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Flash Communication Server
Flash Communication Server
Table of Contents
Copyright
About the Authors
Brian Lesser
Giacomo
Joey Lott
Robert Reinhardt
Justin Watkins
Foreword
Preface
What Does FlashCom Offer?
What's in This Book?
How to Use This Book
Audience
ActionScript 1.0 Versus ActionScript 2.0
Server-Side ActionScript
The flash-communications.net Site
Director, Breeze, and Other Options
Flash Video Options
Licensing and Hosting Options
Conventions Used in This Book
Voice
Using Code Examples
Safari Enabled
Comments and Questions
Acknowledgments
Part I:  FlashCom Foundation
Chapter 1.  Introducing the Flash Communication Server
Section 1.1.  Clients and Servers
Section 1.2.  Creating an Application
Section 1.3.  Real-Time Messaging Protocol
Section 1.4.  The Communication Classes
Section 1.5.  Communicating with Application Servers, Databases, and Directory Servers
Section 1.6.  Firewalls and Security
Section 1.7.  Getting Started
Section 1.8.  Hello Video!
Section 1.9.  Conclusion
Chapter 2.  Communication Components
Section 2.1.  Overview of Communication Components
Section 2.2.  Summary of Communication Components
Section 2.3.  Creating an Application that Monitorsa Connection
Section 2.4.  Building a Simple Chat Room
Section 2.5.  Adding Audio and Video to the Chat Room
Section 2.6.  Forgoing the SimpleConnect Component
Section 2.7.  Conclusion
Chapter 3.  Managing Connections
Section 3.1.  Making a Connection
Section 3.2.  Managing a Connection
Section 3.3.  Reusing a NetConnection Object
Section 3.4.  Multiple Simultaneous NetConnection Objects
Section 3.5.  Testing and Debugging Network Connections
Section 3.6.  Subclassing the NetConnection Class
Section 3.7.  Communication Components Without SimpleConnect
Section 3.8.  Conclusion
Chapter 4.  Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript
Section 4.1.  Scripting Application Instances
Section 4.2.  Differences Between Flash ActionScript and Server-Side ActionScript
Section 4.3.  The Life of an Application Instance
Section 4.4.  Running a Simple Hello World Test Script
Section 4.5.  A More Realistic Example
Section 4.6.  Instance-to-Instance Communications
Section 4.7.  Script Filenames and Locations in Detail
Section 4.8.  Testing and Debugging Server-SideScript Files
Section 4.9.  Designing Communication Applications
Section 4.10.  Conclusion
Part II:  Audio, Video, and Data Streams
Chapter 5.  Managing Streams
Section 5.1.  A Simple Publisher/Subscriber Example
Section 5.2.  Stream Names
Section 5.3.  Publishing Streams in Detail
Section 5.4.  Playing Streams in Detail
Section 5.5.  The Stream Class
Section 5.6.  Publishing and Playing ActionScript Data
Section 5.7.  Creating Synchronized Presentations
Section 5.8.  The NetStream and Stream Information Objects
Section 5.9.  Stream Enhancements and Limitations
Section 5.10.  Conclusion
Chapter 6.  Microphone and Camera
Section 6.1.  Working with Microphone/Audio Input
Section 6.2.  Working with Camera Input
Section 6.3.  Building a Message-Taking Application
Section 6.4.  Building a Surveillance Application
Section 6.5.  Conclusion
Chapter 7.  Media Preparation and Delivery
Section 7.1.  Audio and Video Compression
Section 7.2.  Converting Prerecorded Materialto FLV Format
Section 7.3.  Using Flash Pro's Media Components
Section 7.4.  Enabling Multiple Bit Rate FLVsWithin an Application
Section 7.5.  Streaming MP3 Audio
Section 7.6.  Conclusion
Part III:  Remote Connectivity and Communication
Chapter 8.  Shared Objects
Section 8.1.  Objects and Shared Objects
Section 8.2.  Getting a Shared Object in Flash
Section 8.3.  Updates and Frame Rates
Section 8.4.  Scripting Shared Objects on the Server
Section 8.5.  Temporary and Persistent Shared Objects
Section 8.6.  Proxied Shared Objects
Section 8.7.  Shared Objects and Custom Classes
Section 8.8.  Avoiding Collisions
Section 8.9.  Optimizing Shared Object Performance
Section 8.10.  Broadcasting Remote Method Callswith send( )
Section 8.11.  A Simple Video and Text Chat Application
Section 8.12.  Conclusion
Chapter 9.  Remote Methods
Section 9.1.  Why Use Calls?
Section 9.2.  The send( ) and call( ) Methods
Section 9.3.  Client-to-Server Calls
Section 9.4.  Server-to-Client Calls
Section 9.5.  Server-to-Server Calls
Section 9.6.  A Simple Lobby/Rooms Application
Section 9.7.  Debugging Calls
Section 9.8.  Advanced Topics
Section 9.9.  Conclusion
Chapter 10.  Server Management API
Section 10.1.  Connecting to the Admin Service
Section 10.2.  Using the Server Management API
Section 10.3.  Server Management API Uses
Section 10.4.  Conclusion
Chapter 11.  Flash Remoting
Section 11.1.  The Remoting Gateway
Section 11.2.  Remoting Basics
Section 11.3.  Role of Remoting in FlashCom Applications
Section 11.4.  Securing Access
Section 11.5.  Conclusion
Chapter 12.  ColdFusion MX and FlashCom
Section 12.1.  Understanding ColdFusion MXand Flash Remoting
Section 12.2.  Using Flash Remoting to Log Events
Section 12.3.  Getting a List of Streams
Section 12.4.  Using ColdFusion and FTP to Mirror Streams
Section 12.5.  Conclusion
Part IV:  Design and Deployment
Chapter 13.  Building Communication Components
Section 13.1.  Source Files
Section 13.2.  People Lists
Section 13.3.  A Simple People List
Section 13.4.  Listenable Shared Objects
Section 13.5.  Status and People List
Section 13.6.  Text Chat
Section 13.7.  Shared Text
Section 13.8.  Video Conference and Video Window
Section 13.9.  PeopleGrid
Section 13.10.  Summary
Section 13.11.  Conclusion
Chapter 14.  Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework
Section 14.1.  The Component Framework
Section 14.2.  Under the Hood of the Chat Component
Section 14.3.  Creating a Simple Component from Scratch: SharedTextInput
Section 14.4.  Creating a Container Component: SharedAddressForm
Section 14.5.  Creating an Authenticating Component
Section 14.6.  Integrating Components with Your Existing Applications
Section 14.7.  Understanding the Framework
Section 14.8.  Conclusion
Chapter 15.  Application Design Patterns and Best Practices
Section 15.1.  Shared Object Management
Section 15.2.  Moving Code to the Server
Section 15.3.  Building Façades on the Server
Section 15.4.  Server-Side Client Queues
Section 15.5.  A Framework for Recording and Playing Back Componentized Applications
Section 15.6.  Components and Component Frameworks
Section 15.7.  Conclusion
Chapter 16.  Building Scalable Applications
Section 16.1.  Coordinating Instances
Section 16.2.  Scalability and Load Balancing
Section 16.3.  Conclusion
Chapter 17.  Network Performance, Latency,and Concurrency
Section 17.1.  Latency
Section 17.2.  Bandwidth
Section 17.3.  Concurrency
Section 17.4.  Conclusion
Chapter 18.  Securing Applications
Section 18.1.  The Three A's: Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
Section 18.2.  Authentication
Section 18.3.  Authorization
Section 18.4.  Accounting
Section 18.5.  Suggestions and References
Section 18.6.  Conclusion
Index
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1.5. Communicating with Application Servers, Databases, and Directory Servers

Flash and the Flash Communication Server often must work with other existing applications and resources. For example, users may have to log in against an existing directory service or database before being allowed to chat or view streams. Database systems can be used to store large amounts of information that FlashCom cannot easily manage, such as millions of records that represent the location of video messages in a video email system. Each record might contain the email text and the location of the recorded video message within a FlashCom application.

Both the Flash Player and FlashCom can interact with web application servers and, through them, database and directory servers. The Flash client can call any server-side script available on a web server, send and receive XML data, access web services, and use the Flash Remoting gateway to more efficiently access application servers. In contrast, the Flash Communication Server (as of the latest version, 1.5.2) supports only Flash Remoting to connect to other servers. It cannot directly consume web services, send or receive XML, or call a CGI script, which often complicates designing applications that need to access a database or other service already available via a web server. However, Flash Remoting is a powerful and efficient technology that can be used with J2EE, ColdFusion, and .NET servers to provide access to databases or other services. Macromedia sells the Flash Remoting gateway separately for J2EE and .NET servers and bundles it with ColdFusion. There are also open source implementations of Flash Remoting for Perl, PHP, and Java. See Chapter 11 for more details on Remoting, and see http://opensource.org for information on open source code.

Flash Remoting is a request/response technology that allows scripts in the Flash client or FlashCom to call remote methods on an application server. It uses HTTP to send and receive data in the AMF. Those remote methods can retrieve information from a database, directory server, or web server and return the information to FlashCom. From a developer's point of view, Flash Remoting is easy to work with because complex ActionScript data is serialized and deserialized automatically. Flash Remoting can be used with or without FlashCom. The point is that Flash Remoting is flexible enough that it allows FlashCom to communicate effectively despite FlashCom's lack of direct support for XML or server-side script access.

Figure 1-5 illustrates some of the communication options for Flash and FlashCom. A Flash client can access a web application directly, as can FlashCom.

Figure 1-5. Both the Flash client and FlashCom can access application servers


In some cases, clients may connect to both an application server and FlashCom. In other cases, FlashCom may connect to the application server and provide information from or to its clients. When many clients need access to the same data, FlashCom should be used as an intermediary between application servers. Application performance will be improved by reducing the number of queries from each Flash movie. When each movie needs to look up information unique to it, a direct connection to an application server is usually a better approach.