Data Integration Sample


	ASP Turbine Features Samples Download Purchase Documentation


Samples Menu	Next Sample >>

Data Integration Sample
(Flash MX/5; PDF)

Turbine can read data from several sources and from several formats either locally or from remote locations through HTTP requests. Turbine supports the following data sources:

local or remote XML documents
local or remote files
.NET DataSets, DataTables and DataViews
local strings passed as an argument

Reading Variables from a Var File

This example shows how to read several variables from a variables file. The following MML reads the file varfile.txt and displays the read variables in <Text> tags:

To accomplish the same results directly from the scripting interface, we could instead do (data1.aspx):

// load a variables file
Turbine.LoadVar("varfile.txt");

// display two loaded variables by using two <text> tags
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,10'>var1 = {var1}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,30'>var2 = {var2}</text>");

The varfile.txt contents are:

# this is a comment
# this is a var definition file
var1 = "value of var1"

# the following line is an error. Errors are ignored:
invalid line

# var names can be optionally enclosed by {}s
{var2} = value of var2

The results in Flash are:

Reading a DataSet from File

This example shows how to read a Turbine DataSet from a file:

To accomplish the same results directly from the scripting interface, one could do instead (data2.aspx):

// load a DataSet file
Turbine.LoadDataSet("dataset.txt", "data");

// display DataSet cells by using some <text> tags
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,{data$y.0}' color='{data$color.0}'>row 0 url: {data$url.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,{data$y.1}' color='{data$color.1}'>row 1 url: {data$url.1}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,{data$y.2}' color='{data$color.2}'>row 2 url: {data$url.2}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,{data$y.3}' color='{data$color.3}'>row 3 url: {data$url.3}</text>");

The dataset.txt file contents are:

<date, url, color, y>
10-2, http://www.blue-pacific.com, #ff00ff, 10
11-2, http://www.flashkit.com, #ff0000, 30
12-2, http://slashdot.org, #000000, 50
13-2, http://www.e-sheep.com, #11ff00, 70

The results in Flash are:

Creating a DataSet Manually

This example shows how to use the component interface to create a DataSet and to fill it with data (data3.aspx):

// make a DataSet "manually"
Turbine.MakeDataSet("handmade_dataset", "col1,col2");
Turbine.AddDataSetRow("r0.c0,r0.c1");
Turbine.AddDataSetValue("handmade_dataset", "col2", 0, "new value");
Turbine.AddDataSetColumn("handmade_dataset", "col3", 0, "r0.c2");
// display DataSet values by using three <text> tags
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,10'>handmade_dataset$col1.0 = {handmade_dataset$col1.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,30'>handmade_dataset$col2.0 = {handmade_dataset$col2.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,50'>handmade_dataset$col3.0 = {handmade_dataset$col3.0}</text>");

The results in Flash are:

Reading a DataSet from an XML File

Turbine also deals very well with XML data. This example shows how to convert XML into a DataSet:

<DataSet src="xml_xmldatasetfile.txt"
         DataSet="book"
         RowTag="chapter"
         ColumnTags="pages, title, interesting, topics">

<text pos='10,10'>book$title.0 = {book$title.0}</text>"
<text pos='10,30'>book$pages.0 = {book$pages.0}</text>"
<text pos='10,50'>book$interesting.0 = {book$interesting.0}</text>"
<text pos='10,70'>book$topics.0 = {book$topics.0}</text>"

<text pos='10,100'>book$title.1 = {book$title.1}</text>"
<text pos='10,120'>book$pages.1 = {book$pages.1}</text>"
<text pos='10,140'>book$interesting.1 = {book$interesting.1}</text>"
<text pos='10,160'>book$topics.1 = {book$topics.1}</text>"

To accomplish the same results directly from the scripting interface, one could do (data4.aspx):

// load a DataSet from an XML file
Turbine.LoadDataSet("xml_xmldatasetfile.txt", "book", "chapter", "pages, title, interesting, topics" );

// display DataSet values with <text> tags
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,10'>book$title.0 = {book$title.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,30'>book$pages.0 = {book$pages.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,50'>book$interesting.0 = {book$interesting.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,70'>book$topics.0 = {book$topics.0}</text>");

Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,100'>book$title.1 = {book$title.1}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,120'>book$pages.1 = {book$pages.1}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,140'>book$interesting.1 = {book$interesting.1}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,160'>book$topics.1 = {book$topics.1}</text>");

The xml_xmldatasetfile.txt file contents are:

<book>

  <name>Gone with the rain</name>
  <author>Arabian Bruce Lawrence</author>
  <price>$39</price>

  <chapter>
    <title id="1">First Launch</title>
    <pages>45</pages>
    <interesting>90%</interesting>
    <topics>Love, hate & video</topics>
  </chapter>

  <chapter_not_valid>
    <title id="1">what?</title>
    <pages>45</pages>
    <interesting>90%</interesting>
    <topics>Love, hate & adventure</topics>
  </chapter_not_valid>

  <chapter>
    <title id="2">Second Launch</title>
    <pages>71</pages>
    <interesting>30%</interesting>
    <topics>Sex, Love & Hate</topics>
  </chapter>

</book>

The results in Flash are:

Reading a DataSet from a String

And data can also be integrated from a string. This example shows how to read a Turbine DataSet from an XML string:

<DataSet dataSet="book"
         rowTag="chapter"
         columnTags="interesting=int, title#titleattr,                      pages#pagesattr=pg, topics, pages#pagesattr">

  <chapter>
    <title titleattr='1st launch'>First Launch</title>
    <pages pagesattr='45'/>
    <interesting>90%</interesting>
    <topics>Love, hate, adventure</topics>
  </chapter>

</DataSet>

<Text pos='10,10'>book$title#titleattr.0 = {book$title#titleattr.0}</Text>
<Text pos='10,30'>book$int.0 = {book$int.0}</Text>
<Text pos='10,50'>book$pg.0 = {book$pg.0}</Text>
<Text pos='10,70'>book$topics.0 = {book$topics.0}</Text>
<Text pos='10,90'>book$pages#pagesattr.0 = {book$pages#pagesattr.0}</Text>

To accomplish the same results directly from the scripting interface, we could instead do (data5.aspx):

// load a DataSet from an XML string
Turbine.DataSetFromString("<chapter>
                          <title titleattr='1st launch'>First Launch</title>
                          <pages pagesattr='45'/>
                          <interesting>90%</interesting>
                          <topics>Love, hate, adventure</topics>
                          </chapter>",
                          "book",
                          "chapter",
                          "interesting=int, title#titleattr, pages#pagesattr=pg, topics, pages#pagesattr");

// display DataSet values with <text> tags
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,10'>book$title#titleattr.0 = {book$title#titleattr.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,30'>book$int.0 = {book$int.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,50'>book$pg.0 = {book$pg.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,70'>book$topics.0 = {book$topics.0}</text>");
Turbine.Create("<text pos='10,90'>book$pages#pagesattr.0 = {book$pages#pagesattr.0}</text>");

The results in Flash are:

Samples Menu	Next Sample >>