Question

Is it possible to request some data in a Flash movie from PHP at run-time? Maybe my real-world implementation can clarify some things:

I use a Flash movie to store a Local Shared Object (because for some reason I need LSO’s instead or regular PHP cookies).
Now, when I load up a PHP file I want to somehow retrieve the data from the LSO at runtime, assign it to some variables, and use the variables through the rest of the script.

Doing some research makes me believe it’s not possible in the way I intend. So any other suggestions, methods or solutions are highly welcome.

Answer 1

The best way to intercommunicate Flash and PHP is XML (don’t forget to use UTF-8!).

in PHP:

$xml = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$doc = $xml->appendChild($xml->createElement('my-root-element'));
...
header('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8');
echo $xml->saveXML();

In as3

var myLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var req:URLRequest = new URLRequest('http://host.com/my_xml.php');
myLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onMyXMLLoad);
myLoader.load(req);

function onMyXMLLoad(evt:Event)
{
    trace(evt.target.data);
    var xml:XML = new XML(evt.target.data);
    ...
}

You could also read about ExternalInterface… Yes, sometimes it helps… You may want to generate dynamicaly your JS to communicate with flash movie.