Rich Internet Applications for SLA Research/Required Foreknowledge

This section of this book presumes familiarity with the technologies laid out in the Overview.

= Necessary Skills and Knowledge = In general, researchers wishing to build RIAs for their research should be enthusiastic amateurs. Among the most important skills required in order to understand, use, and modify the following sample applications are...
 * familiarity with the Flash MX 2004 authoring environment and with the ActionScript programming language
 * access to and familiarity with a Flash Communication Server (FlashComm), including the documentation included with a FlashComm installation (see Resources, below)
 * access to and familiarity with a web hosting service that includes PHP and MySQL; a hosting service that includes the PhpMyAdmin web interface for MySQL management is optimal
 * intermediate knowledge of PHP scripting (view Wikibook), including MySQL-related functions (view Wikibook)
 * intermediate knowledge of general database design
 * experience using a file-transfer protocol (FTP) program

= Resources =

Flash MX 2004
A trial version of Flash MX 2004, including tutorial and documentation, may be downloaded from http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/.

Flash Communication Server
The FlashComm Documentation page (http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashcom/) includes the following essential documents (HTML and Adobe Acrobat format):
 * Developing Communication Applications
 * Client-Side Communication ActionScript Dictionary
 * Server-Side Communication ActionScript Dictionary

PHP
There is a PHP Wikibook. In addition, the main page for PHP development and related links, such as tutorials, is http://www.php.net.

MySQL
The PHP Wikibook covers PHP-MySQL interaction. The main page for the MySQL corporation is http://www.mysql.com/; the main page for developers is http://dev.mysql.com, and the main page for phpMyAdmin is http://www.phpmyadmin.net/.