Chapter 9. Flash Remoting

You know you are in trouble when the first paragraph of Macromedia's Flash Remoting manual describes Flash Remoting this way:

"Flash Remoting MX is an application gateway that provides a network communications channel between Flash applications and remote services. Remote services consist of application server technologies, such as JavaBean, Macromedia ColdFusion Component or page, ASP.NET page or web service. Service functions represent a reference to a specific remote service from ActionScript in a Flash movie." Say what?

This is precisely why many average developers approach Flash Remoting with a high degree of trepidation. It sounds interesting, but it is also so "techie." In reality, it isn't all that mysterious . Essentially, the technology gives you the ability to flow data into your Flash movie by using ColdFusion MX to pull the content from a database and place it in position in your Flash MX 2004 movie.

We are going to attempt to demystify the process for you by walking you through the technologies and the requirements for Flash Remoting. Then we are actually going to build a Flash Remoting application using ColdFusion MX.

Let's dig in.