The Project and Approach

In this project, a remote shared object on a Flash Communication Server contains data that changes frequently. It is imperative that the client immediately receive this data without any need to refresh.

In our approach, we connect to FCS server, attach to the remote shared object, and display the data in a Flex DataGrid control. Then, using FCS and Flex, we push changes to the client with Flex data-binding capabilities, so that the DataGrid displays updated data as changes occur.

The Project Scope

You can accomplish 95% of this project solely through MXML constructs, without ever writing a line of ActionScript; however, there are a few issues to understand.

1. Flex has components available for WebService and RemoteObject connections that you can easily access through MXML. Our team wanted to offer this same feature for FCS connections and gain some event listener and broadcasting capabilities.
2. The SharedObject class is static, and therefore it is not used from within MXML in the same way as familiar Flex components. Our team thought that a wrapper for this class that interacted with FCS and provided the user with viable events would be a useful.

If the above points are a bit foreign right now, that is okay. They will become clearer in the course of this and other articles; also, using the following components, you can still work with FCS.

Please take a moment and review FCSService and SharedRemote class documentation, available from the fcs_flex_sample.zip that you downloaded at the beginning of this article.

• FCSService documentation (fcsservice_class_readme.html)
• SharedRemote documentation (sharedremote_class_readme.html)
• Examples of using the two classes together (two_classes_example.html)
• FCSService.as
• SharedRemote.as

Now read on to assemble the application.

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