Show Database Info in Flash?

[tyleri]

I would love to be able to store information in an Access database and be able to display the information in flash in a dynamic text box or something of that sort.

Could someone show me a step-by-step process of doing something like this, if it is possible? I also want to write some code similar to SQL. Basically - I want the functionality of an ASP page in Flash.

Any ideas? If you have code to offer, I would appreciate it, I am just now learning Action Script, and still consider myself a novice.

 

[tyleri]

OH yeah - I am on a Windows 2000 Server.

 

[tyleri]

Does anyone have any ideas about this? I haven't heard anything in a month or so.

I have Access Database residing on Win2kServer. I want to import the data from a query in that database onto the page.

 

[frozenpeas]

A quick Google search and I found this:

http://www.asp101.com/articles/flash/index.asp

I haven't done anything with ASP and Flash but there seems to be information about it out there.

 

[quickblueink]

(i dunno anything about your knowledge, so if this sounds like i'm treating you like a child, i don't mean it that way)

The note above with the link to asp101 is one option, and if you are familiar with server-side scripting principles in general, you should be able to translate that article to the scripting language of choice(JSP, XML, etc.).

But if you're not overly familiar there are two things that might help. First off, the easy. If you have Flash 5 you can install generator on your webserver. Then, in the flash movie you can set up DSN connection to the database. It's a lot to try and explain here, but if i knew a little more specifically what you were trying to do, i might could help with the Actionscript code. However, if you have generator installed, the help files are pretty complete.

There are 2 problems with this solution. First, unless you are hosting the webserver yourself, it can be tough and expensive to find a server that supports it. Second, Macromedia has realized that most Flash developers wishing to use database connectivity will just use asp or something else. So they are dicontinuing it. I haven't used MX yet, but I think they said that it wasn't going to include generator.

The more difficult solution is to learn how to do everything you want to do in ASP, then do like the article above says: get the info with ASP, then load the variables into the movie with actionscript.

tell me more about what you want to do, what version of flash you have, and give me a link to the .fla, and I'll see if i can't help you more with the actionscript.
--M.austin

 

[quickblueink]

Also, check out this thread that I started forever ago for more info:

thread250-103811

 

[tyleri]

Ok - I'm back - I'm still using Flash 5.

I have the code I want to use already set up with ASP. How could I put that ASP page directly into a window pane in Flash? It sounds like it will be easier to just load up a server residing ASP page than use action script with the ASP codes in it.

 

[quickblueink]

I'm assuming the ASP page just runs a query and then puts the results into variables. The next thing to do is write an actionscript script that loads those variables into flash. You aren't actually running the asp code inside flash, rather just retreiving the results from the ASP's work.
it's a little like writing an ASP script that accesses a database on another server...say, to put a stock ticker on your homepage. When you write the stock ticker script, you dont want to have to download the entire NASDAQ database every time you load the page, so all the script does is **look at the NASDAQ db**, and return the results you need. What you are doing is sorta the same. You don't need to load the asp **into** flash, so much as have flash look at what it needs from the ASP.
Set up a link where i can get the fla and the asp and I might be able to be of more specific help
-M.austin

 

[tyleri]

wow - thanks - Ok:

- FLA file:

http://www.srmrocks.com/test/main_site_5.fla

- ASP file:

http://www.srmrocks.com/test/shows.asp

in the FLA file - Frame 15 in the Shows Page layer has the movie clip that contains the dynamic text box and script that I created.

 

[quickblueink]

I'm downloading at looking at them now. Meatime, click on my handle. I put my email in my profile so we can figure this out more efficiently.
M.austin

 

[billwatson]

for flash 5 there is good tutorial on this at

http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/010605.htm?voteresult=4

for flash mx goto

http://www.flashcomponents.net

and download the table component. This allows to drop an access database into flash. Very handy.