Load images from folder into slideshow

Question

I have this AS3 slideshow code, that loads an XML with a list of images. What I'm looking for, is a way to skip the XML part, and just load all images in the folder "images"?

How can I add an constant boolean that decides if it should play the images random or not? const RANDOM:boolean = true; ...

// import tweener
import caurina.transitions.Tweener;

// delay between slides
const TIMER_DELAY:int = 2000;
// fade time between slides
const FADE_TIME:Number = 1;

// flag for knowing if slideshow is playing
var bolPlaying:Boolean = true;
// reference to the current slider container
var currentContainer:Sprite;
// index of the current slide
var intCurrentSlide:int = -1;
// total slides
var intSlideCount:int;
// timer for switching slides
var slideTimer:Timer;
// slides holder
var sprContainer1:Sprite;
var sprContainer2:Sprite;
// slides loader
var slideLoader:Loader;
// url to slideshow xml
var strXMLPath:String = "slideshow.xml";
// slideshow xml loader
var xmlLoader:URLLoader;
// slideshow xml
var xmlSlideshow:XML;

function initSlideshow():void { 
    // create new urlloader for xml file
    xmlLoader = new URLLoader();
    // add listener for complete event
    xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onXMLLoadComplete);
    // load xml file
    xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest(strXMLPath));

    // create new timer with delay from constant
    slideTimer = new Timer(TIMER_DELAY);
    // add event listener for timer event
    slideTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, nextSlide);

    // create 2 container sprite which will hold the slides and
    // add them to the masked movieclip
    sprContainer1 = new Sprite();
    sprContainer2 = new Sprite();
    mcSlideHolder.addChild(sprContainer1);
    mcSlideHolder.addChild(sprContainer2);

    // keep a reference of the container which is currently
    // in the front
    currentContainer = sprContainer2;
}

function onXMLLoadComplete(e:Event):void {
    // create new xml with the received data
    xmlSlideshow = new XML(e.target.data);
    // get total slide count
    intSlideCount = xmlSlideshow..image.length();
    // switch the first slide without a delay
    switchSlide(0);
}

function fadeSlideIn(e:Event):void {
    // add loaded slide from slide loader to the
    // current container
    addSlideContent();

    // check if the slideshow is currently playing
    // if so, show time to the next slide. If not, show
    // a status message
    if(bolPlaying) {
    } else {
    }
    // fade the current container in and start the slide timer
    // when the tween is finished
    Tweener.addTween(currentContainer, {alpha:1, time:FADE_TIME, onComplete:onSlideFadeIn});
}

function onSlideFadeIn():void {
    // check, if the slideshow is currently playing
    // if so, start the timer again
    if(bolPlaying && !slideTimer.running)
        slideTimer.start();
}

function switchSlide(intSlide:int):void {
    // check if the last slide is still fading in
    if(!Tweener.isTweening(currentContainer)) {
        // check, if the timer is running (needed for the
        // very first switch of the slide)
        if(slideTimer.running)
            slideTimer.stop();
        // change slide index
        intCurrentSlide = intSlide;
        // check which container is currently in the front and
        // assign currentContainer to the one that's in the back with
        // the old slide
        if(currentContainer == sprContainer2)
            currentContainer = sprContainer1;
        else
            currentContainer = sprContainer2;
        // hide the old slide
        currentContainer.alpha = 0;
        // bring the old slide to the front
        mcSlideHolder.swapChildren(sprContainer2, sprContainer1);
        // delete loaded content
        clearLoader();
        // create a new loader for the slide
        slideLoader = new Loader();
        // add event listener when slide is loaded
        slideLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, fadeSlideIn);
        // load the next slide
        slideLoader.load(new URLRequest(xmlSlideshow..image[intCurrentSlide].@src));
    }
}

function nextSlide(e:Event = null):void {
    // check, if there are any slides left, if so, increment slide
    // index
    if(intCurrentSlide + 1 < intSlideCount)
        switchSlide(intCurrentSlide + 1);
    // if not, start slideshow from beginning
    else
        switchSlide(0);
}

function previousSlide(e:Event = null):void {
    // check, if there are any slides left, if so, decrement slide
    // index
    if(intCurrentSlide - 1 >= 0)
        switchSlide(intCurrentSlide - 1);
    // if not, start slideshow from the last slide
    else
        switchSlide(intSlideCount - 1);
}

function clearLoader():void {
    try {
        // get loader info object
        var li:LoaderInfo = slideLoader.contentLoaderInfo;
        // check if content is bitmap and delete it
        if(li.childAllowsParent && li.content is Bitmap){
            (li.content as Bitmap).bitmapData.dispose();
        }
    } catch(e:*) {}
}

function addSlideContent():void {
    // empty current slide and delete previous bitmap
    while(currentContainer.numChildren){Bitmap(currentContainer.getChildAt(0)).bitmapData.dispose(); currentContainer.removeChildAt(0);}

    // create a new bitmap with the slider content, clone it and add it to the slider container
    var bitMp:Bitmap =  new Bitmap(Bitmap(slideLoader.contentLoaderInfo.content).bitmapData.clone());
    currentContainer.addChild(bitMp);
}

// init slideshow
initSlideshow();

Answer 1

If you're using PHP on your server something like

header('Content-type: applicaiton/xml;charset=utf-8');
$dir = dir('images');
echo '<images>', "\n";
foreach ($dir as $file) {
    if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') {
        continue;
    }
    echo '<image>', $file, '</image>', "\n";
}
echo '</images>';

should do the trick.

Just point your slideshow app at the PHP script and it'll create the list dynamically.

Answer 2

Well you could simply integrate the XML into actionscript if you want to skip the loading :

var xmlSlideshow:XML = <images><image /><image /></ images>;

In case you want to skip that as well you can name the images on a certain way so you can blindly load them (image0.jpg, image1.jpg, etc.), until your loading sequence throws an error (that you catch of course) as the imageN doesn't exist (this is dirty though!).

The best in this situation is to have a tiny server side script that lists all the files in a given folder and output their references into an XML that can be retrieved from your SWF.

Answer 3

Unless you're deploying your flash app through AIR, you don't have access to the system, so you can't read all the contents of a folder.

You could use PHP or your server side language of choice to read the contents of a folder and construct the xml you'll load.

Just change strXMLPath to http://example.com/yourphpfile.php and it will load up as an xml document. You should change the mimetype to mimetype="application/xml".