There were some issues with some earlier version of players, where it was not possible to set Authorization http-header for HTTP/GET requests. I tried to hack a way to do it using Socket or custom http-client in actionscript.

I just happened to read one of the technotes at Adobe’s site, which says Authorization header is allowed for Flash Player 9.0.115.0 onwards. If you are trying to send request to another domain (different from the one hosting the SWF), a crossdomain-policy file is required.

I am working on ActionScript3 API for Bloglines services, which requires HTTP Authentication for its two of the services. I was not able to set the header of a HTTP/GET request. Macromedia Flash Player allows you set the header only for POST requests. I discussed this issues with Ted Patrick and he told me how I can us Socket to achieve the desired and he was very kind to give a me code-snippet, which got me started. Thanks Ted.

Finally, I could implement a class(HTTPURLLoader) which allows me to:

• Add request-headers
• Do HTTP Authentication for GET URLs
• Handle HTTP status messages
• Read the complete response header

It basically connects to a HTTP server on port 80(hardcoded for now) and sends an HTTP/1.0 request so that server closes the connection immediately after response. I could use HTTP/1.1 to keep connection alive and do things. But then closing connection would require some more logic, either a timeout logic if there is no activity on socket then close the connection, or find the end delimiter of response and then close. So I chose the easiest approach

I am still working on it and there is a lot(bugs-fixing, optimization, code-commenting, removing hardcoded stuff etc) to be done. I just wanted to share whatever I have done so far. I think, idea is more important than the implementation.
Anyways, I also implemented Base64 in AS3 and also OPML parser for Bloglines. I would soon upload the entire Bloglines AS3 API source.

Download the code:

Usage:-

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2005/mxml" creationComplete="onAppInit()">
<mx:Script>
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.net.URLRequestHeader;
import com.abdulqabiz.net.HTTPURLLoader;
import com.abdulqabiz.crypto.Base64;
private var loader:HTTPURLLoader;
private var END_POINT:String = "http://rpc.bloglines.com/";
//you need to set your email/password required for Bloglines access.
private var email:String = "YOUR_EMAIL_FOR_BLOGLINES";
private var password:String = "YOUR_BLOGLINES_PASSWORD";
private function onAppInit()
{
loader = new HTTPURLLoader();
loader.addEventListener("complete", onComplete);
loader.addEventListener("httpStatus", onHTTPStatus);
loader.addEventListener("progress", onProgress);
//for simplicity,not handling following three events.
//loader.addEventListener("close", onClose);
//loader.addEventListener("ioError", onIOError);
//loader.addEventListener("securityError",onSecurityError);
}
private function onComplete(event:Event)
{
//headers stroed as name-value(hash map)
var rh:Object = HTTPURLLoader(event.target).responseHeaders;
var str:String = "";
for(var p:String in rh)    str+= p + ":" + rh[p] + "\n";
console.text+="Response Headers: \n" + str + "\n\n";
//data property holds the content
console.text+="Body Content:\n" + HTTPURLLoader(event.target).data + "\n\n";
}
private function onProgress(event:ProgressEvent)
{
//bytesTotal is not accurate, and its 0 if server doesn't send Content-Length header.
console.text+= "Event: progress:-\n" + "bytesLoaded: " + event.bytesLoaded + "\n\n";
}
private function onHTTPStatus(event:HTTPStatusEvent)
{
//if httpStatus is 401, 403, 404, 500, 501, socket is closed.
console.text+= "Event: httpStatus (" + event.status + ")\n\n";
}
private function loadURL()
{
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest();
//call listsubs method of Bloglines
request.url = END_POINT + "listsubs";
var credentials:String = Base64.encode(email + ":" + password);
//create HTTP Auth request header
var authHeader:URLRequestHeader = new URLRequestHeader("Authorization","Basic " + credentials);
//add the header to request
request.requestHeaders.push(authHeader);
//make the request.
loader.load(request);
}
</mx:Script>
<mx:Button label="Load URL" click="loadURL()"/>
<mx:TextArea id="console" width="100%" height="100%"/>
</mx:Application>