Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

ColdFusion Datatype Conversion

ActionScript 1.0 and CFML are both loosely typed languages. There is a close correlation between ActionScript datatypes and ColdFusion datatypes, but there are a few notable differences. Table A-1 shows the conversion from Flash ActionScript to ColdFusion.

Table A-1. Flash-to-ColdFusion datatype conversion

Flash (ActionScript)	ColdFusion (CFML)
ActionScript object	Struct (or ASObject)
ActionScript object (as only argument)	Named arguments
Array (indexed)	Array
Associative Array	Struct
Boolean	Boolean
Date Object	Date
Number	Number
RecordSet	-
String	String
Undefined	Null
XML Object	XML document
Null	Null

Table A-2 shows the conversion from ColdFusion to Flash ActionScript.

Table A-2. ColdFusion-to-Flash datatype conversion

ColdFusion (CFML)	Flash (ActionScript)
Struct	Associative array
Java object (flashgateway.IO.ASObject)	ActionScript object
Java object (flashgateway.IO.ASObject with type property set)	ActionScript object of that type
Array	Array (indexed)
Struct	Array (associative)
Boolean	String [1]
Date	Date object
Number	Number
Query object	RecordSet
String	String
XML document	XML object
Null	Null
[1] Booleans should be passed as numbers (1 or 0) from ColdFusion to Flash. A 1 will be passed as “true” to Flash, and anything else will pass as “false”. For that reason, ColdFusion Booleans are not accurately returned to Flash.