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Flex Article

 

Exchanging Complex Data with Back-End Systems


Christophe Coenraets

Christophe Coenraets

Adobe

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Using HTTPService
  3. Using RemoteObject
  4. Using WebService
Comments
Created:
26 October 2004
User Level:
Intermediate

Retrieving server data in a Macromedia Flex application is generally easy and demonstrated in many sample applications. Sending complex data back to the server can be slightly more involved, however.

Depending on your role, and on the structure of your development team, you may have the luxury to choose—or at least influence—the architecture used to exchange data between the client and the server: web services, XML over HTTP, or remote method invocation.

In a service-oriented architecture, however, it is also likely that your application will have to access services that you didn't build and over which you have no control. In that case, you have to use the data exchange architecture implemented by the service provider.

This article takes a close look at different strategies to send complex data to the server using the three data services available in Flex to accommodate the heterogeneous data access requirements of your application: HTTPService, RemoteObject, and WebService.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software and files:

Macromedia Flex

Macromedia Flash Player

A text editor or Macromedia Flex Builder

Tutorials and sample files:

Prerequisite knowledge:

Basic experience with the Flex programming model and application framework.

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About the author

Christophe Coenraets worked at Powersoft—which then became part of Sybase—from 1994 to 2000. He started working with Java in 1996 and became the technical evangelist for the company's Java and Internet Application Division. Christophe then joined Macromedia as the technical evangelist for JRun, the company's J2EE application server. In this position, Christophe started working on rich Internet applications (RIAs) and on ways of integrating Flash front ends with J2EE back ends. Christophe is currently Senior Evangelist for the new developer-centric RIA initiative at Adobe. Christophe has been a regular speaker at conferences worldwide for the last 10 years.