AS3 navigateToURL only works when testing in Flash CC

Question

I've tried searching stackoverflow to find an answer to this question but so far haven't found anything.

I have a swf file with several movie clips on the stage. When I've managed to create an event where the movie clips swap out to a new movie clip when the user hovers. The problem that I am having is when you click that new movie clip it's supposed to open a URL in a browser window. That happens when I test the movie within Flash CC but when I test it in a browser nothing happens.

Any help for this would be greatly appreciated. I apologize if this question has been asked elsewhere on the site but, as I said, I did a search earlier and didn't find anything.

import flash.events.MouseEvent;

addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, gobackAnimation);

function gobackAnimation(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    MovieClip(parent).gotoAndStop(1)
}

addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, openURL);

function openURL(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    ExternalInterface.call("open", "URL I'm trying to open");
    MovieClip(parent).gotoAndStop(1)
}

Answer 1

To open a URL you have to use the navigateToURL function as documented here.

It appears that you are using the following code to trigger a URL to open:

function openURL(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    ExternalInterface.call("open", "URL I'm trying to open");
    MovieClip(parent).gotoAndStop(1)
}

However, I don't know where or what this ExternalInterface is and how the call function is built.

If you want to open a URL though, you should be doing something along the following lines:

function openURL(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    var myURL:String = "http://your.url.goes/here";  // set your url here
    var window:String = "_blank"; // you can set this to be whatever you need based on how you want the window opened
    var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(myURL);
    request.data = variables;
    try {            
        navigateToURL(request,window);
    }
    catch (e:Error) {
        // handle error here
    }
    MovieClip(parent).gotoAndStop(1)
}