1. Introduction
1.1 What is wddx?
From www.openwddx.org: "WDDX is an XML-based technology that enables the exchange of complex data between Web programming languages, creating what some refer to as 'Web syndicate networks'. WDDX consists of a language-independent representation of data based on an XML 1.0 DTD, and a set of modules for a wide variety of languages that use WDDX. WDDX can be used with HTTP, SMTP, POP, FTP and other Internet protocols that support transferring textual data".and also: "...WDDX solves critical problems in exchanging data between different Web application environments, such as JavaScript, ColdFusion, Perl, ASP/COM and Java. With WDDX, multiple applications can easily share complex data across language environments, systems and platforms. As a result, developers can now more easily build systems that exchange information between browsers and servers or between different application servers".
1.2 What do you need.
- PHP has built-in WDDX functions. "In order to use WDDX, you will need to install the expat library (which comes with apache 1.3.7 or higher) and recompile PHP with --with-xml and --enable-wddx". (from http://www.php.net )- Flash has not a native support for wddx, since it is not a w3c standard, but Branden Hall, of figleaf software has built some prototype functions which will allow you to work easily with wddx. You can download the necessary file wddx_mx.as from here (actually version 1.0)
At least, since i will use a mysql database to create a pratical example you also need mysql installed on your server
Note: Mybe you're asking: "Yes, but why WDDX?".
Using WDDX, your php output will be formatted in a way (is an xml output) that will allow you to parse in a easier way all your data, without spending hours on xml prsing functions and without spending time to build arrays and object from the standard text/plain output (variable=value).
In fact the wddx lib that you've downloaded will do the parsing for you... :)
Using WDDX, your php output will be formatted in a way (is an xml output) that will allow you to parse in a easier way all your data, without spending hours on xml prsing functions and without spending time to build arrays and object from the standard text/plain output (variable=value).
In fact the wddx lib that you've downloaded will do the parsing for you... :)
2. Start Up
2.1 create the mysql table
We want to get a list of values from MySQL and pass them to Flash without using the standard variable/value method, but using the wddx php serialization.To build this example I used a pre existent mysql table present already on my server. That is the one which generate the prototype page (on my site).
This table has this structure:
- id
- categoria
- versione
- titolo
- data
- testo
- hits
- online
To create the table you can use this sql query:
CREATE TABLE prototype ( id int(20) NOT NULL auto_increment, categoria varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', versione tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', titolo varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', data datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00', testo text NOT NULL, hits int(20) NOT NULL default '0', email varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', online tinyint(2) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (id), FULLTEXT KEY testo (testo) ) TYPE=MyISAM;
