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Thread: new project need some help please

  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    Aug 2010
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    new project need some help please

    hello everyone, I'm not new to as3, but not a professional either. I tinker here and there for for fun, I consider myself as still a newbie.
    This forum helped me out a lot so far.
    I finally decided to register for I have a project I want to do, and don't know the way to build it.

    Project outlines
    1: the project I want to make is a multi-user progress/event tracker.
    2: three to four users will need to be able to log in and access there info
    (I can use SharedObjects for this ^^.)
    3: users must be able to write data/text in said fields
    now here is why I need help
    4: data/text must be saved to a users folder.
    5: saved data/text must be able to be accessible again by the project after it closes/shuts down
    6: saved data/text must be able to be changed at any time once re-opened

    I have Adobe Flash cs4, and Flex Builder 3.
    project will be running on windows 7 64bit operating system not for the web

    could anyone point me in the right direction, give advise, or give a link to a tutorial. any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks Sincerely Xiaz

  2. #2
    Member
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    Jul 2008
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    Hi. I'm no pro at this, but I'm not a complete noob either. Perhaps this will help.

    You need to store all this information (as you say, data/text must be saved). As far as I know, flash isn't much good at this. So you need a database. I use MYSQL databases. I know you said that this would not be for web, but for all your users to access it, it might be best to store this online. You don't have to though, if you are all working from the same network.

    So, you would make a database with a table of different usernames, and you might have a table of different projects, and you would make another table where these usernames put down progress against these projects.

    Next you need flash to communicate with your database. I'd recommend these fantastic tutorials by Lee Brimelow. The most common ways (as far as I know) are AMFPHP and Zend.

    Zend:
    http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=90

    AMFPHP 1
    http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=78
    AMFPHP 2
    http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=79

    If you have a nicely structured database, you know it might be worth getting Flash Builder 4 (the new flexbuilder) as it has some awesome database connectivity functionality.

    What you're talking about could well turn into a large project, you'll need to do some server side scripting as well (php or something) to make all this stuff work. In fact, maybe flash isn't the answer (for the first version), perhaps purely doing it in php, then slotting a flash interface on the top once you have everything working and updating the database might be better, but, what do i know.

    Hope this helps.

    Dave

  3. #3
    Junior Member
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    Thanks a lot sheepysheep60, That's some great stuff there. will come in handy in the future. but unfortunately right now it's not what I'm searching for. I would like to give this away on a cd for a user to install on there system to keep track of there nutrition. I've been looking into adobe air, and another app thats made for turning flash into desktop apps. I can't find much ifo on how to save data through them. I know for the web we need security but for a .exe we should be able to save data to ones system besides using SharedObjects. I would use SharedObjects but it consist of making a prompt to the user to allocate the space needed. A fear the user might not want, so I am still looking for an alternative. there must be something out there that will allow data to be saved.

  4. #4
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    Ah, right sorry didn't get that bit! How about using XML? Flash can write to and edit XML documents, its just a small file that you could install...

    Sorry, I'll stop commenting if you want, I get the impression you are way better at all this stuff than I am anyway.

    Good luck,

    Dave

  5. #5
    Junior Member
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    Aug 2010
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    sheepysheep60 no need for you to be sorry or stop commenting, I am greatful for your conversation and willingness to help. I know some areas of flash coding and nothing in other areas of flash coding.
    some advise if you don't mind "Don't look at me or anyone as better than yourself. just because for example I know how to make an array, I may not know how to make a loop, but you may know how to make a loop but not an array" and thanks to this forum we can help or teach others what we know and maybe learn what we don't know.
    I did not know flash can write to XML. I did a few projects where flash read from XML before so I'm a lil familiar with XML and having flash read it. I Googled "flash write to XML" and got some info on it, Time to go learn. Thank you very much for the help, Hope I can return the help some day.
    Sincerely Xiaz

  6. #6
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    Jul 2008
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    No worries at all, and I completely agree with your comment. I always get worried that I'm just saying something that someone already knows all about, in more detail than me, and/or I've missed the point!

    Yeah, XML could be a really good start. You could create an XML file on their hard disk when they install (or when they ask to create one), and its the kind of file that they could easily update and amend, through the flash interface.

    If flash (i.e. a SWF) doesn't create XMLs (I'm unsure if it can or not), look at AIR, as I'm sure AIR has access to your file system, so it can create, edit/move, delete files etc.

    All the best, good luck with the project!

  7. #7
    Junior Member
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    All the best, good luck with the project!
    thanks and enjoy the weekend

    found this site http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9...s3-is-possible
    and it should work for what I need

    had to remove com.hodgedev.xmlcreator and add } at the end of the code to get it to work

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