here I am going to share an awesome concept of flex interaction with back end technology. WebORB can be considered as midleware server. WebORB is a service infact a library which exposes PHP classes,functions for Flex. And Flex can make direct calls to those functions. WebORB works much similar as Flourine FX for .Net integration with Flex. Using WebORB, you can implement remoting, messaging etc in Flex, which provides you an another choice for backend Integration.

Currently I am working on a BIG project, where I am using WebORB for interaction with PHP, and I am just loving it. I am creating a multilingual Flex UI for a dynamic project. And I’ll be posting my artical on Multilingual Flex UI soon.

For now lets explore webORB for PHP integration.

For this first of all you need to download webORB library for PHP server. and you can download that from this link

once you download this library , you can put the files in any php server and can run the admin console to explore the webORB working with flex.

here is the code snipt of flex remoting:

var remoteObject:RemoteObject = new RemoteObject();
    remoteObject.destination = “loginService”;  // PHP class name
    remoteObject.endPoint = “http://localhost/weborb/index.php“;
    remoteObject.getUserInfo.addEventListener(“result”,onResult);
    remoteObject.addEventListener(“fault”, onFault);
    remoteObject.getUserInfo(“dev”,”pwd”);

upto now we are done with flex-php connection. make sure you have index.php class in your webORB setup.

Now you can see, we are calling php function getUserInfo() directly using Flex Remote Object, by using remote object you can send and recieve any number of value objects.

Main advantage of following this approach is, you dont need to implement data parsing while recieving data XMLs, here you can transfer objects directly and can make your data model more efficient and dynamic.

In many articles you will find a long story of implementing webORB in flex, but as per me, this one is the best and quick approach to get things done in webORB.

Note: for this, you dont need to configure or use any service.xml or remoting.xml or any other xml file. you are doing things inside AS only.

thats it for now will get back with lot more soon.

Cheers

dev.

Hi everyone !  you might be aware about power of Adobe Flash using FMS and Flash remoting !

Let me explain a bit about implementing FMS and Remoting on server side, which will enable you to explore server directory just like other server technologies. This is just a another post you can find similar stuff anywhere on net, but I am taking the chance to share what I learnt.

Okay for this you need to have Flash CS3, FMS installed on your system OR any remote server access to implement FMS stuff.

FMS configuration

First of all lets prepare a ASC file for our FMS which will enable our Client to connect and read our Server.

here is the sample code:  dev_streams.asc

load(“NetServices.asc”);

application.onAppStart = function() {
  NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl(“http://localhost/flashservices/gateway“);
  // Comment the previous line, and uncomment the following line if you are running
  // ColdFusion using the default built-in Web server running on port 8500.
  //NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl(“http://localhost:8500/flashservices/gateway“);
  var ncFlashRemoting = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();
  this.frservice = ncFlashRemoting.getService(“dev_streams.DirectoryUtilities”, this);
  this.ncAdmin = new NetConnection();
  this.ncAdmin.onStatus = function(info) {
    if(info.code == “NetConnection.Connect.Success”) {
      var key = “Adaptor:_defaultRoot_/VirtualHost:_defaultVhost_/AppsDir”;
      this.call(“getConfig”, application, key, “/”);
    }
  };
  this.ncAdmin.connect(“rtmp://localhost:8500/admin”, “a1″, “a1″);
  this.files_so = SharedObject.get(“files”);
};

application.onResult = function(value) {
  var application_path = application.name.split(“/”);
  var path = value.data + “\\” + application_path[0] + “\\streams\\” + application_path[1];
  this.file_interval = setInterval(this.frservice, “getFiles”, 5000, “\\”, path);
  this.frservice.getFiles(“\\”, path);
};

application.getFiles_Status = function(info) {
  for(var item in info) {
    trace(item + ” ” + info[item]);
  }
};

application.getFiles_Result = function(files) {
  this.files_so.lock();
  var key;
  var previous_data;
  var update;
  for(var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
    key = “file” + files[i].PATH.split(“\\”).join(“_”) + “_” + files[i].NAME.split(“.”)[0];
    previous_data = this.files_so.getProperty(key);
    update = false;
    if(previous_data == null) {
      update = true;
    }
    else {
      for(var item in previous_data) {
        if(previous_data[item] != files[i][item]) {
          update = true;
        }
      }
    }
    if(update) {
      this.files_so.setProperty(key, files[i]);
    }
  }
  var keys = this.files_so.getPropertyNames();
  if(keys == undefined) {
    this.files_so.unlock();
    return;
  }
  var remove;
  for(var i = 0; i < keys.length; i++) {
    remove = true;
    for(var j = 0; j < files.length; j++) {
      key = “file” + files[j].PATH.split(“\\”).join(“_”) + “_” + files[j].NAME.split(“.”)[0];
      if(key == keys[i]) {
        remove = false;
        break;
      }
    }
    if(remove) {
      this.files_so.setProperty(keys[i], null);
    }
  }
  this.files_so.unlock();

};

Now as you can see, we have implemented Flash Remoting here on ASC file for reading server directory using CFM.

let me give some CFM code here: DirectoryUtilities.cfc

<cfcomponent>

  <cffunction name=”getFiles” access=”remote” return=”array”>
    <cfargument name=”directory_path” />
    <cfargument name=”main_path” />
    <cfset var aFiles = “” />
    <cfset var stData = “” />
    <cfdirectory action=”list” directory=”#main_path##directory_path#” name=”qFiles” />
    <cfset aFiles = ArrayNew(1) />
    <cfloop query=”qFiles”>
      <cfif qFiles.type EQ “Dir”>
     <cfif directory_path EQ “\”>
    <cfset new_path = “\” & qFiles.name />
  <cfelse>
    <cfset new_path = directory_path & “\” & qFiles.name />
  </cfif>
        <cfset directory_files = getFiles(new_path, main_path) />
        <cfloop from=”1″ to=”#ArrayLen(directory_files)#” index=”i”>
          <cfset ArrayAppend(aFiles, directory_files[i]) />
        </cfloop>
      <cfelse>
        <cfset stData = StructNew() />
        <cfset stData.name = qFiles.name />
        <cfset stData.path = directory_path />
        <cfset stData.main_path = main_path />
        <cfset ArrayAppend(aFiles, stData) />
      </cfif>
    </cfloop>
    <cfreturn aFiles />
  </cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

upto this our server code is ready to rock!

Now lets prepare Client which will be connecting to FMS server for reading directory

here is the sample AS code: streamList.as

var nc = new NetConnection();
nc.onStatus = function(info) {
  trace(info.code);
};
nc.connect(“rtmp:/dev_streams”);
var rso = SharedObject.getRemote(“files”, nc.uri);
rso.onSync = function(list) {
  files_list.removeAll();
  for(var item in this.data) {
    files_list.addItem(this.data[item].NAME, this.data[item]);
  }
};
rso.onStatus = function(info) {
  trace(info);
};
rso.connect(nc);

var oListener = new Object();
oListener.change = function(oEvent) {
  var path_array = oEvent.target.value.PATH.split(“\\”);
  path_array.shift();
  if(path_array[0] == “”) {
    path_array.shift();
  }
  var path = path_array.join(“/”);
  if(path.length > 0) {
    path += “/”;
  }
  path += oEvent.target.value.NAME.split(“.”)[0];
 
  ns.play(path);
  playback_vid.attachVideo(ns);

};
files_list.addEventListener(“change”, oListener);

var ns = new NetStream(nc);
ns.onStatus = function(info) {
  trace(info.code);
};

Please take care about List component and video control used in this sample.

We will be going to explore our server for loading videos residing on FMS server and then will stream them to client.

so its done now, you can connect with FMS running SWF file and can stream videos from server directory

for details Iam giving some steps to follow..which I might be missed above..

here it is:

* Make a new DEV application directory named dev_streams.
* Copy dev_streams.asc to the new directory.
* Change the username and password in the connect() call in the onAppStart() method of dev_streams.asc.
* Check the gateway URL on the first line of the onAppStart() method. If necessary, make any changes (adding a port, etc.) For example, if using the standalone Web server built into ColdFusion, you may need to change the port to 8500. The .asc file has a line that is commented that you can substitute for the uncommented line if you are running COldFusion at port 8500.
* Make a new subdirectory of dev_streams. Call the directory streams.
* Make a new subdirectory of streams. Call the directory _definst_.
* Make a new subdirectory of _definst_. Call the directory archived.
* Move two .flv files to the _definst_ directory, and move two files to the archived directory.
* Copy DirectoryUtilities.cfc to a directory called dev_streams in the ColdFUsion Web root directory. (Make the directory if you haven’t already.)
* Run streamsList.swf.

Thats it!!

Cheers!