Passing data/variable from a Visual Basic form to a Flash Object

Question

I\'m pretty sure that this can be answered somewhere here on stackOverflow but I\'m out of options with this.

I have a VisualBasic form with an button object on it.

Answer 1

The way to do this is using the ExternalInterface class in AS3. It allows data to be passed between AS3 and the host application/container (be that a webpage or a VB Form etc).

In the AS3 side, you set it up as follows:

function myAS3Function(someNumber:Number, someObject:Object)
{
    //do something with your number and object
    trace(someObject.isAwesome);

    return "hello from AS3";
}

//register your function with a label VB can call/invoke
if (ExternalInterface.available){
   ExternalInterface.addCallback("myAS3Function", myAS3Function);
}

From the host side, you send/recieve XML to the ActiveX object.

Your XML looks like this:

<invoke name="myAS3Function" returntype="xml">
    <arguments>
        <number>5</number>
        <object>
            <property id="foo"><string>bar</string></property>
            <property id="isAwesome"><true/></property>
        </object>
    </arguments>
</invoke>

---

Now, construct that XML in VB, and invoke the CallFunction method of the VB flash object, passing it the xml string.

Dim returnValue As String
returnValue = MyFlashShockWaveObj.CallFunction(xml)

MsgBox(returnValue) 'hello from flash

If you are passing a lot of objects, sometimes it easiest to just JSON.stringify them and pass just one JSON string over to AS3 (and/or back).