Info: FlashFeed is a project that enables the use of Joomla as backend to Adobe Flash sites. It is possible to edit and post your content in Joomla and feed it into a Flash movie, making Joomla an advanced CMS backend.

Finally I had some time off from my freelancing, and I spent a couple of days during Christmas testing my Flashfeed project. I decided to make a small .ZIP file, to be able to get some response. Notice, that this is a minor minor release, and I just putted it online for you to test.

The FlashFeed project is an attempt to build a strong and effective link between Flash and Joomla - that is to be able to use Joomla as backend to Flash. The final project will consist of a Joomla Installer Package AND a set of Actionscript 3 classes, so the Flash programmer doesn't have to mess around in Joomla all the time - all he has to do is to use the Actionscript 3 classes:

var joomlaData:FlashFeed = new FlashFeed("http://www.myjoomlasite.com");
joomlaData.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, handleData);
joomlaData.loadArticleByID(3);

function handleData(e:Event):void
{
    // use article XML in joomlaData object
}

The above zip file has only 1 funtionality: It's possible to load and display article, category and section data. To use the files with your Joomla site (please, only for test purposes), do the following:

1. Unzip the file and upload all of the contents to your Joomla root (make sure your FTp client merges the folders with your online folders of the same name)
2. Test by calling the following URLS in your browser:

// where id is the article id to display
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&format=xml&id=1

// where id is the category id to display
index.php?option=com_content&view=category&format=xml&id=1

// where id is the section to display
index.php?option=com_content&view=section&format=xml&id=1

By using these URL's, you can actually get XML data from Joomla inside of Flash. And actionscript 3 test would look like this:

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, handleXML);
var urlString:String = "http://www.myjoomlasite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&format=xml&id=1";
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(urlString);
loader.load(request);

function handleXML(e:Event):void
{
   trace(loader.data); // output article xml from Joomla
}

Simple as that. Offcourse the final project will use the FlashFeed Actionscript 3 classes to make it even more convenient, but this should give you an idea of how FlashFeed will work.

Feel free to write comments and suggestions to me :-)