MACROMEDIA FLASH MEDIA SERVER 2-DEVELOPING MEDIA User manual

Developing Media Applications

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Third-Party Information
This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not
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Copyright © 2002-2005 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced,
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Macromedia, Inc. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which
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Acknowledgments
Project Management: Suzanne Smith
Writing: John Norton, Suzanne Smith
Editing: Evelyn Eldridge, Mary Ferguson, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla
Production Management: Adam Barnett
Media Design and Production: Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman, John Francis, Mario Reynoso
First Edition: October 2005
Macromedia, Inc.
601 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

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Contents
About This Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Intended audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About the Flash Media Server documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Support for learning about Flash Media Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Chapter 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Installation and system requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Setting up the hardware and software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Creating a development environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Preview of Development Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Deploying applications and application instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Storing server-side and client-side files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Storing your application’s server-side script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
About application instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
File types used by Flash Media Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Connecting to the server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Starting the service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Opening a connection to the server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 2: Flash Media Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Understanding the Flash Media Server architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About streams and shared objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
About connecting to external data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Workflow for creating and deploying applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Understanding application flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Understanding connection flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Invoking remote methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Understanding shared object flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Chapter 3: Using Media Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About Flash Media Server classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About Client-side classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About Server-side classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
About client-server communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Understanding shared objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
About the Application class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Using the application.onConnect handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using the application.onDisconnect handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Handling events in a component-based application. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Camera class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Turning the camera off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Suggested settings for different bandwidth speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Using one camera in multiple applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Client class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Microphone class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Avoiding audio feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Keeping the microphone on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The NetConnection class (client-side) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The NetStream class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using multiple data types in a stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Getting the stream time length with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
About buffering a stream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
About the play status of a stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The SharedObject class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
About synchronizing shared objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Using shared object slots effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Flushing remote shared objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Avoiding shared object synchronization problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Stream class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The System class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
About the Video class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
About creating Video objects dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Understanding frame rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 4: Working With Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Working with video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
About creating live web events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Customizing stream delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Working with MP3 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

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Chapter 5: Debugging and Monitoring Applications . . . . . . . . . 65
Using the management console to debug and monitor application . 65
Connecting the management console to a server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
About the View Applications panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
About the Live Log panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
About the Clients panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
About the Shared Objects panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
About the Streams panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
About the Performance panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Using a debug connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
About onStatus event handlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Where to use onStatus handlers in a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
About overriding the onStatus handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
About the System.onStatus handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
About debugging a NetConnection.Connect.Failed message. . . . . . .78
Tracing the properties of an object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Chapter 6: Application Development Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . 81
About file types and paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
About shared object files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Portability across servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Client-server script interdependence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using multiple script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Archiving and compiling server-side script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Compiling scripts to bytecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Forcing the Player Settings panel to appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Managing bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Writing double-byte applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
About unloading and reloading applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Implementing dynamic access control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Developing secure applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Protecting scripts from third-party code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Simple-system call example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Synchronous system calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Asynchronous system calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Coding conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Following naming guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Naming variables to support code hinting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Commenting your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Initializing applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Using var for local variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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About This Manual
Welcome to Macromedia Flash Media Server 2—a powerful server platform for creating rich
media applications in Macromedia Flash and for streaming audio and video to Flash clients.
Flash Media Server (FMS) can enable two or more people to participate in a real-time
conversation using text, audio, or video. For example, you can use FMS for meetings, online
community interaction, customer support, sales support, or training. FMS is an excellent way
to power video messaging, video chat, or video blogging. FMS is also a platform for streaming
live data and compelling Flash video experiences across networks for delivery to the Internet.
FMS is part of the Macromedia complete solution for database connectivity, directory
systems, and presence services, and is the only server that can deliver audio and video to the
popular Flash Player.
Intended audience
This manual shows you, the Flash developer, the steps involved in setting up a development
environment and creating Flash Media Server applications, including debugging and testing
applications.
You should already be familiar with Flash authoring, ActionScript, and Flash Player. It is very
helpful to be familiar with JavaScript (because it forms the basis of server-side ActionScript),
client-server models, and networking concepts.
The Flash Media Server documentation assumes that you already have Macromedia Flash
installed and know how to use it.

8AboutThisManual
About the Flash Media Server
documentation
The Flash Media Server documentation is designed to be used with the Flash documentation,
namely Using Flash and the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference Guide.
All Flash Media Server documents are available in PDF format (viewable and printable with
Adobe Acrobat Reader) on the Flash Media Server CD and on the Macromedia web site and
as Flash Help in the Macromedia Flash application (select Help > Flash Help). Flash Media
Server documentation is also available in LiveDoc format on the Macromedia web site.
■Installing Flash Media Server describes how to install the server and the Flash authoring
extensions. It also lists the files that are installed during the installation process.
■Getting Started with Flash Media Server presents a short overview of Flash Media Server
and the new features in version 2. Also included are system requirements and installation
instructions.
You can find a printed version of this manual in the Flash Media Server CD case.
■This manual, Developing Media Applications, explains how to set up your development
environment, and how to use the Flash authoring environment and the Flash Media
Server application programming interface (API) to create media applications.
■Managing Flash Media Server explains the details of configuring and maintaining the
server and using the Administration Console.
■The Client-Side ActionScript Language Reference for Flash Media Server 2 documents the
ActionScript you can use to create client-side functionality.
■The Server-Side ActionScript Language Reference documents the ActionScript you can use
to create server-side functionality.
■The Server Management ActionScript Language Reference documents advanced
ActionScript methods that you can use to extend the management console or to make
your own administration and monitoring tools.

Typographical conventions 9
Support for learning about Flash Media Server
You may want to explore these other sources of support for learning about Flash Media Server:
■The Flash Media Server Support Center provides TechNotes and up-to-date information
about Flash Media Server.
■The Flash Media Server Developer Center site provides tips and samples for creating Flash
Media Server applications.
■The Flash Media Server Online Forum provides a place for you to chat with other Flash
Media Server users.
■For late-breaking information and a complete list of issues that are still outstanding, read
the Flash Media Server release notes.
Macromedia recommends several websites with links to third-party resources on Flash Media
Server, including the following:
■Macromedia Flash community sites
■Macromedia Flash books
■Object-oriented programming concepts
Typographical conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
■Code font indicates ActionScript statements and literal text used in examples.
■Code font italic indicates placeholder elements in code. For example,
attachAudio(source)means that you should specify your own value for the source
parameter.
■Italic indicates placeholder elements in paths. For example, /settings/myPrinter/ means
that you should specify your own location for myPrinter.
■Directory paths are written with forward slashes (/). If you are running Flash Media Server
on a Microsoft Windows operating system, replace the forward slashes with backslashes.
When a path is specific to the Microsoft Windows operating system, backslashes (\) are
used.

10 About This Manual