General Programming Question

[feggymango]

Hey all, i am currently making a flash website and I would like to incorporate a small application, where the user can figure out the cost of their potential purchase. It is for vinyl windows, doors, siding, etc. I have database knowledge, vb.net, vbscript, access and some c++. The program would best the user choose the style, input the sizes and get a rough price. What language would this best be done in, also what database would work best. This would have to work well with flash

[jerryhung]

Also depends on what host/server you'll have it on?
If it's in house corporation, I guess ASP.Net would be easiest (since u already know VB.net, ADO.net etc...)

If not, it's hard to find host that host ASP for cheap
not sure how well PHP works with Flash, but I'd suggest PHP (kinda C++ based)

[siriuskao]

or you can implement it with actionscript, part of flash. You can also google for "flash remoting" to get more info on how it will work with php

http://www.amfphp.org/

[feggymango]

are you saying it is possible to do it all in flash with actionscript. Its basically-2 or 3 list/dropdown boxes, and 2 fields to enter height and width, then just some calculations. if it can all be done in flash that would be best for me

[temporalillusion]

You can do it all in flash. If your numbers will never change (or very rarely change) then you can have them hard coded into the flash file. If not, then you'll have to have a server side component with remoting or XML files or something to be able to have the flash file get the information (that amfphp app posted for example).

I've used a product called Flex 2 from Adobe (Macromedia) though it isn't a release product yet. There's other stuff out there that lets you generate flash applications from C# and other languages as well (http://www.xamlon.com/software/xamlonpro/flash/ for example).

[feggymango]

Ya the numbers will not change. There are five types of windows-each with a per sq/ft price that is not going to change. I need the customer to choose the type, then enter the width and height-which will be used to calculate the sq ft. then its just some multiplication. I may also like to add a "number of windows that size" and a total, then add this into the equation. Can anyone reference me a tutorial or site where i can begin to learn how to do this in flash/actionscript

thanks for all the response so far, appreciate the help

[jerryhung]

From what I heard (from colleague who's working on Flash w/ Coldfusion now), ActionScript is pretty much JavaScript

so for your requirements, it's plenty enough as you have no need to interact with a backend server