Newscaster Integration

[JNB]

Hello,

Can a newscaster be integrated into Flash, or is there a reasonable way to "create your own" or otherwise reproduce the same effect? Other than logging in and recompiling the finished swf everytime you add new news.

[CyanBlue]

Howdy and Welcome... :)

What's newscaster???

[JNB]

I've used a program called newscaster a few times, but never installed it - so I'm not sure if this site is the proper one: http://verylost.f2o.org/newscaster.php

Essentially, it is like a blog; you log in, specify a few settings (name, email, image for the type of news, avatar image for yourself, etc), and then type out the body of the news. That gets posted to the site after an admin approves it, and is then viable for view.

I'm looking for a way to have designated logins able to access the site and update the news posted on the front page without having to have ftp codes, access, or authoring knowledge.

Thanks

[CyanBlue]

Well... The site does not give me much information cuz I cannot download the file, but I don't think you can add this into the Flash with easy... You will need to modify the script very dramatically if you really want...

[JNB]

I didn't think so - is there a way to recreate the same effect?

The newscasters I've used have been php-based, and I figure that the program itself is fairly simple - but I think my issue really is in site architecture, and settling out that frame. In another thread, I was trying to figure out how to navigate html pages using a flash menu, and presuming I can get that sorted, the php newscaster can just be added to one of those html pages.

Even without using the "newscaster" program, is there a way to recreate the effect?

[CyanBlue]

Well... I know that there are some Flash Guestbook tutorials like this... Maybe try to incorporate this in your site??? At least this should give you good starting ground...

XML Guestbook with PHP
http://www.kirupa.com/web/xml_guestbook.htm

[JNB]

I might be able to tweak that to work the way I am hoping - thank you, I'll dig around in it.

[CyanBlue]

Yeah... Show us what you come up with when you are done with it... :)

[3brand]

Hey JNB, I'm sort of working on the same type of thing. I call it a CMS, content management system, though. Its pretty simple in what it can do right now but I'm giving it a lot of room for upgrades.

Right now, you put in a title, it gives the date (or you specify your own), and finally the content. All this information goes through a PHP file then into an XML file. The XML file can be read by another Flash file or an HTML file (with PHP's help). I'm still working on it, trying to work out a few bugs but if you're interested in it, I can send you the FLA and we can work on it together.

[JNB]

3Brand, that's very kind of you - give me a bit of time to see about the effort I'm currently on, and I'll drop you a line in the coming week.