RSS Feeds? Databases?

[NathanG]

Hi all,

Is it possible to make a flash frame that can recieve and display an rss feed? I am thinking of a frame which I can post onto my site called "latest news" and have it upated regularly via rss without having to manualy change the content and re-upload the swf file every time I have new news.

Also, and I doubt this, Is it possible to retrieve information from my site database and display it in a flash frame? This would solve about a million problems for me.

my site has 13 chat rooms using RMS. Would it be possible using fusion as a swf to retrieve information about how many users are in a cirtain room and load that number into a counter to display it? I guess it all comes down to the abillity to retrieve the information in a flash build.

Any advice welcomed,

Thanks,

Nathan

[LB]

1. Receive? An RSS feed is nothing but an XML file. All you would have to do is use the Get object and Get the URL of your RSS feed, then parse it in MMF2. Although, parsing RSS feeds is more difficult than simply displaying pre-formatted text from a .txt file on your server, which may be more of what you want.

2. Yes, if you write a PHP script or other sort of script you know how to use with your website, you can again use the Get object to get information from your database through the script.

3. I don't know what RMS is, but it may be a similar solution to #2.

[NathanG]

cool, thanks Lb.... looks like im going on an intecsive php learning curve lol.

Now that I know the direction does anybody else have any more detailed information on how I might get to my destination... please bare in mind that I am a bit fusionally challenged!

[DavidN]

PHP's not that bad once you get used to it Look up a basic Hello-World tutorial, get some webspace and upload something to just show a sentence or two then try using the Get Object to bring that down into MMF. Then just build outwards gradually...

Further down the road, one thing to bear in mind is that for the Get object to work in Flash, the server for the page you're calling needs a crossdomain.xml file that allows calls from wherever you're calling it from. Search earlier on the forum for more about it.

[NathanG]

great advice, thanks David.