----- Original Message ----- From: "Weldon MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 2:34 PM Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Backend compiled Java or scripted PHP?
> > < Muzak Flash/Flex + Coldfusion + Flash/Flex Remoting.> > I've seen the big increase in traffic on all things Coldfusion, but I seemed > to have missed the reason why (been under a rock). I usually try to avoid > proprietory stuff when I can and have always ignored Coldfusion for it's > limited hosting etc... I'll have to research what all the recent traffic is > about and if there's a need to revise this opinion. > Flex 2 may have something to do with the traffic increase as well as CF 8 being close to release and the fact that before there was Flex 2, Coldfusion MX could already generate Flex 1.5 swf's on the fly. So I guess alot of CF developers jumped on the Flex 2 bandwagon. A well known example of CF Flash Forms: http://www.asfusion.com/projects/mxna-reader/ http://www.asfusion.com/mxna/ As for hosting, I never had any problems finding decent CF hosting and there's plenty of mailing lists/forums to ask for advice: http://www.houseoffusion.com/ I'm a freelancer but often work in tandem with a designer shop who runs their own dedicated server, which has CF ;-) > > - the dividing line seems to be scale. (How big is the project, how much > traffic will it generate, how computationally expensive and or complex). > There are many situations that don't affect the scalability or > maintainability of a site, scripting is too useful a tool not to have > available. That being said, while more complex things can and are built with > PHP, there's a point at which the advantages of Java overcome it's > disadvantages (taming tomcat, longer development times, etc...). The big > question is where do you draw the line? > With CF this is a question I never had to ask. It can handle both small and large applications well and if there's something that can't be done in CF (like image manipulation) there's always Java to fall back to (CF 8 has image manipulation by the way - finally). Some stuff I like about CF: - Flash/Flex remoting built-in (99% of what I do uses remoting) - CFC's (Coldfusion components --> think Java classes): http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/cfcs.html - Generating reports: http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/reporting/ - Generating pdf and flashpaper documents: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/printing_print.html CFC's can be used (invoked) through Flash/Flex Remoting and can be used as WebServices without any modification. CF 8 will have LCDS (LiveCycle DataServices) built in as well as a new FMS event gateway (Flash Media Server). http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/dataservices/ LCDS allows for data push. As for remoting, there're a few alternatives out there: PHP -> AMFPHP: http://www.amfphp.org/ - http://www.5etdemi.com/blog/ A few problems here, with amfphp.. It's always slightly behind the latests Adobe comes up with, but I guess you can say that for all the remoting alternatives. For instance, when Flex 2 was released, there was an update for CF, introducing an new remoting gateway (AMF3). I took a while for amfphp and others to catch up, and AMFPHP is actually still in beta, no official version yet that supports AMF3, AFAIK. Furthermore, Patrick is retiring from the Flash world (http://www.5etdemi.com/blog/archives/2007/04/im-retiring/), meaning, so there may never be a full flex AMFPHP version, unless someone else picks up the project. Another problem that occured recently - and this is more a PHP problem - is that PHP 5.2.2 broke the use of AMFPHP http://www.5etdemi.com/blog/archives/2007/05/amfphp-fix-for-php-522-compatibility-issue/ PHP -> OpenAMF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openamf/ No idea about its current status. The latest release is from 2006. PHP -> SabreAMF: http://osflash.org/sabreamf No idea about its current status. Requires PHP5. PHP -> WebOrb: http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/php/ Does both Flash and Flex remoting. Requires PHP5. .NET -> WebOrb: http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/dotnet/ Java -> WebOrb: http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/ Java - Flex Data Services (now LCDS) -> Granite Data Services: http://www.graniteds.org/confluence/display/INTRO/Granite+Data+Services+Overview regards, Muzak _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
