A more efficient way might be to write a standalone socket server, in some easy scripting language (php, python, etc), which sits on your server and monitors the flat file. Since there is no network delay, it can check very often, once a second or even faster. It will accept conenctions from flash clients, and when it sees a change in the flat file, it can broadcast it to the connected clients.
On 1/5/07, Paul Andrews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi, I'm about to start a new project which will display the workings of a server based system that's manipulating data and passing it between servers. At each stage of the process a flat file is written that indicates a change in status/readiness of the data for the next stage in the process. My flash project will sit over the top of this indicating what's going on - driven by the flat file status changes. It's unlikely that I can really change the infrastructure at all - probably the best I'll be able to do will be to have the status files copied into a suitable form for the flash project to read. It's going to be interesting if I can't meddle with the infrastructure or get a file format compatible with loadvars or xml.. Since it's unlikely I can add much to the infrastructure, as far as I can tell the best approach is simply to poll for the presence of the status files regularly and read them to pick up any changes. I don't know if I'll be able to expose the files through a web service, or add a socket server. So my current thinking is to poll (read the status files if they are there), then sleep for an interval then poll again (this will be as real-time as I can manage). Effectively I'll be building an event-driven project that generates events to update the interface in reaction to the presence of the status files. Unfortunately, without a socket server I can't push the changes, nor can I reply on other solutions being installed on the server side (such as media server). As the status changes, I'll animate the flash interface to show what's going on on the servers. Anyone done this kind of thing before and have some sage advice/gotchas? Paul -- ipauland.com _______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
_______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com

