Ponnusamy, > I just saw the possibility of flex 2 and I was wondering if > it was possible to retrieve data from an SQl server, like > (microsoft SQL or MySQL). > I understood that we could do this using php or java.. but I > didn't found anything usefull on google.. > > Can't we connect directly to the SQL server?? > > So if you have any link explaining how to do it, i would very > much appreciate. > > Thanks and Regards, > > Ponnusamy V
Flex 2.0 is still an alpha technology, and so the featureset is still very much being defined. Furthermore, the enterprise data services have not shipped with the current Alpha, and this is the piece of interest to you. In terms of retrieving data from a SQL Server installation; with Flex 2.0 data services, you can do this with a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) OR with a Data Oriented Architecture (DOA). With an SOA, you'd do this exactly the same as you would for Flex 1.x; have a middleware tier (most likely Java accessed by RemoteObject, but could be any other technology exposed as a SOAP WebService) that performs your CRUD operations (Create/Read/Update/Delete) between Flex and your database. In Flex 2.0, this will become known as "RPC Services", as you will remotely invoke procedure calls on the server. With a data oriented architecture, you will be able to use the new open-adapter architecture for Flex 2.0, which provides seamless integration with data services through a number of adapters. At MAX in Anaheim, a number of proposed adapters were presented (no decisions have been made as to which adapters will ship) including an object adapter, a Hibernate adapter, a JDBC adapter and a Coldfusion Adapter. The adapters abstract and remove the complexity of writing your own CRUD code into configuration in a deployment descriptor (much like flex-config.xml) in most instances. The motivation for a DOA is that if your need for persistence is simply to create, read, update and delete to a database, that you care about synchronisation, offline operation, and have very little additional business logic (services) between client and database, then you can remove much of the drudge work of writing CRUD code, and gain a whole load of enterprise-class services (such as sychronisation) in addition. You can keep your serverless Flex compilation, this to me is the step-change in Flex 2.0 :-) Now it was presented (and reiterated by Stephen Elop in the quarterly investors call last night) that this adapter architecture would be an open-architecture; meaning that there will be a well defined API against which people can write their own adapters. There's nothing to say that someone could not write an adapter that offered tighter integration with SQL Server through the .NET APIs (ADO.NET) if you required. So to summarise the answer to your question; if you have data in a SQL server database, you can integrate that into your Flex apps today using RemoteObject, WebService or HTTPService and a middle tier proxying between Flex and your database. There may even be other strategies; some databases will now expose stored procedures as Java classes or SOAP Web Services on your behalf, reducing the effort in coding your midtier. "Tomorrow", with Flex 2.0, this option will continue to be available to you, but the Flex Enteprise Data Services architecture will offer you even more powerful mechanisms by which to integrate an RIA experience with a database persistence tier. William Wechtenhiser, the Director of Engineering for Flex Enterprise, has written a tremendous article on Flex Data Services over on Macromedia Labs, that you can find here: http://labs.macromedia.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_Enterprise_Services:Data_ Services That might give you some insight into what Flex 2.0 is going to offer us. Exciting times for Enterprise RIA ! Best wishes, Steven -- Steven Webster RIA Practice Director (EMEA) Macromedia Consulting Office: + 44 (0) 131 338 6108 Mobile: +44 (0) 7917 428 947 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get Bzzzy! (real tools to help you find a job). Welcome to the Sweet Life. http://us.click.yahoo.com/A77XvD/vlQLAA/TtwFAA/nhFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- Flexcoders Mailing List FAQ: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/files/flexcodersFAQ.txt Search Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
