Can Flash be integrated with SQL? - sql

Question

Can Flash be used together with SQL? I have a Flash form and I need to connect it to SQL. If there is any example on the net about this topic. I can't find it.

Answer 1

You don't use ActionScript directly with an SQL database. Instead you make http requests from ActionScript to a server, specifying the correct parameters. A typical opensource setup, is a PHP script communicating with a MySQL DB, but you can use Java with Oracle, Ruby with CouchDB, .NET with SQL or any other possible configuration. The important point is that you must be able to call a server script and pass variables... typically a Restful setup.
Once your PHP script has been properly configured, you can use http POST or http GET to send values from ActionScript.
PHP:
<?php
$updateValue = $_POST["updateValue"];
$dbResult = updateDB( $updateValue ); //This should return the db response
echo( $dbResult );
?>
To call this script from ActionScript, you need to create a variables object.
var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
variables.updateValue = "someResult";
The variable name .updateValue, must match the php variable exactly.
now create a URLRequest Object, specifying the location of your script. For this example the method must be set to POST. You add the variable above to the data setter of the request.
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest( "yourScript.php" );
request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
request.data = variables;
Now create a URLLoader and add an event listener. Do not pass the request created above to the constructor, but to the load method.
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete );
loader.load( request );
The handler would look something like this.
private function onComplete( e:Event ) : void
{
trace( URLLoader( e.target ).data.toString() );
}
This example shows how to update and receive a response from a server / db combo. However, you can also query a DB through the script and parse the result. So in the PHP example above, you can output JSON, XML or even a piped string, and this can be consumed by ActionScript.
XML is a popular choice, as ActionScript's e4x support treats XML like a native object.
To treat the response above like an XML response, use the following in the onComplete handler.
private function onComplete( e:Event ) : void
{
var result:XML = XML( URLLoader( e.target ).data );
}
This will throw an error if your xml is poorly formed, so ensure the server script always prints out valid XML, even if there is a DB error.

Answer 2

The problem with this is giving someone a flash file that directly accesses SQL server is very insecure. Even if it's possible, which I have seen SOCKET classes out there to do so for MySQL (though never used it), allowing users to remotely connect to your DB is insecure as the user can sniff the login information.
In my opinion, the best way to do this is to create a Client/Server script. You can easily do this with PHP or ASP.net by using SendAndLoad to send the data you need to pass to SQL via POST fields. You can then send back the values in PHP with:
echo 'success='.+urlencode(data);
With this, flash can access the data via the success field.
I don't personally code flash but I work with a company who develops KIOSK applications for dozens of tradeshow companies, and my job is to store the data, return it to them. This is the method we use. You can make it even cleaner by using actual web services such as SOAP, but this method gets the job done if its just you using it.

Answer 3

You should look into Zend Amf or even the Zend Framework for server side communication with Flash. As far as I know Zend Amf is the fastest way to communicate with PHP ( therefore your database ) also you can pass & return complex Objects from the client to the server and vice versa.
Consider this , for instance. You have a bunch of data in your database , you implement functions in ZF whereas this data is formatted and set as a group of Value Objects. From Flash , you query ZF , Zf queries the database , retrieve & formats your data, return your Value Objects as a JSON string ( for instance ). In Flash, you retrieve you JSON string , decode it and assign your Value Objects to whatever relevant classes you have.
There are plenty of tutorials out there regarding Flash communication with the Zend Framework.
Here's an example:
http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=90