by Jini M R (Software Programmer, Excellone Technologies)

PHP (Personal Home Page) confirmed its position as one of the fastest growing technologies for creating dynamic websites. PHP was designed specifically for the Web, with ease-of-use, reliability and performance capabilities to help people get more from their sites.

Flash is widely getting popular as a tool for creating interactive multimedia presentations. It has impressive interface and interactivity.

PHP can be used as an intermediate between the database and the flash interface. Only few articles and guides are available on the advantages and the power of this development area. Interested users can explore this area by studying and experimenting various cases.

Beginners need to know the basics of Flash with PHP. The Flash Action Scripting Books and the PHP books can be used for experimenting with both the technologies. A flash designer who wants to explore the programming aspect of PHP ought to study the basics of PHP.

A PHP programmer with little knowledge of Flash can explore flash from the inbuilt tutorials of Flash.

Steps to create a database driven program with Flash with PHP

• Create a Database to use in your form. The database can be created in My SQL and PostgreSQL. Tables can be created according to one’s need.
• Create a basic interactive flash interface for the application. Be sure to add textboxes for displaying values from the tables, give its name properly, specify that they are dynamically loaded and associate the frame action ‘GetURL’ to the PHP the program you will be creating.
• Create a PHP file to do the database handling. Database Handling in PHP: In the PHP file, write codes for connecting to the database, taking table values to variables. Save and publish the movie. If each step is doing well, the movie will display values from the database.

Flash with PHP is a fine blend of two emerging technologies. Creating a database with them would prove to be very profitable.