ClipStation

tpl skunkworks

Simple unobtrusive cross-browser clipboard writer

Introduction

NOTE: The new Flash Player 10 has restricted access to the clipboard. This means that pre 2.0 versions of ClipStation do not work with version 10 of the player. Release 2.0+ operates in compliance with the new security model.

ClipStation is a free lightweight solution for writing to your user’s clipboard from an HTML page. Using a single SWF that is embedded dynamically via JavaScript, you can pass an unlimited number of content clips onto the clipboard.

ClipStation is designed to be lightweight, flexible, and easy to implement. This is all it takes to get started:

This approach is very beneficial in situations where you have multiple clips. Essentially you only need to add a unique ID to each clip content container, and a div with a corresponding ID. The JavaScript and Flash take care of the rest.

While the implementation is simple, there are some powerful features to work with. For instance, you can choose whether or not to decode character entities in your content on a clip-by-clip basis. This allows you to keep complex markup like Flash embeds in pretty much any container you want, from a simple text input to a preformatted block, it's all up to you. Telling ClipStation to decode character entities in your clip is done with a rel="decode" in your trigger link, like so:

ClipStation also makes it easy for developers to customize their implementation. The JavaScript that initializes the triggers is easy to adapt to any element, so you're not limited to triggering from div tags. You also have access to the send-to-clipboard function from your own scripts.

There are two versions of the SWF that you can choose from, a 7.0KB version with full character set support, a clipboard icon, and embedded Helvetica glyphs, or a 2.3KB Lite version that supports XML 1.0 entities only (" & ' < >), contains no icon, and uses device fonts. The majority of the file weight is due to the size of the HTML character set encoding table which contains the full set of 252 character mappings. Chances are you don't need all of them - behold; ∂ ∇ ξ ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦. If you have an appliation that only needs a well defined subset of character entities, or if you want to customize the design, grab the source distribution and build your own lean mean SWF that supports a limited character set. Just comment out the character definitions you don't need. You can view the chart of supported entities here.

Examples

<object width="425" height="344">
	<param name="movie" value="http://tinyurl.com/6qlexf"></param>
	<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
	<embed src="http://tinyurl.com/6qlexf"
		type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
		allowfullscreen="true"
		width="425"
		height="344">
	</embed>
</object>

class HTTPRequest
{
	public function getParameter($param, $return=null)
	{
		if (isset($_POST[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_POST[$param];
		}
		else if (isset($_GET[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_GET[$param];
		}
		else if (isset($_FILES[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_FILES[$param];
		}
		return $return;
	}
}

class HTTPRequest
{
	public function getParameter($param, $return=null)
	{
		if (isset($_POST[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_POST[$param];
		}
		else if (isset($_GET[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_GET[$param];
		}
		else if (isset($_FILES[$param]))
		{
			$return = $_FILES[$param];
		}
		return $return;
	}
}

Download

Changes from 1.0.3 » 2.0.0

1. Added support for Flash Player v10+
   • Now embedding an instance of the SWF for each clip to satisfy FP10 security requirements
   • Clips are now pulled from the page after a click action in the SWF, ratther than pushed via JavaScript on click in the page.
2. Examples now use divs for clip triggers instead of anchor links

Changes from 1.0.2 » 1.0.3

1. Added support for Opera
2. Exposed SWF's entity encode/decode methods via JavaScript for use outside of the clipboard context:
   • function htmlEntityEncode(contents)
   • function htmlEntityDecode(contents)
3. Refactored SWF error reporting
4. Improved documentation in ActionScript and JavaScript
5. Minified clipstation.js in dist/javascript

1. Refactored entity encoding class to reduce SWF size
2. Added "Lite" version, which uses a reduced (XML 1.0 only) character set for entity decoding. Lite SWF is 1.9KB
3. Added supported entity chart to docs.

Feedback

If you find ClipStation useful, please drop us a line and let us know.

ClipStation Clipboard Writer by Thirdparty Labs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.