# XML loading into Dynamic Buttons

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xml-loading-into-dynamic-buttons/199744
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [September 5, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xml-loading-into-dynamic-buttons/199744 "2006-09-05T17:14:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jman1](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/jman1)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xml-loading-into-dynamic-buttons/199744/1 "2006-09-05T17:14:58Z")

</div>

Good morning,  
I am working on a dynamic menu for a client. This is my first time creating a menu loaded from an xml file. I have the basics down, but am hitting a brick wall. I will have six buttons that are attached at run time, and will be labeled according to the button names in the xml file. Eventually these buttons will be rotating in a circle, but I’m just testing the functionality at the moment. I tried searching through the forum, and didn’t find anything that resembled what I am trying to do. To start off here is the xml file:

[COLOR=#008080]\<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]menu[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Home[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Home[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the Home Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]About[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]About[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the About Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Services[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Services[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the Services Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Portfolio[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Portfolio[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the Portfolio Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Products[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Products[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the Products Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] buttonName[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Contact Us[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000] contentTitle[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]="[/COLOR]Contact Us[COLOR=#0000ff]"\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\<![CDATA[[/COLOR]This is the content for the Contact Us Button[COLOR=#0000ff]]]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]content[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]button[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>  
\</[/COLOR][COLOR=#800000]menu[/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]\>[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]As you can see there will be six buttons labeled from the buttonName Attributes. Here is the actionscript I have to load the xml file, and loop through the button elements, and then loop to attach 6 buttons, and try to label them by the button element attributes:[/COLOR][/COLOR]

“Flash 8 Professional, Actionscript 2.0”

[COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]var RootNode:XMLNode;[/COLOR][/COLOR]  
var xPos:Number = 10;  
var yPos:Number = 10;

[COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]var menuXML:XML = new XML();  
menuXML.ignoreWhite = true;  
menuXML.onLoad=loadContent;  
menuXML.load(“testMenu.xml”);  
stop();[/COLOR][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]function loadContent(success:Boolean):Void{  
if (success) {  
RootNode = this.firstChild;  
loadButton();  
}  
else {  
trace(“Error in loading XML file”);  
}  
}[/COLOR][/COLOR]  
[COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]  
function loadButton():Void {  
var buttonName:String;  
for (var i:Number = 0; i\<RootNode.childNodes.length; i++) {  
buttonName = RootNode.childNodes\*.attributes.buttonName;  
trace(buttonName);  
}  
for (var m:Number = 0; m\<6; m++) {  
this.attachMovie(“mcButton”, “mcButton”+m, m, {\_x:xPos, \_y:yPos});  
yPos += this[“mcButton”+m].\_height+5;  
mcButton[m].buttonText.text = buttonName;  
trace(mcButton[m].buttonText.text);  
}  
}

When I test this movie the output window shows this:

Home  
About  
Services  
Portfolio  
Products  
Contact Us  
undefined  
undefined  
undefined  
undefined  
undefined  
undefined

I have been able to trace the attribute names from the xml file, but textbox’s from the dynamic buttons are not being labeled. They are coming up undefined. I’m having a brain fart on this. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Greatly appreciated in advance.

Thank you,  
Jason[/COLOR]

P.S. This is the flow of how this project will take place:  
[LIST]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Load external xml file into Flash.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Loop through elements to define the button label names.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Create a loop to attach a movieClip at run time into a holder clip named “mcCircle”.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Label the dynamic text field in each new movieClip with the label names from the xml file.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Arrange the movieClips on the stage in a circle movieClip.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Rotate the circle movieClip clockwise using trig: sine and cosine. [/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Set a speed and velocity variable to the circle movieClip[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]When the mouse moves Over a button, have the circle movieClip slow down it’s speed to a stop.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]When the mouse moves Out of a button, have the circle movieClip speed up to it’s normal rotation speed.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]When the mouse clicks on a button, have the circle movieClip shrink down and move to the lower right corner of the stage.[/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]Tell Flash to load the content from the xml file (of the button label clicked) to a dynamic textfield on the stage. [/FONT]  
[_][FONT=Arial]When the user is done reading the content they will click on a button to clear the text field, and bring the menu back to center, and original size.[/FONT][/LIST][/COLOR]