How do I connect to a SQL Server DB?

Question

I have a menu designed in Flash which has to pull back
database records, how do I go about that? Every tutorial seems to
be different and none are exactly what I am looking for.
thanks
Em

Answer 1

Very true. This is a wide open field of decisions you have to
make.
First choice you have is sending via URL variable encoding or
XML. That will define your tasks needed in ASP. As well would you
want to simply (most beginners would) just have the ASP send the
URL variables or XML with Response.write or are you planning a web
service type of app.
For Flash you will find the examples in the docs are all you
need to get the data from the ASP and send back if necessary. Still
the choices depend on the server (ASP) choices.
For URL Encoding from ASP:
LoadVars.load
For URL Encoding to and from ASP:
LoadVars.sendAndLoad
For XML from ASP:
XML.load
For XML to and from ASP:
XML.sendAndLoad
For overall details on data integration
Many folks like using the Flash 8 Pro DataGrid component for
a quick UI to display a SQL select result. You would populate it
using
DataGrid.addItem.
You can also bind the DataGrid to data providers such as an
array so it updates when the data source changes.
You also can use many of the Flash 8 Pro UI components in a
data integration that binds them to a data connector component:
FLash
8 Pro data binding component approach. You should review
Data
Integration in the Flash Docs for this approach.
If you need some decisions:
1. Select a scripting language: ASP, PHP, ASP.Net, JSP, Perl,
ColdFusion
2. Select the database: mySQL, SQL Server, Oracle
3. Decide how you want to send data to and from Flash (XML,
Url variables, Web Services)
4. Write a server script that can do the database work you
want and just use html forms to prove those scripts out.
5. Look up the docs in Flash for #3 and do the Flash UI.
You might see from this that Flash or HTML would work with
the same server scripts.