MACROMEDIA FLASH MEDIA SERVER 2-DEVELOPING MEDIA User manual

Developing Media Applications

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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

3
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

4
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

5
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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7
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

11
1
CHAPTER 1
Getting Started
This chapter describes initial steps you need to take before you begin developing applications
with Macromedia Flash Media Server 2. It describes how to set up your development
environment, how to deploy your applications, and how to create a simple application to
connect to the server.
Installation and system requirements
For instructions on how to install Flash Media Server and for information on system
requirements, see Installing Flash Media Server.
Setting up the hardware and software
To write Flash Media Server applications, you must install the Macromedia Flash authoring
software, Flash Media Server, and the latest Flash Player. To write applications that capture
audio or video, you also need to install a microphone or camera. Additionally, if your
application requires server-side scripts for your Flash Media Server applications, you’ll need a
UTF-8 JavaScript editor, such as the Script window in Flash Professional. Each of these
elements of the development environment is discussed in this section.
Flash authoring software If you haven’t already installed Macromedia Flash, see the Flash
documentation.
Flash Media Server software If you haven’t already installed the server, see Installing Flash
Media Server, available as a PDF on the product CD.

12 Getting Started
Flash Player Make sure that you are using the latest version of Flash Player. You can
download Flash Player from the Macromedia website at www.macromedia.com/go/
getflashplayer.
Camera and microphone To install a camera or microphone, follow the instructions that
accompany your device. For a list of cameras that are known to be compatible with Flash
Media Server, see the documentation on camera compatibility on the Macromedia website.
Cameras that aren’t on that list may be compatible with Flash Media Server, but haven’t been
tested by Macromedia.
Many cameras contain a built-in microphone. You can also install a separate microphone, or
for best results, a microphone-headset combination.
After you’ve installed your devices, you can specify which camera or microphone Flash should
use by default. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) while any
Flash application is playing, select Settings from the context menu, click the Microphone or
Camera panel, and select your preferred device from the pop-up menu.
Using a JavaScript editor You can use any text editor to write server-side ActionScript
code, which you’ll store in files with an extension of .asc or .js. You may prefer to use software
specifically designed for writing web-based applications, such as Flash Professional or
Dreamweaver. To create an .asc file in Flash, choose New > ActionScript Communication
File.
To include non-ASCII text in your server-side scripts, such as double-byte characters used in
Asian languages, you must use an editor that supports UTF-8 encoding. Flash Media Server
requires UTF-8-encoded ASC files to pass double-byte characters from one client to another.
For more information, see “Writing double-byte applications” on page 93.
NOTE
If you are running Flash Media Server on Linux, you’ll need a Windows or Macintosh
computer with Flash to create your media applications, and you’ll need to install the
authoring extensions on your authoring computer. You’ll also want to install Flash Player
on your UNIX server computer to use the administration tools.

Creating a development environment 13
Creating a development environment
This section explains what you need to know before you create Flash Media Server
applications.
Make sure the server is running To publish and test your applications, Flash Media Server
must be running. For more information, see “Starting the service” on page 19.
Specifying the server URI Use the Flash authoring environment on the same computer
that is running the Flash Media Server. If that isn’t the case, add your server name to all of the
connect commands documented here. For example, if your server is running at
myServer.myDomain.com, change a line like this:
new_nc.connect("rtmp:/doc_record/room_01");
to this:
new_nc.connect("rtmp://myServer.myDomain.com/doc_record/room_01");
Specifying publishing formats Configure Flash to publish both SWF and HTML files. To
specify formats to be created during publishing, select File > Publish Settings in the authoring
environment.
Writing client-side ActionScript code Unless otherwise noted, your client-side
ActionScript code should be attached to a layer on the first keyframe of your FLA file, not to
individual objects. Client-side code in files published for Flash Player 7 or later is case-
sensitive.
Writing server-side ActionScript code For applications that use server-side ActionScript
code, place the code in a server-side script file. Name the file main.asc (or it can have a name
such as registered_app_name.asc) and use the Flash ActionScript Editor or the JavaScript editor
to write it. Server-side code is case-sensitive.
Loading components.asc To use media components in any application, you must load the
components.asc file, located in the scriptlib directory. To load this file, create a server-side
script file for your application, if you haven’t already, name it appropriately (such as main.asc),
and add the following code at the top:
load("components.asc");
NOTE
Be sure you use two slashes (//) after rtmp: in the revised code. The use of a single slash
is supported only when the SWF application is served from the same computer where
Flash Media Server is running.
TIP
You might find it sufficient to copy this file into any application directory that uses media
components, but be sure to name it appropriately.

14 Getting Started
Acknowledging the user’s right to privacy Before you record or broadcast anyone’s image
or voice, it’s important to inform that person of your intention and to gain their consent or
agreement.
Monitoring running applications If you have server administration permissions, you can
view details about an application while you are testing it, such as log messages it is generating,
values of shared objects, and so on. To do so, open the management console and connect to
the Flash Media Server. For more information, see Chapter 5, “Debugging and Monitoring
Applications.”
Preview of Development Tasks
The following checklist provides a high-level overview of the tasks you must complete for any
application to work with Flash Media Server. Each of these tasks is discussed in this chapter in
more detail, so you should read this entire chapter.
To create and deploy a Flash Media Server application, complete the
following tasks:
1. Select a name for your new application (for example, my_app) and register the application
with the server: in the Flash Media Server applications directory, create a new directory
with the name of your application.
This name is your registered application name. The directory is your registered application
directory.
2. In Flash, create a FLA file that includes a new NetConnection statement with the registered
application name and, if applicable, the application instance in the URI.
For example:
my_nc = new NetConnection();
my_nc.connect("rtmp://myDomain.com/registered_app_name");
This statement connects the client to the registered_app_name application.
3. Save the FLA file with your registered application name.
You can store the FLA file anywhere; it is a source file used to create the SWF and is not
part of the deployed application.
4. If you have a script file that contains server-side ActionScript, put it in the registered
application directory in the Flash Media Server applications directory or a /scripts
directory, which you create, within the registered application directory.
Your server-side script file can be named main.asc or registered_app_name.asc.

Deploying applications and application instances 15
5. Publish the SWF file for your application in a directory accessible to your clients but that
Flash Media Server does not use.
For example, you could put your SWF file in the web root directory that will serve your
application to your clients, or you could e-mail the SWF file to your clients and store the
SWF file in some other directory.
Depending on your application, additional steps are required; however, these steps are
necessary for all applications, regardless of their functionality.
The rest of this chapter describes what’s involved in setting up your applications, introduces
the objects and files used in Flash Media Server applications, and shows you how to create and
connect to your first Flash Media Server application.
Deploying applications and application
instances
This section discusses where you must place application data that you want the server to find,
and also explains how and why to run application instances.
Storing server-side and client-side files
The default location for server-side application files is C:\Program files\Macromedia\Flash
Media Server 2\applications on Windows or /opt/macromedia/fms/applications on UNIX.
This location is referred to as the applications directory. When you create a media application,
you must create a registered application directory, which is a subdirectory for your application
in the applications directory.
You can store your client-side files (SWF and HTML) in any location; most likely, you will
store them in your web server publishing directory. The FLA files for your applications can
remain with the SWF and HTML files until deployment; at production time, remove the
FLA files and place them in a secure location.
TIP
Macromedia recommends that you use all lowercase letters and no spaces when you
name directories and files used with Flash Media Server and its applications. This
practice helps to ensure that, during development, your applications will work if you
move files to different computers on different platforms.

16 Getting Started
For organizational purposes during your development work, it might be convenient to store
all of our client and server application files (FLA, SWF, HTML, or ASC) in one subdirectory.
When you deploy your application, you can place your SWF and HTML files in any location.
However, the registered application directory must remain on the Flash Media Server server,
along with any ASC, FSO, and FLV files that the application uses. The server-side files (your
ASC, FLV, and FSO files) and your FLA source file should not be in your web root directory
when you deploy the server and applications. Only your SWF and HTML files should remain
inside the web root directory.
In any case, you must create a registered application directory that has the same name as the
application you connect to when you issue the NetConnection.connect() command.
For example, suppose you have an application called chat_App, as the following example
shows:
NetConnection.connect("rtmp://myServer.myDomain.com/chat_App")
You must create a subdirectory named chat_App in the applications directory. Suppose also
that your application uses some server-side scripting, stored in a file called chat_App.asc. You
must place the chat_App.asc file in this same directory.
Storing your application’s server-side script files
In most of your applications, you’re likely to use server-side scripting. You create the server-
side script file for your application in the Flash ActionScript editor or in a JavaScript text
editor. Name the script file main.asc or main.js or registered_app_name.asc or
registered_app_name.js, where registered_app_name is the name of the registered application
directory and the application itself. Save the script file in your registered application directory.
For example, if you have an /applications/chat_app directory for your chat application, you
could name your server-side script file chat_app.asc and place it in the chat_app directory.
Alternatively, you can place your server-side scripts in a subdirectory named scripts in the
registered application directory (/applications/chat_App/scripts).
NOTE
You must create a registered application directory that matches your application name
even if you have no server-side script files to place there. This is because Flash Media
Server stores in your registered application directory any stream or shared-object files
that your application creates (see “Coding conventions” on page 101). Also, the
existence of this directory tells Flash Media Server that the application is authorized and
that users can connect to instances of this application.
NOTE
To simplify deployment, Flash Media Server includes an archive compiler utility (far.exe)
that you can use to package your server-side script files in a single archive file. To speed
up loading time, the utility also lets you compile script files to binary format. For more
information, see “Archiving and compiling server-side script files” on page 86.

Deploying applications and application instances 17
About application instances
Applications are run by creating application instances. When a client connects to an
application, the client is actually connected to an application instance. For example, a client
connects to an application named chat_app, as the following example shows:
nc.connect(“rtmp://myDomain.com/chat_app”);
In this example, the client is actually connected to the default instance of the application,
named _defInst_, because no instance is specified.
Clients can also connect to specific application instances that the instanceName value in the
NetConnection.connect command defines, as the following example shows:
nc.connect(“rtmp://myDomain.com/chat_app/instance1”);
In this example, the client is connected to the application instance named instance1.
You might want to use application instances for specific purposes. For example, you may want
to give different groups of people access to the same application without having the groups
interact with each other, such as in a chat application with “rooms” for different topics. To do
this, you can have multiple instances of the chat application at the same time, as follows:
my_nc.connect("rtmp://myServer.myDomain.com/chatApp/room_01")
my_nc.connect("rtmp://myServer.myDomain.com/chatApp/room_02")
Each application instance is uniquely named. Unlike the parent application, an instance does
not require that its own directory be defined on the server. However, application resources,
such as streams and shared objects, are independent for each instance and are stored in their
own directories under the streams and sharedObjects storage directories configured for the
application.
Another reason to use application instances is to avoid collision of recorded streams or shared
objects that are created by the application. In the preceding example, for instance, any streams
or shared objects that room_01 creates are distinct from those that room_02 creates, and the
reverse, even though both instances are running the same application, chat_App.
For example, although the support application in the following code creates two shared
objects named CustomerInfo, each instance of the support application has access only to its
own CustomerInfo object. Also, the data in CustomerInfo used by session1 is different from
the data in CustomerInfo used by session2, as the following example shows:
// One instance of application "support"
first_nc = new NetConnection();
first_nc.connect("myserver.mydomain.com/support/session1");
first_so = SharedObject.getRemote("CustomerInfo", first_nc.URI, false);
first_so.connect(first_nc.URI);
// Another instance of application "support"
second_nc = new NetConnection();

18 Getting Started
second_nc.connect("myserver.mydomain.com/support/session2");
second_so = SharedObject.getRemote("CustomerInfo", second_nc.URI, false);
second_so.connect(second_nc.URI);
Instance name room_01 is frequently used, but you can use any string for an instance name
that makes sense in your application.
You can configure several settings related to application instances. In the Application.xml file,
you can configure the maximum idle time before the server unloads an instance. In the
Vhost.xml file, you can configure the number of clients that can connect to the virtual host
hosting an application and the number of instances that the virtual host can load.
For more information on using instance names, see the NetStream.publish() entry in the
Client-Side ActionScript Language Reference for Flash Media Server 2.
For information on making remote shared objects available to multiple applications, see the
SharedObject.getRemote() entry in the Client-Side ActionScript Language Reference for
Flash Media Server 2.
File types used by Flash Media Server
In addition to the file types that Flash creates and uses (FLA, SWF, and SWD), Flash Media
Server uses or creates the following file types:
ASC and JS files Server-side script files that you write or that are provided with Flash
Media Server. When you create server-side scripts, use the Flash ActionScript editor or a
JavaScript editor and place the scripts in the subdirectory you create for your application in
your registered application directory, for example, /applications/chat_app, or in a scripts
subdirectory, for example, /applications/chat_app/scripts.
Flash Media Server provides a script library in the /scriptlib directory that contains server-side
scripts for components and Flash Remoting services. When you use components or Flash
Remoting with Flash Media Server, include, or load, the appropriate scripts from /scriptlib
into your application’s server-side script file. The location of the /scriptlib directory is
specified in the <ScriptLibPath> tag in your Application.xml configuration file. For
information on loading the components.asc file to use media components, see “Creating a
development environment” on page 13.
ASE files Server-side script files that are compiled as binary files. See “Archiving and
compiling server-side script files” on page 86.
FAR files Server-side script files that are archived into one self-contained file. See
“Archiving and compiling server-side script files” on page 86.

Connecting to the server 19
FLV and IDX files Recorded streams and their associated index files. When the server
generates streams, it also generates a streams directory in the registered application directory
and stores FLV and IDX files in a subdirectory specific to the application instance (for
example, /applications/chat_app/streams/instance2).
SOL, SOR, and FSO files Shared object files. An SOL file is persistent on the client; an
FSO file is persistent only on the server; an SOR files is persistent on the client and has a
matching FSO file that is persistent on the server. The location of shared object files varies
depending on what kind of shared object it is.
For more information on where Flash Media Server stores stream and shared object files, see
“Coding conventions” on page 101.
For more information about shared objects, see “About shared object files” on page 82.
Connecting to the server
To connect to an instance of Flash Media Server, you first start the service and then issue
new NetConnection and NetConnection.connect() commands in your client-side script.
These tasks are discussed in this section.
Starting the service
If the server is not already started, you can start it manually. From the Windows Start menu,
select Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Flash Media Server 2> Start Flash Media
Admin Server and Flash Media Server. On Windows, to confirm that the service is running,
open the Task Manager and make sure that both FMSAdmin.exe and FMSMaster.exe are
listed in the Processes tab.
On Linux, open a shell window, change to the directory where you installed Flash Media
Server, and, as a root user, type fmsmgr fms server start.
NOTE
Applications can connect to Flash Media Server by using RTMP (Routing Table
Maintenance Protocol) or RTMPS (Routing Table Maintenance Protocol over SSL
(Secure Socket Layer)).
TIP
Although you can use components to connect to the server, first learn how to connect by
using ActionScript, as described in this section.

20 Getting Started
Opening a connection to the server
Open a new file in the Flash authoring environment, and then add the client-side
ActionScript commands to connect to the server.
To connect to Flash Media Server:
1. In a new Flash application, begin opening a connection by issuing the following command:
my_nc = new NetConnection();
2. Follow this command with a connect command:
my_nc.connect(targetURI);
In this basic syntax for NetConnection.connect() (omitting optional parameters),
targetURI is the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of an application on the Flash Media
Server that should run when the connection is made. To specify targetURI, use one of
the following formats (items in brackets are optional):
rtmp://localhost[:port]/appName[/instanceName]
The use of localhost indicates that the server is running on your local computer.
rtmp://host[:port]/appName[/instanceName]
To connect to a virtual host other than the default virtual host, specify the virtual host’s
name in host. If the server is running on your local computer, you can use “localhost”
as the host name in the URI; this is often convenient during application development.
For example, the following code uses the new NetConnection constructor to create a new
connection object. Then, the object is connected to the server with the call to
my_nc.connect().
// Makes a new connection object
my_nc = new NetConnection();
/* Connects to the instance named appInstance
of the application named appName
located on the Flash Media Server
/* that is running on the virtual host myServer.myDomain.com
my_nc.connect("rtmp://myServer.myDomain.com/appName/appInstance");
NOTE
In all syntax examples for targetURI, you must specify rtmp (the Real-Time
Messaging Protocol) as the protocol for the connection. If you omit it, Flash Player
assumes you want to make an HTTP connection to an application server, and your
connection fails.