What Does FlashCom Offer?
FlashCom
is a real-time communication server. It provides an extensible and
customizable platform for developing real-time, media-rich, web-based
communication applications. As described in the Foreword, FlashCom
takes care of the plumbing required to create networked applications,
allowing you to focus on your unique application rather than write
code to support network protocols.
A Flash movie running in Flash Player 6 or later can connect to a
FlashCom Server and through it exchange audio, video, and
ActionScript data with other Flash movies. Creating communication
applications involves scripting using ActionScript on the client side
and its close relative, Server-Side ActionScript, on the server side.
Macromedia provides ActionScript classes that make managing real-time
multiuser communications much simpler than in other platforms. The
NetConnection class used to connect a Flash
movie to the server, and the NetStream class
used to stream audio, video, and data between them are just two
examples.
FlashCom Server runs on Windows or Linux, but the Flash client runs
on multiple platforms, including Windows and Macintosh. Authoring is
often performed in Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX Professional 2004 on
Windows or Macintosh. Macromedia also provides higher-level
communication components that can be used with a minimum of coding to
create a variety of basic applications. Examples include the
PeopleList component that shows who is online and the Chat,
WhiteBoard, and VideoConference components. It is a remarkable
experience to create a communication application by simply dragging
some of these components onto Flash's Stage,
creating a directory and a little code on the server, and then
participate in a video conference complete with text chat,
whiteboard, and people list. Applications created this way are not
really completefor example, they are usually single room
applications with minimal securitybut communication components
are powerful tools that make developing even full-fledged
applications much easier. Macromedia also provides administrative
tools to manage, monitor, and log server activity.
What does FlashCom Server offer that you
can't get with the Flash client alone?
FlashCom's features include:
Streaming video if the user has Flash Player 6 or higher Real-time video, audio, text, and data exchange Uploading of video and audio from the user's Camera
and Microphone objects
So how do you know if you need FlashCom?
If you want to stream live video to the Flash Player, you need
FlashCom. If you just want to play back a recorded stream, you can do
so without FlashCom, but performance might suffer.
For many more details on other advantages of FlashCom, see
"Streaming Video with FlashCom"
later in this Preface.
Also refer to the comparison that Macromedia provides at:
- http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/video_primer_03.html
The Flash Communication Server is also evolving. The first release
was quickly followed with the version 1.5 release that runs on Linux
or Windows and included new features such as HTTP tunneling and MP3
support. Since then, two updaters have been released that went beyond
fixing bugs by extending features or improving performance. The most
recent release is FlashCom Version 1.5.2 and is covered in this book.
Regardless of future updates to the software, this book provides a
rich understanding of FlashCom development. The foundation it
provides will help you to design and build whatever types of
applications you decide to create.
For a sneak peek at the next version of FlashCom, see:
- http://www.peldi.com/blog/archives/2004/11/recording_of_th.html
An extensive review of the proposed feature set for
FlashCom 2.0 can be found at:
- http://flash-communications.net/news/max2004SneakPeek/
Robert Reinhardt also wrote a critique of
FlashCom 2.0's proposed feature set at:
- http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=0F44C
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