Need basic info/help

Question

If I am in the wrong forum, I apologize, but the Flash Builder forum is closed.
I am a complete newbie with regard to the flash development environment and want to understand more about Flash Builder. So I am trying to do the "Flex Test Drive: Build an application in an hour" tutorial. It's a nice idea.
It tells you to create a web service using Zend. So I followed their instructions... didn't find success there.
Then it occurred to me that I already have a WAMP service installed on my pc. Do I also need a Zend service?
If I don't need a Zend service, do I need to unintall Zend?
After that, do I need to explicitly to define a service CLASS for WAMP? If so, could some kind person explain to me how to get started on this, or direct me to a document that a newbie can understand?
Thanks, any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Flash Builder can access just about any kind of data on any type of server (the "back-end"). It looks like you want to develop your back-end services using PHP. It does not matter which tool you use for that; it is a matter of preference/budget. You can use your WAMP installation, of course.
You may need to first concentrate on developing back-end data services using PHP, then look into how you would retrieve the results within FB (hint: the FB part is very simple and you will love it!). For instance, start with a PHP script which simply put together some sample XML, then have FB retrieve that XML using the HTTPService. Once you get the data into FB, it's up to you what you want to do with it.
Here is a simple PHP page you could start with:
<?php
//Output XML from PHP.
//Open tag:
$output = "<return_data>";
//Create element value:
$output .= "Hello World";
//Close tag:
$output .= "</return_data>";
print ($output);
?>