Chapter21.ASP and Flash

Chapter 21. ASP and Flash

IN THIS CHAPTER

• What is ASP?

• How Does ASP Work?

• Getting the Server

• Intro to ASP Scripting

• Your First ASP Page

• Sending and Receiving Data

• Accessing Access

In the previous chapter, we went over how to move dynamic data into Flash. Although we moved the data outside of Flash so that all we have to do is update a simple text file, that text file is now technically static data. For instance, if we have a group of contacts in a text file and wanted to search through them to find a specific contact, we would have to bring in the entire text file and then search it in Flash with ActionScript. This is where middleware comes in.

Middleware is basically logic that takes place on the server between the client-side interface and the data held on the server. Basically, the client sends a request to the middleware. Then the middleware accesses the data, runs any logic functions on it that you require (such as searches or algorithms for math), and sends the data back to the client, as shown in Figure 21.1.

Figure 21.1. How middleware works between the client and the data.

This chapter discusses a specific middleware called ASP to help create truly dynamic content. Although there is now ASP.NET, many people still use classic ASP on their servers. We will also be using an Access database at the end of the chapter to hold some of our data for ASP to work with.