Flash remoting with xaraya flashservices

Posted by Teddy Jasin

May 28, 2008

I wanted to create some flash applications that interacts with my database. As usual, I am using Xaraya for my framework.
I knew there's flash remoting for PHP called AMFPHP. As in the documentaion, its said that AMFPHP able to be run as standalone or integrated with other framework.

So for this, I wanted to try to integrate with Xaraya. A quick search on xaraya's extension, there's a flashservices module for xaraya.
According to the flashservices module description, it is also using AMFPHP. The module, allows flash application to access data remotely using AMF (actionscript message format).
However, again, I couldn't find any documentation on how to use the module.

Spent almost a day to figure out how to use the module. Though I manage to create my flash calls the module's remoting service, I'm still not sure whether this is the best way to do.
Anyway, this is how I done that. If anyone had experience on this module, do let me know.

Tools
* Flash 8 or other flash ide like flex builder

Notes
* For Flash 8 development you need to install flash remoting components from: [http://www.adobe.com/products/flashremoting/downloads/components/ Adobe]
* Once you installed, you will see the components from Window -> Common Libraries -> Remoting

Action Scripting

Enabling flash remoting in AS
* import all the remoting components

 
//import remoting components
import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.rpc.*;
 
//import and initialise netdebugger
import mx.remoting.debug.NetDebug;
NetDebug.initialize();

Setting the service

 
//set the gateway for flash remoting
var gatewayUrl:String = "http://localhost/xaraya/ws.php?type=flashremoting";
 
//set service
var _service:Service = new Service(gatewayUrl, null, 'xarServices', null , null);

The 'xarServices' refers to the modules/flashservices/services/xarServices.php
The xarServices has two method currently: xarModApiService and xarModFuncService
xarModApiService method will call the xaraya's xarModAPIFunc function
xarModFuncService method will call the xaraya's xarModFunc function

Calling the service's method

 
//set the arguments to call for the module to call
//this will call flashservices_userapi_test
var myargs		= new Array();
myargs[0] 	= "flashservices";
myargs[1] 	= "user";
myargs[2] 	= "test";
//the parameters set to the function called above
//notice that object is used as we might need to use the key for the function
var parameters 		= new Object();
parameters.message 	= "Welcomeeeeeeeeeee!";
myargs[3] 	= parameters;
 
//call the service
//you can call xaraya service also by using xarModFuncService instead of xarModAPIService
var pc:PendingCall = _service.xarModApiService(myargs);

myargs is an array containing the function to be called. In this case will call module/flashservices/userapi/flashservices_userapi_test.php
parameters is the arguments to be passed into the function

Handling flashservice return module

 
//do the respon processing
pc.responder = new RelayResponder(this, "handleResult", "handleError");

handleResult is a function in the action script that will handle the event once the service method is successfully called.

 
function handleResult(re:ResultEvent)
{
	//will set the flash label text's property to the result string
	mylabel.text = re.result;
}

handleError is an error handler function in the action script that will handle errors returned from the service.

 
function handleError(fe:FaultEvent)
{
	trace('There has been an error ' + fe.fault.faultstring);
}

Flashservice module
Now, this is where I'm not sure the correct way, I had to change the following to make my flash remoting work:
- Edit modules/flashservices/classes/app/Executive.php somewhere in line 340, change the:

 
return call_user_func_array ( array(&$this->_classConstruct, $this->_methodname), $a); // do the magic

 
return call_user_func_array ( array(&$this->_classConstruct, $this->_methodname), $a[0]); // do the magic

this is because $a will contain multidimensional array, so need to set the first element of $a

Debugging Tips
* in actionscript you can use 'trace' command to show to the debugger, example in handleError:

 
trace('There has been an error ' + fe.fault.faultstring);

* in xaraya's php function, you can use 'trigger_error' function so that the error will be returned to the flash's actionscript. example:

 
trigger_error("There's an error!",E_USER_ERROR);

* in debugging, ensure you can allow the http access, a securitty pop up will usually show if you open the html file directly (not from http address). click on settings to manage this.
** go to website privacy settings
** click on your website address
** change to allow then restart the browser