Flash integration into a windows app

I know how to do the hybrid windows apps like Napster where you use an active-X browser component to embed Internet Explorer into your app. For reference, the way I've done this is to add code that handles the http requests from the browser component so that the http requests are pre-processed before they go out to the net. For example, if the browser component makes a request to a fake URL, say for the purpose of adding something to a local shopping cart in the client, the webpage displayed in the browser component would link to "http:action.asp?action=addToCart&productID=123". The windows app then can intercept and interpret the desired response and act. "Ahh -- the user wants to put this product in his local shopping cart. Add it to the list and display it in the listview control and don't try to load the URL."

What I would like to know is how flash works, prefereably within the context of the browser component. Does flash make a standard call to get a URL that the browser component handles (through WinInet I believe), or does it manage this itself and hide the details from the user?

Bottom line, is there a way to use the intercept on the HTTP communication to tell the windows app to do something? So, can I have a cool flash app that does a lot of interactive, asynchronous stuff and have a windows app surrounding it that, when required, does stuff local on the system in a way that only an installed application can do?

Many thanks ~! Start Free Trial