Falcon Flash at http://falconflash.wordpress.com was the first of the Flash Feather series of advanced interface classes in Flash to launch about a year ago.  With over one thousand downloads we are pleased that it has been helpful.  It really is a simple wrapper class for the five data classes in Flash.  It lets you easily read text and XML or send variables to and from server scripts like PHP.

var myFalcon:Falcon = new Falcon("yourfile.php or .xml or .txt");
myFalcon.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, getData);
function getData(e:Event) {
    trace (myFalcon.data.yourVariable);
    // or just myFalcon.data for XML or txt
}

Flash Feathers is located at http://flashfeathers.wordpress.com and through the links at the right.  Flash Feathers features the following open source solutions:

FLASH FEATHERS

• ROBIN – multiuser chat and realtime game classes with Flash and PHP
• FALCON – easy data transfer between Flash and server scripts
• HUMMINGBIRD – parallax effect with mouse movement for 3D menus
• GOOSE – multitouch emulator and processor with just Flash and Browsers
• PENGUIN – tilt emulator and processor for tilt and translation apps
• WOODPECKER – sound frequency and wave animation for MP3 and FLV
• GOOSE – motion capture so a cursor follows your Web cam motion
• DODO – blob detection to provide blobs anywhere there is Web cam motion

The Falcon Download ZIP file at left has been adjusted to match the other ZIP file formats.  There is a standard way to install all the Flash Feathers classes as detailed in the readme.txt file and the various class files and goes like follows:

INSTALLATION

• create a classes/ folder somewhere generic on your harddrive
• add the classes folder to your Flash Class Path – in the Flash Menu:
  
• choose Edit > Preferences > ActionScript – ActionScript 3 Settings
• use the + sign for the source path box to add the path to your classes/ folder
• put the provided com/ folder in your classes/ folder

This way your classes from Flash Feathers will all work together along with other people’s distributed classes.  DO NOT add the com/ folder to your class path in the Flash preferences!  Read above if this is not clear.

Please have a look at the VIDEO page and the sample CODE page for more information about Falcon.  You can download the code through the link at the left on http://falconflash.wordpress.com.

FRIENDS AND DONATIONS
Please let us know if you use Falcon and we will add you to the Friends area at left.  If you use Falcon for a commercial venture and would care to donate that would be super!

FEATHERS
Falcon is one of a selection of open source solutions called Flash Feathers available at http://flashfeathers.wordpress.com.

Dan Zen

-09-

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems -Adobe

Adobe Flex is a collection of technologies released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross platform rich Internet applications based on the proprietary Adobe Flashplatform. The initial release in March 2004 by Macromedia included a software development kit, anIDE, and a J2EE integration application known as Flex Data Services. Since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, subsequent releases of Flex no longer require a license for Flex Data Services, which has become a separate product rebranded as LiveCycle Data Services. -Wikipedia

There are many sites providing the tutorials and samples in net.Here is my Flex samples blog ,

http://gnanz-flexworld.blogspot.com

Falcon! What a grand code name .

Here is the Falcon ZIP file with instructions and samples.

Falcon is a custom class that wraps the Adobe Flash ActionScript 3 five data classes normally used to access a server script or system such as PHP, Perl, Ruby, ASP, etc. and then of course on to databases like MySQL, SQL Server, etc. It makes it so that you do not have to worry about the URLVariables, URLRequest, URLRequestMethod, URLLoader and URLLoaderDataFormat code.

You pass the following parameters to the Falcon AS3 data class:

• the URL to your server script, text, binary data or XML File
• an optional type of data – Falcon.VARIABLES, TEXT, BINARY or XML_DATA
• an optional data object that holds variables to send to the server

You set an Event.COMPLETE listener to call a function. The event object’s target has three properties. A Boolean error property, a data property and if you use the FalconProvider class there is a dataProvider property:

1. The error property (eventObject.target.error) will be true if connection to the server fails and false if it succeeds.

2. The data property (eventObject.target.data) holds the variables, text, binary or XML that comes back from the server:

• Variables – if your server script sends age=23 and you ask for data.age then you get 23
• Text – for example from a text file just use myTextField.text = data;
• Binary – this is your binary feed (actually untested but should work)
• XML – this a Flash XML object representing the XML from the server

3. Note there are two classes you can use – Falcon and FalconProvider. In FalconProvider, the dataProvider property (eventObject.target.dataProvider) is provided in the variables case when the variables come back in some sort of sequence like name1, age1, name2, age2, etc. FalconProvider automatically provides a DataProvider object with columns of name, age, etc. You can use this for a DataGrid or if you use label1, data1, label2, data2 then you can use it for a List or ComboBox. You must have a component that uses the DataProvider (DataGrid, List, etc.) in the library of your FLA if you use the FalconProvider class.

4.  Please note that if you use the default Falcon.VARIABLES, then your server script such as PHP must return at least one key/value pair – in the following format  variable=value&variable2=value.  So in a simple example – status=complete.   You cannot have any lines above your <?PHP either otherwise the new line characters cause problems.

5.  If you want to avoid caching issues, put a random number on the end of your script call like so: somefile.php?rand=”+Math.random().

Falcon was created by Inventor Dan Zen. You may use the code as you wish and if possible a credit link to this site will help make the world an easier place . If you are interested in learning to make classes like this or other aspects of interactive multimedia please visit the Sheridan Interactive Multimedia blog for information about its one year post grad college program. Thank you to all at Adobe for such great tools and for our wonderful Flash user group, FITO in Toronto.

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Ya cuando estamos realizando proyectos en ActionScript de manera constante nos damos cuenta de unos de los problemas más comunes: comunicación. ¿De dónde vamos a sacar los datos a mostrar?. Poner todos los datos DENTRO de Flash usualmente no es buena idea: no es fácil de mantener y sería un sitio demasiado estático. Por eso es necesario que sepamos leer e interpretar fuentes de datos para presentarlos con las bondades de Flash y ActionScript junto con la flexibilidad de XML o una base de datos.

(imagen tomada del post original)

Este post de Sheridan Interactive Multimedia es un muy buen recurso para aprender lo básico por 3 razones: ejemplos con código fuente, enfoque a NO programadores, manejo de múltiples fuentes de datos y funciones: XML, navigateToURL, SharedObject, FlashVars, ExternalInterface (para javascript), URLRequest, FileReference, URLLoader, URLVariables, WebServices y serialización de datos. Además, con la referencia de cómo unir todos estos datos y presentarlos en una interface adecuada.

Update: A technical description that you probably will not need to know – please do not be frightened if you are a designer reading this. Ignore it. In the zip file, there is a sample PHP page for the DataProvider example. The PHP sets an id that is auto incrementing in MySQL. We used ” for the value and some versions of MySQL give an error because the data type in the table is an integer. So we have just removed the id and its ” value from the query because it is not needed anyway as the id is auto incrementing. So… a minor update but might have caught some.  The change has been made in the ZIP file.

Falcon is an Adobe Flash ActionScript CS3 Class that wraps up the native data classes to send and receive variables to a text, XML file or server script like PHP connected to DataBases like MySQL, etc. When using Falcon, you will not have to use URLVariables, URLRequest, URLRequestMethod, URLLoader and URLLoaderDataFormat.

We have just updated Falcon to remove the automatic DataProvider feature because that required a component with a DataProvider to be placed in the FLA. We have instead, additionally provided a FalconProvider class that is the same as Faclon but has the automatic DataProvider feature. Use the FalconProvider class when you have sequenced variables to be put into a DataGrid, ComboBox, List, TileList, etc.

Use Falcon when you want to load in text, XML or if you want to send or receive variables from a server script. We have been using Falcon for a while now and it is so easy – a few lines of code rather than fifteen. Enjoy.

BASIC USAGE

For a fast usage of what is in the zip file. Just grab the Falcon.as file and put it in the same directory as your FLA. Then to read in a text file this is what you do. The XML is just as easy – the variables, require a server script so is a little more work – see the examples link for more:

// in your constructor for instance…
var myFalcon:Falcon=new Falcon(“sample.txt”, Falcon.TEXT);
myFalcon.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,getData);

// in the body of your class make the event method:
private function getData(e:Event) {
if (e.target.error) {
trace (“sorry, error accessing text file”);
} else {
trace (e.target.data); // this is your text data!
}
}

Falcon is an Adobe Flash ActionScript CS3 Class that wraps up the native data classes to send and receive variables to a text, XML file or server script like PHP connected to DataBases like MySQL, etc. When using Falcon, you will not have to use URLVariables, URLRequest, URLRequestMethod, URLLoader and URLLoaderDataFormat.

We have just updated Falcon to remove the automatic DataProvider feature because that required a component with a DataProvider to be placed in the FLA. We have instead, additionally provided a FalconProvider class that is the same as Faclon but has the automatic DataProvider feature. Use the FalconProvider class when you have sequenced variables to be put into a DataGrid, ComboBox, List, TileList, etc.

Use Falcon when you want to load in text, XML or if you want to send or receive variables from a server script. We have been using Falcon for a while now and it is so easy – a few lines of code rather than fifteen. Enjoy.

BASIC USAGE

For a fast usage of what is in the zip file. Just grab the Falcon.as file and put it in the same directory as your FLA. Then to read in a text file this is what you do. The XML is just as easy – the variables, require a server script so is a little more work – see the examples link for more:

// in your constructor for instance…
var myFalcon:Falcon=new Falcon("sample.txt", Falcon.TEXT);
myFalcon.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,getData);
 
// in the body of your class make the event method:
private function getData(e:Event) {
if (e.target.error) {
trace ("sorry, error accessing text file");
} else {
trace (e.target.data); // this is your text data!
}
}

Have you ever wondered how social network sites are built like facebook, YouTube, flickr, MySpace, etc. and sites like Ebay, Amazon, any forums, wikis, blogs, etc.? There is a front end that you see and a back end that sits on a server. To be able to share data and make elegant use of the Internet as a medium, we have to be able to pass data (in variable or XML or JSON, etc. format) from the front end to the back end and back again.

Falcon is an Adobe Flash custom class that lets you send and receive variables, text, XML or binary data. You can load XML or text from a file or send and receive variables or XML to and from a server script like PHP and then on to a database like MySQL. Falcon automatically makes a DataProvider if your variables are sequential so that it is easy to make a DataGrid (table in Flash).

The Flash scripting language, ActionScript 3.0 is now a complete Object Oriented Programming language that follows the ECMAScript standard as does JavaScript. In doing so, the language has become very internally consistent. For this consistency to work, the former classes (properties and functions) have been broken down into smaller or more precise classes. This means that to handle data, ActionScript 3 now has five classes that are used to load even just one variable! These are URLVariables, URLRequest, URLRequestMethod, URLLoader and URLLoaderDataFormat. This results in fifteen lines of code.

Falcon wraps or combines these native AS3 classes into one class. The class uses three active lines of code. This simplification makes it easier for designers and developers to provide important functionality of sharing information.

As an inventor of social games, tools and environments, I realize the importance of passing data to the server so that it can be shared. This technique is used in the following Darth Detector, Changing Mail, Chatnap, Baron Digbody’s Castle, Lady With Brooch, Danisms, Dens, Dan Zen Garden, Gorgolon, Grim Reaper’s Age Guesser, Gycopo, Hip Cats, Kula Pu Idol, Moustache Mysteries, Opartica, Pagoda Of Games, Password Paradox, Tapoll, Prediction Train, Rich Deck, Salamander, Save Earth, Spirogram, Spy-mail, Telepathy, Teleporters, Tilator, Tower Of Babel, Web Ouija, Utopia, Wannaget, Word Warp, Yesumno, Zen Deck, Zen Dots, Zen Mix, Zen Motto, Zen Pass, and Zen Picture Pan Zoom.

-08-

Key to the Sheridan Interactive Multimedia program curriculum is teaching learners to build environments in which end users can communicate with each other. To do this, we need interfaces for input and display and we have to get data to and from the server. Think facebook, flickr, YouTube, etc.

Adobe Flash provides many communication classes and methods such as:

• User Interface Components:
  • Button
  • CheckBox and RadioButton (Check Box & Radio Button)
  • ComboBox and List (Combo Box)
  • TextArea, TextInput and Label (Text Area & Input)
  • NumbericStepper and ScrollPane (Numeric Stepper & Scroll Pane)
  • Slider and TileList (Tile List)
  • DataGrid (Data Grid)
• navigateToURL to load a Web Page from Flash
• SharedObject to save a Flash “cookie”
• FlashVars & SWF Query String to pass variables into Flash
• ExternalInterface to call a function in Flash from JavaScript
• Loading a SWF with Loader and URLRequest
• FileReference to upload a local file to be used by flash
• URLLoader and URLVariables to retrieve text or server output
• XML to send and receive XML
• Web Services to connect to scripts on other servers
• Remoting to avoid serializing and deserializing data

Here are links to content examples from our curriculum for all of the above except Web Services and Remoting. The Sheridan lessons include more than the content – there are supporting lesson plans, definition documents, steps for building, supplementary links, reflection forms, and in class explanation, lab work, assignments, exams and final projects. If you are looking into schooling in multimedia, please visit the Sheridan Interactive Multimedia site for more information on our one year post grad program.

User Interface Components

Click here for code example

Communication 1 – navigateToURL, SharedObject, FlashVars, ExternalInterface, Loader, URLRequest and FileReference

Click here for code example

Communication 2 – URLLoader and URLVariables to get text or server script data (PHP, MySQL)

Click here for code example

Although we recommend the Falcon Data Class for this type of connection

XML in Flash

Click here for code example

Although we recommend the Falcon Data Class for this type of connection

Falcon is an open source ActionScript 3 class that helps designers and developers easily access server scripts, text files and XML files.

We are pleased to see that the site has received first page placement on Google – have a look and click back through when you are done

See Google search for URLVariables

Here is where you can download the Zip file with all you need to use Falcon with your Flash AS3.

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