SMS > Database > Flash

Hey folks,

In short, I'm trying to develop a flash app in which I can display text from a continually updated XML database.

Users send us a text via SMS and it is then added to our database. What I want to do is take each text message from the database and have it automatically display in a very basic Flash interface as soon as it comes in.

In a similar way to a simple chat relay, I want new messages to appear at the bottom, pushing older messages up and off the screen.

I'm no expert with Flash or AS so any support/code you have would be muchly appreciated =] And if it's of any relevance, I'm using CS3... AS2 or 3 - whichever works best!

Cheers, D.

To get the gist of it, what you'll need to do is poll a server side script, whether it's PHP, ASP, Python, whatever, to access the database.

What you'd do is from your Flash app, you'd send out the request with a timestamp based on the last request. Then your script will return only the new data. That way you're not clogging your tubes from always returning the entire chat log with every request since it will be polling frequently.

As for code, it's hard to just give you a script, but here's an extremely quick example. Completely untested and insecure, but it'll give you an idea:

PHP Code:

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<results>
<?php
    header('Content-type: text/xml');
    
    $c = mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', '*****');
    mysql_select_db('mydb', $c);
    
    $query = "SELECT `message` FROM `messages` WHERE timestamp > {$_GET['timestamp']}";
    $result = mysql_query($query, $c);
    
    while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
    {
        echo '<m>'.$row->message.'</m>';
    }
?>
</results>

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PHP Code:

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import flash.events.Event;
import flash.net.URLLoader;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.net.URLVariables;
import flash.text.TextField;

var timestamp:int = 0;
var txt:TextField;

init();

function init():void
{
    txt = new TextField();
    txt.width = stage.stageWidth;
    txt.height = stage.stageHeight;
    addChild(txt);
}

function grabMessages():void
{
    var ldr:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
    var req:URLRequest = new URLRequest("getMessages.php");
    var vars:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
    vars.timestamp = timestamp;
    req.data = vars;
    ldr.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, updateMessages);
    ldr.load(req);
}

function updateMessages($e:Event):void
{
    var messages:XML = new XML($e.currentTarget.data);
    for(var i:int; i<messages.length(); i++) txt.appendText("\n"+messages[i].value());
    
    timestamp = new Date().getTime();
    setTimeout(grabMessages, 3000);
} 


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