Topic: Is this even possible - 1000 page phone directory in macromedia flash

Hi guys,

I've been approached with a project to make a CD based telephone directory in macromedia flash. The directory details would be in an xml file and all I have to do is make a flash based standalone application that actually searches through the directory and allows users to browse.. the phone book.

The thing is that this is technically speaking a standalone aplication that will run from a CD so theres no question of using any DBs or web servers... plus its supposed to have a macromedia flash interface and the phone book we're talking about is well.. like all phone books HUGE.

I was wondering whether this can be done or if its even humanely possible and what other alternative solutions are there for such a project. I have some idea of searching through xml files using flash but this is kinda big....

I would so not do this in xml...
a 'flat file' possibly with fixed entries, and potentially an index file,
is way more appropriate.

Otherwise, I don't see much problems, if you can access a file 'for real' via flash (ie. not just loading an xml file into memory - that's gotta be troublesome ).

So long,

Its the loading the xml into memory thats gotten me perplexed...

I'm thinking of splitting the xml into smaller xml files to facilitate it but I'm worried that it don't turn into a mess.

You said something about accessing a flat file... apart from LoadVars I'm not so sure of any way to do that, do you have any tutorials or hints on how to get this thing done.. its not necessary that it be done using xml the client just wants a flash based phone book.

Easy said than done though...

sorry, I never more than dabbled in flash - you are on your own finding out how it manipulates files.

In other news, doing this in xml is a) a waste of storage b) dead dog slow c) extremly memory intensive.
Forget about that! Even multiple files, you still have to open all of them to do meaningful search.

so long,

->Tyberius Prime