Chapter 30. Sending Data in and out of Flash

IN THIS CHAPTER

  • Understanding TextField objects

  • Using data in text fields

  • Managing data acquisition in Flash movies

  • Using ColdFusion with Flash movies

  • Loading XML data into Flash movies

A powerful feature of ActionScript is the extraordinary control of data acquisition and management it provides within a Flash movie. You can load external text data into Flash movies, making it possible to include fresh dynamic content every time a Flash movie is viewed over the Web. In this chapter, you will learn how to access text data stored in a variety of formats that are separate from the actual Flash movie.

Many Flash-enabled Web sites use external data to display a wide range of information in a user interface. The home page of this book's support site, www.flashsupport.com, features a Flash movie that consumes and displays an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed of our recent articles and tutorials from Community MX. You can use dynamic data to display current news articles, catalog information, weather information, and more!

Tip

Flashloaded.com offers the rssReader component to easily consume and display RSS feeds in your own Flash movies. For more information, go to www.flashloaded.com/flashcomponents.

Using Text Fields to Store and Display Data

Before we can discuss sending and receiving data with Flash movies, you need to know the basic mechanisms of input and output. You may find that, most of the time, your data in Flash will be text-based, which ...

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