Archive for PHP
September 11, 2007 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Flash, Flash on the Beach, Mobile Development, OSFlash, PHP, Remoting
Today Aral Balkan released SWX 1.0 for PHP, his answer to Flash Remoting. I have been waiting patiently for this release, as I am currently in the midst of building out two larger-scale projects with remoting and feel much better about using a 1.0 (read: non-beta) tool. Overall, SWX has been a joy to use. Aral has certainly accomplished his main task: simplify the whole remoting process from setup to development to deployment. Setup is as easy as copying the directory to your server, and development is much more kind since he re-wrote the AMFPHP service browser and debugger in Flex, while adding a few features to make it generally more usable. Using the services in your AS2 projects also couldn't be more simple. And to top it all off it is completely open source (is anything Aral does not open source?).
I was initially concerned about performance under heavy loads, but Aral was quick to give a test case and show that even with 250 concurrent hits to the gateway, it should still perform. It would take an extremely busy site to get 250 concurrent hits to the gateway (note that the gateway only gets hit when there is a service call).
My only recommendation at this point is to release a ZIP of only the files you need to deploy to the server. While I don't mind having all the graphics for the project and Flex source for the service browser and debugger, I don't want to upload those files to my server and digging through all the folders to figure out what is needed can be a drag.
If you haven't already, I highly suggest you give SWX a go. You can even use the public services that Aral has posted -- so you don't even need your own gateway setup to get started. Oh, I should also note that because the SWF file that SWX produces is Flash Lite 2.0 and 2.1. compatible, it can be viewed on a good number mobile devices.
Want to learn more? See Aral speak at one of several conferences in the next few months.
A huge thanks to Aral for the hard work!
I'll be sure to post links to the projects as soon as they are completed, along with additional thoughts and tips on working with SWX.
July 25, 2007 at 11:03 am · Filed under AIR (Apollo), Actionscript 3, Adobe, PHP, Remoting, Tech, Web Apps
The more I code in AS3 the more I want to be able to use it as a server side programming language - mainly as a replacement for PHP. I might be missing something, but at first glance, I don't see any reasons this wouldn't be possible with a little effort from Adobe.
Let's look at the current manifestations of ECMAScript 4, the standard on which ActionScript 3 and the new version of JavaScript are based. There is Flash/Flex (SWF) with delivery to the web browser via a plug-in, JavaScript for direct interaction with the web browser, and AIR (Apollo) for desktop delivery. The only missing piece is server-side deployment, a fact of which I'd bet Adobe is well aware.
PHP is a great server-side language which I use very often, but every language has its own nuances, and switching continuously between PHP and AS3 often opens the door for several small bugs due to the syntactical differences.
As a framework for how much effort it would take to port AS3 for server-side usage, let's look at how PHP5 and AS3 compare on key web development factors. These core features are supported in both PHP5 and AS3:
- MySQL/database integration (PHP built-in, AS3 through classes)
- Open source and free
- Extendable (PHP through plugins, AS3 through classes)
- Large developer community
- Class-based development possible (Full OOP in AS3)
So with most of the features needed already included in AS3 or written by the community, why not take the extra step and port it to the server side? I'm sure Adobe doesn't want to sell Coldfusion 8 short, so there is that corporate hurdle. I could see it being integrated with Coldfusion in a similar manner that ActionScript can be included in MXML through the usage of a code/cdata block.
All said, nothing is stopping the community from developing an open source project based around this concept. A quick search of Google reveals that at least one other person is having similar thoughts.
Would you use AS3 if it was ported for server-side usage?
July 3, 2007 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Adobe, Flash, PHP, Personal
After three years of minimal updates to the old portfolio site, it was about time to clean house, update and redesign. That said, I'm happy to announce that the new version of jonnymac.com is now live.
I'm interested to hear feedback, so please leave your thoughts in the comments!
June 18, 2007 at 8:34 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Actionscript 3, Flash, Flex, PHP, Web Apps
Tim Wilson has just posted PressConnect, a "PHP script which interigates a WordPress database and returns posts, pages, and creates menus in an XML format."
Tim's site/blog runs a completely Flash front-end using WordPress as the content management system, so he has some experience making Flash and WordPress work together. You can even see the normal WP install at this URL.
On his PressConnect page he explains the necessary process of retrieving the data from the WP database and using PHP to format it as XML. This concept isn't exactly new, but Tim has done everyone researching the topic a favor by explaining the process in detail, creating a diagram, and posting some of the PHP code which interfaces with WP. Just another example of the Flash community giving back.
For other takes on the same idea see Arpit's blog Code Zen and Brendan Dawes' wp-xml file (link to the file is at the very end of the post).
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