Cool Flash Tip of the Week 4

I know last week I said we will be learning about a custom class, but I think I'll hold that one for next week. This week we are going to check out a quick and useful tip that I didn't even know about until a couple of days ago for selecting XML and XMLList nodes. This won't be as in depth as the last, but I still think its a great quick tip.

We will be testing on this XML file.

    
        Maria
        Jason
    
    
        Jason
    
    
        Chris
        Jack
        Maria
    

I recently found out this cool way to select XML nodes. You can actually test attributes to filter out which ones you want. Check out the example for a better idea of what I mean.

var l:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
l.addEventlistener(Event.COMPLETE, xmlLoaded);
l.load(new URLRequest("ourXML.xml"));

function xmlLoaded(e:Event):void
{
    var myXML:XML = XML(l.data);
    trace(myXML.family.(@lastName == "Travis").member); // Outputs Maria , John
}

Using this method you can easily filter out a selection of nodes based on an evaluation. I find this a better way to the alternative of using array indices to select a particular tree. This is a pretty quick tip that I thought would be helpful. Next week, we are back to the in depth tips like usual. Again, if you like the post, subscribe to the RSS Feed.