Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

Separation of Functionality

A Flash Remoting application is a client/server application. You should have a clean separation of client and server duties, however. The server-side services should be operable in any situation, whether being accessed by a Flash interface, HTML interface, desktop application, or other web service. For that reason, it is not advisable to use the Flash object on the server. In Example 2-5, you saw the HelloUser service written using C# in an ASP.NET environment:

<%@ Page Language="C#"%>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="MyTag" Namespace="FlashGateway" Assembly="flashgateway" %>
<MyTag:Flash ID="Flash" Runat="Server" />
<%
  if (Flash.Params.Count > 0) {
  String username = Flash.Params[0].ToString( );
  String currentTime = DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString( );
  Flash.Result = "Hello " + username + ". It is " + currentTime;
}
%>

I presented it because it is a part of Flash Remoting that you should know about—and it is frequently an easy way to accomplish a task—but it is not always a good way to code your remote service. The Flash object is available and easy to use, but you should carefully consider the consequences of using the Flash object, as it ties the remote service to the Flash application (preventing you from building a non-Flash interface to the service).

There are several other considerations to separating the client and server. Flash Remoting raises a dilemma—where does the functionality belong? Some functionality is plainly client-side functionality, and some ...