flash, asp & ms access

[Ryan Younger]

Background Story:  I am in a band and I run (try to run) the band's website.  I created it in Flash.  

The Problem: I get tired of updating the dates we play every week or month.  I.e., I have to go into Flash, manually change or add the dates we are playing and then republish.

My Solution: Create a database in which I (or other guys in the band) can enter dates and venue into a database so that it can change dynamically; i.e., display the dates and venues within the Flash site without manually changing them in the Flash file.

The Problem With My Solution: I have limited databasing skills.  I know ASP and MS Access mediocre.  I can do this with HTML and ASP - but not with Flash, with which the website is created in.  In other words, I have no idea, no clue on how to interact with databases using Flash.  Did I mention I was clueless?

The Help Sought: Where to get started to make this as painless as possible.  

Any and all help is tremendously appreciated.  



Euclid rode a four-sided triangle into hell - A.E.

[Flash-db]

Working with Flash and a server side script is almost exactly like working with Html and a server side script if you can see the similiarities and small differences.

One difference is that when you post vars to a script from Flash you use the LoadVariables function instead of a <form method="POST" action="blah.php"> in a html form.

The biggest difference though is in how you return variable/value combinations back to flash.  You need to create a script that prints out only something like this:

Var1=Value1&Var2=Value2.... etc etc.  Their can be nothing else on that page - no Html tags no header information - nothing except that string.  That string is then returned to the flash movie and those variables are declared - automatically having the value that is specified.  These variables and their corresponding values will be available in the Level and/or  Movie clip that the Loadvariables function was used for or the path that you specified to use in conjunction with Load variables.