Topic: Marquee/Ticker (embeddable?) solutions...

First-off, let me please apologise if I've plonked this down in the wrong place - as I'm not entirely sure what I'm asking for, I've little idea of which section is most relevant.

That dealt with, I thought perhaps I could field this question to the many minds here in the hope that someone knows of a solution:

I have previously provided a client with several networked machines for a conference in which a single cofidence monitor supplied a series of messages (questions) to a speaker, provided by remote operators. This was simply a PC running Netmeeting, with unnecessary info/text ommitted from the chat window. Each of the senders saw only what they were sending, and not the heap of data that was being pooled at the receiving end from each of the other senders - all very simple...

The same client now wants a system whereby several (remote or otherwise) operators can enter information (news bites, for instance) at their respective consoles, and then have that information updated to a ticker display.

They are happy to have a system that relies on an operator to 'cut & paste' the various pieces of information to the displaying program/script, so keeping collation fairly simple. Of course, providing a seamless, updatable ticker is the main issue...

I have researched various Flash/JS-based solutions using an XML file as the data source. It would be best, if possible, if the 'news bites' could be updated to the ticker 'on the fly' without having to refresh the screen displaying the ticker. I'm sure I'll find a solution, even if it means a crash course on scripting, but time could be short, and I'm sure that there are a multitude of better-informed persons who might be able to point me in the right direction, or even give me an idea of plausibility.

Of course, I'm not asking for freebie code/scripts - just an idea of how I might go about implementing this, or where I might find the required resources/tutorials. My employer is perfectly happy to pay for a commercial solution, if it exists, but it'll have to be something fairly scalable/versatile, and widely embeddable.

It may even be the case that the client wants this incorporated into Powerpoint (embedded flash, perhaps) but the brief is extremely basic, and the client is (frustratingly) unable to tell me more than this, so I'm trawling every possible angle on a solution. When the client has a better idea of what they want, at least I will have managed a head-start on it. For now, I have to make a few assumptions, so I apologise for being so vague.

Any ideas?

Using :
- http://www.nwebb.co.uk/nw_htmlsite/index.php?page=browse_tutorial&tutorial=xmlhtmlcss1&part=1
- http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/8/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00001766.html

Flash file :

//init TextArea component
myText.html = true;
myText.wordWrap = true;
myText.multiline = true;
myText.label.condenseWhite=true;
/******************************/
//load css
kungFuStyle = new TextField.StyleSheet();
kungFuStyle.load("kungfu.css");
myText.styleSheet = kungFuStyle;

/******************************/
//load in XML
kungFuContent = new XML();
kungFuContent.ignoreWhite = true;

var intervalId:Number;

function executeCallback():Void {
	kungFuContent.load("kungfu.xml");
	kungFuContent.onLoad = function(success)
	{
		if(success)
		{
			myText.text = kungFuContent;
		}
	}
}

intervalId = setInterval(this, "executeCallback", 5000);

kungfu.xml :

<kungfu>
	<drunken>Modify me</drunken>
	<monkey>Monkey style is deceptive and versatile. It is generally meant for smaller size persons.</monkey>
	<span class='snake'>Snake style does not deal in humaneness, it only deals with delivering  [...]</span>
	<dragon>Dragon Style is a highly aggressive kung fu style, relentlessly pressing against [...]</dragon>
</kungfu>

The xml is currently reloaded every 5000 milli seconds, change that to whatever you want.
All you have to do now is to make it scroll.

That took me 30 minutes and a few Google searches... Please note that I don't know anything of Flash

Can I get paid too ?

----
If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.



(Edited by Moon Shadow on 03-06-2007 00:36)

Thanks Moonshadow - that certainly points me in the right direction. Worst case scenario, I come out of this a little better educated. Thanks for the links.