I want to build a Flash App and have no idea where to start. I’m a bit ADD about things so I’m looking for pointers or tips on where to get started and how to progress. Which solutions have worked for you?
I am about an Intermediate Flash developer. But I’ve been doing Java/C#/XML/DB programming for years. Just need some help focusing so I can put all the pieces together.
hey I’ve been doing flash for a real long time now, and I guess it all depends on what type of flash application you want/need to create. The best answer for whatever you need to get at is a pre-creation run scheme. Say your creating a video game. First off, your going to need a story, characters, and basic idea’s for how the person playing it is going to use the game, so a control system. Your next step would be to create the nessesary animations, say your creating a shooter game, you’d need a weapon, with still, and going off animations, a character in still, action, and death animations- for still you might make him move back and forth alittle so he looks alive- in action, all your nessesary actions for movement- and death a funny/ serious death sequence. After that you’d make compound movie files, and tell your actionscript what to do. That’s the final step and the most rigirous, you have to tell the computer basiacally how to play back the different animations you’ve done over time, respectively due to the users inputs, weather mouse/keyboard/gravix pad–if you are fimiliar with javascript/jave this should be real easy to pick up on, and even if your new to javascript-actionscript—it is one of the easier langueges to use out there. But wait a second, say you need to create an flash application that’s easier than a video game, let’s say it is a web site, I’ve built flash web sites before, and what your going to need to do first is to again, create a pre-animation/formation scheme to follow while your making the site, basically drawings of what you want each section to look like, then you launch into the framework. the best way to get a fast/easy to use website up would be to create the basics of the web site–like frames if your used to dreamweaver or something like that–which would be on every page, then after that I’d create a holderClip—this is basically an empty movie clip, that can be created easily with the createEmptyMovieClip(); action, this tells the site that it has created a movie clip, it has named the clip, and given it a size, then after that you create all the sub sections as seperate swf’s and have them load into that holder clip, so you need to understand the loadMovie(), and unloadMovie(), actions to do this respectively, but if you have all the outside swf’s created, and kept in the same folder as the main swf, you will create a site that takes up very little bytes, and which also doesn’t load items that are surpurfolus to the user who isn’t going into certain sections…and that’s that--------script’s you’ll need to know
stop();
play();
this.gotoAndPlay(“string”);
this.gotoAndStop(“string”);
tellTarget();
this.createEmptyMovieClip();
how to write basic functions
loadMovie();
unloadMovie();
getBytesLoaded();
getBytesTotal();
basic understanding of buttons
frame labels
…and more depending on the complexity of what your doing
check and post to the forums for individual scripting questions, or create a clearer messege for others to follow so they can help you out better,
sorry if this was to complex/hard to understand
-Scott
Thanks for the reply. I think, however, I didn’t word my question correctly. 
I can and have developed basic websites in Flash, but I’ve never tried to create an application with Flash as my front end (they’ve all been straight forward web pages). Say I have a webservice written in c# that will serve up xml via an aspx page. How do I get Flash to communicate with my webservice? Is this the best solution or are there simpler ways to achieve a database driven application? From what I gather, most people are using mysql databases and are communicating with the database using php, but how scalable is that as a solution? I’ve never used either. Ideas?
flash by itself has the inherent capabilities to use communication technology, but I have to say they are not so easy to use. say you need to create a data process with certain defined states in it…which would use XML driven through the actionscript. You’d need an input state–A send state–A wait state–and lastly an output state. Say you start with your input state–it can be a flash form where the client-side would type, or basically any given number of variables that have the capability of being “sent” out of flash…(say a request for time/day…or any string value, or set name value saved to your root folder). You’d then continue on to your “Send” state…this is where the input data has been set or retrieved–and it’s at this moment where your going to tell that data where to go–i.e–your c# scripts/XML sockets…
assosiative scripts for the send state:
getURL();
LoadVars.load();
loadMovie();, loadMovieClip();
loadVariables();
LoadVars.send();, LoadVars.sendAndLoad();
XMLSocket.send();
XML.send();, XML.sendAndLoad();
------these are the basic scripts to get you through the send state-------
next up is the wait state…
now is the tricky part, basiacally you need to create a state that tells the computer(i.e. tells your flash movie) that there is something going on, say a short loading clip, or somoething amusing to keep the user occupying your web site happy while what he/she requests is being sent from your web server. it is best to create a terminal tag, this is a name/value pair that is stuffed into the download data to indicate the end of the data string. with this terminal tag in place you can then set up your loop to test for the finished download, and thusly float smoothly into your last state.
---------------scripts to check out--------
GET, POST------
keep in mind that LoadVars(); doesn’t require the use of a terminal tag, and is the easiest way to get up and going*
----whoa finally------
The OutPut state…
This is the state when all your hard work finally pays off and you sit back and smirk at all the trial and error that finally got you here,
this is the last and final state–this displays the content that the user needed so desperately to have, and now you’ve done it, you’ve made yourself happy, and you’ve also made the user happy, and in web and programming it is a very selfless art, where all pride and joy comes from others having fun using what you’ve ripped the last of your hair out to accomplis–
----I hope that was helpful
Scott
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