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Developing Flash/Database Interaction using Dreamweaver. Pt III: Updating Records

This is the third in Alex's gentle introduction to database-driven Flash application and in this article he's going to be adding an Update mechanism to the user management application he's been using as an example.

Again, Dreamweaver will be doing most of the hard work as we see how to create two Flash services to handle the update request sent from our Flash GUI and enable an update function on our existing Flash interface.

While doing this we'll see how to avoid the potential disaster of accidentally creating duplicates of the records that must stay unique (in our example this could happen when we try to modify the username field). We'll also be seeing a couple of tricks about Flash development including how to use Dreamweaver's Server Behaviours to our best advantage.

If you've missed out on the first article on creating a basic authentication mechanism, and the second on building a protected page that extracts information from the database, don't worry as the Flash and PHP source code for the article is available for download.

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Creating a PowerPoint Style Presentation in Flash: Pt. 1

Flash is a great alternative to PowerPoint when it comes to creating on-screen presentations. Presentations created in Flash are usually significantly smaller than those created in PowerPoint, especially where narrations and other sounds are included. Furthermore, the presentation graphics are normally vector-based so you won't ruin the look a Flash presentation by resizing it! It is also easy to add a Flash presentation to your Web site or to a CD-ROM.

This tutorial is the first of a two part series. In the first part, we'll create a presentation using one of the standard templates that ships with Flash. Since we can customise the look and feel of these templates as well as extending them with ActionScript, here we'll extend the presentation by adding rewind and fast forward buttons, including a slide counter that can also be used for navigation and adding a progress bar.

In the second article, we'll add the same keyboard shortcuts that are available in PowerPoint. We'll also create a presentation template. We'll finish by creating a kiosk-style presentation that runs automatically using the setInterval action.

I've assumed that you understand basic ActionScript commands and that you're comfortable adding these to your Flash movies. In the first part of the tutorial, we'll work with some of the events and properties associated with buttons and use input text fields. In part two, we'll learn about keyboard listeners and setInterval.

This tutorial come with a complete code download.

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Flash Related Articles on DMXzone

So you've decided that to snazz up your site a little animation is needed. Something a little - ahem - Flashy.

Can DMXzone help you out? Of course we can - check out our array of Flash based articles and see how easy it is to sprinkle some Flash wonder onto your site.

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Developing Flash/Database Interaction using Dreamweaver. Pt. II: Viewing Database Records

You may recall several weeks ago, that Alex July asked if you'd ever wanted to build a database-driven Flash application but felt confused by the "database-driven" part? He wondered whether you were scared by the terms "Databinding", "Flash Remoting", "Web Services" and "Delta Packets"?

Well, in the second part of his series, Alex is going to extend the authentication mechanism application he developed in the first article to build a User Management screen that is protected by the authentication mechanism, and provides a neat way of showing how database records can be viewed in Flash.

Please note: This article is based on the first article of the series: Developing Flash/Database interaction using Dreamweaver. Pt I: User Authentication and will continue to develop the application started in that article.

Please note the base files for building today's application are available for download.

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Extending the Flash/XML Photo Gallery

In my previous articles (Creating a Photo Gallery with Flash and XML: Part I and Part II) I showed you how to create a photo gallery using information contained within an XML file. The XML file provided a neat alternative to using a database for such a small application, as we used it to store the filename of the photo, the caption and the category.

One limitation of that application was that it used images that were exactly the same size and shape, but of course things aren't always that simple, so in this tutorial we'll look at how we can extend the photo gallery to work with different sized photos.

Not only that we'll also see how to create a gallery of thumbnail images.

As part of the tutorial, you'll learn more about the MovieClipLoader class (a new feature in Flash MX 2004). You'll also learn some techniques for dynamically creating and removing movie clips.

I've assumed that you've completed the first two tutorials before reading this one. If you haven't, you'll need to be familiar with adding ActionScript to buttons and using XML in Flash so that you can understand the existing code, however all the files you'll need to make this tutorial fly are contained in the code download.

Check also the new Dreamweaver extension Flash Album Generator that will allow to create Flash Galleries quickly and easy!

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Creating a Photo Gallery with Flash and XML: Pt.II

In the first part of this multipart tutorial we took a quick look at XML and how XML files could, in certain circumstances, be a neat alternative to setting up a database. We then saw how easy it is to load an XML file into Flash.

In this tutorial we'll build on that foundation by using our XML file to provide the data for a photo gallery application. The XML file will list the filename and caption for each photo in the gallery, then Flash will extract the information and display it in a movie. We'll load each image as the user requests it so that the photo gallery will run very quickly and users won't have to download all of the images before starting to view pictures.

If you haven't completed the first part of the tutorial, you'll need to understand XML and be able to load an XML file into Flash before you can start this tutorial.  I'm assuming that you know how to enter ActionScript into the Actions panel and that you have some experience at using actions in your Flash movies.

Check also the new Dreamweaver extension Flash Album Generator that will allow to create Flash Galleries quickly and easy!

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Creating a Photo Gallery with Flash and XML: Pt. 1

One of the great things about Flash is that you can use it to read information from other programs (such as databases and XML files). That means you can add this content to Flash to create more dynamic movies.

Well in this two-part tutorial we're going to make use of Flash's ability to work with external information, and develop a fully functioning photo gallery that derives it's information from data stored in an XML file.

Using XML can sometimes be a neat alternative to using a database (for instance when you don't have access to a database or an application server). It's also great for Flash movies that will be distributed on a CD-ROM.

In this part of this tutorial, we'll look at XML and some of the rules that you'll need to know to work with XML files. We'll also load an XML file into Flash and display the contents. In the second part we'll use the XML file to display images and captions. Then we'll see how to add categories to the photos in the gallery.

I'm assuming that you know how to enter ActionScript into the Actions panel and that you have some experience at using actions in your Flash movies.

Check also the new Dreamweaver extension Flash Album Generator that will allow to create Flash Galleries quickly and easy!

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More ActionScript for Designers

Welcome to More ActionScript for Designers! If you read the first tutorial, Basic ActionScript for Designers, you will have learned about controlling the way movies play, opening Web sites with ActionScript and playing sounds. 

The tutorial showed you how to add actions to the Actions panel and how to use buttons to trigger the commands.  If you're new to ActionScript and haven't completed the Basic ActionScript tutorial, I would recommend reading it before you continue.

In this tutorial, we'll get a bit more adventurous and look at:

• Controlling the appearance of movie clips
• Dragging movie clips
• Loading an external JPEG image into a movie
• Loading an external SWF file into a movie
• Displaying "Quote of the Day" text

 

To complete the tutorial, you'll need to know how to work with the Timeline, add keyframes and enter ActionScript in the Actions panel.  You should also be able to create buttons, add text and movie clips as well as knowing how to publish movies. Read More

Basic ActionScript for Designers

When you are looking to create animations, there is no better tool than Flash. However, there's more to this versatile piece of software than the ability to create clips that can just be observed and admired. With Flash, you can create interactive animations that control the way a movie or sound plays with the click of a button and a lot more besides.

This interactivity can be achieved with ActionScript, the scripting language built into Flash.  So if you already know how to animate within Flash but are looking to develop your skills and add some interactivity to your movies then this tutorial is for you.

We won't be dealing with much theory here - we'll dive straight in and show you how ActionScript can be used to achieve tasks like:

• Controlling the way movies play
• Using buttons
• Opening a Web site from Flash
• Playing and stopping sounds

For the purposes of this tutorial we're going to assume you're familiar with working on the Timeline and creating animations with keyframes. You should also know how to create buttons and movie clips, as well as being able to publish a movie, both within Flash and on a Web page.

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The Screensaver: Dynamic Flash from PHP

In today's tutorial we continue working with the Ming PHP extension.  Besides seeing in more detail how to work with the resource objects that the extension creates and works with, we learn some more about the PHP language and see how variable variables are used.

Instead of a "hello-world" demonstration, we'll look at a  real-life project: A few months ago I built a screensaver for a client that was essentially a slide show.  Besides giving them different image packs, we thought it would be cool if they could build their own custom image packs from their corporate image bank to use in the slide show.  We used PHP and Ming to implement the solution, detailed in this tutorial.

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Menus and ActionScript

In today's tutorial we take a look at how we can write ActionScript to handle the user clicking on menu items. We get more familiar with the switch() language construct and see how Event Listeners work in Flash. This tutorial builds on the previous weeks' tutorial on building menus with the MenuBar component, but if's not mandatory to have read that - the completed FLA from last week is available as a download for you to start working with.

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Building a Menu Bar with Flash MX 2004 Professional

This week's tutorial shows you how to use the MenuBar component to create application style menus for your Flash movies or sites. Allan builds up a menu very familiar to all - duplicating the DMXzone top navigation menu and adding extra functionality! We'll see how to create a basic menu, nest multiple levels of menus and use special menu items that function like radio buttons and check boxes. MenuBar components use instances of the Menu component that we covered in the last tutorial, so it is helpful to have read it, but it is not a prerequisite for being able to follow along in this weeks installment.

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