Programming Flash Communication Server

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Chapter 2: Communication Components

named common, you can play a file named recording.flv located there by specify-

ing

common/recording.

Buffer Time

This parameter, corresponding to the

bufferTime property, controls how much

of the stream will be buffered, in seconds, before playback begins. The default

value is 2 seconds. While longer times will add to the wait time users experience

before playback begins, overall playback performance may be improved because

there is less chance of video pausing due to network congestion.

Component process overview

When a VideoPlayback instance is initialized in a Flash movie and its connect( )

method is invoked by a SimpleConnect instance or a custom NetConnection object

that you have created, the VideoPlayback instance creates a new instance of FCPlay-

StreamClass, a class that is defined in the FCPlayStream_Class symbol (linkage ID

FCPlayStreamSymbol) of the component. This class inherits from the NetStream

class and augments its functionality by creating methods and properties that allow

streams to work smoothly with the control bar interface of the VideoPlayback com-

ponent.

VideoRecord

The VideoRecord component can publish and record an audio/video stream from a

Flash movie to a FlashCom application. The UI of the VideoRecord component,

shown in Figure 2-17, is similar to that of the VideoPlayback component. When the

component instance loads, the output from your local camera source is automati-

cally displayed in the video window. The leftmost button in the control interface is a

record start/stop toggle. The button to its right is a play/stop toggle, which allows

you to review your recorded stream. To its right is a buffering status display. While a

user records a stream, the buffering area is empty. When a user previews his stream,

the buffering area displays a progress bar indicating how much of the stream’s buffer

has been filled. A record/playback status indicator is shown to the right of the buffer-

ing display. When a stream is recording, the status indicator is a blinking red dot.

When a stream is being reviewed, the status indicator is a blinking blue dot.

You can use the VideoPlayback component in tandem with the VideoRecord compo-

nent. The VideoPlayback component offers more playback control of the recorded

stream than the play/stop button in the VideoRecord component. After you have

recorded a stream with the VideoRecord component, you can use an instance of the

VideoPlayback component to play the recorded stream.

Nested Flash UI components

The VideoRecord component does not use any nested Flash UI components. You

can find the skin symbols for the component in the Communication Components

➝

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Summary of Communication Components

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Core Assets - Developer Only ➝ VideoRecord Assets folder of your document’s

Library.

Client-side component parameters

The VideoRecord component has six settings in the Properties panel or Component

Parameters panel:

Default Stream Name

This parameter, corresponding to the

streamName property, specifies the name of

the stream that is recorded to the FlashCom application. You can use the same

conventions described earlier for the VideoPlayback component’s Default

Stream Name parameter.

Default Settings

This parameter controls which quality setting is applied to the Camera and

Microphone objects during recording. The quality setting properties are dis-

cussed later in this list. The default value is

setHigh, which is a reference to the

object specified by the High Quality Settings parameter. You can create your

own custom quality object and use it as the value of the

defaultSetting prop-

erty of a VideoRecord instance. Alternatively, you can pass this custom object to

VideoRecord.adjustSettings( ).

Buffer Time

This parameter, corresponding to the

bufferTime property, establishes the

amount of time, in seconds, that both the recording stream and the replay

stream use for buffering. The default is 10.

Low Quality Settings, Medium Quality Settings, and High Quality Settings

These parameters are used to adjust the quality of the Camera and Microphone

objects’ output to the recording stream. These settings control the default values

Figure 2-17. The runtime look of the VideoRecord component