Flash to WordPress Guide and Code

“Ever Since I launched my Flash website with a WordPress backend, I have received numerous emails and comments asking me how I did it. Today I will make available some of the PHP code I wrote to extract Data from WordPress in an XML format. I have also created a diagram and explanation on how my website works to hopefully assist anyone else who wants to try the same thing. I should point out that I haven’t made available an end to end solution, you will still need to do a lot of work, but I hope that I have provided a good starting point. The PHP Script makes an SQL query to a MYSQL database holding the WordPress Data. The PHP Script then formats the data into XML. This then can be loaded by your Flash Website. There are functions to retrieve Posts and create Menus.” - via tvwonline.net

I’ve been seeing a trend lately with Flash going full screen. Not only is it going to the edge of the browser, it is taking over the screen regardless of browser. This has been made possible since the arrival of Flash Player 9.

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“This handy little class (download here) will allow you to change the registration point of a MovieClip on the fly (instead of having to modify the symbol in the library and repostion all of the contents).” - via Darron Schall

Trigonometry is an easily overlooked topic until you want to create interactive interface solutions relying on spacial relationships. In theory, the concept of trigonometry doesn’t require much to grasp yet still requires enough specialized and simple formulas which are better served as reference material.

So like any interaction developer, I’ll need a trig toolbox, and this will be it.

Note: This is currently a work in progress

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“This function is used internally during the initializion stage for the predefined actionscript objects. It is used to hide an objects children from the for..in loop construct. The for..in loop construct iterates over all children of an object, this means it exposes both methods and properties of an object. It is also used to protect the predefined actionscript objects children from being over-written by another action with the same name and to protect the predefined actionscript objects from being deleted. The usefulness of this function can also be harnessed by the developer and that is when this function gets interesting… ” - via FlashGuru Consulting » ASSetPropFlags

Embedding Flash

“There seems to be a lot of confusion about the code needed to properly embed Flash objects within a website: it’s the most frequently asked question at this site’s forum. The rise of profiling sites like Myspace (who filter lots of codes) and the recent Eolas patent enforcement have thrown even more confusion into the mix. In this article, I’ll try to clearly align the best options for Flash embedment. I’ll also mention the most common pitfalls, and their workarounds.” - via jeroenwijering.com

My method-of-choice to embed has to be SWFObject. It’s able to not only take care of what it needs to, but also integrates with several other techniques including SWFAddress. Another thing I like about it is the ability to work well within Wordpress. At first I had to fall back on some embed techniques and plugins, but after reading this post about using multiline comments, I am up and running with SWFObject again.

Bitwise operators are a very low level way to program and therefore not considered light reading, but lately I’ve been seeing enough interesting scenarios where they can be applied.
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This is just a proof of concept with no real application yet. Not sure that even qualifies a ‘concept’ or ‘proof’.

This example uses Object.registerClass, __proto__, prototype and is an AS 1.0 approach vs. an AS 2.0 approach. I found some links on this before but never connected the dots. I should also think about how __resolve might play in with this too. This might just be a case of Multiple Inheritance.

I’ve been attaching MovieClips from the library and using an AS 2.0 class with the Linkage Identifier. While this has worked great, this new method allows me to choose whether or not I need to link it in the library vs. dynamic controlling an objects class before AND after attaching it. Although I’m not sure the consequences of that yet.
I’ll post a real example later, but here is the code…

Object.registerClass.zip

How easy is it to make custom sorting code? ever wanted a simple way to randomize an array? here’s a quick and dirty way.

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At first glance, making functions in Flash is essentially simple, but there is much more than meets the eye. Let’s look at just how functions function…

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