Flash: using it to move/copy files to disk?

aCA

Right, I’m new to Flash, done some tutorials and read a book. So I’m now starting my first small project. I’m using it to create a demo kiosk type application. I want to include a feature where when the user clicks on a button, a file stored locally (mp3) on the kiosk machine will get copied to a USB drive (it will be the e drive always). It is possible to use actionscript to achieve this?

As an aside question, how easy is it to use a database (say Access) with flash, any third party good apps to help with it?

Rollo Tamasi

i don't know about using actionscript to copy a file. Maybe PHP will be able to do it, but i'm not 100% at all.

As for databases, mysql is used quite a bit. If you check out www.gotoandlearn.com the guy there has one or two good introductory tutorials on it.

impr0v

To my knowledge that's not something that's within actionscript's capabilities, the FScommand abilities of flash are quite limited to ensure it cannot be used to manipulate an innocent viewer's local files through their browser, except in specific circumstances.

You may want to have a look at a third party extension, like Zinc which extends the capabilities of the stand alone player.

To interact with a database your computer will need to have Internet Information Service (IIS) running, which only ships with Win2k or XP Pro, and must essentially be configured as a webserver. You'll need a scripting language, such as ASP or PHP to bridge the gap between flash and access and retrieve or add data from and to the database. This is quite advanced and there are a number of tutorials to be found on the subject via google.

Alteranatively, the Zinc tool above will let you do this without having IIS setup or a DSN, etc. Have a look through the site.

All of the above applies to Flash 7 and below, I haven't yet done any work with the new version (I believe there is one).