Archive for August, 2008
How to communicate between multiple Flash files with LocalConnection
Posted by Will | Filed under Adobe Flash, Advertising, Banners, Tutorials, Web
Have you ever come across a website containing banner ads of the same creative which appear to be in sync? Here I’m going to demonstrate how this is done by giving an example of how to use the LocalConnection class in Actionscript 3.0.
What is a local connection?
A local connection is used to communicate between two or more currently running SWF files. These can be either opened in Flash Player or, more commonly, embedded in a web page. A local connection object can be used to facilitate the communication between SWFs by enabling one SWF to call a function in another SWF.
A common place local connections are used is in banner advertising. An advertiser will buy out multiple ad positions on the same web page and create an advertisement that will utilize both spaces for greater impact and viewer retention.
A good use of this was the recent ‘Mac vs PC’ ads that did the rounds late last year. This ad featured our befuddled PC character attempting to light up a sign promoting Windows Vista featured in the above banner.
AMFPHP, the heart of CellPaint.com
Posted by Will | Filed under Adobe Flash, Cell Paint
Lee Brimlow has released a video detailing how to get started with remoting with AMFPHP. AMFPHP is a free open-source PHP implementation of the Action Message Format.
I have used AMFPHP explicitly on my most recent project, cellpaint.com. AMFPHP is a great way of sending large pieces of data, like byte arrays, to a server and back.
To watch the video tutorial head follow the link on Lee’s blog to watch part 1 or to see AMFPHP in action check out cellpaint.com.
