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Keyword search using MySQL / PostgreSQL / MSSQL / InterBase / ODBC, PHP and Flash 4
Author: James Greenhalgh | Website: http://www.odslinux.com |

Page 7
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Onto the Flash

Well now that all the scary PHP and db stuff are done, the Flash is a breeze. I'm not going to go too in depth into the Flash, as the functionality is very basic. I will give a brief frame step by step though.

Frame 1:
The Ask Leaphy button gathers the question ('q') and how many results to return ('r') and sends those variables to the PHP.

On (Release, Key: )
   If (q ne "")
      Comment: Checks if the Maximum Results is a number, if not it returns 10.
      If (int(r) = 0)
         Set Variable: "r" = "10"
      End If
      Comment: Loads the variables into the PHP.
      Load Variables ("http://www.yourwebsite.com/dgssearch/search.php", "", vars=POST)
      Go to and Play ("Asking")
   End If
End On

Frame 2:
The editable text fields become non editable and I changed the colour for effect. The loop begins waiting for the response from the PHP script. If the PHP has finished executing and a match was recorded, it goes to the 'Possible Answers' frame. If there is no match, then it proceeds to the 'Sorry' frame.

Comment: Check if the query returned any matches. If
((linksloaded eq "yes") and (link1>  0))
   Set Variable: "i" = "1"
   Set Variable: "links" = ""
   Loop While (eval("link"&i) ne "")
      Set Variable: "links" = links & eval("word"&i)  & Newline
      Set Variable: "i" = i+1
   End Loop
   Go to and Stop ("Possible Answers")
Else If ((linksloaded eq "yes") and (link1 = 0))
   Go to and Stop ("Sorry")
End If

Frames 3-7:
This is the first loop to keep our playhead moving while the search.php is executing.

Frame 8:
This is the 'Sorry' frame. It is where the playhead goes to if no matches are made with the DB, it includes an Ask Again button that wipes all the variables and returns you to the first frame.

Frame 9:
This is the 'Possible Answers' frame. After the PHP has returned the variables, a text field is populated with the possible answers. This frame also includes 10 instances of the invisible button. These invisible buttons call the goToLink script, passing the buttonNumber variable that is different for each button.

On (Release)
   Set Variable: "buttonNumber" = 1
   Call ("goToLink")
End On

Set Variable: "id" = eval("link"&(links.scroll-1+buttonNumber))
If (id ne "")
   Begin Tell Target ("/Cache")
      Set Variable: "id" = /:id
      Load Variables ("http://www.yourserver.com/dgssearch/answer.php", "", vars=POST)
      Go to and Play (2)
   End Tell Target
   Go to and Play ("Answer")
End If

The only really tricky part of this Actionscript is perhaps the first line. To get the id, Flash evaluates what the link## variable is equal to, where ## is the buttonNumber variable sent from the invisible button + the scroll.



Frame 10:
This playhead begins to loop as the PHP seeks out the answer to the question. Once the answer is loaded it moves to the 'Answer Loaded' frame.

Comment: PHP loads the answer from the db
If (Cache:answerloaded)
   Set Variable: "theTruth" = Cache:theTruth
   Begin Tell Target ("/Cache")
      Go to and Stop (1)
   End Tell Target
   Go to and Stop ("Answer Loaded")
End If

Frames 11-15:
This is the second loop to keep our playhead moving while the answer.php is executing.

Frame 16:
This is the 'Answer Loaded' frame. Simply a display for the answer that gets returned from the database query. It also includes buttons to either go back to the possible questions or GO Back and use a different keyword entirely.

Frame 17:
gotoLink Actionscript (as described earlier) Again, don't forget to change the server address in the Actionscript.

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» Level Advanced

Added: : 2001-02-19 Rating: 8.07 Votes: 47 Hits: 3984

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I work for a Canadian software company as a logisitics director. We provide custom configured Linux distributions. In my spare time I sleep.

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