Conclusion

We are progressing splendidly. We have built a pathway for XML data from the client to the server and back. We have seen how transactions fit in the pattern of HTTP protocol, and we've seen the importance of proper content-type descriptors in the headers sent in each direction.

We have explored features and quirks of both Flash and PHP and have established solid communication between the two. We also practiced the display of the XML message in Internet Explorer ”both as data tucked away as XML islands in an HTML page and as a pure XML file.

But if we are to be honest with ourselves , we note that PHP never really touches the data content of the XML it handles. So far, it merely takes a block of data that has been labeled as XML content and packages it properly to be recognized as XML when it is sent back to the browser in a new window.

In later chapters, we will parse this string into the structured data that it represents. We will also develop other points in the data drivetrain. We will generate the original Flash XML string more legitimately, and we will capture the XML response with Flash rather than a new browser window.