Developing a wordsearch in Flash

evil-monkey

Anyone have any pointers on how one would create a simple interactive wordsearch using Flash??

Have some limited knowledge of Javascript so I can tie that in if needed.

Thanks in advance

p

You'll need to explain an awful lot more detail about what you mean in order to give you advice.

S.M.B.

Sounds like someone has to develop a wordsearch puzzle in flash for their college project or something.

Why not figure it out yourself?

evil-monkey

p wrote: »

You'll need to explain an awful lot more detail about what you mean in order to give you advice.

That's true. Sorry, a bit vague. Something simple. I have experience in Javascript and other programming languages but just wanted to try this in Flash; curiosity more than anything. I got myself a Flash for Dummies book and a few eBooks of the net but not getting very far. All I want is to do a simple wordsearch for kids. Maybe 10 x 10 letters, that has a small level of interactivity. Maybe when they highlight the word it is marked off a dynamic list or what not. Any ideas where I'd start?? Have searched for a few guides on small flash projects like this but there doesn't seem to be much out there. It doesn't need to be superb. I just want to do it to get a feel for what Flash is like more than anything. Thanks in advance

S.M.B. wrote: »

Sounds like someone has to develop a wordsearch puzzle in flash for their college project or something.

If it was something I had to do for college, then it is something I would be able to do. And were I stuck, I'd probably have taken my issues to a lecturer or class mate. I am doing computers, but flash has absolutely nout to do with my course. If you must know, I want to do this for a teacher, who wants it for her class.

S.M.B. wrote: »

Why not figure it out yourself?

I can't stand people like you. Forums are here for people to discuss things, and ask other people with specialist knowledge for pointers on things they aren't familiar with. I have tried a few things, didn't get me much place, so I felt I'd bounce the idea of the people in here who'd know a lot more about this sort of thing than I would. Which, I thought, was the whole point of it. If you don't want to offer anything constructive, I'd suggest you save yourself the bother of typing out comments like "Why not figure it out yourself?" Jeezzzz, "figure it out", well why handn't I thought of that?? /slaps head with palm

p

Check out flashkit, think they have a few examples that might get your started.

It's a little bit tricky from a coding point of view, but it's definitely doable.

evil-monkey

p wrote: »

Check out flashkit, think they have a few examples that might get your started.

It's a little bit tricky from a coding point of view, but it's definitely doable.

will do. will post back and let you know how i got on. much obliged.

NickNolte

evil-monkey wrote: »

I can't stand people like you. Forums are here for people to discuss things, and ask other people with specialist knowledge for pointers on things they aren't familiar with.

I can't stand people like you. There's no problem asking for pointers but, to be honest, you're way out of your depth in terms of even being able to think about approaching this problem. Go and learn the basics of Flash development and then come on and ask for minutae/pointers as you need them in order to nudge yourself along. Your basic knowledge of JavaScript is unlikely to help you here.

At the risk of being labelled unhelpful, here's an idea of what you need to do:

• Store your searchable content a MySQL database (or similar) and transform the data into XML and pass it into Flash using PHP (or similar) as middleware. Alternatively, just store your content in a static XML file if that will do.
• Parse the resulting XML in Flash using XPath and store the content/content nodes as data arrays.
• Create a search field and, using indigenous actionscript string functions, write your logic for the kind of word search you want.

The bottom line is that if you don't have any experience with Web development (it sounds like you don't) then you won't be doing any of this fast. Have a look at Snatch a Purse, Noob and maybe you can download the ready made source.

p

NickNolte - you're seriously over-speccing his project. He doens't need any server communication at all, never mind XML or MySQL. He can just do a simple test, store the data in an array and work locally to start with.

NickNolte

p wrote: »

NickNolte - you're seriously over-speccing his project.

A wordsearch within a completely self-contained Flash movie is pretty useless.

p

NickNolte wrote: »

A wordsearch within a completely self-contained Flash movie is pretty useless.

Wordsearch games are quite common on educational websites for kids so that's not really true.

Also, the guys said it was a learning exercise so it doesn't even need a point.


Go easy on the guy, sure he wasn't very clear in his posts but that's not a crime.

NickNolte

p wrote: »

Wordsearch games are quite common on educational websites for kids so that's not really true.

Also, the guys said it was a learning exercise so it doesn't even need a point.


Go easy on the guy, sure he wasn't very clear in his posts but that's not a crime.

Point taken. The link above to string functions in actionscript is a good start so!