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I thought I’d throw up a few things I’ve been using in AS2 lately on projects, So my next few posts will be old AS2 tricks.

Flash often needs hit the server with variables and load in a response. Using the built in LoadVars and XML Object works, but can be improved on. E4X isnt available in AS2 but here’s a lame relative. Enter stage XMLObj class. You can reading XML as an object eg:

trace( xml._data.root.data.person.name ) >> tony

This is a much faster way to access data. The XMLObj extends the built in XML class but adds the _data property. It can also guess types of the xml data as to save you the time of casting your values such as booleans and numbers.

For example a node such as <data>false</data> would when accessed by the XML tree would be a string of “false”. if(“false”) evaluates to -true- not -false- meaning you must cast it check String(“false”).toUpperCase() == true. Numbers would need to be casted Number(“65”) otherwise using them will not work as expected, eg. “4” + 4 = 44 not 8.

Sending data to an XML or XMLObj is easily done using a LoadVars as follows:

var xmlo = new XMLObj();
xmlo.guessType = true;
xmlo.ignoreWhite = true;
xmlo.onLoad = function(success){
	if(success){
		trace(this._data.root.people.person[0].name); >> tony
		trace(this._data.root.people.person[1].name); >> tarwin
 
	}
}
var vars = new LoadVars();
vars.id = 45;
vars.sessionId = “e3ed3533232ccD”;
vars.sendAndLoad(“process.aspx”, xmlo, “POST”);

The LoadVars Object will send your variables to the server then route the data straight into the XMLObj where it is parsed and onLoad is called.

server response:

<root>
<people>
<person name="”tony”"></person>
<person name="”tarwin”"></person>
<person name="”poo”"></person>
	</people>
	<cars>
		<car _type="”array”">
	</car>
	<text>
		<!--[CDATA[this is a slab of text]]-->
	</text>
</cars>
</root>

Download XMLObj.as

When using an ODBC connection the table adapters will not allow you to add variables. you cannot use the @var syntax as with SQL Server. The only syntax available is the same when using variables to a MS Access DB. You must use ‘?’ where a variable will go eg.

SELECT * FROM ? where dog = ‘?’

The variables are used in the order that you add them to the query. This makes TableAdapters quite restricted and to me, useless… if they already weren’t too clunky.

You should use a good old sql query in the page, or create your own DAL as a class.

A simple ODBC query can be made using a simple function similar to:

using System.Data.Odbc;
 
public OdbcDataReader query(string queryString)
{
    OdbcCommand command = new OdbcCommand(queryString, connection);
    OdbcDataReader result = command.ExecuteReader();
    return result;
}

The Returned result can then be bound to a Repeater, DataGrid, etc

As a reforming PHP MySql developer, one thing i really love in LAMP development is the simplicity and no fuss approach. Mysql is small (22mb download) fast and quite capable of most website datastorage. Also the fact that it doesnt cost $5000.00 per processor… thats good too.

So it seems like a good choice to use the advantages of the .NET framework, with the power of MySql. Is this available for VWD Express users however?The answer is yes!

Due to restrictions on the pluginability (technically speaking) VWD Express cannot install the Native Mysql for .NET connectors (mysql conector .net) which would give the best performanc. If you use Visual Studio 2005 then this would be the best choice.

To use Mysql with Visual Web Developer 2005 install Mysql ODBC as follows:

1. Download the ODBC data drivers .

2. Setup your ODBC connection

3. in your config.xml or connection .NET SqlDataSource Object use the mysql connection string found here

In your config.xml you will set up a connection similar to this:

<connectionstrings>
<add name="ConnectionString"
	connectionString="Driver={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};
	Server=localhost;
	Database=test;
	User=root;
	Password=;
	Option=3;"
     providerName="System.Data.Odbc">
     </add>
</connectionstrings>

Okay, as a starting point for learning .NET i installed Visual Web Developer Express. Even though it gives you the option to test a website with the ‘view in browser’ option (which launches a temporary server at some crazy port eg. locahost:1076), I thought it was essential to be developing on a real IIS server. Not setting up my server properly cause me many hours of greif and confusion.

The catch with using IIS5.1 for developing .NET websites is that it only allows you to setup ONE website (domain.. whatever). As i have setup and developed PHP on Apache Development servers before i thought this would be fine to work in a similar way, and proceeded to setup my different sites (as i did some tests) in a separate folders. Then by using folder browsing i could access the different sites. WRONG!

eg:
d:/website/ ( allow folder browsing to select a site)
d:/website/site1/
d:/website/site2/

and access them as:
http://localhost/
http://localhost/site1/default.aspx
http://localhost/site2/default.aspx

This works fine for Php sites running on Apache as all of you code is custom (or you set a base path). Its wreaks havok with .NET however. Forms authentication in the config.xml errors. the ~/ file addressing errors, which caused me not to use it at first. Every piece of example code that i downloaded had strings of errors. Solution: Virtual Folders

In Explorer you can click on the folder and under properties>web sharing and select ’share this folder’ then give it an alias. The alias is used like this:

http://localhost/alias/

If you have access this alias and a login box appears you need to change the websites permissions (change it form forms authentication to allow your windows user). This can be changed by going to control panel > administrative tools > IIS , then under the default website there should be the alias you’ve created. goto its properties > directory security , and press ‘edit’ on anonymous access and allow anonymous access. This may be insecure, but hey… you dont know anything about servers do you… so i trust you dont care

Well hi… world

Finally I’ve decided i should try to give a little back to the world about my travels as a web developer/designer. Travels such as AS2, php & Mysql, but mainly at the moment, my transition to .NET and AS3

I’ve been Finding it had the scour the internet, slowly getting an understanding of .NET so i’m going to endevor to post up all the crazy new things i’m learning.

peace out world