Bill's Design Tips - Flash, Graphics, and much more

When testing the program it is much easier to be able to read the XML locally, and then when it is on the WWW, the XML file is read from a WWW site. This can be achieved by testing to see if the XML object has been loaded. This is achieved with:

urlXML = new XML();
urlXML.onLoad = convertXML;
urlXML.load("questions.xml");

if (!XML.loaded)
urlXML.load("http://buchananweb.ac.uk/questions.xml");

The application can be then enhanced by creating a symbol for the multiple choice question. In this a symbol is created and is named question. The text boxes created are named title, q1, q2, q3 and q4. A button on the main page will then have the action of:

on (release) {
i=random(no_q-1);
question.title=question_titles[i];
question.q1=question_q1[i];
question.q2=question_q2[i];
question.q3=question_q3[i];
question.q4=question_q4[i];
stop();
}

The random() function selects a random number, with the maximum of the number of questions in the XML file. The symbol is then loaded with the values from the arrays. The new application is:

Next proper questions can be added to the questions, with:

The computing.xml file is defined as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?><!DOCTYPE questions>
<questions>
<quest id="000001">
<title> How many bits are in a nibble:</title>
<q1>4</q1>
<q2>8</q2>
<q3>16</q3>
<q4>32</q4>
<q5>Answer a5</q5>
<correct>q1</correct>
<level>1</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000002">
<title>Which unit represents 1024 bytes:</title>
<q1>B</q1>
<q2>KB</q2>
<q3>MB</q3>
<q4>GB</q4>
<q5>Answer b5</q5>
<correct>q1</correct>
<level>2</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000003">
<title>Which unit represents bits per second:</title>
<q1>bps</q1>
<q2>bs</q2>
<q3>bit</q3>
<q4>bsec</q4>
<q5>Answer c5</q5>
<correct>bps</correct>
<level>3</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000004">
<title> Which unit represents a billion bytes:</title>
<q1>B</q1>
<q2>KB</q2>
<q3>MB</q3>
<q4>GB</q4>
<q5>Answer d5</q5>
<correct>q4</correct>
<level>4</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000005">
<title>Which of the following is 1GB:</title>
<q1>1024KB</q1>
<q2>100KB</q2>
<q3>1024MB</q3>
<q4>1000MB</q4>
<q5>Answer e5</q5>
<correct>q1</correct>
<level>5</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000006">
<title> Which format is used for humans to easily interpret binary digits:<title>
<q1>Hexadecimal</q1><
<q2>Decimal</q2>
<q3>WWW</q3>
<q4>TCP/IP </q4>
<q5> </q5>
<correct>q1</correct>
<level>5</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000007">
<title>Which is the following is not a data processing method:<title>
<q1>Prediction </q1><
<q2>Mathematical </q2>
<q3>Data sampling </q3>
<q4>Thresholding </q4>
<q5>TCP/IP</q5>
<correct>q2</correct>
<level>5</level>
</quest>
<quest id="000006">
<title> What type of computer was popular in the 1960s based on:<title>
<q1>Values</q1><
<q2>Transistorized</q2>
<q3>Integrated circuit</q3>
<q4>Systems-on-a-chip</q4>
<q5>TCP/IP</q5>
<correct>q1</correct>
<level>5</level>
</quest>

Reading XML from Flash (Pt. 2)

</questions>