Saturday April 12, 2003
Journal: Proper types
I modified the SerializerClass to use switch-case statements, and also fixed some of the unserialization ($_getValue) procedures to cast the variables into proper data types (strings, integers, floats, booleans, instead of always objects)....
Posted by sunny at 03:29 PM ::: Permalink
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Sunday April 13, 2003
Journal: Web services
I completed packaging and testing nusoap.php and a WebServiceProxy PHP class with PHPObject. Consuming web services within Flash MX is now easy... so easy I am amazed myself :)...
Posted by sunny at 03:35 PM ::: Permalink
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Tuesday April 15, 2003
Journal: Gimme a blank face
JC (flashmagazine) emailed saying that PHPObject doesn't work. What's worse, when the gateway is accessed directly it shows three lines of errors. I can't figure out why it doesn't work when it works fine for me... But coming back to...
Posted by sunny at 10:22 PM ::: Permalink
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Wednesday April 16, 2003
Journal: onError
I decided that there should be a default behavior for handling onError events, so I made onError to trace(error) if no onError handler has been defined. Afterall, I think this event is only useful during debugging. It has limited value...
Posted by sunny at 02:25 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Output from PHP
Got an email from Tjerk from Netherlands (damn, I've been to Amsterdam only once and I really like that place) telling me that PHPObject doesn't work for him. He has an echo in his PHP class. Jeez... how could I...
Posted by sunny at 11:30 PM ::: Permalink
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Thursday April 17, 2003
Journal: Modified nusoap.php
I spent hours trying to consume the GlobalWeather web service using PHPObject's three-step method to no avail. I could get results from all the operations except the most important - getWeatherReport(). It was irritating and totally illogical. I couldn't see...
Posted by sunny at 02:13 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Unlimited arguments
Thank goodness, I don't mean quarrels, disputes, fights et al... I mean parameters, those things you pass to a method to make it special. I admit - I didn't spend enough time on the gateway and the remote methods could...
Posted by sunny at 06:12 PM ::: Permalink
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Friday April 18, 2003
Journal: Open Sesame
Hey the gateway is always open! You can come in anytime you like, take what you want. I know being friendly and hospitable is a good thing. Especially in these troubled times. The world needs more love (as MJ said...
Posted by sunny at 04:36 PM ::: Permalink
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Saturday April 19, 2003
Journal: Undefined
The 'undefined' variable turned up today at the Serializer and there was an immediate disdain for each other. PHPObject, sandwiched between, finally broke down... In Flash, variables (and elements in arrays) can be assigned the value 'undefined' (which belongs to...
Posted by sunny at 01:54 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Keeping slim
Initially when I built web service connectivity into PHPObject, I used a 'what I thought was reasonably easy' syntax - create the object, specify the operation as a property, define the parameters to pass as another property, then 'execute()' it....
Posted by sunny at 03:45 PM ::: Permalink
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Readme: Installing PHPObject
--OLD-- Actually there is nothing to install. On the client-side, you just need to put the actionscript (.as) files where you can include them in your own files. Although there are three .as files included in the distribution, you only...
Posted by sunny at 11:21 PM ::: Permalink
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Readme: Using PHPObject
It shouldn't be difficult to learn PHPObject if you are familiar with OOP (you are calling a method of a php class anyway, so your php must already be written in OOP). The basic idea behind PHPObject is to link...
Posted by sunny at 11:55 PM ::: Permalink
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Sunday April 20, 2003
Readme: Consuming a web service in three steps
With PHPObject, you can consume a web service in just three steps. While some knowledge of SOAP will be helpful, it is not necessary. If you know what operations are available, what parameters to pass, and the web service's wsdl...
Posted by sunny at 01:05 AM ::: Permalink
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Notes: Invoking remote methods sequentially
If you have more than one task to perform on the server, without flash having to handle the data until the last task is completed, you should use the delayExecute() and execute() methods of PHPObject to invoke remote methods in...
Posted by sunny at 09:15 AM ::: Permalink
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Notes: Protecting your gateway from unauthorized use
If someone knows your PHPObject Gateway's url, he can use your gateway (without permission) to consume web services (if you have the web services connectivity add-on) and to connect to your php classes (if he knows your class names and...
Posted by sunny at 11:30 AM ::: Permalink
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Notes: Using getOutput() method
The getOutput() method of PHPObject class was added in v1.3 to allow the retrieval of output from php classes. If the remote method you call has an output (echo, print, etc.), the output will be sent back to flash along...
Posted by sunny at 12:14 PM ::: Permalink
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Notes: PHPObject does not use AMF
Action Message Format (AMF) is the proprietory message transmission protocol implemented by Macromedia in its flash remoting technology. It is a binary message format and is modeled on the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) used in web services implementations...
Posted by sunny at 01:24 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Movieclips
I am working to make it possible to pass movieclips to the server. Ooops, sorry, that is a wrong statement. It is just not possible to do it. We are not working with binaries here. But we can set a...
Posted by sunny at 06:49 PM ::: Permalink
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Monday April 21, 2003
Journal: Sigh of relief
After seven days of trying, JC (flashmagazine) finally got PHPObject to work (by updating the authoring player). Phew! Sorry for the trouble, and thanks. I am equally puzzled as you are over why the internal player should screw things up...
Posted by sunny at 02:53 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Disallow standalone player
I noticed that PHP pick up the HTTP_USER_AGENT as "Shockwave Flash" if the request had come from standalone player (or the authoring player). I added a new directive in PHPObject Gateway - to allow/disallow standalone players to access the gateway....
Posted by sunny at 03:56 PM ::: Permalink
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Notes: Google Web API
This is a tutorial to demonstrate how to use PHPObject and Flash MX to consume the Google Web API...
Posted by sunny at 05:56 PM ::: Permalink
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Tuesday April 22, 2003
Journal: UTF8 double encoding
I realized shortly after releasing my Google Web API tutorial that some of the results returned from the web service became garbled. Actually I was aware of this issue earlier on but I forgot to fix it before releasing v1.3....
Posted by sunny at 04:04 PM ::: Permalink
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Wednesday April 23, 2003
Notes: Using zlib compression
In a pre-v1.0 version, I had experimented with the gzcompress function in PHP to compress the data sent back to the client. Using zlib compression, the message transferred back to the client is effectively 'binary' and smaller. It apparently worked...
Posted by sunny at 10:52 PM ::: Permalink
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Friday April 25, 2003
Notes: Calling remote methods return either true or false
When you invoke a remote method, the return value is either 'true' (if the object connects to the server) or 'false' (if the object is busy). Obviously, this is not the same as the result from the server task; it...
Posted by sunny at 04:51 PM ::: Permalink
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Saturday April 26, 2003
Journal: Merry-go-round
Sometimes, when serializing the object to be sent to the server, I run into an endless recursive loop error. This occurs, for example, if my object has nested objects with elements making references to the parent object (you get the...
Posted by sunny at 07:06 PM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Doing the same things better
He came, he saw, and he cleansed... Over the past few days, I have rewritten several parts of PHPObject, both in the actionscript and the php side. The result is a version I feel more comfortable with. Bugs are fixed....
Posted by sunny at 09:48 PM ::: Permalink
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Sunday April 27, 2003
Journal: Optimizing serialization
He came again, saw again, and cleansed again... Continuing my work on 'doing the same things better', I spent some time today going through the serializer class, stripping away several lines of code and making the class leaner (hopefully better...
Posted by sunny at 01:16 PM ::: Permalink
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Monday April 28, 2003
Journal: Abort! Quick, abort!
3,2,1... missile launched, target... oops! wrong target! Abort! Quick, abort! Another method, abortExecute(), has been added to PHPObject. However, it is not possible to actually cancel the remote task(s) sent. Unlike browser based applications where hitting the 'stop' button can...
Posted by sunny at 10:05 AM ::: Permalink
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Journal: Embracing curly braces
I read somewhere that curly braces are a good thing, even in cases where they are unnecessary. For example,if (myVar == "hello world") return true;has the same effect asif (myVar == "hello world") { return true;}If you ask me, I would say...
Posted by sunny at 11:12 AM ::: Permalink
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Wednesday April 30, 2003
Journal: Reversal
I have decided to reverse a decision made a few days back. This is with regards to "Merry-go-round". I found that even though it sounds alright to discard 'problematic' nested objects that make references to themselves (sounds alright because PHP...
Posted by sunny at 01:13 PM ::: Permalink
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