Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Design and Content : Web Design and Content Tutorials : Flash and XML?

[Kit]

Just got out of a meeting and this is what I need to learn. I need to learn how to have flash read off a XML file and generate data from that. I just want a feel as to how hard this will be to learn when I have no flash knowledge (don't know any actionscript or the program itself actually), just very basic XML knowledge, and hardly any javascript knowledge (I don't know if JS would be involved in this). I need to know where to start. If I start learning flash, should I jump right into actionscript or go through simple tutorials on using the program (buttons, tweening, etc.)

Also, let's say the flash file/movie has a lot of pictures, and you want to filter them using a specific property (e.g. by name, date, etc.), how easy would that be to implement?

Also, flash and XML working together, would be considered a branch or something that's similar to AJAX? It's not the same though, right?

[Mokshikapoor]

Hi

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements and games. More recently, it has been positioned as a tool for "Rich Internet Applications" ("RIAs").

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. It is defined in the produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards

Thanks

[stop-ddos]

Do you have any programming experience? ActionScript 3.0 is similar to JavaScript. Reading data from XML to Flash isn't very hard task. But you can't do this only using Flash with no scripting.

There lot's of tutorials about Flash and XML. Try to find some of them.
Also I would suggest you to find some free templates of flash galleries, flash sites and try to understand how they work. I think you can find what you need in some of those templates.

[PaulM]

Do you 100% need to learn it? It's a bit of a dying platform with HTML5 / Canvas emerging and iOS devices no longer supporting it.

I'd highly suggest turning round to your company and suggesting something else (such as HTML5 / canvas).

[stop-ddos]

I don't agree with you that flash is dying. Flash is installed on over 90% of computers. And it works the same on any computer in any browser where installed. I can't say the same about HTML5, because every browser has it's own standarts for interpreting of HTML/JavaScript. HTML5 is very raw technology at the moment and it can't compete with Flash.

[Mokshikapoor]

Hii...

nice

Thanks

[maggie1]

It is advisable to check tutorials and templates. You can use templates to get your desired output and learn both simultaneously. All the best.