Flash/Flex developers are now able to read and write local files directly inside the Flash Player. With Flash Player 10 we have direct access to user’s hard drive to read and write files. Example below allow us to load in an image file from the hard drive and display it to the user.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application
    xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
    layout="absolute" xmlns:components="components.*" viewSourceURL="srcview/index.html"> 

    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            private var fileRef:FileReference;

            private function selectFile():void
            {
                fileRef = new FileReference();
                var fileFilter:FileFilter = new FileFilter('Image', '*.jpg');
                fileRef.addEventListener(Event.SELECT, selectHandler);
                fileRef.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
                fileRef.browse([fileFilter]);
            } 

            private function selectHandler(event:Event):void
            {
                fileRef.removeEventListener(Event.SELECT, selectHandler);
                fileRef.load();
            } 

            private function completeHandler(event:Event):void
            {
                fileRef.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
                img.load(fileRef.data);
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script> 

    <mx:Canvas
        x="0" y="40" width="710" height="295"
        borderStyle="solid" borderColor="#303030"
        backgroundColor="#404040"> 

        <mx:Image id="img"/> 

    </mx:Canvas> 

    <components:GradientBox
        y="1"
        gradientFrom="#F9F9F9"
        gradientTo="#DFDFDF"
        borderColor="#303030"
        width="710" height="40"
        verticalAlign="middle" paddingLeft="10"> 

        <mx:Button
            label="Select File"
            click="selectFile()"/> 

    </components:GradientBox> 

</mx:Application>