php and flash?

[dvd871]

Anyone ever do any php and flash programming?  I've seen some dynamic maps that are pretty awesome, but never had the time to really check it out.

[Zeggy]

PHP and flash are used together in a lot of pet games
The flash provides a mini-game for users, and php handles the scores nd updating the user accounts.

[dvd871]

Yea, aka neopets.

I saw some maps that were done in flash that had players pin-pointed on them and as the players moved around in the game, the map was updated with the co-ords in real time.  It was pretty sweet.  I'm not sure what the server overhead on somehting like that would be though.  Might consume the entire cpu with a lot of players on at the same time.

[Zeggy]

Cool map feature
Is it really real-time, or does it only update when you refresh?

[Cripple]

yep - & depending on what it is u want to do exactly, flash & actionscript might cope.

i found Kirupa a pretty handy site for flash/php tutorials.

[dvd871]

I'll see if I can find the site again and post the link.  It was cool, you could see the players moving on the map without refreshing the page because it was done in flash.

[toto]

Whoah! I had forgotten about kirupa, it's a great site.

I know there's a book about PHP and flash: "php 5 for flash" is the title. I think there's an advanced version too.

[Killer2]

I am trying it myself. I already know the php. But I still got a lot to learn from flash. I am trying to make the battles in flash (once I know enough flash)

[codestryke]

Last time I played with Flash it was very much like dealing with Ajax...

You posted / queried a PHP page and then the flash app would read the response in one of two ways depending on the action script function call.  It's been far to long to remember what the function calls were but one you would call the PHP page, your php page would return the result in a query string format like:

var=value&var=value

When flash got the response it would automatically put the values of the vars into the action script. That worked nicely but sometimes it didn't work the way I needed it so I had to use another function call in action script that basically just "read" the return value from PHP as just a raw string.. I would then take that raw string value and throw it to a parsing routine.

[toto]

I have coded many flash and php games - some are minigames (where you just send your score once you've finished, and the PHP script adds user money and score to the database), and others are just like php browser-based games, but instead of using HTML, I use flash. It looks nicer
The best part of flash is the user-friendly graphical interface.

[Dasein Fiasco]

As an alternative to Flash, Microsoft recently released Silverlight, a .NET-driven RIA plugin that appears to have some potential for penetration, and certainly must be easier to develop for than Flash. Anyway, that just goes to say that Flash isn't your only RIA choice around nowadays.

[toto]

Thank you for the information - I've have a look at the plugin. It looks great - especially some of the showcase items. And the compatibility with C and VB sounds great, too!
I doubt it's easier to use than Flash, though.
Besides, now that I've used 6 different Flash versions (since flash 4), I'd be a traitor if I switched to Silverlight