Flash Player Trusted Files

Trust Me Flash Player

I was attempting to build the new Apache Flex JavaScript project and ran into a problem when attempting to run the unit tests. The tests run on a standalone version of Flash Player and were definitely attempting to run, but I was receiving a Security Error #2017 “Only trusted local files may cause the Flash Player to exit.” I could dismiss the error, but there were lots of tests and each test would pop up the same pop up. I vaguely knew that Flash Player has security limitations when it comes to running swf applications on the local file system, but since I usually run Flex unit tests via the FlexMojos maven plugin I had never seen this before.

Tough Search

I search and searched the internet and eventually found the answer to the problem buried in an Adobe help page . Hopefully my page will be a little easier to find.

The Solution

Just in case the Adobe page disappears I will also post the fix here. Flash Player allows you to configure a set of trusted directories for swf files, once you define them they will open without the Security Error.
  1. First you have to find the Flash Player #Security directory for your OS
    1. Windows Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\MacroMedia\Flash Player#Security
    2. Mac OS X /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#Security/
  2. Create a folder called FlashPlayerTrust inside the #Security folder.
  3. Create a new file in the FlashPlayerTrust directory using a text editor, and save it as myTrustFiles.cfg.
  4. You can use any unique name for your configuration file.
  5. Locate the directory where you test Flash applications.
  6. Type or paste each directory path (any directory path on your hard disk) on a new line in the file. You can paste multiple directory paths on separate lines. When you finish, your file looks similar to the following example: /Users/myuser/Development/source/swfs
  7. Save your changes to myTrustFiles.cfg