User Guide

376 Chapter 2: ActionScript Language Reference
loadVariables()
Availability
Flash Player 4; behavior changed in Flash Player 7.
Usage
loadVariables (url:String , target:Object [, variables:String]) : Void
Parameters
url
An absolute or relative URL where the variables are located. If the SWF file issuing this call
is running in a web browser,
url must be in the same domain as the SWF file; for details, see the
Description section.
target The target path to a movie clip that receives the loaded variables.
variables An optional parameter specifying an HTTP method for sending variables. The
parameter must be the string
GET or POST. If there are no variables to be sent, omit this parameter.
The
GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL and is used for small numbers of
variables. The
POST method sends the variables in a separate HTTP header and is used for long
strings of variables.
Returns
Nothing.
Description
Function; reads data from an external file, such as a text file or text generated by ColdFusion, a
CGI script, Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, or Perl script, and sets the values for variables in a
target movie clip. This action can also be used to update variables in the active SWF file with new
values.
The text at the specified URL must be in the standard MIME format application/x-www-form-
urlencoded (a standard format used by CGI scripts). Any number of variables can be specified. For
example, the following phrase defines several variables:
company=Macromedia&address=600+Townsend&city=San+Francisco&zip=94103
In SWF files running in a version earlier than Flash Player 7, url must be in the same
superdomain as the SWF file that is issuing this call. A superdomain is derived by removing the
leftmost component of a file’s URL. For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load
data from a source at store.someDomain.com because both files are in the same superdomain of
someDomain.com.
In SWF files of any version running in Flash Player 7 or later,
url must be in exactly the same
domain as the SWF file that is issuing this call (see “Flash Player security features” in Using
ActionScript in Flash). For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load data only
from sources that are also at www.someDomain.com. If you want to load data from a different
domain, you can place a cross-domain policy file on the server hosting the SWF file that is being
accessed. For more information, see “About allowing cross-domain data loading” in Using
ActionScript in Flash.
CHAPTER 2
ActionScript Language Reference