navigateToURL(...) and displays a new browser window. This functionality works with the Flex application, however it does nothing when wrapped in AIR.

Answer 1

Are you loading the flex app from disk? It might be in the Local-with-file sandbox .

Have a look at this: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/as3/dev/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118666ade46-7cba.html

Here's an excerpt from the documentation link above.

Home / ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide / Networking and communication / HTTP communications
Opening a URL in another application

Flash Player 9 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later

You can use the navigateToURL() function to open a URL in a web browser or other application. For content running in AIR, the navigateToURL() function opens the page in the default system web browser.

For the URLRequest object you pass as the request parameter of this function, only the url property is used.

The first parameter of the navigateToURL() function, the navigate parameter, is a URLRequest object (see Using the URLRequest class). The second is an optional window parameter, in which you can specify the window name. For example, the following code opens the www.adobe.com web page:

var url:String = "http://www.adobe.com"; 
var urlReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url); 
navigateToURL(urlReq);
Note: When using the navigateToURL() function, the runtime treats a URLRequest object that uses the POST method (one that has its method property set to URLRequestMethod.POST) as using the GET method.
When using the navigateToURL() function, URI schemes are permitted based on the security sandbox of the code calling the navigateToURL() function.

Some APIs allow you to launch content in a web browser. For security reasons, some URI schemes are prohibited when using these APIs in AIR. The list of prohibited schemes depends on the security sandbox of the code using the API. (For details on security sandboxes, see AIR security.)

Application sandbox (AIR only)
Any URI scheme can be used in URL launched by content running in the AIR application sandbox. An application must be registered to handle the URI scheme or the request does nothing. The following schemes are supported on many computers and devices:

http:
https:
file:
mailto: — AIR directs these requests to the registered system mail application
sms: — AIR directs sms: requests to the default text message app. The URL format must conform to the system conventions under which the app is running. For example, on Android, the URI scheme must be lowercase.
navigateToURL( new URLRequest( "sms:+15555550101") );
tel: — AIR directs tel: requests to the default telephone dialing app. The URL format must conform to the system conventions under which the app is running. For example, on Android, the URI scheme must be lowercase.
navigateToURL( new URLRequest( "tel:5555555555") );
market: — AIR directs market: requests to the Market app typically supported on Android devices.
navigateToURL( new URLRequest( "market://search?q=Adobe Flash") ); 
navigateToURL( new URLRequest( "market://search?q=pname:com.adobe.flashplayer") );
Where allowed by the operating system, applications can define and register custom URI schemes. You can create a URL using the scheme to launch the application from AIR.

Remote sandboxes
The following schemes are allowed. Use these schemes as you would use them in a web browser.

http:
https:
mailto: — AIR directs these requests to the registered system mail application
All other URI schemes are prohibited.

Local-with-file sandbox
The following schemes are allowed. Use these schemes as you would use them in a web browser.

file:
mailto: — AIR directs these requests to the registered system mail application
All other URI schemes are prohibited.

Local-with-networking sandbox
The following schemes are allowed. Use these schemes as you would use them in a web browser.

http:
https:
mailto: — AIR directs these requests to the registered system mail application
All other URI schemes are prohibited.

Local-trusted sandbox
The following schemes are allowed. Use these schemes as you would use them in a web browser.

file:
http:
https:
mailto: — AIR directs these requests to the registered system mail application
All other URI schemes are prohibited.

Answer 2

I found the solution:

htmlLoader.navigateInSystemBrowser = true;

External links clicked from the loaded HTML page will pop open a new browser.