Loading variables from a text field and Editing/Updating the values via Perl - Page 5

Part III - Setting up the Flash Movie to work on your server

Basic Theory and Necessary Changes for the Flash Movie

The first thing the Flash movie does is load the variables contained in the text file that you have already uploaded.  In this example the actionscript for doing that is located in one of the first frames of the movie.  Here is the example code: 

loadVariablesNum ("http://www.snowvids.com/PerlTut/Ex2TextFile.txt?Ran="+random(999), 0);

You will have to change this in the Fla (It's clearly marked when you open it up) to the url path where the text file is located on Your server.  In the example movie this Frame ActionScript is located on frame number 10 in the first layer.  After you have changed this in the example Fla you can run it on your server and it will load the default values in the text file into your movie.  One not on the above ActionScript - Notice the ?Ran="+random(999) portion, this just adds a random number onto the end of the text file so that the browser loads a new file each time, ie it's not in the cache.  The default values are shown below.

Title=Default Title&Contact=jfhill1@aol.com&About=About Default&News=Default News&
Products=Default Products&Link=http://www.snowvids.com

In the movie there are dynamic text fields with variable names corresponding to what you see in the text file.  For example the text field named "Title" will have the value "Default Title" when you load the variables from the text file and so on.  If this part is not working you don't have the url path set correctly.  This part will work independent of the Perl Script. 

Edit / Update Variable Values

There is a link from the example movie to this part of the movie.  In most cases however you will not want everyone editing your movie.  You can avoid this by either making it a secret spot within the movie, have this area password protected or make the Edit/Update part of the example into it's own movie - that only you know the path to.  The last way is probably the best and easiest way. 

The update/Edit area contains the same text fields with the same name as the 1st part, with the exception that they are now input fields instead of dynamic fields.  

You only need one button to update/Edit the text file.  This button contains the ActionScript

on (release) {
loadVariablesNum ("http://www.snowvids.com/cgi-bin/UpdateVars.cgi", 0, "POST");
Status = "Updating Variables - Please Wait till you see the Update Success Message";
gotoAndPlay (35);
}

You need to change the url Path to the url path to "UpdateVars.cgi" on your server.  This will execute the cgi file and update your text file.  The Status variable is just something extra I put in to tell the user when the update process begines.  The cgi file will pass back a variable to tell you when it's Complete.