Load Flash Movies from Memory Without Temporary Files

By default, the Flash Player ActiveX control can only load movies from files or URLs. A common workaround is to save a movie from an application's resources to a temporary file, pass its path to the ActiveX control, and then delete it. This approach is inconvenient, requires file system permissions, and may expose movies to unauthorized access.

TFlashPlayerControl provides a different mechanism. It allows Flash movies to be loaded directly from memory streams (such as TResourceStream, TMemoryStream, etc.) without creating temporary files. This simplifies deployment and improves security, as movies never need to be written to disk.

To load a Flash movie from a stream, use the LoadMovieFromStream or PutMovieFromStream methods. For example, Flash movies can be embedded into an application's resources and loaded at runtime.

Delphi Example

{$RESOURCE 'res\movie.res'}  
 
// ...
 
type
  TMainForm = class(TForm)
    FlashPlayerControl1: TFlashPlayerControl;
 
// ...
 
  end;
 
// ...
 
procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
var
  ResourceStream: TResourceStream;
begin
  ResourceStream := TResourceStream.Create(0, 'EmbeddedMovie', 'FLASH');
  FlashPlayerControl1.PutMovieFromStream(ResourceStream);
  ResourceStream.Free;
end;

C++Builder Example

#pragma resource "res\\movie.res"
...
 
class TMainForm : public TForm
{
__published:
        void __fastcall FormCreate(TObject *Sender);
// ...
 
};
 
// ...
 
void __fastcall TMainForm::FormCreate(TObject *Sender)
{
  TResourceStream* ResourceStream = new TResourceStream(0, "EmbeddedMovie", "FLASH");
  FlashPlayerControl1->PutMovieFromStream(ResourceStream);
  delete ResourceStream;
}