Flash and ASP Integration - Flash sends data to the Database

This section is most probably the easiest of the whole tutorial. It is divided into three parts:

Preparing the Flash form interface
Getting the form sending data to the database to work
Carrying out the insert operation through ASP

This involves the following functional cycle to be realized:

Flash sends the data from the 'Input Form' to the ASP file
ASP sends the data to be stored to the database
ASP sends the result of its operation (success or failure) to the Flash interface
Flash sets a counter while the ASP inserts the data and shows success or failure of the operation

Note: Values or code you will have to enter are given in light blue and red Italics show specific settings to be followed by you. All ASP code can be directly cut and pasted into your file. Comments in ASP are in green.

Starting Flash Guest-Book Interface

Preparing the Flash Interface

Open the GuestBook.fla Flash file. Go to the 'NewEntry' frame i.e. the 'Input Form' in the level named 'guestbook'. The following things need to be done for sending data from the Flash form to the database:
- Name the text field boxes.
- Write action-scripts for the buttons i.e. Reset and Send and the frames.
- Make a counter to give the interface time to check if the data has been inserted into the database.
- Make frames to show success or failure of the operation.

Flash Guest-Book Send function interfaces

1. Input Form: You will have to assign variable names to the three fields shown by right clicking the respective boxes and selecting the properties option:

Give the following values in the variable box:
- Name field - name
- Email Address field - email
- Comments field - mess
For all the three fields make sure that the draw border and background option is checked and the do not include font outlines option in the properties is chosen.
Check the restrict text length to option for all fields and set the value for the name and email address fields to 50 and for the comments field set it to 255.
Double click the reset button and give the action script (actions tab):
    Set Variable: "name" = ""
     Set Variable: "email" = ""
     Set Variable: "mess" = ""
Logic: This clears what ever has been entered in the boxes
Double click the Send button and give the action script:
     Set Variable: "iSuccess" = 0
    Load Variables ("GuestBookSendCode.asp", "", vars=GET)
     Set Variable: "submit" = True
     Set Variable: "y" = 0
     Play
Logic: This sends the values entered to the ASP page, sets the counter variable 'y' to 0, sets a variable 'submit' to True (to represent that the form a has been submitted) and goes to the next frame (Counter) .

2. Making the Submit Counter Interfaces: Make the interface shown in Fig(b) on your right in the next frame after 'NewEntry'.

Give the frame the label: 'Counter' and place the action script that follows in the actions tab for the frame on double clicking it:
Set Variable: "y" = y+1
If (iSuccess = 1)
Go to and Stop ("Success")
Else If (y > 100)
Go to and Stop ("Failed")
End If
Logic: This increments the counter and depending on the value of the variable 'iSuccess' it goes to either the frame Success or Failed.
The two text fields should be right aligned and with different colors but same font size(to get a 3D digital display). You can of course use a single text field to make it easier for you.
Go to each of their properties tab by right clicking on them. Give the variable name as 'y' which as mentioned above is our counter variable.
Also, in their properties tab check the disable editing and disable selection options.

Fig(a): Input Form

Fig(b): Counter Frame

Make the two interfaces shown below in two adjacent frames. (You will need only the 'Successful', 'Error-Failed' texts shown and the two buttons (Return and Exit). The buttons can be programmed later when we put the whole Guest-Book together. Double click the frames one by one and give the labels:'Success' and 'Failed' respectively and in the actions tab give the action 'Stop'.

Fig(c & d): Successful and Failed Frames

Check List
- Make sure that you haven't missed out any fields or buttons in the forms above.
- Make sure that your Flash file Timeline' looks like the one below. Layer 'guestbook' should have the frames in the order (by their labels):
  1. Main 2. NewEntry 3. Counter 4. Success 5. Failed

Getting the Flash form to work

Making the Counter Work : Carry out the following steps to accomplish this:

Insert 2 frames after the 'Counter' frame and 7 frames after the 'Background' frame. This is done by using the 'Insert Frame (F5)' option shown when right clicking on a frame.
Now right click the sixth frame of the 'counter' layer and select the 'Insert Blank Keyframe (F7)' option.
Double click the same sixth frame and give the action script 'Go to and Play ("Counter")' [Do this by selecting the 'Go To' option, tick control: 'Go To and Play' and select the 'Counter' frame from the 'Label' drop down menu].

Now your Flash file should appear as shown below. You have now finished the Flash interface for sending data to the database. Export your file as 'guestbook.swf' to an appropriate folder. Now create a new ASP file called 'GuestBook.asp' and place the guestbook.swf file in it.

ASP Gets the Data from the Database

Open your 'GuestBookSendCode.asp' file. You will have to do the following steps to insert data into the database.
- Connect to the Database
- Derive the variables and their values sent from Flash.
- Insert these values into the database.
- Send a operation successful response to Flash.
Below is shown the code to accomplish these steps. Add it to the existing code in the file. You can cut and paste the code but it is good practice to understand what it does first.

Connecting to the Database and inserting data into it through ASP

<% '---------------This file is the GuestBookSendCode.asp file-------------------------

'Start Declaring all variable used by you (you can do this as you code)
Dim DBConn, strDB, strDate,strInsertSQL, strName, strEmail, strMess

'Give the Database Connection String
strDB = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("dbGuestbook.mdb") & ";DefaultDir=" & Server.MapPath(".") & ";DriverId=25;FIL=MS Access;MaxBufferSize=512;PageTimeout=5"

'Get today's Date and the data sent from Flash (Replace is used to replace a ' with '' (2 quotes together) because a database doesn't allow insertion of strings with a single ' )
strDate=CDate(Date)
strName=Replace(request("name"), "'", "''")
strEmail=Replace(request("email"),"'", "''")
strMess=Replace(request("mess"), "'", "''")

'Give the SQL Insert Statement
strInsertSQL="Insert Into tblGuestBook (fldDate,fldName,fldEmail,fldMessage) Values ('" & strDate & "','" & strName & "','" & strEmail & "',' " & strMess & "' )"

'Open the database and insert
if strName<>"" and strEmail<>"" then
Set DBConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
DBConn.Open strDB
DBConn.execute strInsertSQL
response.write "iSuccess=1" 'Send a success response to Flash
Else
response.write "iFailed=1" 'Send a failed response coz' the name or/and email field was null.
End If

'Close the database connection
DBConn.close
Set DBConn=Nothing
%>

Now insert the flash interface (GuestBook.swf file) in a new page of your site and save the page as GuestBook.asp. View the file on your site and check if the form displays 'Successful' when you send some data. If yes then congratulations you have successfully sent data from Flash to the Database.
If the form displays failure then check if your GuestBookSendCode.asp is connecting to your database by running it in the browser by giving the URL query string as:

http://guestbook_folder_URL/GuestBookSendCode.asp?name=test&email=test@test.com&mess=Test

If you get a message 'iSuccess=1' then only is your GuestBook functioning properly.

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