View an Example of this article before you get started.

If you want to skip the overall setup here is the completed movie. Just click on frame 1 for the code.

Here is the code.

importXML = new XML();
importXML.ignoreWhite = true;
importXML.onLoad = function(success) {
	if(success) {
		var depth = 0;
		var nextY = 10;
		count = 0;
		var root = this.firstChild; // The root node
		var attr = root.attributes;
		for(var i = root.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
			tempMC = attachMovie ("box", "box" + count, depth ++, 
			{_y : (nextY) , _x : (105)} );
			nextY += tempMC._height + 2;
			tempMC.name_txt.text = i.attributes.name;
			count ++;		
		}
	} 
}
importXML.load("importdata.xml");

That is the actionscript we will use, now lets set up the movie.

Create a new flash movie, Create a new movie clip (Insert > New Symbol) draw a rectangle on the stage.

Make a new layer, name it 'txt', and add a dynamic textbox to the stage. set the instance name to 'name_txt'

Open the library, right click on the clip and check the Export option for Actionscript.

Now you are ready to start coding, click on frame 1, and either type the above code or copy & paste it into the code window. Ok lets start explaining the code.

importXML = new XML();
importXML.ignoreWhite = true;

The first line is declaring a new class. The name we use is "importXML". The next line is telling the XML parser to ignore any whitespace in the XML file.

importXML.onLoad = function(success) {

this is a function that will load the xml file, with a result of success True/False.

if(success) {

What is being done here is confirming the xml was loaded and if it was continue with the code.

var depth = 0;
var nextY = 10;
count = 0;
var root = this.firstChild; // The root node
var attr = root.attributes;

Now we will define a few variables to use later on. 'root' is the first piece of the xml file. In this example 'root' = select. 'attr' is the attributes found after the first node or parent node.

for(var i = root.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
	tempMC = attachMovie ("box", "box" + count, depth ++, 
	{_y : (nextY) , _x : (105)} );
	nextY += tempMC._height + 2;
	tempMC.name_txt.text = i.attributes.name;
	count ++;		
}

for loop that will run through all the nodes in the xml file. "i != null" is saying keep running this loop until there are no more nodes. "i = i.nextSibling" is saying to read the next node in the xml. The attachMovie is taking X,Y parameters. The difference is the Y is set by the height of the previous clip. The next line is to display the text in the movie clip. This sends the "name" attribute from the xml into the "name_txt" textbox we created earlier. Final part in the for loop is to increment the count variable.

	} 
}
importXML.load("importdata.xml");

This is the part where Actionscript actually loads the xml file, and calls the onLoad function.

test the results. "Ctrl + Enter" If it didn't work you can post a question in the feedback form or you can contact me.

That is the end this weeks tutorial. I would love to see what amazing things you use this for.