Static Flash Classes and Loader Dangling Pointers

I did not know what to call this post. I have tried to get enough key words into it so if anybody else came across this issue they would find the post. This post is basically about Flash but the issue became apparent while messing with loading Flash animation SWF’s into a Flex 1.5 application.

Continue Reading Add comment September 8th, 2006

Who and Why are you going to MAX, win a iRiver

Ben Watson has posted about an interesting MAX give away.

http://blogs.adobe.com/imho/

Here is the roadmap to your new iRiver.

Basically post screen shots of yourself, your project, and why you are going to MAX. See his original post for all the little details. As this is my first MAX I do not know the commonality of activities like these are. But so far there seems to be a big push through many mediums to encourage people to meetup before, during and after MAX.

For Example if you have not registered yet, there is an application called “introNetworks”. Its a fun way to met others going to MAX through profiles of interests and skills.

Here are some resource links for MAX:

Attendee Resources & Frequently Asked Questions

What’s New at MAX 2006

Add comment September 8th, 2006

Flex 2 API Visual Reference Poster by RocketBoots

If you have not seen the Poster by RocketBoots check it out here.
The poster is approximately 28″ by 39″.   I bought a couple for kicks and was pleasantly suprised how nice the posters are.  Now to find a place that will laminate them.

1 comment September 7th, 2006

Getting WebORB for PHP Working

The midnightcoders have provided a nice package to use RPC services with Flex and PHP. The newly release WebORB for PHP is an exciting project. For there site:

WebORB for PHP is server-side technology enabling connectivity between Flex and Flash Remoting clients and PHP applications. WebORB for PHP can be installed into any PHP5 application to expose PHP classes as remote services. The product provides a complete implementation of the Adobe’s AMF0 and AMF3 messaging protocols and thus supports any Flash Remoting or Flex client.

Although this release only supports the RPC featureset of Flex Data Services it is planned for future FDS features. Their documentation and Quick Start guide are top notch and should be easy to follow. They use a deployment folder structure of “Weborb\WEB-INF\flex\” making it easy to use the New Project Wizards in Flex Builder to make FDS or ColdFusion connectivity projects.

Configuration

Now I usually like to take these projects and apply my standard Flex, AMF, and PHP example. This is where I ran into problems. The configuration files are setup disctintly like FDS. I tend to follow the ColdFusion connectivity default configuration files and setup one Destination tag with a <source>*</source> attribute. The * attribute value is not support in the current WebORB for PHP. You need to define the specific source for each destination tag in the services-config.xml (actually in the remoting-config.xml that is included in the services-config.xml).

I added the following to the remoting-config.xml

<destination id=”LoginServiceDestination”>
<properties>
<source>com.renaun.samples.login.services.Login</source>
</properties>
</destination>

The example Flex application is from my example code used in the RemoteObjectAMF0 and my SabreAMF example. You can get the my example code here.

Object Type Mapping

Object typing is a very important feature when working with RemoteObjects and Flash Remoting. FDS and ColdFusion connectivity have built in mechanisms that handle object typing for you. But other packages like SabreAMF, AMFPHP or OpenAMF you need to set the mapping manually. This is where WebORB for PHP uses PHP5 features to make object typing automatic, no manual attributes, method tables, or class mapping functions.

The hiccup was that the object typing didn’t work quite right. The example code provided by WebORB for PHP and my custom BookVO example had an extra “.htdocs.Services.” attached to the class type. I tracked down this issue to Util/TypeLoader.php class in the getFullClassName method. You get to set your services path in the Weborb/weborb-config.xml (default is <weborb servicePath=”../Services”>). The fix to get the correct object is to add “$servicePath = realpath( $servicePath );” in the getFullClassName method right after “$servicePath = $config->getServicePath();”.

Conclusion

Overall WebORB for PHP has great potential. The project is backed by a group that create many great products for Ajax, Flash Remoting and Flex on many different platforms. We are lucky to have them provide this project as open source. I am particularly interested in the further development of FDS polling and data management features.

1 comment September 6th, 2006

How to use Flex 2 RemoteObjects and PHP with SabreAMF

Flex 2 provides many new and exciting features. One of the improvements is the new Action Message Format or AMF3. AMF is used with RemoteObject’s components and requires a compatible server. The newer AMF functionality provides improved performance and better object typing.

Current AMF integration is predominantly done through the ColdFusion connectivity update found in ColdFusion MX 7.0.2 and Flex Data Services. PHP and other open AMF projects have been catching up to the AMF field. More and more PHP servers and clients are supporting the AMF3 format, now it’s a question about how easy is it to integrate and use with Flex 2 applications. This article we’ll explore such a setup using SabreAMF.

Read the rest of the article here

Add comment September 1st, 2006