Auto Reload XML in Flash

[wahababd]

Hi,
I need to reload XML data in Flash as soon as the XML has been updated from back-end.
I have gone through News Ticker Tutorial and It Worked fine.
Here is the link of that tutorial for your reference: http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx2004/newsticker.htm
I customized the code little bit (am not a flash developer ). In the timer function, I put the xmlData.load... in order to reload the file. Luckily it worked but still didn't fulfil my requirement. When the condition p==total fulfils, it reloads the XML file but fade-in and fadeout the first displayed news very quickly, without any delay and rest of the news works fine. I have spent days to resolve this issue but in vain. Plzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me out. Here is the modification in red colour.

function loadXML(loaded) {
    if (loaded) {
        xmlNode = this.firstChild;
        caption = [];
        detail = [];
        from = [];
        total = xmlNode.childNodes.length;
        for (i=0; i<total; i++) {
            caption[i] = xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
            detail[i] = xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[1].firstChild.nodeValue;
            from[i] = xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[2].firstChild.nodeValue;
        }
        first_item();
    } else {
        content = "file not loaded!";
    }
}


xmlData = new XML();
xmlData.ignoreWhite = true;
xmlData.onLoad = loadXML;
xmlData.load("Z:/news_ho.xml?blarg=" + new Date().getTime());




function first_item() {
    delay = 3000;
    p = 0;
    display(p);
    p++;
}
function timer() {
    myInterval = setInterval(ticker, delay);
    function ticker() {
        clearInterval(myInterval);
        if (p == total) {
            xmlData.load("Z:/news_ho.xml?blarg=" + new Date().getTime());
            p = 0;
        }
        fadeout();
    }
}
function display(pos) {
    over = new TextFormat();
    over.underline = true;
    //
    out = new TextFormat();
    out.underline = false;
    //
    TitleMC.newsTitle._alpha = 100;
    TitleMC.newsTitle.text = caption[pos];
    
    newsMC.newsText._alpha = 100;
    newsMC.newsText.text = detail[pos];
    
    PostedMC.Postedtxt._alpha = 100;
    PostedMC.Postedtxt.text = from[pos];
    
    timer();
}
function fadeout() {
    this.onEnterFrame = function() {
        if (newsMC.newsText._alpha>=0) {
            newsMC.newsText._alpha -= 5;
            TitleMC.newsTitle._alpha -= 5;
            PostedMC.Postedtxt._alpha -= 5;
        } else {
            display(p);
            p++;
            delete this.onEnterFrame;
        }
    };
}

Thanks,
Abdul

[wahababd]

Just now i have updated this thread. (Posted the whole code for better understanding)

[cbeech]

when you call load, it also 'restarts' the system by invoking loadXML() then calls first_item() which also calls the timer() method again creating the quick iteration of the first element - you'll need to call a different method or by-pass that call on reloading - the system should be set up to continue as normal - however, you should also 'wait' for the xml to load before proceeding

[wahababd]

Dear cbeech,
Thanks for your reply. Can you please guide me how to modify the code because am not a developer . Will really appreciate your help in this regard.

[cbeech]

ok - so really the issue here is that loadXML calls first_item() on success - so we need to control that - see the display doesn't care what data is in the queue, so we should be able to replace that at any time, as long as we don't also invoke a 'restart' of the timing sequence

- so with this code we could simply add a variable to help - BUT we'll also need to change the condition that checks the length of the array, so that on a reload while the system is in operation we don't result with p being out of range - so making these adjustments should do the trick:

var initialized:Boolean = false;

function first_item():Void {
    if( initialized ) return;
    initialized = true;
    delay = 3000;
    p = 0;
    display(p);
    p++;
}

function timer() {
    myInterval = setInterval(ticker, delay);
    function ticker() {
        clearInterval(myInterval);
        if (p >= total) {
            xmlData.load("Z:/news_ho.xml?blarg=" + new Date().getTime());
            p = 0;
        }
        fadeout();
    }
}

under this code, it is difficult to provide a 'hold' until the xml is loaded since methods are 'chained' together - so under this solution, it is likely (more like probably) that it will repeat the 'first' story in the previous load while the new data is loading

[wahababd]

Thank you very much cbeech for all your help and quick response. The code works perfectly fine now