>I need to import an external text file (tab delimited or XML) into my movie
>and format it. WE are planngin to runa search engine and pass the search
>results into Director file (Projector) for output. How can I do that? Is XML
>parser a solution?
The XML parser has its limits, but it is probably the best tool for you to
use in Director. And, as Rob Koberg pointed out, the whole information
world is migrating to XML--even Microsoft Office uses XML behind the scenes
(though not XSL--at the moment).
Rob's also right, to an extent, about JavaScript and XSL. They give you
powerful tools to manipulate data and media.
For the uninitiated, but curious, XML is a markup language used primarily
to tag and store data. XSL, or eXtensible Stylesheet Language, is a
declarative (as opposed to procedural or object-oriented) programming
language used to manipulate that data. XSL can output HTML, it can
transform data from one format to another, it could be used to format a
book, prepare mathematical equations, or display music notation.
I don't think, though, that Director is relegated to "fluff." We do
important pieces of our Web sites in Shockwave. Audio playback, for
instance--you have the choice, basically, of leaving audio playback up to
whatever plugin the user has, or you can take control with Shockwave.
Some of our pages have up to 10 tiny embedded Shockwave movies that look,
to the user, like a button. For little more download cost than a gif, we
avoid Real's popup, QT windows, and others.
And how would you record audio in a Browser with JavaScript or XSL? That's
not fluff--think how important audio is to teaching a language.
And of course, XSL--or more properly XSLT--is primarily used with Web
applications now. It has the potential for other uses, but I don't see XML
and JavaScript replacing Director for kiosks and CD-ROM in the near future.
Cordially,
Kerry Thompson
Learning Network
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