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I need to learn XML this week and will be purchasing the book on it today "XML in Flash by Craig Swann, Gregg Caines". I was wondering though what the differences are with Flash MX and and Flash 5 in reguards to XML.
I want to use XML to import data into some of my CD projects but not from the web. I won't be using Flash MX to write to the XML database just retrieve information. Am I on the right track? Would this be the best way?
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Well it really depends on how much information you want to import into flash from the database, if its a small amount you could use loadVariables or the new loadVars object, but if you ask me XML is the way to go. You can bring a lot of information into Flash quickly using XML and its very easy to handle the data.
The differences between the XML features in Flash 5 and MX are quite big. Flash 5 is much slower at parsing XML than Flash MX is, and with Flash 5 the ignoreWhite property (which ignores whitespace in XML Flash is parsing) only works in higher versions of the player and so even someone with Flash 5 installed but the latest Flash 5 player may not be able to view content if you have used this property.
But there are workaround which have been developed for Flash 5 that improve its XML performenece for all versions of the player, for info on this go to http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/ and look for XML Nitro its a .as file that overwrites Flash XML functions with new ones. But if you are using MX you shouldnt need to use XML Nitro.