Exactly What Is Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX?

Flash Communication Server MX is an enterprise-grade server technology that facilitates connections between the Flash 6 players, .NET, and J2EE application servers and other Flash Communication Servers. The 1.0 release of the server is supported on the Windows platform only.

An application that uses the resources of a communication server is called a Flash Communication Application. Flash Communication Applications can be distributed over a local network or across the Internet using a traditional web server on any server platform (Mac, Unix, Windows). Applications are executed within Flash Player 6, independently, or embedded with a web browser that supports the Flash Player 6 plug-in.

How Does the Flash Communication Server Work?

The Flash Communication Server is a hub. Flash players connect to the hub using Macromedia's bidirectional communication protocol called Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). As the hub, the Flash Communication Server can easily connect to other communication servers (hubs) to increase user and bandwidth capacity. The Flash Communication Server can also connect to J2EE, web services, and ASP.NET application servers to extend applications with database connectivity and other server resources, such as an email or LDAP server.

The connection between client and server or server and server supports multiple one-way streams published or received by a client or the server. The Flash Communication Server has a powerful programming model called SharedObjects. SharedObjects synchronize complex data and send one-way messages between clients connected to the server.

Regular ActionScript objects are transported across network connections using the Action Message Format (AMF). This format is used over a non-persistent HTTP or secure HTTPS connection when exchanging data with application servers. The format is also used over the persistent RTMP when exchanging data between client and server. AMF is a binary format that is handled transparently by the server and Flash Player 6.