Flash Data Components

The components that ship with Flash are generic, customizable elements that fall into three main categories:

• Data components. These components let you transfer data from your Flash animation to a server (such as a Web server). You'll want to use data components if you're creating a Flash data-entry form, an e-commerce Web site, a tutorial, any situation in which you need to capture information from your audience (in Flash) and then examine or process that information (on the back end, using a program on your server).

• Playback components. These components let you add as many or as few playback controls to your animation as you like. Examples of playback controls include the Mute, Pause, and Play buttons.

• User Interface components. Similar to HTML components, Flash User Interface components include buttons, checkboxes, lists, text fields and windows everything you need to create a Flash form and collect data from your audience.

Data components come into play only when you want to capture information in Flash and then send it to another program (such as a database) running on a server. Data components bridge the gap, so to speak, between your Flash animation and your back end. For example, imagine you're using Flash to create a Web site for a retail store. The store wants to be able to accept credit card orders online and then send the collected order information to its order entry system for processing and shipping. The actual steps you need to take to transfer Flash data to an order entry system depend on the specifics of the computer hardware and programs that make up the retail store's back end.

Flash Data Components (Flash Professional Only)
DataHolder
Lets you tell Flash to watch certain data values and let you know when they change.
DataSet
Lets you work with other component data (sort component data, search it, filter it, and so on) as well as data pulled in from a server side program.

RDBMSResolver
You use this component in conjunction with the DataSet component to save the data you collect (or generate) in Flash to a relational database running on a server. (You're responsible for parsing the XML code that this component generates into the server-side SQL statements necessary to populate your database.)

WebService Connector
Lets you access remote (server-side) APIs that conform to the industry-standard Simple Object Access Protocol from inside a running Flash animation.

XMLConnector
Lets you hook up Flash components with external XML data sources by letting you read and write XML documents.

XUpdateResolver
Works with the DataSet component to let you save the data you collect (or generate) in Flash to an external XUpdate-supporting data source, such as an XML database.