Search

Hi

I have some headers on a site that the client wants in Flash. I know Flash can work from XML. What do I need to do in Flash to use the Symphony XML fields I have set up or do I need to make hidden xml only pages with the field?

Anyone talk me through the right direction?

Many thanks

Usually you will point the flash movie to an xml file. The way I have done this in the past is to have another xml-only page that I load into flash. This makes sense because you will probably have to transform your original datasource output (in your symphony /data) to another form of xml that your flash will consume.

Now, the specifics of how you load the data from that xml into the flash as text and such, I have no idea. I have no interest in actionscript. As far as I'm concerned, that's what flashden.net is for ;). If you do need actionscript help, you might coax bauhouse into helping you.

EDIT: One thing that does occur to me: if you have a unique string for each page, it'll probably be a hassle to set up a stand-alone xml doc to handle that. One thing I DO know about passing data to flash is that swfobject.js does let you do that. So if your flash is loading a variable into a text area (or whatever flash uses to hold text), you could output that text from your symphony transform into a js variable that swfobject.js then passes to the flash movie that it is loading. Just a thought.

What you are describing sounds a lot like sIFR, which does not require XML.

Are you just wanting to display text in a custom font via Flash, or is there more to it than that?

I use SlideshowPro for a website that had the option to use an RSS feed. I just created a slideshow page in Symphony that is hidden that outputs the desired structure.

If you put "?variable=something;" (sans quotes) after the URL for your SWF it automatically gets passed to the root of your Flash file for access there. It's a sneaky way for small jobs but effective.

in the swf, you can pull in a xml-specific url like you normally would pull in a xml file like ashooner mentioned. i worked with someone else to create an all flash site using symphony as the backend.

I'm very very new to Symphony development (I've only been working with it for a couple days now).

I am attempting to do what wtdan is refering to... that is, create an all Flash site with Symphony as the backend. I've managed to create a datasource, and publish entries to it, but I'm not sure how to access the xml directly.

How would I form a valid URI to just the XML for my data source? I have no idea if I'm using the correct nomenclature, so sorry if I'm not making complete sense.

The jist of what I'd like to do is add and manage site data through the symphony back-end, and have it create XML (dynamic and/or static) for my Flash front-end to consume. I don't need total control over the XML formatting since I will gladly adhere to the way Symphony creates it (it looks clean enough to me, at least).

You just need to make your pages output XML instead of HTML. Check the RSS feed in the default ensemble for an example.

it's like creating a html page, but you just create your own xml schema with what you need for your flash. then from your flash, you just set your variable to the url of the xml. for example, i created a xml-section page. in the flash, i point to this url to get the entire xml file:

http://www.site.com/xml-section/

and then in the flash, you can parse out the xml like you would normally. you can also point to dynamic pages. you would set up that page with your params you want to be passed into your xml page for filtering. for part of my page, i want to get the section the project is in, and then filter by the id of the project. I have section and id generated when i click on a project so then i point to a page like this in the flash:

http://www.site.com/xml-content/{$section}/{$id}/

but of course, {$section} and {$id} are both actual values by the time i point to the url.

Thanks wtdan... this definitely starts me on the right path. I mostly understand what you're saying, but since I haven't grokked the process of constructing the html from the xml yet this is probably where I will need to focus my energy.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I use the same process for building html output (from the xml datasource) as I do for xml output. Since they're both text streams it doesn't really matter.

right, the xml that is outputted by symphony, you most likely won't want to import it all into the flash. so you'd be using the symphony xml and creating your own custom xml in which ever way you want to. then you'd point to that xml in your flash

Create an account or sign in to comment.

Symphony • Open Source XSLT CMS

Server Requirements

  • PHP 5.3-5.6 or 7.0-7.3
  • PHP's LibXML module, with the XSLT extension enabled (--with-xsl)
  • MySQL 5.5 or above
  • An Apache or Litespeed webserver
  • Apache's mod_rewrite module or equivalent

Compatible Hosts

Sign in

Login details