Volunteers

It is really nice to see that users of PHPObject are helping each other out. Martin for example, posted a comment here that helped Jay get PHPObject working from his local machine. And Vin has posted a tutorial on actionscripts.org...

Lost in Safari

Safari is the new Apple browser, quickly becoming popular (because it's by Apple for Apple fans). Sadly though, some people missed out the BETA suffixed to the Safari name in the current releases. Being BETA, it's only fair that we...

Minor change, critical fix

I have always worked on PHP4.1.1 (the version I have on the server), and therefore PHPObject is guaranteed to work on that version. And I couldn't test it on later versions (since I don't have them). So I rely on...

What's next?

Phew! I am done with v1.4. I am doing last minute checks and packing the distribution. The actionscript files will now be packed into a .mxp (Macromedia Extension). So what's changed in v1.4? Lots! This is a version I am...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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....

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....

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 :)...

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)....