Flex does not talk to a database directly (except with AIR but I gather you're talking about a web app). Flex talks to a back end which then can talk to a database. Flex works really well with pretty much any back end, so if you're familiar with .NET stick to that, no reason to go to FDS/LCDS or anything else.
The best way to communicate between Flex and .NET is through AMF Remoting. With that you can call .NET methods directly and the middle-ware libraries take care of the details for you. We use an open-source library called Fluorine but there is also a commercial library called WebOrb available. http://fluorine.thesilentgroup.com/fluorine/index.html You definitely want to start with Flex Builder 3. No reason to use Flex Builder 2, the IDE is very stable. You can choose to target either the Flex 2 or Flex 3 SDK's and that choice depends on your release date. If you're releasing before about March 2008 then you may want to stick with the Flex 2 SDK. If later, then use Flex 3 SDK. An exact date has not been announced for Flex 3 release, but they've said Q1 2008. I would suggest ignoring Cairngorm for now--start out learning to develop flex apps and just use your pre-existing knowledge to partition out your apps well so you don't have an ugly mess of spaghetti code. After you're more familiar with Flex you can decide if Cairngorm or any framework is right for you and your apps. HTH, Sam ------------------------------------------- We're Hiring! Seeking a passionate developer to join our team building Flex based products. Position is in the Washington D.C. metro area. If interested contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Pengi Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 6:00 PM To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Subject: [flexcoders] Flex for database apps; compare to .net I am considering flex for building data centric applications for use over the lan or internet. I have some experience with .net and am curious to hear from other that are familiar with .net and how it compares. I have read a couple of times that Visual Studio might be considered 'ahead' of Flex Builder. But my #1 interest is being able to wire up sql databases to the ui in the simplest manner possible, ie not a ton of code. For experiments with flex, I would most like to take apart a tutorial or sample app that does standard db crud stuff, with multiple forms, related tables, data entry, that sort of thing. Can someone point me to the best example app of this type? Most demo apps I've seen are not mostly about crud. >From what I've read, flex data services (or whatever it's been renamed as) has a free version that is ok to use for commercial purposes, though non-clustered. Not sure what the other limitations of the free version are? I've read about Cairngorm, but am not really sure were it fits into the flex scheme. Finally, would it be good to start with Flex 3 beta 2, or should I stick with Flex 2 for now?
