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Thread: Standalone DB

  1. #1
    Flash Enthusiast? thecombat's Avatar
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    Standalone DB

    Hey guys, Ive been assigned to create a Database/Organization system in flash and I need to know what type of Database I should use, this app will be installed on a system without internet access soo......

  2. #2
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    Most of the third party tools on the list below support some kind of database access.

    SWF Studio http://www.northcode.com
    Flash Studio http://www.multidmedia.com
    Jugglor http://www.***********.com
    FlashAnts http://www.flashants.com
    Flash 'N Pack http://www.flashnpack.com
    SWFKit http://www.swfkit.com
    LPFlashEX http://www.logicplus.com.hk

    My product, SWF Studio, allows you to use ADO to access any database with an ADO provider. This includes all of the big vendors like Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Access and a LOT of smaller ones too.

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    Flash Enthusiast? thecombat's Avatar
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    Wow thats great thank you alot now I just have to scan through them and find wich ones are free if any since I am using it to make a squadron organization system for a Civil Air Patrol squadron, the reason I need it to be free is because CAP is a non-profit organization and I cannot put out any money towards it then I already have... Anyone wanna donate? CAP's main site is www.cap.gov

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    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    None of them are FREE, but there are decent discounts on SWF Studio for non-profit organizations, faculty and students of educational institutions, MMUG (Macromedia User Group) members etc.

    A couple of FREE tools you might want to check out are www.flashtools.net and www.aritali.com (SOP). While they aren't as full featured as the commercial tools they might offer some hope...

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    but you forgot...


  6. #6
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    Actually I didn't forget them, they are not free, but free for PERSONAL use - which basically means you have to live with the watermark/popups they display because they aren't sending you registration codes for free.

  7. #7
    Banned By GMF Wannabe Gambini's Avatar
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    Well, actually, for non-commercial or non-profit organisations, that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

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    Any programs that work with os x? Also besides some of the asthetic aspects of using these programs what is the advantage for a simple of app of using the projector instead of just having the person open the .swf file? When I have made projector files out oforiginal swf files all it seems to me it does is increase the file size. I know it must do more than this.
    Last edited by dell-killa; 02-26-2004 at 03:05 AM.

  9. #9
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    If the person doesn't have the Flash authoring environment installed (which installs a stand-alone Flash player) then they won't be able to just double click on the SWF file to open it, they will have to open it in a browser. Projectors are executables that contain the Macromedia player that allows the movie to be viewed outside the browser and with slightly different functionality and, in the case of third party projector tools, greatly enhanced functionality.

  10. #10
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    Oh I seeeeeeeeeee. That makes perfect sense. I just assumed when people download the flash plugin that it came with a stand alone player also. Didn't know it only came if you had the authoring program. Now I know why when I sent my app as a non-projector file to my friend he couldnt open it .

    Thanks!

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    I need similar info

    Soon I will be building a cd for a catalog that contains over 175,000 items. I want to do this in either Flash or Director, and I want to use the existing database the company already has. Is this possible in either of these programs?

    This has to be in a projector, and the people who are the end users are going to be regular people who won't have database software, etc, on their computer. Everything that is needed will have to be located on the cd.

    Thanks,
    Jeff Cook

  12. #12
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    SWF Studio has a plugin that allows you to manipulate "databases" that have been exported as tab delimited files. It's called the Catalog plugin and it comes FREE with SWF Studio. The best part of the Catalog plugin is that you don't need any database software installed for it to work.

    When you open the catalog (database), the entire file is loaded into memory that is handled by SWF Studio (not by Flash), this makes lookup operations on the catalog VERY fast. The plugin exposes a set of FSCommands that provide the ability to perform basic database search and retrieval operations. One important note is that catalogs are read only, you can't save data back to a catalog - which for most CD operations is just fine

    I created a littls phone number lookup application using a database of over 70,000 entries. The phone catalog loads in less than a second and a search for "*smith*" returns just over 700 results in less than half a second. If you want to see the example in action, I can send you a link...

  13. #13
    Banned By GMF Wannabe Gambini's Avatar
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    Hi, check out the Database applications created with Flash Studio PRO v2 at http://www.multidmedia.com/software/...udio/downloads

    You'll also find some more complex examples available at http://www.mdmforum.com and http://www.mdmforum.com/exchange

    I hope this helps!

  14. #14
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    Thanks Northcode and Gambini.

    Northcode, I would love the link to your example.

    Thanks again,
    Jeff Cook

  15. #15
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    phone.zip contains everything you need to see how it works, including the FLA, a sample phone database, and an executable version of the phone book application. One correction, the phone database has just over 50,000 rows (51904 actually) not 75,000 like I thought (getting old, memory is going) and it's just over 3MB of raw text. The code needs to be cleaned up considerably to get rid of the frame loops, but that won't slow things down, it may even speed it up a bit when it gets untied from the frame rate. Anyhow, let me know what you think...

  16. #16
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    Thanks Northcode. It's not working for me though. I ran the exe, and typed in a name, and no results are found. So I opened the cat file in Word, and picked out a name that was in there, and then typed that name in the name field. Still no results.

    But, if this works, and I'm sure it does, I think this will work for what I need. Can you have more than one cat file and have them be relational?

    Basically, I have 175,000 products that are broken into various categories and subcategories. I'm thinking about having one cat file of categories, then another of subcategories, and yet another with all of the products. First you would choose the category you want, then the subcats related to the chosen category. Then, once the subcat is chosen, those related products will display.

    Thanks again.
    Jeff

  17. #17
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    You can load more than one catalog (up to 100 actually), but you would have to handle the relational aspect yourself by doing a search in the main table and then a search in the lookup table.

    I found the problem with the example. I was including the catalog file in the Layout so it was part of the EXE but I was loading the catalog file from an external location.

    I just uploaded a new version that works, sorry about that!
    Last edited by Northcode; 03-12-2004 at 11:22 AM.

  18. #18
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    Thanks Northcode. That works really well. One more question, do you foresee making any updates to this that will make it PC and MAC compatible? I saw the Flash Thing section on the SWF Studio page was cross platform, but I don't know what Flash Thing is.

    Jeff

  19. #19
    Lifetime Friend of Site Staff Northcode's Avatar
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    The catalog plugin (actually an enhanced version of it) will definitely be available for use with Thing.

  20. #20
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    Any idea when the Thing will be available? Thanks for all of your help Northcode.

    Jeff

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