Using the Settings in Flash Player 6 and Higher

Flash Player 6 introduced the Settings option from the Flash Player's contextual menu, which can be accessed by right-clicking (or Control+clicking on the Mac) a Flash movie. When you choose the Settings option, the Macromedia Flash Player Settings dialog box opens. This dialog box has four tabs, which we discuss in the following sections.

Privacy

This tab, shown in Figure 23-8, controls the access of the current Flash movie to your Webcam and microphone. Whenever a Flash movie tries to access your Webcam or microphone, the Flash Player opens this tab to ask you for permission. You can choose Allow, which gives the Flash movie access to your camera and microphone, or Deny, which stops the Flash movie from gaining access to these devices. You can also select the Remember check box so that the Flash Player remembers the choice you made, preventing the dialog box from opening during subsequent visits to the same Flash movie (or Web site hosting the Flash movie). If you click the Advanced button in the Privacy tab, a new Web browser opens and loads the help page for the Settings options on Macromedia's site.

Figure 23-8: The Privacy tab

Note 

Flash movies can stream live audio and video to Flash Communication Server applications by using the Camera, Microphone, and NetStream objects.

The Privacy option applies to any and all Flash movies hosted on the domain listed in the Privacy tab.

Web Resource 

For the most up-to-date information on the Privacy tab, refer to the following page on Macromedia's site:

• www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/privacy/

You can also access the Global Settings manager on Macromedia's site, which enables you to control the privacy settings for all sites you have visited. Go to the following URL:

• www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/settings/global_privacy.html

Local Storage

As shown in Figure 23-9, the Local Storage tab controls how much information can be stored on your computer from the Flash Player. Since Flash Player 6, Flash movies can be engineered to store data on the user's machine, with the use of local Shared Objects. The SharedObject class in ActionScript enables you to store customized information on a user's machine, just like cookies can store information from a Web application.

Figure 23-9: The Local Storage tab

By default, a Web site and Flash movies hosted on that site can allocate as much as 100 KB of data on a user's machine. If a Flash movie hosted from a Web site requests more than this amount, the Flash Player automatically opens this tab asking for the user's permission to store more data. You can click the Never Ask Again option to prevent the Flash Player from automatically opening this tab when a site requests to store more data than its allotted amount.

Web Resource 

You can find the latest information about the Local Storage tab at www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/localinfo/.

Cross-Reference 

To learn more about using the SharedObject class, refer to Chapter 31, "Creating a Game in Flash." For more extended coverage, read the Flash ActionScript Bible series by Robert Reinhardt and Joey Lott (Wiley).

Microphone

The Microphone tab, shown in Figure 23-10, controls the source of audio input to a Flash movie. Depending on your computer system, you may have several audio capture devices listed in this tab's menu. If you don't have an audio capture device on your system, then you may not see any options available in this panel. You can use this tab to control the sensitivity of the microphone (or capture device) by adjusting the slider position. The tab provides realtime audio monitoring with a bar graph. You can click the Reduce Echo check box to minimize the echo or feedback from a speaker that is located near your microphone.

Figure 23-10: The Microphone tab

Web Resource 

For more information on Microphone settings, see www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/microphone.

Camera

The Camera tab, shown in Figures 23-11 and 23-12, controls the camera source used by the Flash Player. If your computer does not have a camera (or digital video capture card, which includes FireWire, or IEEE 1394, cards), then you may not see a camera source listed in this tab. If you have multiple video capture sources, you can use this tab to control which source is used for live streams going out of the Flash movie into a Flash Communication Server application.

Figure 23-11: The default view of the Camera tab

Figure 23-12: An active preview of a camera's output in the Camera tab

You can click the camera icon in the Camera tab to see live video from your chosen capture source, as shown in Figure 23-12. If you do not see any picture in this area after you click the camera icon, you may have a problem with your capture driver or the Flash Player may be incompatible with the driver.

Web Resource 

For more information on the Camera tab and its settings, see the following page on Macro-media's site: www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/camera.