Dynamic Flash Site?

Would you be able to make a dynamic flash site? Like, login, then be able to edit stuff online, like with say..php? Or does every update have to be done by opening the page up in flash, typing it in, and reloading it?

Yes.

You can use flash to access databases, XML objects, text files, web sites, and the like.

You can run a chat program with a xml link.

You can auto load text files for your dynamic info.

You can run forms that submit to asp, cgi, php, scripts that will upload/change content.

You can do it all in flash.

I recommend referenceing

http://www.actionscript.org for tutorials on the basics of using actionscript.

Ok, this next question is more aimed at Unflux since I've seen him do it, if I wanted to make a flash and just...a static site (yet dynamic) and have the information stay constant through both pages, would using a database be most effecient?

Macromedia is still in the process of implementing dynamic content into it's flash editor nicely. But I found a very nice work around that I use, after flash version 6 layer schemes finaly work using div tags and the z index. The iframe tag is great in this situation you can load any Dhtml into it, giving you access to the huge amount scripts and programs out thier. I have even found a way to animate some of this dynamic content a little bit by placing another flash movie in a higher z index and using transition effects something most database applications lack is good looks. It works basically like this I will provide some real source if needed, I'm new to these forums and don't know the rules on that.

Base Flash movie in page
Layer 1(z-index=1) contains a dynamic element as small as text for a button and as large as entire web application or another existing web page.

Layer 3(z-index=2)contains visual effects like a page wipe done in flash, this layer is placed directly over top of layer 1

All your layers have ids and links can be loaded directly into individual layers this is the cool part . Let's say you have your menu system in your base flash movie that you want when clicked to display something contained in a database. well the onclick event would do two things First it will load a page in layer 3 that contains a visual effect with a delay from starting, next it will load a page in layer 2 that contains dynamic database elements. This page could be a asp page, jsp page, or something different it does not matter.

If you’re trying to achieve something like a user updatable web page I would suggest giving clients access to a WYSISWG browser based html editor and simply using these pages in your design, through the iframe tag. If you are doing something more advanced than use a database, but if you never wrote a web page that interfaces with a database before it can be challenging to learn. Doing this type of thing natively in flash through xml parsers and data source connectors is a real pain, but macromedia has been steadily improving, I doubt they will ever provide as robust or as easy a solution as asp or jsp . You can probably learn to develop one of these pages very quickly as long as the server and all the function calls are configured for you, this is why I suggest using the iframe tag.

Don’t read this next part unless your curies about some of my untested ideas
Advanced technique but could be useful:

Flash is a very efficient form processor and can handle some advanced stuff if needed, you can have a user fill out a series of forms in flash and then using our same setup as before open a encoded url inone of our Inline frames(iframe) that uses variables previously collected in your forms to read and write from a database. For instance.



getUrl("posting.php"&var);

This is undoubtedly not proper actionscript but you get the point. The var would be something that you collected from the user inside your flash file and you could even use a basic encryption scheme like this. I.E you would apply some math calculation to your data before it's sent to the server and then require the server to decrypt it. SWF files themselves can also be encrypted. This process would not be perfect, but it could hide data that typically is not hidden, like basic url information that relates to your
server implementation. Imagine doing database lookups without users easily determining what language you’re using.


Other more practical uses could be as simple as attaching assumption data to a database request like what .swf this request came from, or some assumptions about the user.

how else would you keep the information synchronized?

yes, if you want the information synchronized always you must retrieve the information from the same database...

by static i believe your implying that the alternate swf driven part of your user interface won't have any motion?

why bother with flash at all?

if you have your UI coded with php/asp or some other language capable of querying the database system you use pages would process much faster.

flash is more for commercial webpages in my opinion.

with abstract user interfaces with fancy navigation, flash is designed to allow you freedom in these areas....

if it is static u look for, go with some clean cut swiss design with php implementation...

swiss design is the best form of html design in my opinion, nothing tops it!

i hope i have been more helpful then offensive... =]

to be honest, i'm not quite sure what you're asking for? Are you wanting
your site to contain the same info on all pages?? or are you saying that
you want a database to run your site?

I don't understand you saying it's static yet dynamic. :sratchhead:

Ok, if it goes how I'm thinking, I'll have a site. One version is a flash version with moving, sound, and zoom zoom zoom. The other will just be static HTML site (with PHP of course). But, to keep the information consistent between the flash version and HTML version, I would need to use a database. That was what I was asking (assuming the above is correct).