Professional Adobe® Flex® 3

Chapter 51. Web Services with .NET and Flex

This chapter explores working with Flex RPC services, focusing on using Flex's WebService class to connect to a SOAP-based Web Service written with the .NET Framework. Many existing enterprises with existing .NET infrastructure can still benefit from integrating a Flex UI with their existing Web Services.

Building on the previous chapter's Java Web Service sample, we're going to continue focusing on typed Web Services, using Flex's built-in Import Web Service (WSDL) tool that will generate all the code assets necessary to communicate with a properly exposed third-party Web Service. The Import Web Service (WSDL) tool takes only moments to fetch the WSDL and parse it into classes, making accessing typed data a breeze. It even generates typed value objects so that you get the full benefit of Flex Builder's code completion.

Additionally, any of the techniques of accessing remote data using HTTPService or hand coded using WebService are still valid for .NET. With the new .NET 3.5 platform and ADO.NET Data Services or WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), it's just as easy to build a RESTful Web Service accessible from Flex via the HTTPService as it is to formally build Web Services. Flex gives you a way to get at your existing Web Services, no matter how they were architected, using your preferred RPC library: HTTPService, WebService, or RemoteObject.

Introduction to the Routes Web Service

Flex supports Web Services written to the WSDL 1.1 (Web ...