MACROMEDIA FLASH MEDIA SERVER 2-DEVELOPING MEDIA User manual

Developing Media Applications

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ColdFusion, Contribute, Database Explorer, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, FlashCast, FlashHelp, Flash Lite,

FlashPaper, Flash Video Encoder, Flex, Flex Builder, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JRun, MacRecorder,

Macromedia, MXML, RoboEngine, RoboHelp, RoboInfo, RoboPDF, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, SoundEdit,

Studio MX, UltraDev, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in

the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases

mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and

may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally.

Third-Party Information

This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not

responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your

own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia

endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.

Jabber is a registered trademark of the Jabber Software Foundation.

Sorenson™ Spark™ video compression and decompression technology licensed from

Sorenson Media, Inc.

translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without written approval from

Macromedia, Inc. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which

this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole

purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be

printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation,

commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services.

Acknowledgments

Project Management: Suzanne Smith

Writing: John Norton, Suzanne Smith

Editing: Evelyn Eldridge, Mary Ferguson, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla

Production Management: Adam Barnett

Media Design and Production: Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman, John Francis, Mario Reynoso

First Edition: October 2005

Macromedia, Inc.

601 Townsend St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

Contents

About This Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Intended audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

About the Flash Media Server documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Support for learning about Flash Media Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Chapter 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Installation and system requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Setting up the hardware and software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Creating a development environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Preview of Development Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Deploying applications and application instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Storing server-side and client-side files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Storing your application’s server-side script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

About application instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

File types used by Flash Media Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Connecting to the server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Starting the service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Opening a connection to the server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 2: Flash Media Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Understanding the Flash Media Server architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

About streams and shared objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

About connecting to external data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Workflow for creating and deploying applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Understanding application flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Understanding connection flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Invoking remote methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Understanding shared object flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 3: Using Media Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About Flash Media Server classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About Client-side classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About Server-side classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

About client-server communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Understanding shared objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

About the Application class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using the application.onConnect handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Using the application.onDisconnect handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Handling events in a component-based application. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

The Camera class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Turning the camera off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Suggested settings for different bandwidth speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Using one camera in multiple applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The Client class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The Microphone class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Avoiding audio feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Keeping the microphone on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

The NetConnection class (client-side) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The NetStream class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using multiple data types in a stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Getting the stream time length with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

About buffering a stream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

About the play status of a stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The SharedObject class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

About synchronizing shared objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Using shared object slots effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Flushing remote shared objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Avoiding shared object synchronization problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Stream class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The System class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

About the Video class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

About creating Video objects dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Understanding frame rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter 4: Working With Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Working with video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

About creating live web events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Customizing stream delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Working with MP3 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Chapter 5: Debugging and Monitoring Applications . . . . . . . . . 65

Using the management console to debug and monitor application . 65

Connecting the management console to a server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

About the View Applications panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

About the Live Log panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

About the Clients panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

About the Shared Objects panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

About the Streams panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

About the Performance panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Using a debug connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

About onStatus event handlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Where to use onStatus handlers in a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

About overriding the onStatus handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

About the System.onStatus handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

About debugging a NetConnection.Connect.Failed message. . . . . . .78

Tracing the properties of an object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Chapter 6: Application Development Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . 81

About file types and paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

About shared object files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Portability across servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Client-server script interdependence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Using multiple script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Archiving and compiling server-side script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Compiling scripts to bytecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Forcing the Player Settings panel to appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Managing bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Writing double-byte applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

About unloading and reloading applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Implementing dynamic access control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Developing secure applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Protecting scripts from third-party code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Simple-system call example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Synchronous system calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Asynchronous system calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Coding conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Following naming guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Naming variables to support code hinting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Commenting your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Initializing applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Using var for local variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

About This Manual

Welcome to Macromedia Flash Media Server 2—a powerful server platform for creating rich

media applications in Macromedia Flash and for streaming audio and video to Flash clients.

Flash Media Server (FMS) can enable two or more people to participate in a real-time

conversation using text, audio, or video. For example, you can use FMS for meetings, online

community interaction, customer support, sales support, or training. FMS is an excellent way

to power video messaging, video chat, or video blogging. FMS is also a platform for streaming

live data and compelling Flash video experiences across networks for delivery to the Internet.

FMS is part of the Macromedia complete solution for database connectivity, directory

systems, and presence services, and is the only server that can deliver audio and video to the

popular Flash Player.

Intended audience

This manual shows you, the Flash developer, the steps involved in setting up a development

environment and creating Flash Media Server applications, including debugging and testing

applications.

You should already be familiar with Flash authoring, ActionScript, and Flash Player. It is very

helpful to be familiar with JavaScript (because it forms the basis of server-side ActionScript),

client-server models, and networking concepts.

The Flash Media Server documentation assumes that you already have Macromedia Flash

installed and know how to use it.

8AboutThisManual

About the Flash Media Server

documentation

The Flash Media Server documentation is designed to be used with the Flash documentation,

namely Using Flash and the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference Guide.

All Flash Media Server documents are available in PDF format (viewable and printable with

Adobe Acrobat Reader) on the Flash Media Server CD and on the Macromedia web site and

as Flash Help in the Macromedia Flash application (select Help > Flash Help). Flash Media

Server documentation is also available in LiveDoc format on the Macromedia web site.

■Installing Flash Media Server describes how to install the server and the Flash authoring

extensions. It also lists the files that are installed during the installation process.

■Getting Started with Flash Media Server presents a short overview of Flash Media Server

and the new features in version 2. Also included are system requirements and installation

instructions.

You can find a printed version of this manual in the Flash Media Server CD case.

■This manual, Developing Media Applications, explains how to set up your development

environment, and how to use the Flash authoring environment and the Flash Media

Server application programming interface (API) to create media applications.

■Managing Flash Media Server explains the details of configuring and maintaining the

server and using the Administration Console.

■The Client-Side ActionScript Language Reference for Flash Media Server 2 documents the

ActionScript you can use to create client-side functionality.

■The Server-Side ActionScript Language Reference documents the ActionScript you can use

to create server-side functionality.

■The Server Management ActionScript Language Reference documents advanced

ActionScript methods that you can use to extend the management console or to make

your own administration and monitoring tools.

Typographical conventions 9

Support for learning about Flash Media Server

You may want to explore these other sources of support for learning about Flash Media Server:

■The Flash Media Server Support Center provides TechNotes and up-to-date information

about Flash Media Server.

■The Flash Media Server Developer Center site provides tips and samples for creating Flash

Media Server applications.

■The Flash Media Server Online Forum provides a place for you to chat with other Flash

Media Server users.

■For late-breaking information and a complete list of issues that are still outstanding, read

the Flash Media Server release notes.

Macromedia recommends several websites with links to third-party resources on Flash Media

Server, including the following:

■Macromedia Flash community sites

■Macromedia Flash books

■Object-oriented programming concepts

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:

■Code font indicates ActionScript statements and literal text used in examples.

■Code font italic indicates placeholder elements in code. For example,

attachAudio(source)means that you should specify your own value for the source

parameter.

■Italic indicates placeholder elements in paths. For example, /settings/myPrinter/ means

that you should specify your own location for myPrinter.

■Directory paths are written with forward slashes (/). If you are running Flash Media Server

on a Microsoft Windows operating system, replace the forward slashes with backslashes.

When a path is specific to the Microsoft Windows operating system, backslashes (\) are

used.

10 About This Manual

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