Neumont Widget

I had to make this widget for Neumont University and since it was a pretty simple app I decided to do it in AS3:



This pulls from an XML file that is on their server and rotates through news and events. You can download the files here:

[DOWNLOAD]

The xml file is in there, although you'll have to change the link in the flash if you really want it to pull from that xml because right now it is pulling the xml off Neumonts server.

Issues this covers: setTimer, new setInterval, dynamic text, XML, parsing, URLRequest, getURL, AS3, Actionscript 3.0

Loading XML and Parsing with AS3

This is what the XML doc looks like:
<images>
<pic>
<image>photos/pic17.jpg</image>
<thumb>thumbs/pic17.jpg</thumb>
<title>Kevin's Evil Face</title>
<desc>This is Kevin layin down some tracks. Boho Digitalia - February 2008</desc>
</pic>
<pic>
<image>photos/pic18.jpg</image>
<thumb>thumbs/pic18.jpg</thumb>
<title>Matt</title>
<desc>This is Matt singin some live bgv's</desc>
</pic>
<pic>
<image>photos/pic26.jpg</image>
<thumb>thumbs/pic26.jpg</thumb>
<title>The 4923</title>
<desc>Once upon a time, Matt wasn't in the band yet and Kevin played bass. Kilby Court - A Really Long Time Ago</desc>
</pic>
</images>

And this is how you load it into Flash and parse it:
var thumbs:Array = new Array();
var images:Array = new Array();
var titles:Array = new Array();
var descs:Array = new Array();

///////////////////////////////////
///// vvvvvv LOAD XML vvvvvv //////
//+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++//
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var xml:XML = new XML();
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadXML);
loader.load(new URLRequest("images.xml"));
function loadXML(event:Event):void{
xml = new XML(event.target.data);
var total:Number = xml.pic.length();
for(var i:int = 0; i < total; i++){
thumbs[i] = xml.pic.thumb.text()[i];
images[i] = xml.pic.image.text()[i];
titles[i] = xml.pic.title.text()[i];
descs[i] = xml.pic.desc.text()[i];
}
loadThumbs();
}
//+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++//
///////////////////////////////////
///////////////////////////////////

///// LOAD THE THUMBNAILS /////
function loadThumbs():void{
// do whatever you need here
trace(thumbs);
}

This will make 4 arrays (thumbs, images, titles, descs) and populates them with everything from your XML file. I still haven't taken the time to figure out how to parse it into a 2D array, so if anyone wants to tell me how to do it, that would rock.