Loading a ComboBox from a file - Page 3

Loading information from a text file - text file structure

Flash reads text file information in variable pairs so your data should have the following format:

Sites=Flashkit,Google,Macromedia&URLs=http://www.flashkit.com,http://www.google.com,http://www.macromedia.com

The file has two variables: Sites and URLs. Each of these variables has a single value e.g. Flashkit,Google,Macromedia. It's a bit confusing, but the single value is made up the individual ComboBox entries separated by a comma. Once the value of each variable is read into Flash, we'll separate out the individual site information into arrays so we can use it to populate the ComboBox component.

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

Sites=Flashkit,Google,Macromedia&URLs=http://www.flashkit.com, http://www.google.com,http://www.macromedia.com&End=1

Your data source file could be created from an ASP, PHP or Cold Fusion file. It could also be a simple txt file.