Programming Flash Communication Server

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Chapter 2: Communication Components

3. Create a new layer, and name it actions. Place this layer above the light_mc layer.

4. Select the first frame of the actions layer, and open the Actions panel (F9). Add

the following code:

app_nc = new NetConnection( );

app_nc.onStatus = function (info) {

trace("app_nc: info.code = " + info.code);

if (this.initLight == null) {

light_mc.connect(this);

this.initLight = true;

}

};

app_nc.connect("rtmp:/test_app");

Here, you create a new NetConnection object that invokes connect( ) on light_mc

when the onStatus( ) event handler is invoked. An internal property named

initLight is used to track whether the light_mc instance’s connect( ) method has

been invoked, as the onStatus( ) handler will likely execute more than once dur-

ing the session of the application. You may need to alter the RTMP URI to

include the full domain name of your FlashCom Server.

5. Save your Flash document and test it. When the Flash movie loads, you should

see the trace( ) message from the app_nc.onStatus( ) handler. If the connection

was successful, the

light_mc instance’s status color should turn green. If the con-

nection failed, the indicator will turn red.

You can continue to modify this example by adding more communication compo-

nents. As you add component instances, you can simplify the code of the onStatus( )

handler by creating an array to store object references to your component instances.

For example, the following code creates a

component_array object that connects three

communication components to the

app_nc connection:

app_nc.onStatus = function (info) {

trace("app_nc: info.code = " + info.code);

if (this.initComponents == null) {

var components_array = [light_mc, bandwidth_mc, av_1_mc];

for (var i in components_array) {

components_array[i].connect(this);

}

this.initComponents = true;

}

};

Conclusion

We’re in only the second chapter of the book, and you’ve already come a long way.

This chapter showed how the FlashCom communication components encapsulate

commonly needed features such as chat, video recording and playback, bandwidth

control, user configuration, and more. These components implement much of a

FlashCom application’s plumbing so you can create basic applications quickly and

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Conclusion

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then enhance them with additional features as needed. We already saw how to build

a simple chat room and add audio and video to it.

Now that you have a basic understanding of creating a simple FlashCom applica-

tion, we’ll explore the technical issues in more detail. In the next chapter, we cover

creating and managing connections. In subsequent chapters, you’ll master addi-

tional topics such as applications and instances, media and data streams, and the

Camera and Microphone classes. You’ve already seen a glimpse of FlashCom’s power

but the journey is just beginning.