Flash Speaks Actionscript

With the constant birth of bloggers hosting their own blogs, XML banner rotators have become quite popular. Banner rotators are an excellent way to showcase products, featured articles, or anything you feel that needs that extra attention. I have compiled a list of Flash XML banner rotators that can provide an elegant solution to showcasing important news or content. Enjoy!

Also, if you know of any other XML banner rotators that deserve a mention, feel free to comment below or via the contact page.

Free XML Banner Rotator by flabell

Type: Free

Cube Transform Banner Rotator by Digicrafts

Type: Commercial

Flash Banner Creator and Rotator by lydian

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator with Thumbs by flabell

Type: Commercial

Gotham Narrow XML Banner Rotator by marcfolio

Type: Commercial

Banner / Slideshow with Smooth Text Animation by FMedia

Type: Commercial

XML Accordion Banner Rotator by tigerworks

Type: Commercial

Banner Rotator 3 Pro by MBMedia

Type: Commercial

Dynamic XML Discount/Sale Banner by vibor

Type: Commercial

Lite Banner Rotator with Unique Features by azad

Type: Commercial

XML Slide Show with Auto Delay – AS3 by iamdok

Type: Commercial

Linear Transition XML Banner Rotator by barisintepe

Type: Commercial

Sliding Horizontal Banner Rotator by designesia

Type: Commercial

myPromoSlider by encryptme

Type: Commercial

Banner Rotator Complete by flashframer

Type: Commercial

Ultimate Rotating Banner (XML) by michaelhejja

Type: Commercial

Advanced XML Banner / SWF Rotator by skial

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator Professional by designesia

Type: Commercial

Showcase XML Product Gallery by flashblue

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator by digitalscience

Type: Commercial

Smart Banner by thewebprojects

Type: Commercial

Banner Rotator With Auto Delay by VF

Type: Commercial

Sliding Image Gallery XML v2 by flashblue

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator v2 by digitalscience

Type: Commercial

Flash Banner Rotator by rcuela

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator v3 by digitalscience

Type: Commercial

Sliding Banner Rotator Pro by designesia

Type: Commercial

Banner Rotator/Zoom Slideshow by SaafiDesign

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator/Slideshow by lifwanian

Type: Commercial

XML Banner Rotator by designesia

Type: Commercial

Sliding XML Banner Rotator by flashblue

Type: Commercial

XML/CSS Dark Transition by rcuela

Type: Commercial

Damojo XML Banner Rotator by damojo

Type: Commercial

Basic XML Banner Rotator by flabell

Type: Commercial

Horizontal Image Banner Rotator with Thumbs by flabell

Type: Commercial

Sky Writer XML Banner by FightTheCode

Type: Commercial

Image Banner Rotator with Thumbs by flabell

Type: Commercial

Thanks to the Adobe Gods for making the lives of so many Flash developers much less complicated when dealing with XML Data. XML and AS2 just did not get along very well. It was one of those situations where there was a love/hate relationship.

Love was there when you’ve hacked yourself an impressive solution that simple works well, but that hate returns when it was time to change the XML structure. Going back and rerouting the paths to the correct XML nodes was just painful.

It’s funny because I did not foresee a brighter day for dealing with Flash and XML data. Those brighter days have now finally come with the newly added XML classes that will basically do all the work for you.

The XML libraries have been completely overhauled in AS3. These new changes provide a much more seamless XML integration that is based on the web standards of E4X.

What is E4X?

E4X (ECMA for XML) is the current World Wide Web Consortium standard for reading and writing XML documents, and greatly reduces the amount of code and hoop-jumping required to communicate with XML. It allows you to treat XML objects like any other object with familiar dot syntax, and provides additional shortcuts for traversing XML trees.

By providing the support for E4X, the amount of code and maneuvering in and out of XML nodes is greatly reduced and easier to understand.

In the examples below, I will first demonstrate the AS2 integration of loading XML data followed by the AS3 comparison.

Loading XML data using AS2

//Load XML Data
function loadXML(loaded) {
	if (loaded) {
		var xmlNode=this.firstChild;
		var total:Number=xmlNode.childNodes.length;
		//Creating the arrays needed for storing off the XML data
		var bookInfo:Array=new Array(total);
		var isbnNum:Array=new Array(total);
		var subNum:Array=new Array(total);
		for (var i:Number=0; i<total; i++) {
			//Storing off the ISBN values into an array
			isbnNum[i]=xmlNode.childNodes[i].attributes.isbn;
			//Storing off each parent's(book) children count
			subNum[i]=xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes.length;
			bookInfo[i]=new Array(subNum[i]);
			trace("ISBN = "+isbnNum[i]);
			trace("Book Info:");
			for (var j:Number=0; j<subNum[i]; j++) {
				//Store the book info of all the books into a 2D Array
				//Thie is the path to the desired xml nodes
				bookInfo[i][j]=xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[j].firstChild.nodeValue;
				trace(bookInfo[i][j]);
			}
		}
	} else {
		trace("Error loading XML");
	}
}
//Required syntax
xmlData=new XML  ;
xmlData.ignoreWhite=true;
xmlData.onLoad=loadXML;
xmlData.load("book-list.xml");
stop();

Loading XML data using AS3

var xmlLoader:URLLoader=new URLLoader  ;
var xmlData:XML=new XML  ;
//Adding an event listener to notify when loading is completed
xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,LoadXML);
//Load the XML file
xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("book-list.xml"));

function LoadXML(e:Event):void {
	xmlData=new XML(e.target.data);
	ParseBooks(xmlData);
}

function ParseBooks(bookInput:XML):void {
	//Creating an xml list that will store the book info
	var books:XMLList=bookInput.book.children();
	//Creating a xml list that will store the book's ISBN number
	var bookAttributes:XMLList=bookInput.book.attributes();
	//Extract the data from the populated XML lists
	for (var j:int=0; j<bookAttributes.length(); j++) {
		var bookISBNNum:XML=bookAttributes[i];
		trace("ISBN = "+bookISBNNum);
	}
	for (var i:int=0; i<books.length(); i++) {
		var bookInfo:XML=books[i];
		trace(bookInfo);
	}
}

What’s the difference?

The Use of XML Lists

A XML List is a list use to store specific XML nodes or attributes. The way I see it XML Lists are basically arrays formatted for dealing with XML data. This eliminates the need of creating all multiple arrays to store your data for further use – the XML List will do it all for you. If we wanted to, we can save off the an individual list for the author and book title by simply creating an XML List and filtering the specific node data. See code below.

Returning any or all of the XML data

Filtering and storing off any or all XML data becomes a more natural process.

//This xml list stores all of each book's data
var bookChildren:XMLList = bookInput.Book.children();
//This xml list will only store the author's info
var authorList:XMLList=bookInput.book.author;
//This xml list will only store the title's info
var titleList:XMLList=bookInput.book.title;

No need to define ignoreWhite to true

WithinAS3 there is not a need to define the ignoreWhite state to true. By default this is automatically set to true. Makes sense right!

Overall, you can see that loading XML data into Flash is as seamless as can be. No more headaches on trying to get your XML file to work for you. There’s more to the new XML classes than what you see on this page and I plan to touch on more of it in the next few days. If you are in need of additional resources, check out the ones below.

Additional Resources:

• Using XML in Flash CS3/AS3
• AS3 E4X Rundown
• ActionScript 3 XML Basics

Download Source

I hope this helps in your migration over into  AS3.  If there is something in particular you want to add or see with the Moving From AS2 to AS3 series, feel free to contact me via the contact page.

Since the surfacing of Apple’s CoverFlow, many of us have tried to mimic this very sleek effect within our Flash projects.  There are many successful attempts at accomplishing this effect of visually viewing of files.  However, I have to admit the ever so popular “CoverFlow effect” just isn’t as hot as it used to be.  Hopefully, a newly designed Flash component called PhotoFlip 3D CS can ignite that withering flame.

What is PhotoFlip 3D CS?

The guys over at Digicrafts provided a new twist to the “CoverFlow effect” in their new component, PhotoFlip 3D CS.  PhotoFlip 3D CS allows you to build a real time 3D coverflow effect without the need of much ActionScripting knowledge.  The other sweet thing about PhotoFlip 3D CS is that the “3D” look and feel is created on the fly without the need of a third party 3D application.

Includes a user friendly component inspector interface

Features of PhotoFlip 3D CS Include:

• 3D cover flow effect
• 3D popup effect
• Fully customize texture for each item (top, bottom, left, right back)
• Full startup animation
• Touch scroll control
• Setup menu by XML
• Customize link on each item
• Full API support

Additional Resources:

• Preview PhotoFlip 3D CS
• Documentation on PhotoFlip 3D CS

What is ImageViewer3D?

ImageViewer3D is an image viewer with a little hint of the Tiltviewer, a Flickr image gallery created by AirTightInteractive.  ImageViewer3D has been created by Arno Manders using Away3D, Tweener, and Adobe Flash.  The interactivity and feel for this image viewer is really eye-popping.  Its feature set is limited, however, being that this Flash component is free; I’d say it’s pretty impressive.

Features to be expected of ImageViewer3D:

• Slideshow option
• Flickr integration & search
• XML picture load
• Multipage option

Additional Resources:

Coverflow and Papervision3D hook up to create IgalleryX.  IgalleryX is a gallery that displays a stack of multiple photos, swfs, or videos with a reflection and perspective effect.  All photos can be accessed by a skinnable scrollbar, mouse click or flipping by mouse wheel.  Not only is this XML driven menu very robust, but with the integration of Papervison3D  it is also pretty fast.

Features to be expected of IgalleryX:

Extended Content Viewing With Desciption

Skinnable Scollbar

Support for Video, Images, and SWF Files

Additional Features:

• Fullscreen Support
• CSS + XML Driven
• Customize Reflection with 7 Parameters
• Many more…

Additional Resources:

• Preview this file
• More components from creator
• Download Papervision3D

Check out Flash Framer’s new Flash Component called magneticMenu.  The magneticMenu Flash component displays icons, images, or flash files in a magnetic like menu. When a user mouses over an icon the icon is attracted to the mouse pointer much like a real magnet.

Component Inspector

This new Flash component also supports both a horizontal or vertical mode. One other great feature is the ability to apply the menu’s settings right through the component inspector within Flash.

Key Features Provided by magneticMenu:

• All settings and photos can be changed through the component inspector or the XML file
• Customizable spacing
• horizontal or vertical format
• Supports all Flash image formats
• Supports .swf files
• ActionScript API available

Preview this file

Learn more about this file

This tutorial by Flash Farmer covers how to create a dynamic Flash XML navigation menu using Actionscript 2.0 and XML. Each button has a roll over and roll out animation. Control the clickthroughs, button titles and the total number of buttons with the external XML file. Once the Flash file is created you can update the menu just by editing the XML file.

This file consists of a nice structure and code is well commented.  Also, files to be downloaded comes along with full offline documentation.

Example of final product:

This is a very sleek Flash news slider using AS3 functionality and XML for fetching the data.

The main purpose of this Flash news slider is to show news on the front page with a title, an image, some descriptive text, and a link to the full article.

Also, the content being loaded is html formatted which allows for flexible customizations. You can find the steps for creating this Flash news slider along with the source files.

Other Available Resources:

Via faustocarrera.com
Demo

Elastic XML Menu created by Richardson
H-Menu Created by djankey
Professional Floating Menu created by gogh
3D XML Menu Studio 2 created by digitalscience
Accordion v2 created by bobocel
Dynamic Accordion Menu created by digitalscience
Rotation Menu created by Richardson
HorizontalMenuStudio v1.0 created by jurgenv
Elastic XML Menu Vertical created by Richardson
mySectionedMenu (xml) created by encryptme
FLASH ARROW MENU XML DRIVEN – Vertical created by djroots
iMenuPro created by iplat
Item Selection v7 created by bobocel
XML Team Members created by digitalscience
V-Menu 2 created by djankey
3d Box Menu created by collis
Dynamic Proximity Menu created by Richardson
Tsunami Vertical Menu created by ramiz
Expanding Nav created by digitalscience
Apple like menu created by luke
Two level Horizontal XML menu created by Chuckanucka
Powerful Menu XML 4 – Expanding Text (V) created by Random
Vertical multilevel drop down menu created by OXYLUS
myMacishMenu – Verticle created by encryptme
Cool Image Folio Menu created by OXYLUS
Tweened Menu created by djankey
Two Level XML Accordion Menu created by digitalscience
Fan / Circle Menu Navigation – XML Driven created by Suicidesquirrel
Dynamic XML Menu created by Betillo555
Scrolling Images Menu created by digitalscience
Follow Orange Menu created by KINGro83
Twirling Button created by doLLie
Horizontal Expand XML Menu created by Chuckanucka
Item Selection v2 created by bobocel
Horizontal XML Image Menu created by digitalscience

Here is a nice collection of Flash countdown timers. They range from XML driven to an old film countdown timer. I’ve noticed that there are many individuals looking for a solid Flash countdown timer, so here they are. Enjoy!

Valentine’s Day Countdown Timer by handmadesign

Countdown XML By nebravski

Countdown Timer – FIFA World Cup 2010 Final By pedrodonkey

Countdown Timer v2 By flashnos

XML Countdown With Universal Time and Multiple Events By dxc381

Flash Analouge Countdown Clock By biteMedia

XML Countdown Customizable to the Millisecond By dxc381

Countdown Timer to Region-Based Events(XML Driven using GMT) By meerkatlookou

Old Film Countdown By collis

Final countdown By samss100

Game Countdown Timer Component By RobertaD

::Digital wow clock:: By samss100

Grunge Countdown Timer By JackSparrow

Date and Time, Countdown Timer, and Time Elapsed and Remaining By scottexpo

Strong Countdown By Nemo

Countdown before New Year’s day By fab-shamane

Digital Countdown Preloader By designesia

Countdown Clock By zainesarruke

3D Clock by zizther

Bubbles Clock by drfisher