I can give my $0.02 on these as I've experimented with each. They may not be absolute pros / cons that an Adobe salesperson would provide but for what they're worth:
-You need FDS over HTTP or Web when the security of the URL is important. Without FDS (or WebOrb or equivelent layer of server-side technology) the URL of the service is exposed in the .swf to being decompiled. -There are limitations on the way Adobe has done their implementation of Web Services. Everything I tried, googled and talked to indicated that their implementation does not support ws-sec, there may be other issues if you're doing anything of a very complex nature. -Java and Flex / FDS play the nicest together, especially with the Flex plugin to eclipse. If you already have your java classes setup from a previous project, you can leverage that code to tie a new Flex UI on the front. -WebOrb is, amongst other things, an equivelent of FDS but allows .Net integration. It also handles PHP (previous version was called PHPOrb). I haven't played with it specifically but a lot of the writings on the web indicate it's pretty good. -I chose to go with AMFPHP as the integration for PHP on the backend with my current project. AMFPHP is VERY lightweight and if you've used it for Flash remoting before the learning curve is a lot lower than any of the other technologies. The good thing about how Adobe's pushed their tech out there is that you don't have to spend $$$$ to experiment with each of the various technologies you're looking at. You could prototype with multiple and then make your decision for what best suites your landscape. It's only when you get into load-balanced, multi-server solutions that the costs come into play. But I hear what you're asking from an 'upfront / eyes open' point of view. Short answer - it depends :P --- In [email protected], "jeofmoyster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm looking for any information on why FDS is better than HTTPService > or WebService. Or better phrased, WHEN would one prefer FDS over the > other two for reasons other than publish/subscription? > > I'm working on determining the best way to go with an architecture. I > can tie Flex applications to Java, .NET or PHP API's for our back-end > systems, but I'm wondering whether to go with a home-grown > approach/WebORB vs. FDS? Does serving Flex apps from the FDS server > reduce bandwidth or make for more efficient delivery? Is polling > really terribly detrimental compared to data pushing? Is FDS amazingly > faster, better, stronger than going with a free option. How much can > an FDS server take before we need to build out the architecture? > > Basically I need to have a good list of WHY we should use Flex Data > Services before I start dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on > the architecture. > > thanks, > /j >
