[RESOLVED] marking some nodes as checked

[ram_son]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for help on this problem as my flash 8 / AS 2 knowledge is fairly limited and I have been googling for a solution for quite some time with no luck.

I have struggled through making an application that displays sequentially, through the use of next and previous buttons, information derived from an XML file
that is presented in four different text fields. I would like to be able to "select or mark" some of the nodes as having been examined through double-clicking
or dragging and dropping them in a certain target area.

When I double click on the name field, I am looking for two things to happen:
1. The text color in all four displayed fields to change and keep the new color.
2. Have the information displayed transferred to another XML and a text file to be used elsewhere.

Would something like this be too complicated? Appreciate any input.

[Nig 13]

Please provide current FLA file

[ram_son]

The file exceed the 300k.I'll try to trim some of the elements and bring it down to size.

[ram_son]

Here is the fla. I hope it is useful. Would you need a sample XML ?

[ram_son]

the file didn't upload

[ram_son]

It uploaded this time. Please take a look at it and see if you can help.
thanks

[Nig 13]

yes, please send the XML file as well!

[ram_son]

I shortened the original xml file.

[Nig 13]

1. The text color in all four displayed fields to change and keep the new color.

Double clicking the text would be difficult in Flash, because only AS3 has a built-in function for that. You'll have to make your own function based on timing to make a double-click, or you can find an alternate method! Either way, to check if you're double-clicking ON a text field, would also be difficult, as they're not movieclips, and you can't use hitTest with just textfields. Changing the texts' color is fairly easy, but to keep it after double-clicking, will involve, either a lot of variables, or saving them locally with SharedObject!

2. Have the information displayed transferred to another XML and a text file to be used elsewhere.

This is not possible without the aid of PHP, which is a server side scripting language, and you'll have to have a server with it installed in order to achieve this!

[ram_son]

Thanks Nig 13 for the response. How about this:

for item # 1: Using a button instead of double clicking the text which will insert an attribute like "checked = true" and the application will change the text color based on whether the attribute is there or not.

for item # 2: Could I use an empty XML file and a text file and then insert or append the data to them?

Are these workable solutions? Please keep in mind that the fla files is using AS 2.

Thanks for your assistance.

[ram_son]

After reading your post, I did quite a bit of reading on the subject and found out about wrappers like Zinc and Shared Objects. However, can you still help me with the statements needed to create and append data to the file(s), (the way I described in my last post), within flash and prior to saving it or them?
I learned that:

_xml.firstChild.firstChild.attributes.theChecked = "Yes";

would insert an attribute the Checked = "Yes", but I am not sure how to make it work to add it to the selected or displayed item.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nig 13]

Great that you solved the first problem, but the second one requires communication with other language, such as PHP. You'll have to give thorough description of what you want to accomplish, and what information you want to append to the XML file, in order for me to try and write a script

[ram_son]

I haven't totally solved the first problem since I still need to save a file locally ( which is also needed for the second part). The XML file that I uploaded has four attributes for each node. The actual file has a lot more nodes than the sample. Assuming the user clicks on a button causing 50 of them to be marked as theChecked="Yes" (this is what I haven't figured out totally to get it to work with arrays); the next step would be to transfer and save an XML or a comma separated file, which lists those fifty items, on the PC to be used at later time. It's like when a high score file for a game is saved locally on the PC.
I actually need only two attributes theWord and theMeaning for the generated file.

Now, would it be easier to do everything using AS 2 and then use a wrapper or Shared Objects or to use PHP which I understand needs to use a server.

Is this clear enough as far as what the code has to achieve?

[Nig 13]

Wait a second! You want to change the XML file by changing an attribute to "Yes", to check if the user has clicked on a button, and then check the XML file whether to change the text colors or not? If you only want this for each individual user, so that the information is only saved on their computer, you can use SharedObject, and store variables on the local user's computer, within Flash, no PHP or anything. Let me know and I'll write it out for you

[ram_son]

Yes, that's it for step #1. Then I want to be able to use only the items marked "Yes" to be displayed in a list and/or manipulated. It would be great if you write it out for me.

[Nig 13]

For Step 1:

make 4 buttons, and position them on the 4 textfields, and give each an instance name. For instance, btn1, btn2, btn3 and btn4. Then, change this function on the Top of your pile of code:

function showText(num)
{
    myText_txt.text = wordArray[num].Word;
    myText_txt1.text = wordArray[num].Synonym;
    myText_txt2.text = wordArray[num].Meaning;
    myText_txt3.text = wordArray[num].Example;
} // End of the function

to THIS:

for(i=1;i<5;i++){
    _root["btn"+i]._alpha = 0;
}
savedTexts = SharedObject.getLocal("saveText");

defaultColor = 0xFFFF00; // yellow
changeColor = 0xFF0000; // red

function changeColorFunction(){
    if(colorText == true){
        myText_txt.textColor = changeColor;
        myText_txt1.textColor = changeColor;
        myText_txt2.textColor = changeColor;
        myText_txt3.textColor = changeColor;
    } else {
        myText_txt.textColor = defaultColor;
        myText_txt1.textColor = defaultColor;
        myText_txt2.textColor = defaultColor;
        myText_txt3.textColor = defaultColor;
    }
}

function btnClick(mc, num){
    mc.onPress = function(){
        if(savedTexts.data["var"+num] == undefined){
            savedTexts.data["var"+num] = 1;
            colorText = true;
            changeColorFunction();
        }
    }
}

function showText(num)
{
    colorText = false;
    if(savedTexts.data["var"+num] != undefined){
        colorText = true;
    }
    for(i=1;i<5;i++){
        btnClick(_root["btn"+i], num);
    }
    myText_txt.text = wordArray[num].Word;
    myText_txt1.text = wordArray[num].Synonym;
    myText_txt2.text = wordArray[num].Meaning;
    myText_txt3.text = wordArray[num].Example;
    
    changeColorFunction();
} // End of the function

Then I want to be able to use only the items marked "Yes" to be displayed in a list and/or manipulated

What do you mean? Do you want all the colored texts to be saved into a new file when a button is pressed? You can do this manually, by pressing a button, and it will automatically be copied to your clipboard, and then you can paste it into Notepad or something!

[ram_son]

Thanks Nig 13 this works great. What I meant by:

Then I want to be able to use only the items marked "Yes" to be displayed in a list and/or manipulated.

is to actually "load" only the items marked "Yes" and display them in text fields.Let's say I add another button that will start a movie (a form) similar to the one we already have, but that displays only the items marked "Yes" in the text fields and leaves out the rest of the items. Do I load the same words.xml and have to write code to extract the items marked "Yes". Is this the way to do it? If so, what would the code be.
I greatly appreciate what you have done so far and hope that I am not being too much of a pain. You are really helping me out tremendously.Thanks.

PS I hope this is clear enough. If not I am ready to try again.

[emanuelfulghum]

The file exceed the 300k.

[emanuelfulghum]

It would be great if you write it out for me.

[Nig 13]

please send the new FLA file, and include the button and the form that you want, and I will see what I can do accordingly