flash and xml... i say damn...
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- phlojonaut
I spent a few hours today trying to learn flash - xml integration...
is it just me or this is some complicated shieat ?damn...
- neeko0
if youre building a blogger, or anything similar,out my source .fla. its still got some bugs i havent figured out, like screwed up html links when you force the text box to uppercase, but i think it works pretty good.
I picked up the Craig Swann and Greg Caines book to get me started:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido…never actually got all the way through it, but it helped me learn what i wanted to know at the time.
- SirG0
I have to say I also struggled a lot when I started out with Flash-XML integration but now I can't live without it...
Don't give up...
- neeko0
hmmn... my fingers didnt typoe my message the way my brain had it planned out...
it was supposed to mention something about giving out the source .fla for my blog if youre working on something similar.
my thumb seems to have put a "," where that sentence was supposed to be.
- phlojonaut0
yeah...
i find flash xml to be very frustrating...i understand the logic and mentality behind it, and i can see the uses for it....
but it looks to be so hard to simply create a actionscript that loads an xml file and prepares the data in a way that i could be used forther on in flash....
damn it looks complicated...
one of the reasons why i'm trying to learn this is :
i'm trying to build a flash survey that would dynamicly load it's questions from an extenral, easy to update source...
i was thinking i could create the survey in xml, and using the flash XML objects load the file and build the survey that way....
now... does this even sound like a good application of XML in flash ?
or is there a better way to create dynamic surveys ?thanks for all your help
- clint0
it might not be easy, but once you understand how it works, it's great for dynamic flash movies. ie i did this flash xml php feed for firstmovies, it loads in the latest info on movies from an xml feed into flash...
- SirG0
XML is a great way (if not the best) to create dynamic websites. I currently run the website for the Belgian version of Idols. Check it out at http://www.idool2003.be/?page=ho… (don't forget the page=home. That will skip the commercial stuff and oh yeah... The site is in Dutch). Everything you see on that site is based on XMLfiles.
I use Justin Watkins' "XML to actionscript objects converter" and that makes life a little bit easier... the actionscript can be found at http://dynamic.macromedia.com/bi…
- clint0
hm, and the link: http://www.firstmovies.com/
- clint0
and i found those tutorials on xml very helpful when i got started: http://actionscript-toolbox.com/…
- phlojonaut0
thanks for the help people....
and i won't give up.... promisei think
:)
- SirG0
Trust me... you'll love it in the end! :)
- clint0
i agree, once you understands, it makes flash much more interesting and versatile.
- neeko0
you could do the same thing easier with some nice PHP or CFML... and HTML though. i think.
- clint0
yes, but if you want your info embeded with your flash vector graphics, animations or whatever, it's possible. on the other hand, if all you need is a straight forward newsfeed or so, no need for flash xml, that's right.
- phlojonaut0
now you are cofusing me :)
- phlojonaut0
I have downloaded, installed and imported the script written by Watkins...
but i am really frustrated because when trying to test the movie, i get an error message reading:
Scene=Scene 1, Layer=Layer 1, Frame=1: Line 14: Left side of assignment operator must be variable or property.
eval(this.nodeName) = new Array(new Object());am i missing something here... or is this guy's script messed up ?
- clint0
here is a better example of what you can do with flash xml. i did that project for a photographer. we used flash for nice simple animations you could not get in html, but wanted something that updates very easily. so every time he ads new pictures, he just drops them on the server, ads a few new tags in the xml files, and that's it, flash will build the new movie containing the new pictures and info text. no need to make any changes to the actual fla anymore. here is the url: http://www.gunnarknechtel.com/
- clint0
try this tutorial, it worked fine for me when i got started:
http://actionscript-toolbox.com/…
- SirG0
I'm positive Justin's script is working... I use it just a bout every day.
If you installed it correctly, you should have "COM" directory in your reference panel. Click on that to for more info.