MACROMEDIA FLASH COMMUNICATION SERVER MX-SERVER-SIDE COMMUNICATION ACTIONSCRIPT... User manual

macromedia
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Server-Side Communication
ActionScript Dictionary
Macromedia Flash™Communication Server MX

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Acknowledgments
Director: Erick Vera
Producer: JuLee Burdekin
Writing: Jay Armstrong, Jody Bleyle, JuLee Burdekin, Barbara Herbert, and Barbara Nelson
Editing: Anne Szabla
Multimedia Design and Production: Aaron Begley, Benjamin Salles
Print Design, Production, and Illustrations: Chris Basmajian
First Edition: May 2002
Macromedia, Inc.
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

3
CONTENTS
Server-Side Communication ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using server-side ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Contents of the dictionary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Application (object). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Application.acceptConnection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Application.clearSharedObjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Application.clearStreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Application.clients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Application.disconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Application.name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Application.onAppStart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Application.onAppStop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Application.onConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Application.onDisconnect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Application.onStatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Application.registerClass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Application.registerProxy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Application.rejectConnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Application.server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
clearInterval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Client (object). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Client.agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Client.call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Client."commandName". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Client.getBandwidthLimit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Client.ip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Client.readAccess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Client.referrer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Client.__resolve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Client.setBandwidthLimit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Client.writeAccess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
load. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
NetConnection (object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
NetConnection.addHeader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
NetConnection.call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
NetConnection.close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
NetConnection.connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Contents4
NetConnection.isConnected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
NetConnection.onStatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
NetConnection.uri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
setInterval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
SharedObject (object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
SharedObject.clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
SharedObject.close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
SharedObject.flush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
SharedObject.get. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
SharedObject.getProperty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
SharedObject.getPropertyNames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SharedObject.handlerName. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SharedObject.lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
SharedObject.name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
SharedObject.onStatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
SharedObject.onSync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
SharedObject.purge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
SharedObject.resyncDepth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
SharedObject.send. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
SharedObject.setProperty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
SharedObject.size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SharedObject.unlock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SharedObject.version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Stream (object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Stream.bufferTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Stream.clear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Stream.get . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Stream.length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Stream.name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Stream.onStatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Stream.play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Stream.record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Stream.send. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Stream.setBufferTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
APPENDIX
Server-Side Information Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Server-Side Communication ActionScript 5
Server-Side Communication ActionScript
Server-Side Communication ActionScript is a scripting language on the server that lets you
develop efficient and flexible client-server Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX
applications. For example, you can use server-side ActionScript to control login procedures,
control events in connected Flash movies, determine what users see in their Flash movies, and
communicate with other servers. You can also use server-side scripting to allow and disallow users
access to various server-side application resources and to allow users to update and share
information.
Server-side ActionScript is based on the ECMA-262 specification (ECMAScript 1.5) derived
from JavaScript and lets you access the core JavaScript server object model. (For more
information, see the Netscape DevEdge website at http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/
index.html?content=ssjs.html.) Server-side ActionScript provides global methods and objects and
exposes a rich object model for developing communication applications. You can also create your
own objects, properties, and methods. This dictionary provides detailed information about the
objects and their properties, methods, and events.
Client-Side Communication ActionScript is based on the ECMA-262 specification, but there are
some differences in its implementation. Server-side ActionScript, however, does not deviate from
the ECMA-262 specification. To learn how client-side ActionScript and server-side ActionScript
differ, see “Differences between ActionScript and JavaScript” in Using Flash Help. For
information about the relationship between server-side ActionScript and client-side ActionScript,
see Developing Communication Applications.
Using server-side ActionScript
To use server-side ActionScript with a Flash Communication Server application, you write the
code, copy the script into the appropriate server directory, and run the SWF file that connects to
the server. To understand Flash Communication Server applications, see Developing
Communication Applications.
Create the server-side ActionScript file and name it main.asc. All ActionScript code that is
embedded in the script file and not inside a function body executes once when the application is
loaded but before the application.onAppStart event handler is called.
Note: Any double-byte characters (including characters of all Asian languages) in the server-side ActionScript file
must be UTF-8-encoded. For more information, see “Writing double-byte language applications” in the
“Application Development Tips and Tricks” chapter in Developing Communication Applications.

6
To install and test the server-side ActionScript file, do the following:
1Locate the flashcom application directory.
During installation, you can choose either a Developer Install or a Production Install of the
product. If you choose Developer Install, you can run the samples and test your applications
from the \flashcom\applications directory under the directory you specify. For convenience
during development, client-side application files (SWFs and HTMLs) are stored in the same
directory with your server-side application files (ASCs, FLVs, FLAs).
When you deploy applications, you’ll need to separate client files from your server-side source
files. While your SWF and HTML files should be accessible through a web server, your server-
side ASC files, your audio/video FLV files, and your ActionScript FLA source files should not
be accessible to a user browsing your Web site. You can either install the server again on your
production machine and choose Production Install, or you can change the configuration
settings in the administration XML files as described in the Managing Flash Communication
Server manual.
If you choose Production Install, you can specify both the location of your client-side
application files (SWFs and HTMLs) and the location of your server-side application files
(ASCs, FLVs, and FLAs). The server will look for your client-side files under
\flashcom\applications in the Web server’s root directory and will look for your server-side
application files under \applications under the directory you specify.If you did not accept the
default installation settings and you aren’t sure where the application directory is located, the
location is specified in the <AppsDir> tag of the Vhost.xml file, which is located at \Flash
Communication Server MX\conf\_defaultRoot_\_defaultVhost_\. For information about
configuring a different application directory, see Managing Flash Communication Server.
2Create a subdirectory in the server-side application directory called appName, where appName
is a name you choose as the filename of your Flash Communication Server application. You
must pass this name as a parameter to the NetConnection.connect method in the client-side
ActionScript.
3Place the main.asc file in the appName directory or in a subdirectory called scripts in the
appName directory.
4Open the Flash application (the SWF) in a browser or in the stand-alone Flash Player.
The SWF must contain ActionScript code that passes appName to the connect method of the
NetConnection object, as shown in the following example:
nc = new NetConnection();
nc.connect("rtmp://flashcomsvr.mydomain.com/myFlashComAppName");
Note: You can use the Communication App inspector or the Administration Console to check if the application
loaded successfully.
Using naming conventions
When you write server-side ActionScript code, there are certain naming conventions that you
must use to name your applications, methods, properties, and variables. These rules let you
logically identify objects so your code executes properly.

Server-Side Communication ActionScript 7
Naming applications
Flash Communication Server application names must follow the Uniform Resource Identifier
(URI) RFC 2396 convention (see http://www.w3.org/Addressing/). This convention supports a
hierarchical naming system where a forward slash (/) separates the elements in the hierarchy. The
first element specifies the application name. The element following the application name specifies
the application instance name. Each instance of the application has its own script environment.
Specifying instances
By specifying a unique application instance name after an application name, you can run multiple
instances of a single application. For example, rtmp:/support/session215 specifies a customer
support application named “support” and refers to a specific session of that application named
“session215”. All users who connect to the same instance name can communicate with each other
by referencing the same streams or shared objects.
Using JavaScript syntax
You must follow all syntax rules of JavaScript. For example, JavaScript is case-sensitive and does
not allow punctuation other than underscores (_) and dollar signs ($) in names. You can use
numbers in names, but names cannot begin with a number.
Avoiding reserved commands
Flash Communication Server has reserved commands that you cannot use in a script. These
commands are either that methods belong to the client-side NetConnection object or methods
that belong to the server-side Client object. This means that if you have a NetConnection object
on the client (player), you cannot make the following call:
nc.call( "reservedCmd", ... );
In this call, "reservedCmd" is any of the following commands: closeStream, connect,
createStream, deleteStream, onStatus, pause, play, publish, receiveAudio,
receiveVideo, or seek. It also cannot be any of the server-side Client object methods:
getBandwidthLimit, setBandwidthLimit, getStats, and ping.
Contents of the dictionary
All dictionary entries are listed alphabetically. However, methods, properties, and event handlers
that are associated with an object are listed along with the object’s name—for example, the name
property of the Application object is listed as Application.name. The following table helps you
locate these elements.
ActionScript element See entry
acceptConnection Application.acceptConnection
addHeader NetConnection.addHeader
agent Client.agent
application Application (object)
bufferTime Stream.bufferTime
call Client.call, NetConnection.call
clear SharedObject.clear, Stream.clear

8
clearInterval clearInterval
clearSharedObject Application.clearSharedObjects
clearStreams Application.clearStreams
Client Client (object)
clients Application.clients
close NetConnection.close, SharedObject.close
"commandName" Client."commandName"
connect NetConnection.connect
disconnect Application.disconnect
flush SharedObject.flush
get SharedObject.get, Stream.get
getBandwidthLimit Client.getBandwidthLimit
getProperty SharedObject.getProperty
getPropertyNames SharedObject.getPropertyNames
handlerName SharedObject.handlerName
ip Client.ip
isConnected NetConnection.isConnected
length Stream.length
load load
lock SharedObject.lock
name Application.name, SharedObject.name, Stream.name
NetConnection NetConnection (object)
onAppStart Application.onAppStart
onAppStop Application.onAppStop
onConnect Application.onConnect
onDisconnect Application.onDisconnect
onStatus Application.onStatus, NetConnection.onStatus,
SharedObject.onStatus, Stream.onStatus
onSync SharedObject.onSync
play Stream.play
purge SharedObject.purge
readAccess Client.readAccess
record Stream.record
referrer Client.referrer
registerClass Application.registerClass
registerProxy Application.registerProxy
rejectConnection Application.rejectConnection

Server-Side Communication ActionScript 9
Application (object)
The Application object contains information about a Flash Communication Server application
instance that lasts until the application instance is unloaded. A Flash Communication Server
application is a collection of stream objects, shared objects, and clients (connected users). Each
application has a unique name, and you can use the naming scheme described in “Using naming
conventions” on page 6 to create multiple instances of an application.
The Application object lets you accept and reject client connection attempts, register and
unregister classes and proxies, and create functions that are invoked when an application starts or
stops or when a client connects or disconnects.
Besides the built-in properties of the Application object, you can create other properties of any
legal ActionScript type, including references to other ActionScript objects. For example, the
following lines of code create a new property of type array and a new property of type number:
application.myarray = new Array();
application.num_requests = 1;
__resolve Client.__resolve
resyncDepth SharedObject.resyncDepth
send SharedObject.send, Stream.send
setBandwidthLimit Client.setBandwidthLimit
setBufferTime Stream.setBufferTime
setInterval setInterval
setProperty SharedObject.setProperty
SharedObject SharedObject (object)
size SharedObject.size
server Application.server
Stream Stream (object)
trace trace
unlock SharedObject.unlock
uri NetConnection.uri
version SharedObject.version
writeAccess Client.writeAccess

10
Method summary for the Application object
Property summary for the Application object
Event handler summary for the Application object
Application.acceptConnection
Availability
Flash Communication Server MX.
Usage
application.acceptConnection(clientObj)
Parameters
clientObj A client to accept.
Returns
Nothing.
Method Description
Application.acceptConnection Accepts a connection to an application from a client.
Application.clearSharedObjects Clears all shared objects associated with the current instance.
Application.clearStreams Clears all stream objects associated with the current instance.
Application.disconnect Disconnects a client from the server.
Application.registerClass Registers or unregisters a constructor that is called during object
deserialization.
Application.registerProxy Registers a NetConnection or Client object to fulfill a method request.
Application.rejectConnection Rejects a connection to an application.
Property (read-only) Description
Application.clients An object containing a list of all clients currently connected to the application.
Application.name The name of an application instance.
Application.server The platform and version of the server.
Event handler Description
Application.onAppStart Invoked when the application is loaded by the server.
Application.onAppStop Invoked when the application is unloaded by the server.
Application.onConnect Invoked when a client connects to the application.
Application.onDisconnect Invoked when a client disconnects from the application.
Application.onStatus Invoked when a script generates an error.