Hi Everyone,
I'm updating a Point of Sale system that was built with Flex and AIR
using the Cairngorm framework.
The code integrates with a custom server provided by my client's
payment processor vendor. Part of their requirement is that parameters
be form posted to their server in a specific order. The Apache Flex
framework does not appear to retain the parameter order of the object's
parameters. Has anyone run into this before?
More specifics, with code:
1) Service object set up in the Cairngorm Services.mxml:
<mx:HTTPService id="service"
showBusyCursor="false"
requestTimeout="240"
method="post"
contentType="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
url="http://localhost.:16448/"; resultFormat="e4x"
/>
2) Create Parameter object and call service method; this is done in a
Cairngorm Delegate:
var parameters : Object = new Object();
parameters.firstParameter = "firstOne";
parameters .amount = 100;
parameters .otherParameters = "Other Random Misc Data";
parameters.lastParameter = "LastOne";
Then make the call:
var call : Object = this.service.send(parameters);
call.addResponder( this.responder );
3) Flex Framework class mx.rpc.httpAbstractOperation, starting around
line 862. This appears to loop over properties using
classinfo.properties . This seems to get an alphabetical list of
properties from my object and add them to the paramsToSend object:
else if (ctype == CONTENT_TYPE_FORM)
{
paramsToSend = {};
var val:Object;
if (typeof(parameters) == "object")
{
//get all dynamic and all concrete properties from the
parameters object
var classinfo:Object = ObjectUtil.getClassInfo(parameters);
for each (var p:* in classinfo.properties)
{
val = parameters[p];
if (val != null)
{
if (val is Array)
paramsToSend[p] = val;
else
paramsToSend[p] = val.toString();
}
}
}
else
{
paramsToSend = parameters;
}
}
4) Looking at the raw data in the Flash Builder Network Monitor; the
final request doesn't have the parameters in alphabetical order.
otherParameters=Other%20Random%20Misc%20Data&lastParameter=LastOne&firstParameter=firstOne&amount=100
With this small sample it appears that the parameters are in reverse
alphabetical order, but with the actual request data they are in a
seemingly random--but always consistent--order.
-------
Thanks for reading this far. My first attempt at a solution was to
create the POST parameter string manually and use that as the parameter
object. However in that case the body of the POST request was blank
when reviewing it in the service monitor.
So, has anyone run into this before? What was your solution?
--
Jeffry Houser
Technical Entrepreneur
http://www.dot-com-it.com
http://www.jeffryhouser.com
203-379-0773
