flash.net.Socket - ActionScript® 3.0 Reference for the Adobe® Flash® Platform

Package	flash.net
Class	public class Socket
Inheritance	Socket EventDispatcher Object
Implements	IDataInput, IDataOutput
Subclasses	SecureSocket

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

The Socket class enables code to establish Transport Control Protocol (TCP) socket connections for sending and receiving binary data asynchronously.

This class is useful for communicating with servers that use binary protocols. For example, you can use this class to connect to mail and news servers.

Working With Sockets

To use the Socket class, begin by creating a Socket object (new Socket()). The best practice is to create the socket object with no parameters, then set up your listeners, and finally call connect() with the host and port parameters of your socket server.

Events drive socket operations. For example, when data is ready for reading from a socket, the socket fires a ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA event. You create your own event handlers to process each type of socket event. Sockets send notifications for the following events:

Connection established with a socket server
Socket closed by a socket server
Data is available for reading from the read buffer
Data is waiting to be transferred from the write buffer to the network
An error occurred

Reading Socket Data: The socket fires a flash.events.ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA event when data is ready to be read. Do not sit on a socket in a tight polling loop waiting for data to arrive. Read data only after receiving the ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA event. You can read some or all of the available data from the socket.

Writing Socket Data: On some operating systems, flush() is called automatically between execution frames. On other operating systems, such as Windows, the data is never sent unless you call flush() explicitly. It is a good practice to call the flush() method after writing each message (or related group of data) to the socket.

In Adobe AIR, Socket objects are also created when a listening ServerSocket receives a connection from an external process. The Socket representing the connection is dispatched in a ServerSocketConnectEvent. You are responsible for maintaining a reference to this Socket object. If you do not maintain that reference, the Socket object becomes eligible for garbage collection. The runtime destroys objects that are eligible for garbage collection without warning.

Socket Security and Policy Files

SWF content running in the local-with-filesystem security sandbox cannot use sockets.

Socket policy files on the target host specify the hosts from which SWF files can make socket connections. These policy files also specify the ports to which SWF files can connect. The security requirements with regard to socket policy files have become more stringent in the last several releases of Flash Player. In all versions of Flash Player, Adobe recommends the use of a socket policy file. In some circumstances, a socket policy file is required. Therefore, if you are using Socket objects, make sure that the target host provides a socket policy file if necessary.

The following list summarizes the requirements for socket policy files in different versions of Flash Player:

In Flash Player 9.0.124.0 and later, a socket policy file is required for any socket connection. That is, a socket policy file on the target host is required no matter what port you specify. The policy file is required even if you are connecting to a port on the host serving the SWF file.
In Flash Player versions 9.0.115.0 and earlier, a socket policy file is required to connect to a port below 1024. A socket policy file is also required to connect to a host other than the one serving the SWF file.
In Flash Player 9.0.115.0, even if a socket policy file isn't required, a warning is displayed when using the Flash Debug Player if the target host doesn't serve a socket policy file.
In AIR, a socket policy file is not required for content running in the application security sandbox. Socket policy files are required for any socket connection established by content running outside the AIR application security sandbox.

For more information related to security, see the Flash Player Developer Center Topic: Security

View the examples

More examples

Binary client sockets
Connecting to sockets

Related API Elements

ServerSocket
DatagramSocket

Public Properties

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	Property		Defined By
		bytesAvailable : uint [read-only] The number of bytes of data available for reading in the input buffer.	Socket
		bytesPending : uint [read-only] Indicates the amount of data (in bytes) awaiting transfer from the socket's write buffer to the network transport layer.	Socket
		connected : Boolean [read-only] Indicates whether this Socket object is currently connected.	Socket
		constructor : Object A reference to the class object or constructor function for a given object instance.	Object
		endian : String Indicates the byte order for the data.	Socket
		localAddress : String [read-only] The IP address this socket is bound to on the local machine.	Socket
		localPort : int [read-only] The port this socket is bound to on the local machine.	Socket
		objectEncoding : uint Controls the version of AMF used when writing or reading an object.	Socket
		prototype : Object [static] A reference to the prototype object of a class or function object.	Object
		remoteAddress : String [read-only] The IP address of the remote machine to which this socket is connected.	Socket
		remotePort : int [read-only] The port on the remote machine to which this socket is connected.	Socket
		timeout : uint Indicates the number of milliseconds to wait for a connection.	Socket

Public Methods

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	Method		Defined By
		Socket(host:String = null, port:int = 0) Creates a Socket object.	Socket
		addEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false, priority:int = 0, useWeakReference:Boolean = false):void Registers an event listener object with an EventDispatcher object so that the listener receives notification of an event.	EventDispatcher
		close():void Closes the socket.	Socket
		connect(host:String, port:int):void Connects the socket to the specified host and port.	Socket
		dispatchEvent(event:Event):Boolean Dispatches an event into the event flow.	EventDispatcher
		flush():void Flushes any accumulated data in the socket's output buffer.	Socket
		hasEventListener(type:String):Boolean Checks whether the EventDispatcher object has any listeners registered for a specific type of event.	EventDispatcher
		hasOwnProperty(name:String):Boolean Indicates whether an object has a specified property defined.	Object
		isPrototypeOf(theClass:Object):Boolean Indicates whether an instance of the Object class is in the prototype chain of the object specified as the parameter.	Object
		propertyIsEnumerable(name:String):Boolean Indicates whether the specified property exists and is enumerable.	Object
		readBoolean():Boolean Reads a Boolean value from the socket.	Socket
		readByte():int Reads a signed byte from the socket.	Socket
		readBytes(bytes:ByteArray, offset:uint = 0, length:uint = 0):void Reads the number of data bytes specified by the length parameter from the socket.	Socket
		readDouble():Number Reads an IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point number from the socket.	Socket
		readFloat():Number Reads an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point number from the socket.	Socket
		readInt():int Reads a signed 32 bit integer from the socket.	Socket
		readMultiByte(length:uint, charSet:String):String Reads a multibyte string from the byte stream, using the specified character set.	Socket
		readObject():* Reads an object from the socket, encoded in AMF serialized format.	Socket
		readShort():int Reads a signed 16 bit integer from the socket.	Socket
		readUnsignedByte():uint Reads an unsigned byte from the socket.	Socket
		readUnsignedInt():uint Reads an unsigned 32 bit integer from the socket.	Socket
		readUnsignedShort():uint Reads an unsigned 16 bit integer from the socket.	Socket
		readUTF():String Reads a UTF-8 string from the socket.	Socket
		readUTFBytes(length:uint):String Reads the number of UTF-8 data bytes specified by the length parameter from the socket, and returns a string.	Socket
		removeEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false):void Removes a listener from the EventDispatcher object.	EventDispatcher
		setPropertyIsEnumerable(name:String, isEnum:Boolean = true):void Sets the availability of a dynamic property for loop operations.	Object
		toLocaleString():String Returns the string representation of this object, formatted according to locale-specific conventions.	Object
		toString():String Returns the string representation of the specified object.	Object
		valueOf():Object Returns the primitive value of the specified object.	Object
		willTrigger(type:String):Boolean Checks whether an event listener is registered with this EventDispatcher object or any of its ancestors for the specified event type.	EventDispatcher
		writeBoolean(value:Boolean):void Writes a Boolean value to the socket.	Socket
		writeByte(value:int):void Writes a byte to the socket.	Socket
		writeBytes(bytes:ByteArray, offset:uint = 0, length:uint = 0):void Writes a sequence of bytes from the specified byte array.	Socket
		writeDouble(value:Number):void Writes an IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point number to the socket.	Socket
		writeFloat(value:Number):void Writes an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point number to the socket.	Socket
		writeInt(value:int):void Writes a 32 bit signed integer to the socket.	Socket
		writeMultiByte(value:String, charSet:String):void Writes a multibyte string from the byte stream, using the specified character set.	Socket
		writeObject(object:*):void Writes an object to the socket in AMF serialized format.	Socket
		writeShort(value:int):void Writes a 16 bit integer to the socket.	Socket
		writeUnsignedInt(value:uint):void Writes a 32 bit unsigned integer to the socket.	Socket
		writeUTF(value:String):void Writes the following data to the socket: A 16 bit unsigned integer.	Socket
		writeUTFBytes(value:String):void Writes a UTF-8 string to the socket.	Socket

Events

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	Summary	Defined By
activate	[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application gains operating system focus and becomes active.	EventDispatcher
close	Dispatched when the server closes the socket connection.	Socket
connect	Dispatched when a network connection is established.	Socket
deactivate	[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application operating loses system focus and is becoming inactive.	EventDispatcher
ioError	Dispatched when an IO error causes a send or load operation to fail.	Socket
outputProgress	Dispatched when a socket moves data from its write buffer to the networking transport layer.	Socket
securityError	Dispatched if a call to Socket.connect() attempts to connect to a server prohibited by the caller's security sandbox.	Socket
socketData	Dispatched when a socket receives data.	Socket

Property Detail

bytesAvailable

property

bytesAvailable:uint [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

The number of bytes of data available for reading in the input buffer.

Your code must access bytesAvailable to ensure that sufficient data is available before trying to read it with one of the read methods.

Implementation
public function get bytesAvailable():uint

bytesPending

property

bytesPending:uint [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 3, Flash Player 11

Indicates the amount of data (in bytes) awaiting transfer from the socket's write buffer to the network transport layer.

The following operations affect the value of bytesPending:

A call to Socket.connect() sets bytesPending to zero.
Adding data to the write buffer via a call to one of the Socket.write*() methods updates bytesPending.
When the operating system moves data from the write buffer to the network transport layer socket, the system updates bytesPending.
A call to Socket.close() sets bytesPending to zero (the write buffer is destroyed when you close the socket).

Implementation
public function get bytesPending():uint

connected

property

connected:Boolean [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Indicates whether this Socket object is currently connected. A call to this property returns a value of true if the socket is currently connected, or false otherwise.

Implementation
public function get connected():Boolean

endian

property

endian:String

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Indicates the byte order for the data. Possible values are constants from the flash.utils.Endian class, Endian.BIG_ENDIAN or Endian.LITTLE_ENDIAN.

The default value is Endian.BIG_ENDIAN.

Implementation
public function get endian():String
public function set endian(value:String):void

Related API Elements

flash.utils.Endian

localAddress

property

localAddress:String [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 2

The IP address this socket is bound to on the local machine.

Implementation
public function get localAddress():String

Related API Elements

bind()

localPort

property

localPort:int [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 2

The port this socket is bound to on the local machine.

Implementation
public function get localPort():int

Related API Elements

bind()

objectEncoding

property

objectEncoding:uint

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Controls the version of AMF used when writing or reading an object.

Implementation
public function get objectEncoding():uint
public function set objectEncoding(value:uint):void

Related API Elements

ObjectEncoding class
readObject()
writeObject()

remoteAddress

property

remoteAddress:String [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 2

The IP address of the remote machine to which this socket is connected.

You can use this property to determine the IP address of a client socket dispatched in a ServerSocketConnectEvent by a ServerSocket object. You can use the DNSResolver class to convert an IP address to a domain name.

Implementation
public function get remoteAddress():String

Related API Elements

connect()
ServerSocket
ServerSocketConnectEvent
DNSResolver

remotePort

property

remotePort:int [read-only]

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 2

The port on the remote machine to which this socket is connected.

You can use this property to determine the port number of a client socket dispatched in a ServerSocketConnectEvent by a ServerSocket object.

Implementation
public function get remotePort():int

Related API Elements

connect()
ServerSocket
ServerSocketConnectEvent

timeout

property

timeout:uint

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

Flash Player 10, AIR 1.5, Flash Lite 4

Indicates the number of milliseconds to wait for a connection.

If the connection doesn't succeed within the specified time, the connection fails. The default value is 20,000 (20 seconds).

Implementation
public function get timeout():uint
public function set timeout(value:uint):void

Constructor Detail

Socket

()

Constructor

public function Socket(host:String = null, port:int = 0)

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Creates a Socket object. If no parameters are specified, an initially disconnected socket is created. If parameters are specified, a connection is attempted to the specified host and port.

Note: It is strongly advised to use the constructor form without parameters. Next, add event listeners, then call the connect method with host and port parameters. This sequence guarantees that all event listeners work properly.

Parameters

	`host:String` (default = `null`) — A fully qualified DNS domain name or an IP address. IPv4 addresses are specified in dot-decimal notation, such as 192.0.2.0. In Flash Player 9.0.115.0, and AIR 1.0 and later, you can specify IPv6 addresses using hexadecimal-colon notation. This is an example of an IPv6 address: 2001:db8:ccc3:ffff:0:444d:555e:666f. You can also specify `null` to connect to the host server on which the SWF file resides. If the SWF file issuing this call is running in a web browser, `host` must be in the domain from which the SWF file originated.

	`port:int` (default = `0`) — The TCP port number on the target host used to establish a connection. In Flash Player 9.0.124.0 and later, the target host must serve a socket policy file. The policy file specifies that socket connections are permitted from the host serving the SWF file to the specified port. In earlier versions of Flash Player, a socket policy file is required if you want to connect to a port number below 1024, or if you want to connect to a host other than the host serving the SWF file.

Events

	`connect:Event` — Dispatched when a network connection has been established.

	`ioError:IOErrorEvent` — Dispatched when an input/output error occurs that causes the connection to fail.

	`securityError:SecurityErrorEvent` — Dispatched if a call to `Socket.connect()` attempts to connect either to a server that doesn't serve a socket policy file, or to a server whose policy file doesn't grant the calling host access to the specified port. For more information on policy files, see "Website controls (policy files)" in the ActionScript 3.0 Developer's Guide and the Flash Player Developer Center Topic: Security.

Throws

SecurityError — This error occurs in SWF content for the following reasons:

Local-with-filesystem files cannot communicate with the Internet. You can work around this problem by reclassifying this SWF file as local-with-networking or trusted. This limitation is not set for AIR application content in the application security sandbox.
You cannot specify a socket port higher than 65535.

Method Detail

close

()

method

public function close():void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Closes the socket. You cannot read or write any data after the close() method has been called.

The close event is dispatched only when the server closes the connection; it is not dispatched when you call the close() method.

You can reuse the Socket object by calling the connect() method on it again.

Throws

IOError — The socket could not be closed, or the socket was not open.

connect

()

method

public function connect(host:String, port:int):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Connects the socket to the specified host and port.

If the connection fails immediately, either an event is dispatched or an exception is thrown. An error event is dispatched if a host was specified, and an exception is thrown if no host was specified. Otherwise, an event reports the status of the connection. If the socket is already connected, the existing connection is closed first.

Note: For best practices on connecting to a socket, see the Socket class description.

Parameters

	`host:String` — The name or IP address of the host to connect to. If no host is specified, the host that is contacted is the host where the calling file resides. If you do not specify a host, use an event listener to determine whether the connection was successful.

	`port:int` — The port number to connect to.

Events

	`connect:Event` — Dispatched when a network connection has been established.

	`ioError:IOErrorEvent` — Dispatched if a host is specified and an input/output error occurs that causes the connection to fail.

	`securityError:SecurityErrorEvent` — Dispatched if a call to `Socket.connect()` attempts to connect either to a server that doesn't serve a socket policy file, or to a server whose policy file doesn't grant the calling host access to the specified port. For more information on policy files, see "Website controls (policy files)" in the ActionScript 3.0 Developer's Guide and the Flash Player Developer Center Topic: Security.

Throws

	`IOError` — No host was specified and the connection failed.

	`SecurityError` — This error occurs in SWF content for the following reasons: Local untrusted SWF files cannot communicate with the Internet. You can work around this limitation by reclassifying the file as local-with-networking or as trusted. You cannot specify a socket port higher than 65535. In the HTML page that contains the SWF content, the `allowNetworking` parameter of the `object` and `embed` tags is set to `"none"`.

More examples

Connecting to sockets

flush

()

method

public function flush():void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Flushes any accumulated data in the socket's output buffer.

On some operating systems, flush() is called automatically between execution frames. On other operating systems, such as Windows, the data is never sent unless you call flush() explicitly. It is a good practice to call the flush() method after each write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readBoolean

()

method

public function readBoolean():Boolean

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a Boolean value from the socket. After reading a single byte, the method returns true if the byte is nonzero, and false otherwise.

Returns

Boolean — A value of true if the byte read is nonzero, otherwise false.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readByte

()

method

public function readByte():int

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a signed byte from the socket.

Returns

int — A value from -128 to 127.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readBytes

()

method

public function readBytes(bytes:ByteArray, offset:uint = 0, length:uint = 0):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads the number of data bytes specified by the length parameter from the socket. The bytes are read into the specified byte array, starting at the position indicated by offset.

Parameters

	`bytes:ByteArray` — The ByteArray object to read data into.

	`offset:uint` (default = `0`) — The offset at which data reading begins in the byte array.

	`length:uint` (default = `0`) — The number of bytes to read. The default value of 0 causes all available data to be read.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readDouble

()

method

public function readDouble():Number

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point number from the socket.

Returns

Number — An IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point number.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readFloat

()

method

public function readFloat():Number

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point number from the socket.

Returns

Number — An IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point number.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readInt

()

method

public function readInt():int

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a signed 32 bit integer from the socket.

Returns

int — A value from -2147483648 to 2147483647.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readMultiByte

()

method

public function readMultiByte(length:uint, charSet:String):String

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a multibyte string from the byte stream, using the specified character set.

Parameters

	`length:uint` — The number of bytes from the byte stream to read.

	`charSet:String` — The string denoting the character set to use to interpret the bytes. Possible character set strings include `"shift_jis"`, `"CN-GB"`, and `"iso-8859-1"`. For a complete list, see Supported Character Sets. Note: If the system does not recognize the `charSet` parameter, the application uses the system's default code page as the character set. For example, a value for the `charSet` parameter, as in `myTest.readMultiByte(22, "iso-8859-01")` that uses `01` instead of `1` might work on your development machine, but not on another machine. On the other machine, the application uses the system's default code page.

Returns

String — A UTF-8 encoded string.

Throws

EOFError — There is insufficient data available to read.

readObject

()

method

public function readObject():*

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an object from the socket, encoded in AMF serialized format.

Returns

* — The deserialized object

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

ObjectEncoding
flash.net.registerClassAlias()

readShort

()

method

public function readShort():int

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a signed 16 bit integer from the socket.

Returns

int — A value from -32768 to 32767.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readUnsignedByte

()

method

public function readUnsignedByte():uint

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an unsigned byte from the socket.

Returns

uint — A value from 0 to 255.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readUnsignedInt

()

method

public function readUnsignedInt():uint

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an unsigned 32 bit integer from the socket.

Returns

uint — A value from 0 to 4294967295.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readUnsignedShort

()

method

public function readUnsignedShort():uint

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads an unsigned 16 bit integer from the socket.

Returns

uint — A value from 0 to 65535.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readUTF

()

method

public function readUTF():String

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads a UTF-8 string from the socket. The method expects that the string is prefixed with an unsigned short integer that indicates the length in bytes.

Returns

String — A UTF-8 string.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

readUTFBytes

()

method

public function readUTFBytes(length:uint):String

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Reads the number of UTF-8 data bytes specified by the length parameter from the socket, and returns a string.

Parameters

length:uint — The number of bytes to read.

Returns

String — A UTF-8 string.

Throws

	`EOFError` — There is insufficient data available to read.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

writeBoolean

()

method

public function writeBoolean(value:Boolean):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a Boolean value to the socket. This method writes a single byte, with either a value of 1 (true) or 0 (false).

Parameters

value:Boolean — The value to write to the socket: 1 (true) or 0 (false).

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeByte

()

method

public function writeByte(value:int):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a byte to the socket.

Parameters

value:int — The value to write to the socket. The low 8 bits of the value are used; the high 24 bits are ignored.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeBytes

()

method

public function writeBytes(bytes:ByteArray, offset:uint = 0, length:uint = 0):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a sequence of bytes from the specified byte array. The write operation starts at the position specified by offset.

If you omit the length parameter the default length of 0 causes the method to write the entire buffer starting at offset.

If you also omit the offset parameter, the method writes the entire buffer.

Parameters

	`bytes:ByteArray` — The ByteArray object to write data from.

	`offset:uint` (default = `0`) — The zero-based offset into the `bytes` ByteArray object at which data writing begins.

	`length:uint` (default = `0`) — The number of bytes to write. The default value of 0 causes the method to write the entire buffer. Writing starts at the value specified by the `offset` parameter.

Throws

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

	`RangeError` — If `offset` is greater than the length of the ByteArray specified in `bytes`, or if the amount of data specified by `offset` plus `length` exceeds the data available.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeDouble

()

method

public function writeDouble(value:Number):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes an IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point number to the socket.

Parameters

value:Number — The value to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeFloat

()

method

public function writeFloat(value:Number):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point number to the socket.

Parameters

value:Number — The value to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeInt

()

method

public function writeInt(value:int):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a 32 bit signed integer to the socket.

Parameters

value:int — The value to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeMultiByte

()

method

public function writeMultiByte(value:String, charSet:String):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a multibyte string from the byte stream, using the specified character set.

Parameters

	`value:String` — The string content.

	`charSet:String` — The string denoting the character set to use to interpret the bytes. Possible character set strings include `"shift_jis"`, `"CN-GB"`, and `"iso-8859-1"`. For a complete list, see Supported Character Sets.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeObject

()

method

public function writeObject(object:*):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes an object to the socket in AMF serialized format.

Parameters

object:* — The object to be serialized.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()
ObjectEncoding
flash.net.registerClassAlias()

writeShort

()

method

public function writeShort(value:int):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a 16 bit integer to the socket. The bytes written are as follows:

(v >> 8) & 0xff v & 0xff

The low 16 bits of the parameter are used; the high 16 bits are ignored.

Parameters

value:int — The value to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeUnsignedInt

()

method

public function writeUnsignedInt(value:uint):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a 32 bit unsigned integer to the socket.

Parameters

value:uint — The value to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeUTF

()

method

public function writeUTF(value:String):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes the following data to the socket:

A 16 bit unsigned integer. The integer indicates the length in bytes of the specified UTF-8 string.
The specified UTF-8 string.

Before writing the string, the method calculates the number of bytes necessary to represent all characters of the string.

Parameters

value:String — The string to write to the socket.

Throws

	`RangeError` — The length is larger than 65535.

	`IOError` — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

writeUTFBytes

()

method

public function writeUTFBytes(value:String):void

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Writes a UTF-8 string to the socket.

Parameters

value:String — The string to write to the socket.

Throws

IOError — An I/O error occurred on the socket, or the socket is not open.

Related API Elements

flush()

Event Detail

close

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.Event
property Event.type = flash.events.Event.CLOSE

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Dispatched when the server closes the socket connection.

The close event is dispatched only when the server closes the connection. It is not dispatched when you call the Socket.close() method.

The Event.CLOSE constant defines the value of the type property of a close event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`target`	The object whose connection has been closed.

connect

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.Event
property Event.type = flash.events.Event.CONNECT

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Dispatched when a network connection is established.

The Event.CONNECT constant defines the value of the type property of a connect event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`target`	The Socket or XMLSocket object that has established a network connection.

ioError

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.IOErrorEvent
property IOErrorEvent.type = flash.events.IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Dispatched when an IO error causes a send or load operation to fail.

Defines the value of the type property of an ioError event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`errorID`	A reference number associated with the specific error (AIR only).
`target`	The network object experiencing the input/output error.
`text`	Text to be displayed as an error message.

outputProgress

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.OutputProgressEvent
property OutputProgressEvent.type = flash.events.OutputProgressEvent.OUTPUT_PROGRESS

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 3, Flash Player 11

Dispatched when a socket moves data from its write buffer to the networking transport layer. Use the bytesPending property on this event object to determine how much data is pending in the write buffer.

You can use this event to prevent data loss when, for example, a user prematurely closes an application employing sockets. Ensure that the socket property bytesPending equals zero before you close a socket or allow the socket to be garbage-collected.

For more information about this event, along with an example, see Socket Improvements in AIR 3.

Defines the value of the type property of an outputProgress event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`bytesPending`	The number of bytes remaining to be written at the time the listener processes the event.
`bytesTotal`	The total number of bytes that ultimately will be written if the write process succeeds.
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`target`	The FileStream object reporting progress.

securityError

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.SecurityErrorEvent
property SecurityErrorEvent.type = flash.events.SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Dispatched if a call to Socket.connect() attempts to connect to a server prohibited by the caller's security sandbox. This event is also dispatched if the port ID is lower than 1024 and no socket policy file exists to permit such a connection.

Note: In an AIR application, content running in the application security sandbox can connect without a socket policy file to any server and port number.

The SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR constant defines the value of the type property of a securityError event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`target`	The network object reporting the security error.
`text`	Text to be displayed as an error message.

Related API Elements

Socket.connect()

socketData

Event

Event Object Type: flash.events.ProgressEvent
property ProgressEvent.type = flash.events.ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA

Language Version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime Versions:

AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Dispatched when a socket receives data.

The data received by the socket remains in the socket until it is read. You can read all or some of the received data upon notification of this event.

Note: Events of type socketData do not use the ProgressEvent.bytesTotal property.

Defines the value of the type property of a socketData event object.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event.
`bytesLoaded`	The number of items or bytes loaded at the time the listener processes the event.
`bytesTotal`	0; this property is not used by `socketData` event objects.
`target`	The socket reporting progress.

Examples How to use this example

SocketExample.as

The following example reads from and writes to a socket and outputs information transmitted during socket events. Highlights of the example follow:

The constructor creates a CustomSocket instance named socket and passes the host name localhost and port 80 as arguments. Since CustomSocket extends Socket, a call to super() calls Socket's constructor.
The example then calls the configureListeners() method, which adds listeners for Socket events.
Finally, the socket connect() method is called with localhost as the host name and 80 as the port number.

Note: To run the example, you need a server running on the same domain where the SWF resides (in the example, localhost) and listening on port 80.


package {
    import flash.display.Sprite;

    public class SocketExample extends Sprite {
        private var socket:CustomSocket;
        
        public function SocketExample() {
            socket = new CustomSocket("localhost", 80);
        }
    }
}

import flash.errors.*;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.net.Socket;

class CustomSocket extends Socket {
    private var response:String;

    public function CustomSocket(host:String = null, port:uint = 0) {
        super();
        configureListeners();
        if (host && port)  {
            super.connect(host, port);
        }
    }

    private function configureListeners():void {
        addEventListener(Event.CLOSE, closeHandler);
        addEventListener(Event.CONNECT, connectHandler);
        addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, ioErrorHandler);
        addEventListener(SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR, securityErrorHandler);
        addEventListener(ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA, socketDataHandler);
    }

    private function writeln(str:String):void {
        str += "\n";
        try {
            writeUTFBytes(str);
        }
        catch(e:IOError) {
            trace(e);
        }
    }

    private function sendRequest():void {
        trace("sendRequest");
        response = "";
        writeln("GET /");
        flush();
    }

    private function readResponse():void {
        var str:String = readUTFBytes(bytesAvailable);
        response += str;
    }

    private function closeHandler(event:Event):void {
        trace("closeHandler: " + event);
        trace(response.toString());
    }

    private function connectHandler(event:Event):void {
        trace("connectHandler: " + event);
        sendRequest();
    }

    private function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void {
        trace("ioErrorHandler: " + event);
    }

    private function securityErrorHandler(event:SecurityErrorEvent):void {
        trace("securityErrorHandler: " + event);
    }

    private function socketDataHandler(event:ProgressEvent):void {
        trace("socketDataHandler: " + event);
        readResponse();
    }
}

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Classes x

bytesAvailable

bytesPending

connected

endian

localAddress

localPort

objectEncoding

remoteAddress

remotePort

timeout

Socket

close

connect

flush

readBoolean

readByte

readBytes

readDouble

readFloat

readInt

readMultiByte

readObject

readShort

readUnsignedByte

readUnsignedInt

readUnsignedShort

readUTF

readUTFBytes

writeBoolean

writeByte

writeBytes

writeDouble

writeFloat

writeInt

writeMultiByte

writeObject

writeShort

writeUnsignedInt

writeUTF

writeUTFBytes

close

connect

ioError

outputProgress

securityError

socketData