Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

Registering Objects

Flash makes it easy to create code that follows OOP principles. OOP is not the only methodology for writing code, but it fits well with the framework of Flash Remoting. We’ve been using OOP techniques for many of the ActionScript examples in the book, but up to now we’ve used ActionScript objects only. What if we could instantiate an object on the client, pass it to the server, manipulate it in some way on the server, and pass it back to the client? This is possible with Flash Remoting.

Using Object.registerClass( )

If you’ve written Flash applications that use shared objects or extend the MovieClip class, you’ve probably used the Object.registerClass( ) method. The method allows you to register a specific class by name with ActionScript so that you can utilize the class in your movie simply by using its name:

Object.registerClass("MyObjectClass", MyObject);

The first argument is the name that you want to associate with the class, and the second argument is the actual class constructor. For the previous example to work, you must first define a class constructor:

function MyObject ( ) {
  // Some class initialization code
}

This technique is typically used when creating UI components or other objects that inherit from the MovieClip class. However, when used with Flash Remoting, Object.registerClass( ) associates a Flash object in a movie with an object that is returned from the server. This ensures that the return object is deserialized into your Flash movie as an ...