Unless you've been living under a rock for the last several years, you've no doubt been bombarded with the hype surrounding a simple, plain text technology named XML - eXtensible Markup Language. But even with the books, magazines, and web sites dedicated to XML, many developers still have no idea what XML really is, or even how they can use XML in their applications.

FlashDeveloper dot nl is a resource portal informing about Flash MX, Flash with XML, Flash versus SVG, and a Flash XML FAQ. Visitors can join the flash developer dot nl mailinglist, browse through book reviews about Flash, XML and SVG books and submit their own information. The focus of this extensive resource lies in making Flash MX communicate with other languages, documents, and to improve the use of dynamic flash. Make Macromedia Flash communicate with PHP, XML, mySQL, Perl, ASP, Access, Macromedia's Flashcomm server etc.

Spark is a Java library that converts data in Macromedias SWF ("Flash") data format to XML conforming to a specialized DTD and vice versa. The primary goal of Spark is to make it easier to work with SWF in a Java and XML based server environment.

This method invoked by the Flash Player when an XML document is received from the server. If the XML document is received successfully, the success parameter is true. If the document was not received, or if an error occurred in receiving the response from the server, the success parameter is false. The default implementation of this method is not active. To override the default implementation, you must assign a function containing your own actions.

The following example uses the information from the XML object in a user-defined This method returns true if the specified XML object has child nodes otherwise, returns false.

Flash MX Scripts contains 9 robust, interactive and fully editable Flash MX scripts for use on commercial or personal web sites. All source files as well as complete instructions are included with every script. Everything you wil levery need when it comes to creating fully interactive stunning Flash websites.

In 1995 we saw the release of FutureSplash, a program which we have come to know as Flash. Originally it was designed to bring lightweight animation to the Internet. Now in the hands of Macromedia, it has become a powerful tool enabling creators to make highly interactive and graphically rich websites. 1999's addition of Flash 5 saw many powerful improvements which allowed us to extend our Flash applications to create dynamic, functional websites. Possibly the most valuable feature of the new additions was its ability to work in conjunction with other technologies. In this tutorial I will look at integrating Flash with other technologies to create easily updatable websites specifically focussing on combining XML and Flash. I will also consider alternatives to XML including server-side scripting languages such as PHP, Perl or ASP.

Use's a PHP Script that generates XML data that is read into and parsed by Flash to populate the Combo Box Component. In this case the XML data is a set of Link Names and URL's, you can use this to provide a quick navigation interface for your site.

In my previous tutorial (the one catchily titled "Loading External XML formatted Content into Flash MX 2004") I mentioned that I would be covering how to load images into Flash via XML. I've been taking a bit of time out from Flash recently in order to party hard down at club-PHP, but I've been getting so many emails asking how to do the image thing that I thought it was about time I made good on my promise. This is just a primer but it should be enough to get you on the right tracks.

A small list with tips and tricks for developers.

A Flash Tree component Menu. This is as simple as it gets for a tree menu. Just reads in a simple text file and builds the Menu. Does not support nested nodes - as it gets complicated to format nested nodes with just a text file. Two custom images where added to this one - but other then that it is exactly the same as the standard one.

A short example on how to extend and customize the List Box. This one is the sample code for a catalog component.

Animated Flash/PHP form. Easy to modify. Full version available. Looking for a flash form for your website? Well, look no further! This form is as simple as it gets! Full version comes complete with all necessary files for easy customization. Unlimited input fields for full version.

A sophisticated, but simple to use Flash MX/PHP/MySQL user authentication system that allows you to protect your flash pages. It utilizes PHP/MySQL for quick interaction. All necessary files included as well as detailed instructions on how to set everything up. Files include source fla and table.sql file for easy database configuration.

The Macromedia Flash Player 6 supports Unicode text encoding for SWF movies in Macromedia Flash Player 6 format. This support greatly enhances your ability to use multilingual text in SWF movies that you create with Macromedia Flash MX, including multiple languages within a single text field. Any user with the Macromedia Flash Player 6 can view multilanguage text in a Macromedia Flash Player 6 movie, regardless of the language used by the operating system running the player.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a popular standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). XML is an open architecture designed to allow the interchange of data between any platform or language on the Internet. The technology has caught on like wildfire, and you would be hard pressed to find any current application that doesn't use XML in some way or other. The complete XML specifications are available here.

So what's the big deal about XML in Flash? Nothing really. Its just XML...and Flash. Flash allows you to load, interpret and edit XML information. Not only that but Flash can make XML on the fly. There's no real secret hidden goodness to there being XML support in Flash other than that now you have an easy way to pass and use structured information to Flash via a text file.

I then decided to build this lib, which was as powerfull as the other one, but much more easy to use. Now a programmer who doesn't know how to work with XML, can send and receive XML-RPC data seamlessy, like if it was AS data. And because I didn't forget the "power-users", it lets you define the data-types by hand (like the other lib did). After said this, if your new to the world of XML and Web Services, please read the next chapter, otherwise you may proceed to chapter 3.

In this tutorial I will look at integrating Flash with other technologies to create easily updatable websites specifically focussing on combining XML and Flash.

XML-RPC is an open specification targeted for designing XML-based RPC servers and clients. XML-RPC Flash Client is actionscript that can be integrated into a Flash project and allow flash to act as an XML-RPC client.