Loading XML using a custom class and accessing it from other classes?

Question

I began with a class for a movie clip rollover function
FigureRollOver. It works marvellously. Three things happen:
1) it loads XML from a file "mod1_fig1.xml" and uses another
class, XMLMember, to retool the scoping of the XML so that I can
get at it
2) an onload call inside of XMLMember calls the myOnLoad
function and transfers the XML into an array.
3) so long as the array is finished building, rolling over a
movie clip attaches a new movie clip with the rollover text in it.
But I don't want all those functions in one because I need it
to be more dynamic, starting with being able to load any old xml
file instead of just "mod1_fig1.xml", plus it seems like
overbuilding to have all of that in one class, so I've separated
out the loading of the XML and building of the array into its own
class, FigureXMLLoader. FigureRollOver is then left to just attach
the rollover with text in it, extracted from the array built by the
new class.
Problem is, though the array builds inside FigureXMLLoader, I
can't figure out how to make it available outside the class. I know
that I'm constructing things in the wrong order, and that the array
needs to be somehow built inside the class function to be
available, but I can't figure out how to do that. A cruddy
work-around is to put a function call at the end of the building of
the array, which calls yet ANOTHER function on the main timeline of
my .swf to put the array I've just built into a new variable. This
works, but it's messy. It seems like I should be able to have one
line of script in the .swf that generates an array on the main
timeline (or just a public array) which I can then access from my
FigureRollOver class:
var myRollOvers:Array = new FigureXMLLoader("mod1_fig1.xml");
Here is FigureXMLLoader (see comments in the code for more
details) which obviously does not return an array as it is, because
of all the working around I've had to do. Note the "testing"
variable, which can be traced from the main timeline of the .swf,
but I will get "not what I want" because of course the array hasn't
been built yet, and never will be, inside of the declaration as it
is. How do I get it in there so I can return an array?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Suggest you ask this question in the Actionscript forum as
this forum is
more tuned to database integration questions.
You can create arrays outside a class and pass them into it
by reference and
visa versa build arrays inside a class and pass out via
reference.
The preferred approach is to place the array in a class and
not expose it.
Then add methods to use the array or should we say to use the
class.
Lon Hosford
www.lonhosford.com
Flash, Actionscript and Flash Media Server examples:
http://flashexamples.hosfordusa.com
May many happy bits flow your way!
"maija_g" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:ed4i43$9v0$[email protected]..
> Update: I've now put this on the main timeline of the
.swf:
>
> myRollOversLoaded = false;
> var myRollOvers:Array;
> var roll_content = new FigureXMLLoader("mod1_fig1.xml");
>
> And inside the "myOnLoad" function in FigureXMLLoader,
just after the
> while
> loop I've put this:
>
> _root.myRollOversLoaded = true;
> _root.myRollOvers = figure_arr;
>
> The movie clip rollover won't act until
myRollOversLoaded is true. It
> works,
> but it still seems klugey. Any suggestions for a more
elegant solution
> would be
> appreciated.
>