Category Archive for ‘Development’ at SWX: SWF Data Format

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Archive for the 'Development' Category

SWX .Net reaches a milestone

Published

aral

on September 27, 2007

in Announcements, Development and Implementations

. 2 Comments

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.

Instructions for updating your applications to SWX PHP RC1

Published

aral

on September 2, 2007

in Announcements, Development, Guidance and SWX PHP

. 1 Comment

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.

Twitter API updated: featured() method

Published

aral

on August 31, 2007

in Announcements and Development

. 0 Comments

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!

Question: When’s a string not a string?

Published

aral

on August 17, 2007

in Development

. 5 Comments

Answer: When it's not surrounded by quotation marks in the SWX Service Explorer.

If you the data type of a parameter that you're passing is string, please make sure that you enclose the argument you're entering with quotation marks. This is especially important for long numeric IDs (such as those used by the Flickr API) as, otherwise, Service Explorer will interpret these as integers and you'll end up with the wrong ID and failing call.

So, for instance, if a call takes a string ID, enter "72157600948554269" not 72157600948554269 into the input box for the ID parameter in the SWX Service Explorer.

Remember, when in doubt, enclose in quotes.

(By the way, I am aware that the SWX Service Explorer should be smarter about this and enclose string arguments in quotes for you. It should be smarter in a few other areas too and these are on my to-do list for Version 1 as they catch me out from time to time too.)

What is SWX, how does it work, and where is it going?

Published

aral

on August 16, 2007

in Development, News and Releases

. 0 Comments

I just made a comprehensive blog post describing what SWX is (with new definitions for SWX, SWX RPC, SWX PHP, etc.), how it works and the current roadmap on my blog: What is SWX, how does it work, and where is it going?

Oops, I broke the Flickr samples. (Now fixed).

Published

aral

on August 11, 2007

in Development

. 0 Comments

I replaced the custom getUserPhotos() method with swxGetUserPhotos() on the Flickr API on the public SWX gateway instead of deprecating it so existing sample applications in Beta 1.3 will have failed if you tried them in the last week or so. I've now updated the public gateway (and the Flickr API in SVN). getUserPhotos() is back (and deprecated). In the future please use the swxGetUserPhotos() method in your applications.

This change is part of an API sweep to make the various APIs more consistent. All official API methods mirror the names in the official API spec and all custom API methods begin with "swx" to clearly separate them from the official methods.

I will implement this naming convention in the Twitter API as well in the near future and deprecate the old methods.

Thanks to Alessandro Pace for bringing this to my attention.

Notes following the first SWX Monday

Published

aral

on July 17, 2007

in Development

. 1 Comment

I found last night's SWX Monday very useful as Seb and Ribot uncovered some issues with SWX that just weren't present on my own machine.

Here are a list of notes that I made during the meeting. Consider these an unofficial roadmap for the next point release of Beta 1.2 as I will be looking into them this week.

SWX MAMP Bundle does not default to the correct start page. The SWX MAMP bundle defaults to http://localhost:8888/MAMP instead of http://localhost:8888/. For the time being the workaround is to set the start page yourself to http://localhost:8888/ using the MAMP control panel -> Preferences -> Apache -> set document root to /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/. Update: This should now be fixed in SWX Beta 1.3. If you still see this behavior, please contact me as I'm finding it very difficult to reproduce this on my system.
Some Flash examples do not have the class path set in the FLA. The minimal API and full API examples do not have the class path set in the FLA and will not compile until you set the classpath to point to the /flash folder. To do this, go to Flash -> Preferences -> ActionScript -> ActionScript 2.0 Settings... and add the /flash folder (in the MAMP installation, this will be at /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/flash/) to your classpath. This folder contains the org.swxformat package that contains the SWX class used by the minimal API as well as the ExternalAsset and LoadManager classes used by the SWX full API. Update: Fixed in SWX Beta 1.3
The Flash Lite examples are set to publish for Flash Lite 2.1. Flash 8 doesn't come with this profile installed by default and, in a moment of temporary insanity, Adobe have made the installer for this Windows-only so Mac users with Flash 8 have no way of installing the Flash Lite 2.1 publish profile. Thankfully, the examples also work in Flash Lite 2.0 and the publish profile will be set to that version in future releases. In the meanwhile, set the publish profile to Flash Lite 2.0 yourself if you are using Flash 8. This should not affect you if you are using Flash CS3. Update: Fixed in SWX Beta 1.3.
The Data Analyzer does not work with mobile SWFs being tested in Device Central. Device Central appears to block LocalConnection requests. This stops you from seeing debug data in the Data Analyzer if you're testing your SWF from Device Central. I will be talking to some friends at Adobe about this so that it gets fixed in future releases of Device Central. In the meanwhile, a workaround is to publish your mobile application for Flash 7 or 8 while testing (remember to comment out fscommands so as not to get errors).
Flickr.getUserPhotos() failing on PHP 5. The Flickr.getUserPhotos() method fails when run on PHP 5 (the default in the current version of the SWX MAMP Bundle). In the meanwhile, you can use the SWX Public gateway (http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php) as it works from there (test it out using the public SWX Service Explorer) or run it on PHP4. The next release will fix this. Update: Fixed in SWX Beta 1.3.

As previously mentioned, I will be looking into these issues and releasing a new point release sometime this week.

Update: I've fixed the issues above in SWX Beta 1.3 (apart from the Device Central issue, which is something Adobe has to fix.) This latest Beta also introduces better error handling (a fault handler is available for you to use in the SWX Full API and separate fault codes and messages are returned in the fault object.

SWX Beta 1.2.1 released

Published

aral

on July 9, 2007

in Development

. 0 Comments

I just released a minor point release of SWX, version Beta 1.2.1, in response to issues reported by Folkert (thanks as always, man) on Beta 1.2.

The changes in this minor point release are:

Explorer: Fixed name of Explorer SWF so it doesn't break on case-sensitive systems.
Explorer: Explorer: The results panel now hides when changing methods.

I will update the SWX MAMP Bundle shortly to Beta 1.2.1 but feel free to use Beta 1.2 in the interim as the case-sensitivity issue does not affect it.

SWX Service Explorer gotchas, workarounds and roadmap

Published

aral

on July 9, 2007

in Development

. 2 Comments

Although I have implemented quite a few usability enhancements to it, there are still a few gotchas to watch out for when using the SWX Service Explorer in Beta 1.2.

One of these is that you must encode the values that you pass in JSON format yourself. This is a limitation in the original Amfphp service browser that the Explorer is based on. Mostly, this limitation will not affect you with simple data types but there are times when you will get erroneous results unless you this.

For example, if you are passing a string that begins with a number, you must surround it in double quotes to pass it as a string (or else it will be passed as a number and the string portion will be ignored).

To be safe, surround all string values in quotes. In other words, pass "hello, world" instead of hello, world.

You must also be aware of this limitation if you are passing arrays or objects as a value.

The next version of the SWX Service Explorer (Beta 1.3) will handle this encoding for you.

Another gotcha is that leaving an optional parameter's value empty in the Explorer will actually result in that parameter having an empty value, not the default value that's set in the service method. The workaround to this, currently, is to manually enter the default value in Explorer. The next version of Explorer will handle this properly.

Also, Folkert informed me today that the Results panel doesn't automatically close when you change methods. I just updated the Explorer in SVN to implement that and updated the SWX Service Explorer on the SWX public gateway to the latest version.

Finally, you can find the source for the SWX Service Explorer, which you can also use for your Amfphp projects as an updated version of the service browser (just change the gateway to point to gateway.php instead of amf.php) in SVN at http://svn1.cvsdude.com/osflash/swx/trunk/flex/Explorer/. (When I get a moment, I will make an Amfphp-specific build too).

Towards a friendlier SWX Service Explorer

Published

aral

on July 5, 2007

in Development

. 0 Comments

In the past few days, I've been working on making the SWX Service Explorer a friendlier beast. Today, prompted by the error Kelvin Luck reported, I added better error handling that should help with a common issue that people may run into with Beta 1.1: The problem with the incorrect default gateway URL.

The problem

The error that Kelvin ran into happens when the SWX Service Explorer cannot find the AMF gateway that it uses. This can occur due to two reasons: Firstly, if your server is down or you are disconnected from your server/Internet/etc., and secondly, if the the SWX Service Explorer is configured with the wrong URL to the AMF gateway. The latter is the default case with the Explorer in Beta 1.1 because I couldn't obtain the source for it (it's based on the service browser in AMFPHP) in time for that release. It means that you have to configure the SWX Service Explorer to the correct Gateway URL (change gateway.php to amf.php) before you can use it. Otherwise, you currently get the cryptic error message that Kelvin got.

The solution

I now have the source and have begun to implement improvements to the Explorer, including changing the default Gateway URL in the SWX MAMP Bundle so that it now points to the AMF gateway in SWX (which is the file amf.php in the php folder, as opposed to the file gateway.php in AMFPHP.) So, hopefully, starting with Beta 1.2, this issue should become much less common (at least when running SWX using the SWX MAMP Bundle).

However, because the same error can surface if the server is not running (and if the Gateway URL is not configured properly when running SWX on your own server, without the SWX MAMP Bundle), I also added better handling for the error.

Specifically, you now receive the following error message if the gateway cannot be reached:

Swx Service Explorer new Error Message

Beyond stating the problem in a simple manner, it also shows you the Gateway URL (which you can click on to test if the gateway is reachable in the browser) and also provides easy access to the Preferences window so you can change the Gateway URL if you need to.

I hope this helps makes working with the SWX Service Explorer easier for you guys.

SWX: SWF Data Format

Archive for the 'Development' Category

SWX .Net reaches a milestone

Instructions for updating your applications to SWX PHP RC1

Example

Twitter API updated: featured() method

Question: When’s a string not a string?

What is SWX, how does it work, and where is it going?

Oops, I broke the Flickr samples. (Now fixed).

Notes following the first SWX Monday

SWX Beta 1.2.1 released

SWX Service Explorer gotchas, workarounds and roadmap

Towards a friendlier SWX Service Explorer

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