wdaniel -
I've attached a sample file that does what you needed (reads in an external xml file containing a list of people's names and phone numbers and displays the phone number based on a name typed into a text box). The code is very similar to what we've discussed here previously, but I'll give a quick overview here:
Components on stage: 2 text boxes (txtName, txtPhone) and 1 button (submitButton).
AS3:
//Add the click event listener to the submitButton. When clicked, call //onButtonClick
submitButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onButtonClick);
//Create the variable xmlData for later use
var xmlData:XML;
//This function reads in the xml file. Once complete, the urlLoader calls the //onLoadComplete function
function onButtonClick(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//First read in the xml file
var urlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
xmlData = new XML();
urlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoadComplete);
urlLoader.load(new URLRequest("phonelist.xml"));
}
//This function assigns the data from the urlLoader to the xmlData variable and //then calls the findPhoneNumber function
function onLoadComplete(e:Event):void
{
xmlData = new XML(e.target.data);
findPhoneNumber(txtName.text);
}
//This function parses the xmlData and if it finds a match in the <pname> //attribute, it updates txtPhone's text property with the correct phone number
function findPhoneNumber(searchName:String):void
{
var personDetails:XMLList = xmlData.person.(pname == searchName);
txtPhone.text = personDetails.phone;
}
The attached zip file contains the flash file, sample xml file, and compiled swf, if you have any further questions or problems let us know.
Cheers,
Jon