Re: FLASH: Flash4 and forms

[Brian Clifton]

Could anyone please send me an example of this working? I am getting very confused!!


Thanks in advance, Brian


> Mike,

> 

> Sorry to contradict you but it's always true.

> Variables in Flash have context tied to the timeline. So any variables on

> a shared timeline will be sent. For the non programmers : Variables have a

> property that is akin to visibility. This means the you can reference them

> from some places and not from others. the basic rule is that variables in

> the same timeline will always be visible. If the variable you want to

> reference is in another timeline then you can not reference it directly.

> This is important when you are sending variables as you might get unwanted

> results you can't explain. Let's check this example, and it will help

> understand Mike's reply and why I started by contradicting him. Suppose

> you have a submit button on a layer of your main timeline and on this same

> layer you have a set variable.On another layer you have a set variable

> action also. Let's say they are respectively "samelayer=I'm here" and

> "otherlayer=I'm here also". When you press the submit button as it's on

> the main timeline you will be sending 3, yes three !, variables to your

> cgi. Two of them will be the ones we set and the third is a bonus variable

> called $version with a value that reflects the flash player version the

> user has installed. It's a pity MM doesn't tell us about these nice

> things, don't you think ? Now let's have a different scenario. You have a

> submit button in a movie clip that is placed on the main timeline. This

> movie clip has a variable defined let's say "inmovieclip=hi". On the same

> layer as the one the movie clip was placed set a variable for example

> "samelayer=hi folks" and on a different layer of the main timeline set

> another variable "diflayer=yes I'm here". Now when you press the submit

> button that is contained in a movie clip how many variables will be sent ?

> Only one ! Why ? Because only one variable was in context (visible) The

> variable defined inside the movie clip's timeline. Notice that the

> predefined variable $version isn't being sent now as it's only defined on

> the main timeline. I know this post is getting a bit long but I'll just

> end by giving you a nice quick way to do all this testing. I use a simple

> perl script that tells me everything. To do the same tests use the

> following action on the submit button : On (Release)

>       Get URL ("http://nigel/cgi-bin/test.cgi", window="_blank",

> vars=GET)

> End On

> 

> You should adapt the url to your own settings of course.

> And the perl script :

> -----Cut here------

> #!/usr/bin/perl

> 

> use CGI ':standard';

> 

>     $query=new CGI;

>  print header();

>  print start_html('Dumping Vars'),

>     h2 ('Current Values'),

>  p;

>  print $query->dump;

>  print end_html;

> 

> ----Cut here----

> 

> Place this script in your cgi-bin dir or any other with exec settings.

> Don't forget to modify the first line to #!perl if you are using Apache

> under windows or IIS. It will give you a nicely formatted output with all

> the variables sent to the script and is a great tool for quickly testing

> your movies to check what is being sent to a script.

> 

> Nigel

> 

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