Passing data from Flash to MATLAB through Javascript

I have an Adobe Flash app (on my local machine) which is basically a simulation. I embedded the swf file in an html which receives the needed parameters using javascript callbacks (passed from flash with ExternalInterface). I can put the values in text boxes, etc. I need to get these values into MATLAB.

I understand javascript can talk to MATLAB using the built in web browser. The built-in browser will not run the Flash content, however. I need one of the following:

A. (best) A way for Flash to run in MATLAB's web browser. I am on a mac if that's relevant.

B. A way to do the "matlab:[command]" javascript calls from firefox, chrome, or any other.

OR

C. A clever trick to send values from a browser to MATLAB.

Thanks!

[Guillaume]

I would think that a browser being able to execute commands in matlab would be a very serious vulnerability. Most likely, it's not possible by design.

[Matthew Sheen]

The browser doesn't need to run commands in Matlab -- actually matlab just needs to read information from the browser. I'm nearly positive this could be done using UDP, but that seems way too complicated for a simple task.

Answer 1

[Ajay Pherwani]

Try something like this:

    url = 'http://www.example.com/';
    html = urlread(url);
    % Use regular expressions to remove undesired markup.
    txt = regexprep(html,'<script.*?/script>','');
    txt = regexprep(txt,'<style.*?/style>','');
    txt = regexprep(txt,'<.*?>','')

you can search in txt further

[Matthew Sheen]

Thanks for the reply. Since the flash app must actually run in the page itself, simply reading the page source won't work.

Answer 2

[ryanmattscott]

Matt,

I have a similar problem, were you able to figure something out? I could do try to save a file using a php server and then use webread( ) on the url, but I would like to have some handshaking so that I don't webread as php is writing to the file.

- Ryan