Section 9.9. Conclusion

9.9. Conclusion

We've covered a tremendous amount in the short span of this chapter. We've seen ways that FlashCom can invoke methods remotely (from client to server or server to client). Furthermore, we've seen how to broadcast method calls to every movie and application instance connected to a shared object or stream, or send them to and from individual movies. We've even seen how an application instance can create proxies of methods belonging to another application instance.

After reading this chapter, you should understand the different RMI methods. With practice or the advice of colleagues, you'll get better at deciding which approach to use for your given situation. We covered a lot of practical examples such as requesting specific information from the server or a client. We also studied the framework of a Lobby/Rooms application to give you both theoretical understanding and a working knowledge of this complex topic. Toward the end of the chapter, we covered monitoring, debugging, and optimization techniques, because RMI calls can be significantly slower than local code execution.

In the next three chapters, we'll use remote method invocation extensively. Chapter 11 covers the powerful Server Management API, which allows a Flash client to perform administrative functions remotely. Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 use Flash Remoting and ColdFusion to extend the power of FlashCom with access to remote scripts and databases.