Webmaster Forum / Flash / Flash Remoting / March 2005

Hi Ram,

You can find out more about Flash Remoting at macromedia's developer site:

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flashremoting/

Basically, Flash Remoting includes client-side components that can be downloaded free for Flash MX and MX 2004.  These components allow you to make method calls on remote object on the server.  If you purchase ColdFusion MX, or JRun Server (for Java), the server-side remoting components are available for free, otherwise you need to purchase them from Macromedia, or use an open-source AMF parser.  You can find out more detail about Flash Remoting (specifically with Java) in my article:

http://www.codealloy.com/flashandjava.htm

Now, with the release of Macromedia MX 2004 Pro, you don't necessarily have to use the Remoting libraries.  You can connect, via SOAP to any Web Service you create, regardless of what language it is written in using the WebServiceConnector.  You could also use the XMLConnector to connect to any server-side page that generates XML, for example an ASP or PHP page.  

The methodology you select will probably depend on your server-side development skills, cost (of ColdFusion, JRun, MX 2004 Pro, etc..), and expected complexity of your application.   You said you only knew Flash, and Dreamweaver, so maybe purchasing or finding a free shopping cart application will work best for you, and then depending on the technology used, you can select Flash Remoting or the new MX 2004 Pro RPC features.  

I hope that helps.  If you need more specific advice or server-side development, feel free to email me at "lilac at codealloy.com".

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Lilac Ezer
Code Alloy, LLC
http://www.codealloy.com

It's a server add-on, comes with ColdFusion though you can get it for  J2EE and
.NET as well. Here, this may help:

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/ria_dataservices.html

Scroll down to the Remoting bit if you just want that.

Cheers!