F.1 Browser-Based Support for GET and POST

On both Windows and Macintosh, the browser plugin and ActiveX control versions of Flash Player 6 fully support the HTTP GET and POST methods . However, despite this support, minor bugs in certain browser/Player combinations cause intermittent failure for functions using POST (see preceding URLs). Furthermore, prior to version 6.0.40.0, the Flash Player's POST method caused problems for Java servlets, as discussed at:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/java_get.htm

F.2 Standalone Player Support for GET and POST

Table F-1 lists, by function, the official support for HTTP GET and POST on Windows and Macintosh in Standalone Player 5 and Standalone Player 6. Note the following general rules:

• Standalone Player 5 on Windows and Macintosh does not support POST.

• Standalone Player 6 on Windows does not support POST for functions that receive results in a web browser rather than the Player.

• Hence, even if POST works on your system, you should use GET wherever possible for the best results on the most platforms.

Table F-1. Support for GET and POST as HTTP methods in Flash Standalone Player 5 and Standalone Player 6 for Windows and Macintosh

^[1] POST requests are converted to GET requests but no variables are sent (i.e., the query string is missing). In my tests, POST works in Standalone Player 5 on Macintosh, but the consensus from Macromedia and the developer community is that POST does not work reliably in that Player.

^[2] POST requests are converted to GET requests, and data is transferred via the GET request query string.

^[3] The entire loadVariables( ) method works neither in the Standalone Player nor with executable Projectors (i.e., movies bundled with the Standalone Player in a single executable file).