Custom XML News Reader (AS2)

JoeMC

Custom XML News Reader

FILE UPDATE [10/02/08] – The file is updated with a minor revision to the code.

Scalable, Customizable, Dynamic News Reader with word-wrapping

Functionality

Add as many news items as you like
Add links to your news articles (As many as you want!)
Set the News Reader to resize with your browser
Or, set it to stay at a static size
The body copy of the news article wrap around the image
Smooth scrolling effect
Completely editable through 1 .xml file

What you can edit through XML

Height & WIdth of the News Reader
The padding around the News Reader
Turn scaling on/off
The News Reader main title
The color & opacity of the News Reader background
The color of the scrollbar background
The color of the scrollbar dragger
The color & text of the news item date fields
The color & text of the news item Headings
The color & text of the news item body copy
The image for each news item
The color of the border around the images
The color & opacity of the news item background (up state)
The color & opacity of the news item background (over state)
The wording for each link
The color for your links (up state)
The color for your links (over state)

This file used Caurina Tweener, as noted in the help file & the ActionScript

View the help file

Custom XML News Reader AS2 Help File

ActionScript 2 Projects

ActionScript 3 Projects

Posted 2 months ago

victor

thanks you for fla8 As2 version. Great file… But, pleae, can you to use for next version [CDATA…] ?!? Thanks

Posted 2 months ago

eirehotspur
Bought between 100 and 499 items

Really good….would be nice of previous item opened closed when you choose a new one.

I’d prefer to use it as a constand size in a div.

Posted 2 months ago

JoeMC

@victor – Thanks! I’ll take a look at your request.

@eirehotspur – (Really good….would be nice of previous item opened closed when you choose a new one.)

- That would actually be a pretty easy modification that I could help you with. It was just my preference to leave opened items open unless you clicked again to close them.

(I’d prefer to use it as a constant size in a div.)

- The file is actually set up to do that. (That is the way I’ve actually used it), you just need to set the the width and height in the XML file and set the width and height of your div, or even just the swf within the HTML , and the Reader will size itself to your desired size and stay at that size.

Posted 2 months ago

papashivo

I love that new badge you can really easily tell if buyer suggestions for modification are worth doing now.

Great file

Posted 2 months ago

Albo

nice and useful

Posted 2 months ago

Pdesignx

while changing screen size, there is a freezing for 3-5 seconds… is it just for me or anybody has the same?...

Posted 2 months ago

alcrhis

I think it needs a preloader

Posted 2 months ago

JoeMC

@Pdesignx & alcrhis – I’m currently trying to figure out a faster way to determine the amount of characters/line (which is needed in order to make the word-wrap work)... with AS3 there’s a text function that tells you how many characters are in a particular line of text, which makes it pretty easy. (If you test out my AS3 version the resizing and loaded goes much faster than this AS2 version). Right now with AS2 , every time the screen resizes, I have to wipe out all the text blocks and create a loop that adds each character individually until the textHeight is greater than the textfield Height, which I realize is stressful on the CPU . But AS2 does not have the built in functions which make the process easier in AS3 . I have already re-worked my code so it runs a little quicker, but want to refine it some more before I upload a revised version.

So, anyone who has purchased this already, check back periodically for when an update gets loaded. It should have a new file uploaded in a day or so… but it usually takes a while for revisions to get through the FlashDen approval.

Thanks everyone for your purchases and comments!

Posted 2 months ago

HagiosDesign
Sold between 100 and 1 000 dollars

Very nice

Posted 2 months ago

JoeMC

I currently have an update waiting to be approved that fix a couple issues. The update has:

Much faster resize time. I finally figured out the optimal code for repopulating and resizing the textfields.

Improved resize animation

Reformatted XML to allow for CDATA

I will post a note in my main description once the file is approved so anyone who has purchased the file can download the update.

Thanks for all your comments and purchases!

Please rate this file if you’ve purchased it!

Posted 2 months ago

damojo

Wow great!!!

Posted 2 months ago

tunafish

Hey,

Verry Great file thanx!

Now im trying to load the swf into another movie, Im following the steps you say inside the fla file:

// IF YOU ARE IMPORTING THIS AS AN EXTERNAL SWF

// 1. COMMENT OUT ALL OF THE CODE IN THIS FRAME // 2. SET THE SCALABLE TAG IN THE XML TO FALSE // 3. SET THE STAGE SIZE TO THE SIZE LISTED IN YOUR XML // 4. UN-COMMENT THE NEXT LINE function closeStreams():void{} ...

But if i Un-Comment the line above i get an error message that says:

A type identifier is expected after the ’:’.

How could i fix this so that i will be able to scale the swf to the XML file height and width?

Thanx

Posted 2 months ago

JoeMC

tunafish – Send me an email through my profile and I’ll help you out.

Joe

Posted 2 months ago

norige

Hey Bro,

Very nice file. Im not a pro in xml, but I made some freak layout with your file. Very usefull. Thanx a lot. But Im here in Brazil and we use accents in our language, like “çéêãà”. How can I put these characters in my file, so I can make my friends understand what is write on my website?

Posted 2 months ago

JoeMC

norige – Currently the text fields aren’t set to embed all characters, but you can easily change that (to get the special characters to show) by opening the NewsItem movie clip, selecting the textfields, and selecting Embed -> All.

I did this and tried a bunch of special characters and they all showed up correctly.

Posted 2 months ago

norige

Hey Joe,

you’re #1

thanx again

Posted 2 months ago

rez

When i expand items in your preview, the scroller appears to become active but does not work. I can’t grab it and scroll.

Posted about 1 month ago

JoeMC

@rez – Good catch! I’ll fix that & get a revision uploaded ASAP !

Posted about 1 month ago

inadub

Exactly what i was looking for .. thanks and keep up the great work!

Posted 19 days ago

JoeMC

@inadub – Glad you like it! I got your email and figured out your issue. So, you should be getting an email soon.

@Everyone – There will be an update posted soon (it’s #27 in the queue) that fixes a bug that inadub notified me about.

Posted 18 days ago

shanedaley
Bought between 10 and 49 items

Hi, GREAT FILE !!! but is there a way to change the font?? it seems to look crooked in some lines when it loads. Is there a way to change the font and size of the font?

Thanx in advance!!

Posted 16 days ago

JoeMC

@shanedaley – Yes, you can change the fonts… you just need to open the NewsItem movie clip. in there you can select the textfields and change them to whatever font you would like. The body copy text is in the layer newsCopy. Just be careful about the size of the fonts and their respective line heights. The code is set up to work specifically with the current size font… if you have a decent change in font size you’ll have to make some edits in the main ActionScript so everything lines up correctly.

Thanks for your purchase! Please remember to rate the file when you get a chance.

Joe

Posted 16 days ago

Shadoe

Nice job, but I purchased this because there was a lot available to adjust through the XML . The only thing now after I bought it is that the text doesn’t seem to be adjustable, the fonts are huge. I was using this in an HTML page and I don’t have Flash 8.

Thanks for anything you can suggest.

Posted 15 days ago

JoeMC

@Shadoe – Send me an email and let me know what you’d like for font size and I can adjust and send it to you. The fonts do have to be adjusted within the .fla… sorry.

Posted 14 days ago

shanedaley
Bought between 10 and 49 items

Thanks for that JoeMC, I should have searched better myself! ;-) One more thing, is there any way to stop the text from looking wavey? some text words and letters look like they’re spaced oddly within words and lines..

Thanks again in advance JoeMC

Posted 13 days ago

JoeMC

@shanedaley – I don’t know how to fix you’re spacing issue. Some fonts just seem to look better in Flash than others (as far as their kerning & spacing). You can maybe try turning the “Auto kern” off for the textfields in the NewsItem movie clip and see if that helps. But other than that (or the specific font) I don’t know of what would be causing your issue.

Posted 12 days ago