Chapter 12. XML (Dynamic Data)

To this point in the book, we have dangled the use of XML in front of you with no real explanation of how it works. That time has arrived.

Flash is a social creature. Not only does it rub elbows with HTML—coexisting happily with text, JavaScript, images, audio, video, CSS, and more—but it can also reach out past its own SWF boundaries to collaborate with data hosted on a server.

In the hands of an experienced programmer, Flash can interact with database applications by way of the URLLoader and URLVariables classes, perform web service and Flash remoting calls, and even slap a secret handshake with Ajax, thanks to the ExternalInterface class. All this from a browser plug-in that began its life as a way to improve on ...

Get Foundation Flash CS5 For Designers now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.