Flash with Drupal
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- Learn to integrate Flash applications with Drupal CMS
- Explore a new approach where Flash and HTML components are intermixed to provide a hybrid Flash-Drupal architecture
- Build a custom audio and video player in Flash and link it to Drupal
- Build a Flash driven 5-star voting system for Drupal at the end of the book
Book Details
Language : EnglishPaperback : 380 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : May 2009
ISBN : 1847197582
ISBN 13 : 9781847197580
Author(s) : Travis Tidwell
Topics and Technologies : All Books, Flash, Content Management (CMS), Drupal, Open Source
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Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Flash with Drupal
Chapter 2: Building a "Hello World" Application
Chapter 3: Flash and CCK
Chapter 4: Drupal Images in Flash
Chapter 5: Drupal Audio in Flash
Chapter 6: Flash Video in Drupal
Chapter 7: The Hybrid Approach Part 1: Componentization
Chapter 8: The Hybrid Approach Part 2: Remote Control
Chapter 9: Flash with Drupal Views
Chapter 10: User Management
Chapter 11: Adding Content to Drupal
Chapter 12: Build a Drupal Five-star Voter in Flash
Index
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Travis Tidwell
...it is clear that much thought and work has gone into its creation.
Highly recommended if you are interested in implementing rich client experiences on a Drupal site.
Code Downloads
Download the code and support files for this book.
Submit Errata
Please let us know if you have found any errors not listed on this list by completing our errata submission form. Our editors will check them and add them to this list. Thank you.
Errata
- 9 submitted: last submission 10 Sep 2012Errata type: Other | Page number: 0
Since the book has been published, there have been several changes made to the Services module that might cause some issues when following along with the book. In the book, used Services 6x.0.13 are used, which can be found by downloaded at the following location: http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/services-6.x-0.13.tar.gz Since then, a new version has been released ( Services 6x.0.14 ) which seems to have a minor bug where the Keys tab does not show up when you first install the module. If you are using this version, then the quick fix for this is to click on the Settings tab in the Services Administrator, and then uncheck the Use Keys checkbox, and then re-check it ( basically toggling the checkbox ). You should then see the Keys tab appear. There is also a new development version of the Services module ( Services 6x. 2.x-dev ). It is not recommended ot use this module at this time, but if you wish to use this version, then you will need to install a new module called Keys Authorization. Once this module has been installed, you will then need to temporarily disable the keys for the first several chapters by navigating to the Settings page in the Services Administrator and then uncheck the Use Keys checkbox. The reason for this is because the latest version requires the API key to be provided within the node.get routine, which we don't cover until Chapter 11.
Errata type: Other | Page number:0
Within Chapter 5, there is a possibility that you will run into many errors when you run the application that says... "Access of undefined property playButton." This is caused because within the Chapter on page 120, I tell the reader to add the line... var player:AudioPlayer = new AudioPlayer(); However, on page 136, I do not indicate that this line needs to be removed. To fix this error, you simply need to remove this line from the main.as file.
Errata type:Technical | Page number:40
Administer | Services should be Administer | Site building | Services
Errata type:Technical | Page number:43
Administer | Permissions section within the User Settings section should be Administer | User management | Permissions
Errata type:Technical | Page number:44
Save User permissions should be Save permissions
Errata type:Code error | Page number:160
Description: Code should read video = new Video(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
Errata type:Code error | Page number:297
var gateway:String = baseURL + "/services/amfphp" should be: var gateway:String = baseURL + "/services/amfphp";
Errata type: Other | Page number:0
Within Chapter 5, there is a possibility that you will run into many errors when you run the application that says... "Access of undefined property playButton." This is caused because within the Chapter on page 120, I tell the reader to add the line... var player:AudioPlayer = new AudioPlayer(); However, on page 136, I do not indicate that this line needs to be removed. To fix this error, you simply need to remove this line from the main.as file.
Errata type:Technical | Page number:40
Administer | Services should be Administer | Site building | Services
Errata type:Technical | Page number:43
Administer | Permissions section within the User Settings section should be Administer | User management | Permissions
Errata type:Technical | Page number:44
Save User permissions should be Save permissions
Errata type:Code error | Page number:160
Description: Code should read video = new Video(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
Errata type:Code error | Page number:297
var gateway:String = baseURL + "/services/amfphp" should be: var gateway:String = baseURL + "/services/amfphp";
Errata type: Others | Page number: 201 | Errata date: 20 April 10
Ok this is a little complicated to explain so please bear with me. Look at page 220. In the screenshot there are two play buttons in other words there are two ControlBars. There is a 'player' ControlBar and a 'remote' ControlBar. Now when I press the play button on the 'player' ControlBar, it calls MediaGateway.playMedia(true). Now see the playMedia function on page 199. The 'external' boolean is set to true. The 'connect' variable will be set to 'remote' and the component is ready. So the ExternalInterface.call code will be executed and playMedia will be tried to be executed on the remote control bar. But there is no media player on the remote! In other words, the local remote still seems to be sending commands to the remote MediaPlayer (which is not there). It should send it to the local media player. When an addControlBar function (in main.as) is called the ControlBar should should be told that it needs to communicate remotely or locally with a MediaPlayer. That seems to be absent.
Errata type:other | Page number:289
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- Understand how Flash and Drupal communicate
- Embed Flash applications within Drupal and also learn about the important modules that make it easier to work with Flash in Drupal
- Learn the asynchronous programming techniques for Drupal's web services
- Set up Drupal for web services using the services module to handle external interaction
- Create a custom recipe content type for your Flash application and add new fields and images to it
- Use Drupal's imageCache module with Flash to ensure that the images are not too large when loaded into our application
- Create an audio-handling class using ActionScript 3
- Load and play audio in Flash, and add user controls like on and off
- Utilize Object Oriented techniques in ActionScript 3 to build a common MediaPlayer class to be used for both audio and video applications
- Create a playlist of video nodes for our custom media player using Drupal Views
- Utilize user management within a Flash application to manage its users and protect the content of the site with a permission-based role system
- Add content to the Drupal web site and also keep it safe from malicious software
- Build a custom voting service and create a Flash-driven 5-star voter for Drupal using the popular FiveStar module
Due to its power and expandability, Drupal has become one of the most popular open source content management systems. At the same time, Flash has been adopted for its ability to create beautiful and dynamic web applications. By combining these technologies, you can create Flash applications that are both visually stunning and rich in content.
This book is an in depth discussion and tutorial on how to integrate Flash applications with Drupal CMS. It will describe the best techniques and practices for integrating Flash technology with the power and flexibility of Drupal by building real-life Flash applications.
Within this book, you will learn how to build Flash applications that show text from within Drupal and also present images, music, and video within a single Flash application. You will also be able to take advantage of the expandable fields and content filtering provided from the CCK and Views modules to add flexibility and power to your Flash applications. Finally, you will learn how to add your own custom functionality to Drupal and then utilize that from within your Flash applications leaving you with a world of possibilities.
This book starts out with a simple introduction to Flash and Drupal technology where you will create a simple Flash application and then embed that within Drupal. From there, each subsequent chapter builds on the previous chapters tackling a new and challenging task.
For each new task, you will take a step-by-step approach to building a real-life application that utilizes the feature introduced within that chapter. You will also explore alternative design approaches that will eliminate the current design challenges that developers face when building Flash-driven Drupal sites; and all this while staying true to the Object Oriented Principles that govern the foundation of the ActionScript 3 language. By the end of this book, you will be able to apply all the lessons learned from this book to any other use case you may encounter.
A hands-on learning approach to building Flash applications for Drupal
This book takes a step-by-step approach to building Flash applications for use with the Drupal Content Management System. In each chapter, you walk through the evolution of a real Flash application designed for Drupal. Every chapter builds on the previous one by presenting a more challenging feature for each additional chapter.
This book is written for developers who wish to build dynamic flash applications. Although we will be using Drupal for our Content Management System, the lessons learned within this book can easily be applied to other content management systems such as Joomla or WordPress. Because of this, you are not assumed to be familiar with Drupal. Any interaction with Drupal will be described in full detail so that anyone can follow along. As for Flash, it is not necessary to be familiar with how to use Flash since that too will be covered within this book. However, it is recommended that you have some modest understanding of ActionScript and PHP since there are many code examples within this book.
