Loading images from applicationStorageDirectory in Flex Mobile

I have to say, without a doubt, this was one of the most confounding things I've worked on in a long, long, long time. In a project for my client, I have to be able to store zip files filled w/ media assets, then be able to load audio or pictures at runtime.

 Sounds easy, right? Wrong :(

 Loading a picture has never been this painful in my life. It turns out, I can add the image to the stage (which for some reason is not respecting my skin, contentgroup, or vertical layout settings). Regardless, I can finally load any stored image via this "not-so" simple routine.  One caveat I have is, I am downloading images in zip format, and using a utility to unpackage them into the storage directory in folders.  originally I though that would be a problem, but it turns out, because I can update the file.nativePath with the new folder, this works just fine.

var fl:File = File.applicationStorageDirectory;

fl.nativePath = fl.nativePath + _image;

var bytes:ByteArray = new ByteArray();

var filestream:FileStream = new FileStream();

try{

filestream.open(fl, FileMode.READ);

filestream.readBytes(bytes, 0, filestream.bytesAvailable);

filestream.close();

loader = new Loader();

loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, showPic);

loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, onError);

loader.loadBytes(bytes);

}catch (e){

trace("xml badly formed");

}

and in my showPic method:

loader.contentLoaderInfo.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, showPic);

var bitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(loader.content.width,loader.content.height, true, 0x000000);

bitmapData.draw(loader.content, new Matrix(),null,null,null,true);

img.source = new Bitmap(bitmapData);

Honestly, painful, but it gets the job done.  Now to load audio dynamically from saved files is another story for another post:)