OK, with an up-front understanding that I’m not a PHP/MySQL guru, we’re gonna take a bash this month at showing Flash interacting with these ubiquitous backend/database tools! PHP is a very popular open source server-side scripting language for backend interaction. MySQL is a powerful open source database product. Taken together (and owing to the fact that they’re both free), the PHP + MySQL setup is probably the most common backend for small websites. When Flash is able to pull information from and post information to the database, the possibilities for dynamic websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) really take flight. We’ll learn a bit about moving information back and forth and perhaps build a simple RIA. Come ‘round and take bets on whether I’ll make a fool of myself!

UPDATE: I've created a blogging application to show off at the Salon. We’ll be discussing it in some detail so you can see how it was built.
Check it out at: http://www.mtanenbaum.com/blog

This Salon is rated: Intermediate

Rating Key
• Beginner: basic understanding of fundamental concepts, button control, handlers, properties, variables, etc.
• Intermediate: complex math operations, arrays, objects, functions, bitwise operations, debugging, dynamic movieclip control.
• Advanced: XML, server-side integration, remoting, multi-dimensional arrays, AI.

Marc Tanenbaum is the NBMA Actionscript Salon leader. He is a writer, designer and Flash developer. He hangs out at flashmxfiles.com, a forum where he dispenses Flash and Actionscript advice to the unwary.

The Actionscript Salons are presented with the support of The Arts Institute of California – San Francisco.