Note on licensing

Why is PHPObject licensed under the LGPL instead of GPL?

PHPObject does not use XML

This is a note to clarify on a possible misconception. Please note that the message transport that PHPObject uses is the string format used by PHP native functions 'serialize()' and 'unserialize()'. The XML/WDDX format is not used. This allows us...

Web services tested with PHPObject

This is a non-exhaustive list of the web services I have tested with PHPObject. You may find them useful. Please feel free to post any other useful web services you have tested...

Syntax difference

If you are already using flash remoting, you may like to note that the syntax in PHPObject is different. Consider the following: In flash remoting, a typical client-server communication may look like this...

Tutorial: Using htmlMimeMail

It has been a while since I released PHPObject. The examples distributed with PHPObject are pretty simple. I haven't written any tutorial on the use of PHPObject with PHP classes (well, I had hoped one of you would). I did...

Private methods and private classes

PHPObject v1.4 enforces the rule that private methods of remote object cannot be executed by Flash. Private methods are identified by their underscore "_" prefix in their names. Trying to execute a private method will return a "method not available"...

Switching off retrieval of properties from server

Sometimes, you may not want the server to return the properties of the remote object to Flash. This is especially true if you know you are not going to need the data. You might be using the remote object to...

Using alternative gateways

In most of the examples (distributed with zip and on this website), we use a defaultGatewayUrl throughout an application. There may be cases where you want to have more than one gateway url on your server. For example, you may,...

Disallowing standalone players to access your gateway

A 'disallowStandalone' property was added to the PHPObject Gateway in v1.4. If this property is set to 'true' (default is 'false'), the gateway will check if the USER AGENT is "Shockwave Flash" whenever a request comes through. The USER AGENT...

Aborting a remote task

The abortExecute() method and onAbort event were added in v1.4. The abortExecute() method allows you to "cancel" the current remote task. However, note that it is not really a cancellation - the remote task already sent will still complete its...

Using utf8encode() method

The utf8encode method was added in v1.4 to allow switching off utf8 encoding by the gateway. You would normally not be using this method, since most of the time, you would want to receive utf8 encoded messages from the gateway...

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...

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...

Google Web API

This is a tutorial to demonstrate how to use PHPObject and Flash MX to consume the Google Web API...

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...

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...

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...

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...