How well does Flash & PHP mix?

Question

I haven't worked much with forms yet in Flash. The existing
site that I'm replacing with a flash site uses some PHP to interact
with a MySQL database. It is for an email list that users can
sign-up for or remove themselves. I'm wondering if I will be able
to still (at least somewhat easily) do the same thing through
Flash. Here's the code currently used:
<?php
switch ($_GET['a']) {
case "s":subscribe();break;
case "r":remove();break;
default: subscribe();
function subscribe() {
require_once 'database.php';
require_once 'admin/lib.php';
$db = new Database('eaglebro_lists');
$show_form = true;
if ($_POST) {
if (is_email($_POST['email'])) {
$email = format_email($_POST['email']);
$uniqid = make_uniqid();
$db->query("REPLACE users (name, email, uniqid, created)
VALUES ('$_POST[name]','$email','$uniqid',NOW()) ");
$id = mysql_insert_id($db->db);
$db->query("REPLACE subscriptions (listid, userid,
created) VALUES ('11','$id',NOW()) ");
$show_form = false;
echo '<h3>Success!</h3><p>Thank you for
subscribing to the Route 212 email newsletter!</p><hr
/><p><a href="/">Route 212 Home
Page</a></p>';
} else {
echo "<h3>Error!</h3><p>The email address
you entered appears to be invalid. Check for any errors and submit
the form again.</p><hr />";
if ($show_form == true) {
?>
<p>Sign up to receive periodic email about Route 212
events and news.</p>
<form method="post"
action="/interact/updates.html?a=s">
<p>
<label class="m"
for="f_name">Name:</label><input id="f_name"
type="text" class="text m" name="name" />
<label class="m"
for="f_email">Email:</label><input id="f_email"
type="text" class="text m" name="email" />
<p><input id="f_submit" type="submit" class="button
s" value="Subscribe" /></p>
</form>
<?php
function remove() {
require_once 'database.php';
$db = new Database('eaglebro_lists');
//if email address is provided
if ($_GET['uid'] && $_GET['lid']) {
//perform database removal and show confirmation
$id = $db->query_fetch("SELECT id FROM users WHERE
uniqid='$_GET[uid]'");
$db->query("SELECT * FROM subscriptions WHERE
userid='$id[id]' AND listid='$_GET[lid]'");
if (mysql_num_rows($db->result)) {
$db->query("DELETE FROM subscriptions WHERE
userid='$id[id]' AND listid='$_GET[lid]'");
$list = $db->query_fetch("SELECT name FROM lists WHERE
id='$_GET[lid]'");
echo "<h4>Unsubscription
Successful</h4><p>You have been removed from the
following list: <b>$list[name]</b></p>";
echo '<hr /><p><a href="/">Route 212 Home
Page</a></p>';
} else {
$list = $db->query_fetch("SELECT name FROM lists WHERE
id='$_GET[lid]'");
echo "<h4>Cannot Unsubscribe</h4><p>You
have either already unsubscribed from the following list:
<b>$list[name]</b>, or an
error has occured.</p>";
echo '<hr /><p><a href="/">Route 212 Home
Page</a></p>';
} else {
echo "<h4>Cannot Unsubscribe</h4><p>There
is information missing.</p>";
echo '<hr /><p><a href="/">Route 212 Home
Page</a></p>';
?>

Answer 1

Josh,
I'm much more comfortable with PHP that Flash too. You won't
have a problem getting the two to work together. Its pretty easy
actually.
The key in my limited experience is to have your PHP to run
as normal and then communicate what you want to display to the user
via one of Flash's external data connection classes. There is a
great chapter on this in the book "flash 8 action script" by Adobe
--- the easiest way is to just use the "loadVars" class to accept a
string you've generated as output of your PHP file in the format:
&variable = data &variable = data etc...
Also here is a good site with an example I've found that was
helpful in getting the two languages to work together:
http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/03/40/index0a_page3.html?tw=programming
This example actually walks you through the communication
between all 3 --> MySQL, PHP and Flash.
Good luck!!
Tom