we've been contracted to build an online slideshow app and wanted to get some info/suggestions from the pros here at 12S ...

basically the user will be able to select and sequence swfs from numerous thumbnail galleries (drag and drop) and then save their new 'slideshow' creation for future use - think dynamic powerpoint presentation creator ... :yak:

only constraint(s) is .NET framework and preferably Flash UI ...

right now we're bouncing around using XML as the middle-man/translator between UI & Flash, but seeing as how none of us have ever built anything quite like this - especially using dynamic data - i wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking an 'obvious' solution before this moves from paper to whiteboard ...

my question is, what tools/methods would you guys recommend - namely retrieving/saving data to DB, what to use as 'middle-man' between flash & DB

any insights would be greatly appreciated - thanks guys.

I don't know any "obvious" solution for you but you're definitely going to want everything delivered to Flash as XML.

As I work with .NET guys, we use SOAP but any formatted XML will work for you because you have control over reading/writing the format. Basically, get the .NET guys to write functions for you that you can trigger through a Web Service call to retrieve the DB information and deliver it as XML for you to display in Flash.

eg. WebService.getUserImages(username, numOfImages); and let them parse the parameters in .NET.

You're also going to have to plan filenaming, directory structures for the images, etc.

I'm a front-end guy so I have no "gems" for you but you're on the right path and the more technical 12sers will be along shortly.

Is this a desktop AIR app? web app?

thanks Storm - seems to be the approach we're leaning towards at this point

Originally posted by: Storm

Is this a desktop AIR app? web app?

will have to be live web - our embedded security policies prevent it from working offline/from cache