Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

Datatype Conversions

Web services have specific simple types that are native to SOAP and other complex types that you can define. The SOAP datatypes and their ActionScript equivalencies are listed in Table 10-3.

Table 10-3. Datatype conversion between ActionScript and SOAP

ActionScript	SOAP
Null	Null
Undefined	Null
Boolean	Boolean
Number	Decimal, Float, Double, Integer, Int
String	String
Date	DateTime
Array (numeric index)	Array
Associative array	Complex type
RecordSet	N/A
Object	Complex type

ColdFusion also supports a QueryBean datatype, which allows you to transfer query objects as results from a web service. It is advisable, however, to create web services that will be more universally readable, such as an array. Not all consumers of web services will be able to access a QueryBean.

Passing Complex Datatypes to and from Web Services

Sending a complex datatype to a web service is sometimes as simple as defining it in the client-side ActionScript and passing it as an argument. An example of a web service that accepts a complex object as an argument and returns a complex object as a result is the Amazon.com web service. Unfortunately, this is not a service that is usable in different server environments. Example 10-6 works in ASP.NET and PHP environments only. The Flash Remoting gateway for Java and ColdFusion (essentially the same gateway) seems to have problems with this web service.

To make use of the Amazon.com web service, you must go to http://www.amazon.com/webservices ...