MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-USING FLASH - Data connectivity (Flash Professional only)

412 Data Integration (Flash Professional Only)
Data connectivity (Flash Professional
only)
You use the connector components in Flash to connect to your data source. The schema for
your data source is mapped to properties of a connector component. A typical application
might contain several connector components for retrieving or updating data, or both.
Before you can create data bindings, you must either set up a connector component on the
Stage or create the proper mappings in ActionScript using the WebServiceConnector
component class. However, it is useful to first understand how data bindings in Flash work;
see “Data binding (Flash Professional only)” on page 394.
Flash comes with the following connector components:
■ The “WebServiceConnector component (Flash Professional only)”, which lets you
connect to the WSDL URL of a web service.
■ The “Using the XMLConnector component (Flash Professional only)”, which lets you
connect to any external data source that returns XML through HTTP (such as JSP, ASP,
Servlet, or ColdFusion).
In addition to, or instead of, using these connector components, advanced developers and
database administrators can use the WebServices classes to write ActionScript code that
accesses remote procedure calls exposed by a server using Simple Object Access Protocol
(SOAP). For more information, see “Web service classes (Flash Professional only)” in
Components Language Reference.
To help you consider what kind of connectivity architecture you should implement, see the
following DevNet articles: “Choosing Between XML, Web Services, and Remoting for Rich
Internet Applications” at www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/
ria_dataservices.html and “Getting a Handle on Web Services” at www.macromedia.com/
devnet/mx/flash/articles/flmxpro_webservices.html.
NOTE
External data refers to any data that is accessible through HTTP.
NOTE
The WebService classes are accessible only through ActionScript code and are
common to various Macromedia products. The WebServiceConnector component has
an API that is unique to Flash and lets you access the component’s methods, properties,
and events through the visual interface.