Announcements Archive - SWX: SWF Data Format

Dec 21, 2008 4

SWX v2 beta Released, Public Gateway Updated

We have just pushed SWX v2.00 beta live on the project's Google Code page!

Along with this release the public gateway has also been updated to use SWX PHP v2.00 beta and allow for AS3 support. You can find documentation here, which shows how to use the new AS3 API as well as provides an introduction to the new Simple Call and Custom Call methods of interacting with your SWX gateway.

Lastly, Folkert Hielema has contributed an updated Twitter service and a new Identi.ca service. Both of these services are live on the public gateway (you can test them in the Service Explorer) and also available in the SWX PHP download available on the Google Code page under "Featured Downloads".

We will continue to work on updating this blog with new documentation, but until then please refer to this documentation - it should provide you with everything you need to get started with v2.

If you notice any issues, please log them here. For support or to discuss the new release, please use the project's mailing list.

This release has been a huge effort by the SWX development team, and has been in the works since September. I'm sure you'll enjoy using it as much as we've enjoyed coding it.

Can't wait to see what you build!

Sep 4, 2008 1

SWX Bug with Flash Player 10 Fixed

If you have been using the Flash Player 10 RC and came across a site or widget using SWX, you undoubtedly noticed that it wasn't working. After a couple of days of back-and-forth on the SWX mailing list, the issue has been found and a solution posted.

[Update September 5, 2008 - a different fix was suggested in an attempt to allow SWX to continue to be used by hitting the gateway directly, allowing for easier debugging. Code below reflects this update.]

The problem is that FP 10 does not like one of the headers returned from SWX. To fix the issue, open SwxAssembler.php and change line 538 from:

header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="data.swf"');

to:

header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="data.swf"');

This seems to fix the issue, as all SWX sites this has been tested on now work in FP 10 again.

Thanks to Fabrício Kolling for finding the proper solution, and to Folkert Hielema and Ben Lagoutte for helping test broken sites and debug the issue.

While this issue has not yet been fixed in the project's SVN or downloads, we hope to make this addition soon and release an updated version with the last couple of minor fixes.

Jul 29, 2008 3

We’re Still Alive!

Even though it has been a few months since there was an update to the SWX blog, the community continues to thrive. While Aral is extremely busy putting together the Singularity conference, he was kind enough to provide me with access to post an update with some recent developments in regards to SWX.

Over on the SWX Mailing List there has been lots of discussion around small bug fixes (which you can download here), creating solutions for using SWX with AS3 projects until an official update is developed (more on this below), and general debugging and problem solving. If you are not a member of the list, it is highly suggested that you join, as this is where most of the community discussion is happening at the moment.

It should be noted that SWX was recently featured in a new Friends of Ed release entitled "The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development". The chapter focuses on providing real-world examples of how to get started with SWX, and how to use it in real-life web and mobile projects. Other chapters include PaperVision3D, Red5, Fuse/Go, and more. Buy your copy today and support open source Flash!

Lastly, this merits its own post, but I am starting an initiative to form a development team for an AS3 version of SWX. If you are interested in helping out with writing the necessary byte code, have started something similar on your own, or would like to help out in some other way, please post to the SWX mailing list. Look for a post on this in the very near future.

Oct 8, 2007 0

Public SWX Gateway update

I've removed the JSON and XML-RPC endpoints from the Public SWX Gateway on swxformat.org as they were really never supposed to be there (it's the public _swx_ gateway after all!) The SWX RPC endpoint, of course, is still active and will continue to be.

Apologies if this affects any applications that were hitting the other gateways. You can always download SWX PHP and install it on your own server if you want to use the other endpoints.

This change will not affect any applications that were using the SWX RPC endpoint on the Public SWX Gateway.

Oct 3, 2007 0

SWXformat.org undergoing maintenance is back up and running!

A quick note to let you know that the SWXformat.org site is being moved over into its own dedicated server to keep up with increased usage of the public gateway.

~~At the moment, due to this, the public gateway appears to be down. The web host is working to resolve this at the moment.~~

Update: The SWX public gateway is back up and running. I do apologize for the temporary interruption. The server move is still in progress but you should not experience any further hiccups.

I thank you for you patience.

Sep 27, 2007 2

SWX .Net reaches a milestone

Swx dot net Testdatatypes

Greg Brant informed me recently that he's reached an important milestone with the SWX .Net (C#) implementation of SWX RPC: he now has the SWF Assembler working to a point where the TestDataTypes test is passing.

Read Greg's post for more information.

Sep 11, 2007 7

SWX PHP and SWX ActionScript Library Version 1.0 Released

SWX PHP 1.0 and SWX ActionScript Library 1.0 Release Announcement

It's my great pleasure to announce that after six months of alphas and betas, SWX PHP 1.0 and SWX ActionScript Library 1.0 are now available for download.

The major changes from SWX PHP Release Candidate 1 include a revamped Start Page with new, royalty-free icons, and a friendly new list view for the Services and Flash examples folders.

I've also updated the SWX Nabaztag API so that you can now specify the voice that you want your Nabaztag bunny to talk in and you can move its ears and send it ear and LED choreographies. You can test out and use the SWX Nabaztag API and the other SWX APIs (Flickr, Twitter, etc.) directly from the Public SWX Gateway using the SWX Service Explorer.

Finally, there's a new LOG_ALL configuration option in swx_config.php that determines whether non-error (status, info, profiling) messages are written to the PHP error log. Set this to false on deployments for better performance. The setting defaults to true as it is useful for troubleshooting during development.

Update: Based on Jon MacDonald's suggestion (thanks, Jon!), I've also created a SWX PHP Deployment Bundle to make it easier for you to deploy SWX PHP to your server. Use the regular SWX PHP and SWX PHP MAMP Bundles to develop with and then deploy the lean-and-mean deployment bundle to your server. The deployment bundle is much smaller than the regular build as it doesn't contain the source code for the Flex-based tools or the sample Flash FLA files.

The release of SWX PHP 1.0 and SWX ActionScript Library 1.0 is something I've been looking forward to for quite a while now and I hope that SWX simplifies your development life and makes it as fun for you to create Flash and Flash Lite applications and mashups as it has for me.

In the next two months, I'm going to be traveling around the world to talk about SWX at FlashForward Boston, FlashForum Conference in Germany, MAX Chicago, MAX Barcelona, FITC Hollwood, MAX Japan, and Flash on the Beach in my home town of Brighton, in the UK. In addition to this, development work continues (I just made my first post-1.0 commit to the SVN repository) and will include efforts to create a Flash 9 version of SWX PHP, as well as SWX RPC implementations for Ruby, Python, J2EE, and .Net.

In the next few days, I will be releasing Internet Drafts for SWX and SWX RPC which I hope will become Informational RFCs.

Here's to Version 1.0! This is just the beginning.

Read the full release notes for SWX PHP 1.0 and download the 1.0 release.

Sep 2, 2007 2

Instructions for updating your applications to SWX PHP RC1

I am updating the SWX public gateway to RC1, ahead of today's release of SWX PHP RC1. As I mentioned earlier, this will break some existing applications that use the SWX public gateway. Here are some instructions on updating your applications for RC1:

If your service method returns a simple datatype (number, string, boolean, null):

Change your client-side code to reference result instead of result[0].

If your service method returns a complex datatype (array or object), you do not need to change your code.

This change is because simple data types are no longer returned wrapped in an array.

Example

Pre-RC1:

function resultHandler(event:Object)
{
	// Simple data type is wrapped in an array
	myTextField.text = event.result[0];
}

Becomes, in RC1:

function resultHandler(event:Object)
{
	// The returned simple data type is simply the result itself
	myTextField.text = event.result;
}

I do apologize for making such a radical change this late in the beta program but it was one that simply had to be made.

Note: The SWX Data Analyzer has also been updated to display simple data types correctly.

Aug 31, 2007 0

Twitter API updated: featured() method

I just updated the Twitter API so that the featured() method no longer takes a username and password and no longer states that the method does not work in the documentation.

Test it out using the SWX Service Explorer.

Thanks, Folkert, for pushing me on this!

Aug 31, 2007 1

Heads up: Major change in RC1 may break your apps.

Update: I am now in the process of updating the SWX public gateway to the RC 1 code. Please note that if you are using the public gateway and you have not updated to the latest codebase from SVN, your applications may break. I will be releasing SWX PHP RC 1 today.

The upcoming RC1 release has a major change that may break your existing applications. Until this version, the only supported root data type was an array. Everything was returned wrapped in an array. So, for example, if your service class returned the boolean false, it would arrive in Flash through SWX RPC as [false] and you would have to reference it as result[0].

This is was counter-intuitive and wrong but simple to implement initially when I was creating the SWX Assembler for SWX PHP.

Now that SWX RPC is its own protocol, this has to change. The root data type of a returned value in SWX RPC can be boolean, string, number, null, object and array.

This means that if your service classes return simple data types, they will no longer be wrapped in an array. Instead of accessing them as result[0] in your applications, you will simply access them as result.

This change was, unfortunately, necessary. I realize that it will break some of your existing applications.

I am doing a sweep of the existing examples and updating them for RC1, due this weekend (finally!) If you're using the Public SWX gateway for your applications, I suggest that you get the latest version of SWX from the Subversion repository and check your own applications against it as well. I will be updating the Public SWX gateway to RC1 once RC1 is released for download.

SWX: SWF Data Format