Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 28. Flash Remoting

When Macromedia and Allaire merged back in 2001, hopes were high that great things would come out of the merger. After all, Macromedia had great client-side technologies and tools such as Flash and Dreamweaver, and Allaire had world-class server products such as ColdFusion and JRun. Little did anyone anticipate just how innovative the product marriage would be.

In late 2002, Macromedia launched a completely redesigned product suite, branded with the now famous MX moniker. Included in this launch was a new concept known as a Rich Internet Application (RIA). RIAs use the Flash 6 player and Flash MX on the client side, combined with the Flash Remoting gateway coupled with an application server such as ColdFusion MX, Java, ASP, or PHP, to create an entirely new class of applications. Because an RIA makes use of Flash MX on the front end, user interface options aren’t limited to the confines of HTML. Further, the Flash MX player enjoys a much larger installed base than the JVMs necessary to run comparable Java applets, making it available to the majority of users out there on the Internet.

While we don’t have enough room in this chapter to cover programming Flash MX in any detail, we can explore the various components of Flash Remoting as they relate to ColdFusion. Topics include a general overview of Flash MX, placing Flash movies in your ColdFusion pages, and passing data between a Flash movie and ColdFusion MX via Flash Remoting. Throughout the chapter, ...