Creating dynamic charts from an external file - Page 2

Structuring the data file

The first step is to create your data file. Flash MX expects to see your data in the following format:

&variablename=variablevalue&variable2name=variable2value

As long as you can format your output in this way, Flash can understand the information. So that means you can use any technology to create the data file.

Charts display multiple values. To achieve this in Flash, you'll have to create one variable for the labels and one variable for the chart data. Each of these variables will be made up of individual values separated by commas.

Your data should look like:

&ChartLabels=Jan,Feb,Mar,April,May,Jun&ChartValues=11,41,64,120,19,101

It's a good idea to add a variable on the end so that Flash can tell when the end of the file is reached. For example:

&ChartLabels=Jan,Feb,Mar,April,May,Jun&ChartValues=11,41,64,120,19,101&End=1

I don't intend to go into the specifics about how you would create the data file. It could come from a text file, or you could write an ASP, PHP or Cold Fusion file to generate the values.