XML and Flash Actionscript made Easy | Parse XML to Object | Tutorial

By Evan Mullins | Published: 11 April 2008
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XML and flash is something that always seemed to be more complicated than it needed to be. Then I had an idea to parse the xml nodes into actionscript as objects, that would make working with xml tons easier for me, I could just parse it once and then forget about the xml, I could refer to something with the familiar dot syntax rather than worry about firstChild and nextChild and so forth…

And then I found someone who’d already done that with XML2Object.as, here it is:

XML@Object.as Class

Actionscript Class:

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//////////////////
// - Derived from code written by Alessandro Crugnola - http://www.sephiroth.it/file_detail.php?id=129#
// - Refactored and documented by Phil Powell - http://www.sillydomainname.com
// - 25 July 2006 - Added helper method to sanitize Windows line breaks.
//////////////////
// Convert an XML object to an object with nested properties.
//
// Example usage:
//
//   import net.produxion.util.XML2Object;
//   var contentObj:Object;
//   var xml:XML = new XML();
//   var xmlLoaded = function( success:Boolean )
//   {
//    if( success )
//    {
//      contentObj = XML2Object.deserialize( this );
//      this['timeline'].play();
//    }
//   }
//
//   xml.ignoreWhite = true;
//   xml['timeline'] = this;
//   xml.onLoad = xmlLoaded;
//   xml.load( 'some.xml' );
//
/////////////////
// What do you get back?
//
//   <content created="22-May-2006">
//       <title>My Title</title>
//       <links>
//           <heading>Here be links!</heading>
//           <link>http://somewhere.com</link>
//           <link>http://somewhere-else.com</link>
//       </links>
//   </content>
//
//   Becomes:
//
//   contentObj.content.title.data => "My Title"
//   contentObj.content.links.title.data => "Here be links!"
//   contentObj.content.links.link => [Array]
//   contentObj.content.links.link[0].data => "http://somewhere.com"
//   contentObj.content.attributes.created => "22-May-2006"
/////////////////
class XML2Object {private var _result:Object;
private var _xml:XML;
private var _path:Object;
private static var xml2object:XML2Object;public function XML2Object()
{
this._result = new Object();
}

public static function deserialize( xml:XML ):Object
{
xml2object = new XML2Object();
xml2object.xml = xml;
return xml2object.nodesToProperties();
}

public function get xml():XML
{
return _xml;
}

public function set xml( xml:XML ):Void
{
this._xml = xml;
}

private function nodesToProperties( parent:XMLNode, path:Object, name:String, position:Number ):Object
{
var nodes:Array;
var node:XMLNode;

path == undefined ? path = this._result : path = path[name];
if( parent == undefined) parent = XMLNode( this._xml );

if( parent.hasChildNodes() )
{
nodes = parent.childNodes;
if (position != undefined) path = path[position];

while( nodes.length &gt; 0 )
{
node = XMLNode( nodes.shift() );

if ( node.nodeName != undefined )
{
var obj = new Object();
obj.attributes = node.attributes;
obj.data = sanitizeLineBreaks( node.firstChild.nodeValue );

if( path[node.nodeName] != undefined )
{

if( path[node.nodeName].__proto__ == Array.prototype )
{
path[node.nodeName].push( obj );
}
else
{
var copyObj = path[node.nodeName];
delete path[node.nodeName];
path[node.nodeName] = new Array();
path[node.nodeName].push( copyObj );
path[node.nodeName].push( obj );
}
position = path[node.nodeName].length - 1;
}
else
{
path[node.nodeName] = obj;
position = undefined;
}
name = node.nodeName;
}

if( node.hasChildNodes() )
{
this.nodesToProperties( node, path, name, position );
}
}

}
return this._result;
}

private function sanitizeLineBreaks( raw:String )
{
if( raw.indexOf( "\r\n" ) &gt; -1 )
{
return raw.split( "\r\n" ).join( "\n" );
}
return raw;
}
}

Example:

Get Adobe Flash player

Source:

Here is my example file. But since you cant really see Objects in the code on the stage, I’ve included a recursive trace function to loop through the object and print the data.

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import XML2Object;

var xmlObject:Object;
var xml:XML = new XML();

var xmlLoaded = function( success:Boolean ){
if( success ) {
xmlObject = XML2Object.deserialize( this );
this['timeline'].play();
recurseTrace(xmlObject, " ");
myTrace("\n\n")
myTrace("xmlObject.catagories.catagory[10].name.data = "+xmlObject.catagories.catagory[10].name.data);
}
}

xml.ignoreWhite = true;
xml.onLoad = xmlLoaded;
xml.load( 'sampleXML.xml' );

function recurseTrace(info:Object, indent:String) {
for (var i in info) {
if (info[i] == null){}
else if (typeof info[i] == "object") {
myTrace(indent + i + " -");
recurseTrace(info[i], indent);
}
else {
myTrace(indent + i + " = " + info[i] +", ");
}
}
}

function myTrace(myLine:String){
feedback.text += "|"+myLine;
trace(myLine);
}

And here’s my sample xml file: (it’s the same one I use in my Dynamic Flash Scrolling Link List files)

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<catagories>
<catagory>
<name>3D</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/3d/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>abstract</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/abstract/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>actionscript</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/actionscript/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>animation</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/animation/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>blog</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/blog/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>book</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/book/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>CG</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/cg/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>charcoal</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/charcoal/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>circle cube</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/circle-cube/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>collage</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/collage/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>color</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/color/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>css</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/css/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>drawing</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/drawing/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>dreamweaver</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/dreamweaver/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>experiment</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/experiment/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>film</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/film/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>final cut</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/final-cut/</url>
</catagory>
<catagory>
<name>flash</name>
<url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/flash/</url>
</catagory>
</catagories>

Download:

Here’s the XML2Object.as class: XML2Object.as class

 

Here’s a zip containing everything and the working example: xmlToObject.zip

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13 Comments

  1. Free Tarot
    Posted 28 August 2008 at 1:45 am | Permalink

    Wow. Thank you! In the past I’ve been in too much of a hurry to even try to work with ActionScript’s stupidly complicated XML handling. On one recent project, I just imported the whole XML file as text, and parsed it using string functions for the bits I needed. (Not very elegant at all, I know.. but in terms of coding time, it was much quicker).

    This is extremely sweet though. (In fact, what you’ve done here is sort of how I thought XML handling in ActionScript *would* work before I found out otherwise).

    Very nice. Very nice.

    -Popo

    Reply
  2. Gold Coast Login
    Posted 11 September 2008 at 12:57 am | Permalink

    Very nice.

    great for transferring info to and from Flash using xml and easily
    being able to grab info.

    Phil

    Reply
  3. Mark
    Posted 16 October 2008 at 5:38 am | Permalink

    Can any one help me with this

    Create a Flash Movie: 550 x 400 pixels.
    2. Write 2 external ActionScript files, one of which MUST be the Document
    Class.
    3. Code a Rectangle with a Blue border and fill it with a Red and Greed Gradient
    at a 45 degree angle. (Use the second ActionScript file for this)
    4. Add 10 instances of this Rectangle to the stage, randomly placing them along
    the TOP of the movie, one per second, for 10 seconds.
    5. As soon as a square is added, it should start falling to the bottom of the
    movie, where it bounces before coming to a stop.
    · There should be NO Timeline animation of any kind, in-fact, there should be
    nothing on any Frame of the .fla file at all.
    · The Library of the .fla file should also be completely EMPTY.
    · You are allowed to use no more than 60 lines of code, spread over the 2
    allowed ActionScript Files.
    · You must send the .fla file, together with the 2 ActionScript files in for
    evaluation.

    Reply
  4. Evan Mullins
    Posted 17 October 2008 at 7:13 am | Permalink

    @Mark – Looks like a fun assignment! Good luck with that.

    This post may help you and I’d definitely recommend Keith Peters for the background on gravity

    Reply
  5. Michael
    Posted 19 November 2008 at 2:46 pm | Permalink

    Evan,
    do you have an AS3 version of this?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  6. tekkie
    Posted 8 May 2009 at 6:31 am | Permalink

    Yup, it’s all ActionScript 2. Thinks like XMLNode are not working with only 1 parameter in AS3 etc.

    Reply
  7. Bart
    Posted 2 July 2009 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    Xml to Object, is that not what e4x does? wich is available in my Flex/Air projects

    I am looking for a deserialize to a custom type

    Reply
  8. Evan Mullins
    Posted 2 July 2009 at 6:42 am | Permalink

    @Bart – Yes, but note this is for as2, this xml to object is pre e4x, there are multiple ways to do it, but some as2 developers still could find uses for it. Good luck with the deserialiser.

    Reply
  9. Marc
    Posted 11 August 2009 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    Wowzers..

    I’m writing some code to deal with a massive amount of XML data and faced with bug fixing in the dark I was ready to bang my head against a brickwall until I saw your little trace function there.. that is a real life saver.. thanks a lot for that!!

    Cheers
    M.

    Reply
  10. Jennifer
    Posted 3 December 2009 at 6:02 pm | Permalink

    Evan,

    Awesome class! I’m stuck on AS2 for a project that won’t move to AS3 any time soon. I was parsing my own XML, but this is much easier. It works great on my little XML file. How does it do with large files?

    Reply
  11. Evan Mullins
    Posted 7 December 2009 at 10:20 am | Permalink

    Not to sure about large files, I hadn’t tested this too extensively. Let us know what you find if you don’t mind, Thanks!

    Reply
  12. Mariano
    Posted 22 February 2010 at 3:57 pm | Permalink

    Does anyone know how to apply this class to an XML which is not a file?
    I have PHP function which imports data back into Flash in XML form, but I’m having problems parsing it.

    Thanks in advance,
    Mariano

    Reply
  13. davea0511
    Posted 3 March 2010 at 4:56 am | Permalink

    this is also worth checking out … http://indivision-codebase-as2.googlecode.com/files/indivision_codebase2-080629-all.zip

    look in the classes/net/indivision/data directory and there is a great XML->Obj and Obj-> XML tool.

    Reply

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