How to Create a Flash PHP Mysql Website

Flash, PHP and MySQL make a website dynamic, interactive and stimulating.

Creating a website that uses Flash, PHP and MySQL means that your visitors can enjoy a dynamic, media-rich experience. Using these technologies requires only a few basic skills to begin. As long as you have a clear idea of how the different elements in your site are connecting with one another, you should be able to combine the technologies with ease. By building each component part in turn, even people with few technical skills can achieve impressive websites.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Web-hosting package that includes a MySQL database and PHP provision

1. Create your database. Model the database structure first, even if this only involves drawing it on paper. Build the database on your Web server. If your hosting package includes such tools as phpMyAdmin, you can simply log in to your account and create each of the tables and fields in turn using the website interface. If you do not have access to such a tool, define the structure of the database in SQL statements and run the resulting script on your server. Insert some data into your new database, even if you only enter dummy data to begin with, as this allows you to carry out testing and further development.

2. Write the PHP code to connect to your data. Create PHP scripts and upload them to your Web server. Within these scripts, you will need to connect to the database, query it and then write out the results of these queries, so that your Flash files will be able to read them. A sample script might be called "my_data.php":

   <?php

   //connect

   mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password") or die("Unable to make a connection");

   //select the database

   mysql_select_db("my_database") or die("Unable to select the database");

   //query the data

   $query="select * from my_table";

   $result=mysql_query($query);

   //keep count

   $count=0;

   while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result))

   {

   //write the data out in a format Flash will understand

   $item=$row['item'];//where my_table contains a field named 'item'

   echo "&item".$count."=".$item;

   $count++;

   }

   mysql_free_result($result);

   ?>

3. Create your Flash movies. Work out the design elements and build these within the Flash authoring environment, either by using the drawing tools or by writing ActionScript, if your programming skills are sufficiently advanced. To get started, create a new Flash file and begin inserting the contents you need, whether these are text-fields, buttons, animated movie clips, or imported graphics, audio and video. If you simply want to create a file that will allow you to test your data connectivity, just include a dynamic text-field in your movie and give it an instance name, for example "test_txt".

4. Import the data into Flash by calling the PHP scripts from ActionScript. Flash can read data written in set formats. One of the main formats is:

   &item1=thing&item2=another&item3=again

   Your PHP code therefore needs to write the data out in this format. To bring the data into Flash, you can use a number of different ActionScript classes, including URLLoader and LoadVars, depending on which version of ActionScript you're using. The following is an example of LoadVars usage:

   //create the LoadVars object

   var data_mc:LoadVars=new LoadVars();

   //define how to handle the data when it comes in

   data_mc.onLoad=function()

   {

   var item:String=data_mc["item1"];

   test_txt.text=item;//display the data item

   }

   //call the PHP script to load in the data

   data_mc.load("my_data.php");

   Naturally this code merely tests that data connectivity has been successful. Any useful application will involve looping through the data and including it in your Flash movie as necessary.

5. Create your website using HTML. Include the SWF files along with the text, images and other media that make up your website content, as well as additional scripts such as CSS to define the style rules for your pages. Using a JavaScript library, such as SWFObject, makes including the Flash content a straightforward process. To do this, download the SWFObject script, then upload it to your own server. Include a reference to it in the <head> section of your pages:

   <script type='text/javascript' src='swfobject.js'></script>

   At the position on the page where you want your SWF to appear, include code similar to this:

   <div id='myflash'>

   This text appears if the user does not have Flash:

   <script type='text/javascript'>

   var so = new SWFObject('mymovie.swf', 'movie', '500', '400');

   so.write('myflash');

   </script>

   </div>

   Test your website thoroughly to ensure that the data is being transferred correctly, particularly if your SWF is also calling PHP to update the data. You can also construct and write out your page structure in HTML using a PHP script if you prefer.

Tips & Warnings

• Design your site from an overview perspective before creating any of the individual parts. This way, you will have a better understanding of the relationships involved.

• Parts of your site will not be accessible to the people who do not have Flash installed. Including alternative content in your pages is therefore essential.

References

• phpMyAdmin
• W3Schools: PHP MySQL Introduction
• Adobe: Flash Developer Center--Learn Flash
• Sephiroth: ActionScript, How to Use the LoadVars Class
• Google Code: SWFObject

Resources

• W3Schools: Flash Introduction
• PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
• MySQL