15. HTTP Requests and External Communications

Nearly all applications for the Flash platform support some type of external communication. Most external requests and communication take place via HTTP requests. Flash applications use HTTP requests to communicate with the browser and navigate to URLs; load external text, HTML, and XML files; send and get data using GET and POST methods; and pass other information required for external communications.

Beyond simply navigating to URLs, external communications are the start of making a Flash application truly dynamic. An application can have all of its text content, information for functional purposes, and images come from external locations, so an application can be updated via external tools and methods. This allows updating of an application from other sources.