building blocks

This was a huge struggle for me. I am creating a Flex application that uses SlideShowPro Director as the source for photo gallery information. I am serving the Flex application from my home server since it is using a Django backend, and I haven't committed to a hosting solution as of yet. So that means that I need to access data across domains, and that of course means that I need a properly configured crossdomain.xml. Right?

So I search around for hours. crossdomainxml.org sure makes it look simple:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.macromedia.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
   <allow-access-from domain="*" />
</cross-domain-policy>

I mean, what could be easier? Look at the asterisk! That means everything! Right? Right...

I read the Crossdomain Article by Colin Moock. I trust him, he writes killer books. A shame the article was written years ago, I suppose. It is linked everywhere as a place to get the information. Even security articles on Adobe.com use the above format.

* shakes fist at sky *

It won't work.

So finally I look at my console in Flex Builder. It has a clear concise message letting me know that my syntax is wrong in the crossdomain.xml file and that it is being ignored as a result. Wtf?

I read a few more papers on the subject, but don't really see anything that would indicate where my file is wrong.

So I finally look at adobe.com's crossdomain.xml.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain="*.macromedia.com" secure="false"></allow-access-from>
<allow-access-from domain="*.adobe.com" secure="false"></allow-access-from>
</cross-domain-policy>

Well, that's precious. It is just as easy, heck, easier. A shame nobody bothered to mention it.