For documentation purposes, here are the conclusions Andreyu and I reached regarding the issue: unloading/removing a swf file from within the swf to allow users access to the elements under the swf.
One option is to use ExternalInterface to inject js code to:
- get the id/name of the swf as registered with the DOM
- remove the swf element from the DOM using the found id/name
In terms of code, this is using a technique described on Zeh Fernando's blog as modified by Andreyu to include the DOM element removal:
// Based on work by Zeh Fernando: http://zehfernando.com/2011/getting-the-swfs-html-objectembed-id-from-within-the-flash-movie-itself/
function getSWFObjectName(): String {
// Returns the SWF's object name for getElementById
// Based on https://github.com/millermedeiros/Hasher_AS3_helper/blob/master/dev/src/org/osflash/hasher/Hasher.as
var js:XML;
js = <script><![CDATA[
function(__randomFunction) {
var check = function(objects){
for (var i = 0; i < objects.length; i++){
if (typeof(eval("objects["+i+"]." + __randomFunction)) != undefined) {
return objects[i].id;
}
}
return undefined;
};
return check(document.getElementsByTagName("object")) || check(document.getElementsByTagName("embed"));
}
]]></script>;
var __randomFunction:String = "checkFunction_" + Math.floor(Math.random() * 99999); // Something random just so it's safer
ExternalInterface.addCallback(__randomFunction, getSWFObjectName); // The second parameter can be anything, just passing a function that exists
return ExternalInterface.call(js, __randomFunction);
}
// Function to remove the SWF from the webpage
function destroyEverything(event:MouseEvent): void {
var js:XML;
js = <script><![CDATA[
function(__SWFContext) {
var element = document.getElementById(__SWFContext);
element.parentNode.removeChild(element);
}
]]></script>;
ExternalInterface.call(js, getSWFObjectName());
}
// Add function to click event of button
close_button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, destroyEverything);