Danny Patterson

CSV is a format that has been around for a long time. It's a simple way to store multiple rows with multiple columns and it can be easily imported into a variety of commonly used desktop applications. This article examines the use of CSV-formatted data in Flash. We will write a class in ActionScript 2.0 to handle all of our CSV functionality and then we will use this class to populate the Macromedia v2 Data Grid Component. Why Use a CSV File? CSV is a very simple format. At its core it is essentially a large string that has rows separated by a delimiter and columns within each row delimited by a comma. Because of its use of rows and columns, this data format is perfectly suited for record sets, whereas an XML-formatted record set is more complicated. Another good reason to use CSV is that it can be viewed by many common desktop applications. Any spreadsheet program,... (more)

Macromedia Flash - How To Use the Singleton Design Pattern

Design patterns are standardized solutions to common programming problems. It's good to use design patterns for two simple reasons. First, it's faster (and many times better) to implement a time-tested design pattern as opposed to developing a custom solution. Second, collaboration with other developers increases when common practices are used. The Singleton Pattern The Singleton design pattern is one of the most widely known design patterns; and it's also one of the simplest. It's used to insure that a class is only instantiated once. The pattern also provides a global point of a... (more)