Connecting with External Sources > Sending and loading variables to and from a remote source > Using HTTP to connect to server-side scripts

 

Using HTTP to connect to server-side scripts

The loadVariables, loadVariablesNum, getURL, loadMovie, and loadMovieNum actions all communicate with server-side scripts using the HTTP protocol. These actions send all the variables from the Timeline to which the action is attached. When used as methods of the MovieClip object, loadVariables, getURL, and loadMovie send all the variables of the specified movie clip; each action (or method) handles its response as follows:

getURL returns any information to a browser window, not to the Flash Player.

loadVariables loads variables into a specified Timeline or level in the Flash Player.

loadMovie loads a movie into a specified level or movie clip in the Flash Player.

When you use the loadVariables, getURL, or loadMovie actions, you can specify several parameters:

URL is the file in which the remote variables reside.

Location is the level or target in the movie that receives the variables. (The getURL action does not take this parameter.)

For more information about levels and targets, see About multiple Timelines.

Variables sets the HTTP method, either GET or POST, by which the variables will be sent. When omitted, the Player defaults to GET, but no variables are sent.

For example, if you wanted to track the high scores for a game, you could store the scores on a server and use a loadVariables action to load them into the movie each time someone played the game. The action might look like this:

loadVariables("http://www.mySite.com/scripts/high_score.php", _root.scoreClip, GET);

This loads variables from the PHP script called high_score.php into the movie clip instance scoreClip using the GET HTTP method.

Any variables loaded with the loadVariables action must be in the standard MIME format application/x-www-urlformencoded (a standard format used by CGI scripts). The file you specify in the URL parameter of the loadVariables action must write out the variable and value pairs in this format so that Flash can read them. This file can specify any number of variables; variable and value pairs must be separated with an ampersand (&), and words within a value must be separated with a plus (+). For example, this phrase defines several variables:

highScore1=54000&playerName1=rockin+good&highScore2=53455&playerName2=bonehelmet&highScore3=42885&playerName3=soda+pop

For more information on loadVariables, getURL, loadMovie, and the LoadVars object, see their entries in the online ActionScript Dictionary in the Help menu.