flash data integration: i keep reading everywhere that it is insecure to hard code the connection
string to serverside services as it can be used by hackers. so where do i put
it and then how do i get it into the swf at runtime without anyone else being
able to get hold of it? I am sure there must be a simple answer to this as it
is essetial for an application to be secure.

please help me out, it is crucial for me to solve this problem and i can't
find anything to help me anywhere.

The connection string would just be the path to your server-side script. This
would be ok to do since most sites display the URL to the ASP or PHP file that
will process the login information.

I always took this advice to mean that you should not include hardcode a
userid and password into you Flash file because it is easy to get it out. But
putting together a login screen and then POSTing the information to a
server-side script is good. It is was you would do on a HTML login form page.

Tim