---
title: "Learning How to Do Magic with Flash and XML"
date: 2003-04-22T12:22:50-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2003/04/22/flash-xml-magic/
author: Les Orchard
---

# Learning How to Do Magic with Flash and XML

Was thinking about learning new tech, and well, I haven't gotten much
farther into .NET
<a href="http://www.decafbad.com/blog/tech/dot_net_newbie.html" target="_top">as I'd wanted to</a>,
given moving and a sudden appearance of work.  Instead, I've had
a project hurled at me that combines Flash MX and XML, something I've
just barely touched before.
<br /><br />
Wow, is this stuff fun.  And I write that without a trace of sarcasm--
this app I've inherited for maintenance and extension, though it's a
bit grungy and shows some signs of late-night expediency, does some
neat things with actions and buttons dynamically wired up in response
to XML config files loaded via URL, which are in turn generated from a
database managed by a simple end-user admin interface.  Not sure how
much more I should write about it, but I'm dying to post a link.  Of
course, this isn't revolutionary stuff in general.  It's just a revelation
to me.
<br /><br />
The last time I had an opportunity to really, really dig around in
Flash was just about when Flash 5 came out.  I was immersed daily in
Flash in the years between the initial acquisition by Macromedia, up
through version 4, and just started drifting away, sadly, when things
started getting really interesting with v5.  That was when my daily
job swung entirely into the backend, and client-side concerns were
no longer my task.
<br /><br />
But now I'm back in this old neighborhood, and I can see why some
people would love nothing better but to build entire websites in
Flash.  Yeah, that's evil, but it's sexy.  Despite some clunkiness,
there are some very nice possibilities I see now.  I love Java, and
loved cobbling together funky applets 5 years or so ago, but Flash
makes me want to toy with rich client-side apps again.
<br /><br />
And then, there's this
<a href="http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/models/tg50.html" target="_top">Sony Clie PEG-TG50</a>
handheld I've recently started pining for, and it appears to run a
Flash 5 player.  It's probably underwhelming, but who knows?
<br /><br />
Anyway, back to work, but just had to spill some enthusiasm for
Flash.
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shortname=flash_xml_magic

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082845">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.uzilla.net/uzilla/blog/2003/04/02/index.cfm#index"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=1bdc4684f34167b972b4ab6da571e1f6&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.uzilla.net/uzilla/blog/2003/04/02/index.cfm#index">AndyEd</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082845" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-04-22T12:30:08">2003-04-22T12:30:08</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">I have to agree that it's a whole new ballgame with Flash MX.  I've managed to move from backend to front a few years back and while I mainly play in Mozilla, Flash MX is a welcome treat on occasion, see link in comment.

I'm also doing some of this in an open source card sorting application where I pass javascript data from Mozilla chrome into Flash via WDDX (an xml format for data structures),  uzilla.mozdev.org. Lots of possibilities for merging things like browser history with Flash viz.</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082846">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://simon.incutio.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=02ecb4f56e961dd226352c4dd51eff26&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://simon.incutio.com/">Simon Willison</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082846" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-04-22T15:17:47">2003-04-22T15:17:47</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Erk, didn't realise Blosxom displays my email address if I provide it (I thought it would be over-ridden by my URL) :(</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082847">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://simon.incutio.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=02ecb4f56e961dd226352c4dd51eff26&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://simon.incutio.com/">Simon Willison</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082847" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-04-22T20:44:35">2003-04-22T20:44:35</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Just don't make me read content from Flash. Fancy GUI things with XML socket back ends and dynamic data are fine, stupid (but amusing) optional animations are fine, but having to READ stuff in a Flash environment (where the many readability enhancements provided by my browser no longer apply) tends to make me wish it had never been invented.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082848">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082848" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-04-22T20:45:19">2003-04-22T20:45:19</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Sorry about that, Simon.  I just ducked in and clipped your email address out for good measure.  I should think about making that an option for my comment plugin</div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
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