1. FlashCom Foundation

   1. Chapter 1 Introducing the Flash Communication Server

      1. Clients and Servers
      2. Creating an Application
      3. Real-Time Messaging Protocol
      4. The Communication Classes
      5. Communicating with Application Servers, Databases, and Directory Servers
      6. Firewalls and Security
      7. Getting Started
      8. Hello Video!
      9. Conclusion

   2. Chapter 2 Communication Components

      1. Overview of Communication Components
      2. Summary of Communication Components
      3. Creating an Application that Monitorsa Connection
      4. Building a Simple Chat Room
      5. Adding Audio and Video to the Chat Room
      6. Forgoing the SimpleConnect Component
      7. Conclusion

   3. Chapter 3 Managing Connections

      1. Making a Connection
      2. Managing a Connection
      3. Reusing a NetConnection Object
      4. Multiple Simultaneous NetConnection Objects
      5. Testing and Debugging Network Connections
      6. Subclassing the NetConnection Class
      7. Communication Components Without SimpleConnect
      8. Conclusion

   4. Chapter 4 Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript

      1. Scripting Application Instances
      2. Differences Between Flash ActionScript and Server-Side ActionScript
      3. The Life of an Application Instance
      4. Running a Simple Hello World Test Script
      5. A More Realistic Example
      6. Instance-to-Instance Communications
      7. Script Filenames and Locations in Detail
      8. Testing and Debugging Server-SideScript Files
      9. Designing Communication Applications
      10. Conclusion

2. Audio, Video, and Data Streams

   1. Chapter 5 Managing Streams

      1. A Simple Publisher/Subscriber Example
      2. Stream Names
      3. Publishing Streams in Detail
      4. Playing Streams in Detail
      5. The Stream Class
      6. Publishing and Playing ActionScript Data
      7. Creating Synchronized Presentations
      8. The NetStream and Stream Information Objects
      9. Stream Enhancements and Limitations
      10. Conclusion

   2. Chapter 6 Microphone and Camera

      1. Working with Microphone/Audio Input
      2. Working with Camera Input
      3. Building a Message-Taking Application
      4. Building a Surveillance Application
      5. Conclusion

   3. Chapter 7 Media Preparation and Delivery

      1. Audio and Video Compression
      2. Converting Prerecorded Materialto FLV Format
      3. Using Flash Pro's Media Components
      4. Enabling Multiple Bit Rate FLVsWithin an Application
      5. Streaming MP3 Audio
      6. Conclusion

3. Remote Connectivity and Communication

   1. Chapter 8 Shared Objects

      1. Objects and Shared Objects
      2. Getting a Shared Object in Flash
      3. Updates and Frame Rates
      4. Scripting Shared Objects on the Server
      5. Temporary and Persistent Shared Objects
      6. Proxied Shared Objects
      7. Shared Objects and Custom Classes
      8. Avoiding Collisions
      9. Optimizing Shared Object Performance
      10. Broadcasting Remote Method Callswith send( )
      11. A Simple Video and Text Chat Application
      12. Conclusion

   2. Chapter 9 Remote Methods

      1. Why Use Calls?
      2. The send( ) and call( ) Methods
      3. Client-to-Server Calls
      4. Server-to-Client Calls
      5. Server-to-Server Calls
      6. A Simple Lobby/Rooms Application
      7. Debugging Calls
      8. Advanced Topics
      9. Conclusion

   3. Chapter 10 Server Management API

      1. Connecting to the Admin Service
      2. Using the Server Management API
      3. Server Management API Uses
      4. Conclusion

   4. Chapter 11 Flash Remoting

      1. The Remoting Gateway
      2. Remoting Basics
      3. Role of Remoting in FlashCom Applications
      4. Securing Access
      5. Conclusion

   5. Chapter 12 ColdFusion MX and FlashCom

      1. Understanding ColdFusion MXand Flash Remoting
      2. Using Flash Remoting to Log Events
      3. Getting a List of Streams
      4. Using ColdFusion and FTP to Mirror Streams
      5. Conclusion

4. Design and Deployment

   1. Chapter 13 Building Communication Components

      1. Source Files
      2. People Lists
      3. A Simple People List
      4. Listenable Shared Objects
      5. Status and People List
      6. Text Chat
      7. Shared Text
      8. Video Conference and Video Window
      9. PeopleGrid
      10. Summary
      11. Conclusion

   2. Chapter 14 Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework

      1. The Component Framework
      2. Under the Hood of the Chat Component
      3. Creating a Simple Component from Scratch: SharedTextInput
      4. Creating a Container Component: SharedAddressForm
      5. Creating an Authenticating Component
      6. Integrating Components with Your Existing Applications
      7. Understanding the Framework
      8. Conclusion

   3. Chapter 15 Application Design Patterns and Best Practices

      1. Shared Object Management
      2. Moving Code to the Server
      3. Building Façades on the Server
      4. Server-Side Client Queues
      5. A Framework for Recording and Playing Back Componentized Applications
      6. Components and Component Frameworks
      7. Conclusion

   4. Chapter 16 Building Scalable Applications

      1. Coordinating Instances
      2. Scalability and Load Balancing
      3. Conclusion

   5. Chapter 17 Network Performance, Latency,and Concurrency

      1. Latency
      2. Bandwidth
      3. Concurrency
      4. Conclusion

   6. Chapter 18 Securing Applications

      1. The Three A's: Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
      2. Authentication
      3. Authorization
      4. Accounting
      5. Suggestions and References
      6. Conclusion

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Programming Flash Communication Server is the brown bear (Ursus arctos). The range of the brown bear is the widest among all species of bears. They are found in localized populations in Eastern and Western Europe,across Northern Asia, and in Japan. In North America, brown bears are found in Western Canada as well as Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Although once abundant on the central plains of the United States, they have since been exterminated.

The brown bear is usually dark brown in color but can vary from a light cream color to almost black. If the tips of the guard hairs are white, they give the bear a grizzled appearance, hence the name grizzly bear, applied to the smaller of the two North American subspecies. Brown bears are distinguished by the characteristic muscle hump over their shoulders, which gives their front legs extra strength. Fully grown brown bears can weigh anywhere between 300 and 1,400 pounds, with males being characteristically larger than females. Even at this size, the brown bear can reach speeds of about 35 miles per hour for short intervals.

Brown bears live alone, except when females are accompanied by their cubs. During the fall they eat up to 90 pounds of food a day, including a diet of grasses, fruits, bulbs and roots, insects, fish, and small animals, to fatten up for the four to seven months of winter hibernation. The bear's normal heart rate of about 40 beats a minute drops during hibernation to as low as 8 beats a minute. Although brown bears can be awakened easily during their long sleep, the female bear doesn't wake up when her two cubs are born midwinter. The chipmunk-size bears crawl into a position where they settle in to nurse until spring. By the time the mother bear wakes up, her cubs are strong enough to follow her out of the den. Adam Witwer was the production editor, and Norma Emory was the copyeditor for Programming Flash Communication Server. Sada Preisch proofread the text. Sanders Kleinfeld and Emily Quill provided quality control. Julie Hawks wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Joe Wizda to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, Jessamyn Read, and Lesley Borash using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Lydia Onofrei.