[Xerte] LoadVars

Thu Aug 30 09:20:31 BST 2007

Paul,

If you download Xerte form the website now, I have aded
IconID.loadVars(url) and IconID.sendAndLoadVars(url, loadVarsObjToSend);

The events to listen for are onLoadVars and onSendAndLoadVars. In both
cases the resulting loadVars object is IconID.loadVars.

Can you test it and let me know it works to your satisfaction?

thanks,

Julian

________________________________

	From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Tenney Julian
	Sent: 29 August 2007 13:22
	To: Xerte discussion list
	Subject: RE: [Xerte] Having trouble reading XML from an external
script

	Hi,

	Xerte does do the sendAndLoad a little differently as in Xerte
sendAndLoad is a method of an icon; in Flash it is a method of an xml
object. I did it this way because you need to listen for the event and
it is easy to set up listeners to events broadcast by icons in Xerte,
rather than objects. 

	I can implement a loadVars in similar fasion if you want?

	To get at the string POSTed into the php page, try this:

	$empty = $post = array();

	foreach ($_POST as $varname => $varvalue) {
	  if (empty($varvalue)) {
	    $empty[$varname] = $varvalue;
	  } else {
	    $post[$varname] = $varvalue;
	  }
	}

	[Thanks to Thomas]

	Julian

________________________________

		From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Swanson
		Sent: 28 August 2007 21:38
		To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
		Subject: RE: [Xerte] Having trouble reading XML from an
external script

		Thanks Julian.

		I'm getting close (I think) to sorting this out. I am
able to retreive data sent from an external PHP script, but I'm having
trouble figuring out how to read what is sent to the PHP script.
According to an ActionScript 1.0 reference I found, sendAndLoad uses the
POST method for sending data, but I haven't been able to access any POST
variables coming in. Interestingly, I have a block of code in my PHP
script that indicates the $_POST array is not empty , but print_r $_POST
prints nothing.

		Is there something different in Xerte's implementation
of sendAndLoad? The reference I have indicates the URL is the first
argument for the method, with the reply object 2nd, yet your example
code has the reply object first and the url second.

		Also, is there an implementation of LoadVars that could
be used? I'm more used to name/value pairs and that might be easier than
using XML format.

		My Xerte sending script:

		myId = 5;
		myReq = new XML();
		myReq.query = "<query>SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE id =
" + myId + " ORDER BY fname</query>";
		xmlPage.sendAndLoad(myReq,
'http://localhost/test/test_xerte.php');

		My PHP script:

		<?php  # test_xerte.php

		// this script is a test of whether I can connect to a
php script through Xerte.

		ob_start();

		if (!empty ($_POST)) {

		    echo "<reply>";
		    echo "There is something coming in:<br />";
		    print_r ($_POST);
		    echo "</reply>";
		} else {
		    echo '<reply>The $_POST array was empty.</reply>';
		}

		ob_end_flush();
		?> 

		My Xerte receiving script:

		xmlResponse = xmlPage.templateData.reply;
		replyPage.myText = '<p><b>Response from script: </b>';
		replyPage.myText += '<i>' + xmlResponse + '</i></p>';
		replyPage.myText += "<br /><p>That's all folks!</p><br
/><p>Another paragraph.</p>";

		This prints:
		Response from script: There is something coming in:

		That's all folks!

		Another paragraph.

		I think I just need that last bit of knowledge that
allows me to parse the string that Xerte sends to PHP.

		- Paul

________________________________

			From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
			Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 1:38 AM
			To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
			Subject: RE: [Xerte] Having trouble reading XML
from an external script

			Close. Loading XML is asynchronous, so the call
to load it isn't returned straight away. You need to wait for it. I've
put a simple example at 

			www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/examples/loadXML.zip

			- Create a new file
			- Give the first page the id 'xmlPage'
			- add a script to it:

			myReq = new XML('<request/>');
			xmlPage.sendAndLoad(myReq, FileLocation +
'data.xml');

			- Add an interaction ot the page
			- Add an event response to the interaction:
eventName: 'onSendAndLoad', icon: 'xmlPage'
			- Add a script icon to the event response:

			debug(xmlPage.serverXML);
			debug(xmlPage.templateData.data);

			The first object you can use is the raw xml. Do
what you lkike with it. To save a lot of processing the xml, it is also
available as an object. This object follows the structure of the xml
file, but you can drill down through the hierarchy using dot notation.
So, if you have an xml file like this:

			<question>
			  <prompt>Here is a prompt</prompt>
			  <option>
			    <text>True</text>
			    <feedback>You clicked option true</feedback>
			  </option>

			  <option>
			    <text>false</text>
			    <feedback>You clicked option
false</feedback>
			  </option>
			</question>

			You access the values of the nodes and
attributes using

			iconID.templateData.question[0].prompt[0];
//returns 'here is a prompt'

			or 

			iconID.templateData.option[1].text[0]; //returns
'true'

			You can also construct the flowline based on the
contents of the xml file using the iconID.duplicate function. This means
you can easily create dynamic templates that build themselves at runtime
using the contents of the xml. This is a powerful approach and I use it
all the time. I'm going to document this more fully / write a manual, as
it is fairly advanced, both conceptually and technically.

			Julian

________________________________

				From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
				Sent: 24 August 2007 17:41
				To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
				Subject: [Xerte] Having trouble reading
XML from an external script

				Using Xerte 1.7 

				I am attempting to display some XML
returned from an external PHP script, and not having any success. Here
is my script icon contents:

				======== 
				var xml_msg:String = "<params
fname=\"Fred\" lname=\"Smith\" />"; 
				var my_xml:XML = new XML(xml_msg); 
				var myReply:XML = new XML(); 
				//reply.myText = "Supposed to be the
reply from my PHP script"; 
				//myReply.ignorewhite = true; 

my_xml.sendAndLoad('http://localhost/test/test_xerte.php', myReply); 

				reply.myText =
myReply.firstChild.attributes.value; 
				========= 

				My PHP script isn't doing anything with
the data sent to it, it just returns some XML: 

				========= 
				<?php  # test_xerte.php 

				// this script is a test of whether I
can connect to a php script through Xerte. 

				echo '<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
				    <reply value="Hello, World!" />'; 
				?> 
				========= 

				I've also tried it without the '<?xml
version="1.0" ?>' declaration in my PHP script. In Xerte, I have a Text
Display icon (id=reply) with {myText} embedded. It displays "undefined"
with the above code. If I comment out the last two lines in the Xerte
script icon, and uncomment the reply.myText = "Supposed to be the reply
from my PHP script" that is what prints in Xerte.

				I also get "undefined" if I paste
'<reply value="Hello, World!" />' into var myReply:XML = new XML('<reply
value="Hello, World!" />') and comment out the sendAndLoad line, so I
have a feeling this problem has nothing to do with the PHP script.

				Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

				_____________________________ 

				 Paul Swanson 
				 Instructional Designer 
				 Harland Financial Solutions 
				_____________________________ 

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