Can Flex write to local file?

[joeserel]

I am totally new to Flex. Just want to know:

When my users visite my page, I ask them to type in something, and Flex need
to assemble a file and ask the user to download.

I know this can be done in server: post back to server and generate a
temporary link. But what I want is flex directly write to local drive of the
user without first dump some file in my server and serve the link .

I know a SIGNED java applet can do that. But can Flex do that? Is there a
thing called signed Flex?

Thank you.

Joe

[ntsiii]

Short answer: No.

Both the Flash player and the browser are designed to prevent this.

Macromedia "Central" supposedly addresses needs like this but I know no more
about it.

For now, you are stuck with the server-based solution.
Tracy

[joeserel]

Thanks, ntsiii. So no signed flash available...

Another question is : can I implement some scientific calculation in flash? I
mean , can I write a public method, e.g. calculate(dataId), and call it from
JavaScript and get the result? The dataId is a id column in my DB. I want flash
to grab data from my server, and do some calculation and return the value to
javascript. And Javascript will show this value in the browser.

[serrault]

You might want to check out the following article:

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flex/1/lsos/lsos3.html[/url]

You can use a Shared Object to write information directly to the user's hard
drive. The location and amount (100K) is restricted.

[joeserel]

Thanks, serrault. I just read the article. Shared Object is like a big cookie
and the location and file extension (*.sol) are restricted... I need a way to
let the user same a data object into their file system interactively - just
like download file. Looks like Flex can not do that. Anyway, glad to know this
shared object trick...