Update: December 2007
During the past few months I've presented SWX (Let's talk about SWX, baby!) at FlashForward Boston, MAX Chicago, FlashForum Conference (Germany), MAX Barcelona, FITC Hollywood, and Flash on the Beach (Brighton, UK).
Now that I'm back, I'm starting to concentrate on development again.
The current priority is AVM2/Flash 9 support so you can start using SWX with ActionScript 3 and Flex 2. In fact, we now have three excellent developers in addition to myself working on this so expect updates soon.
Also, I want to further simplify the model.
We also have lots of API entries in the SWX Contest that I will be showcasing and adding to the Public SWX gateway in the coming days.
I also want to concentrate on educational materials (screencasts, documentation) around SWX RPC and PHP.
Finally, I still need to finalize the informational RFCs for SWX and SWX RPC.
Wish list
- Explorer: Leaving an optional field empty should use the default value for that argument on the server (done in SVN)
- Explorer: Automatically JSON-encode arguments
- Core: Add EZSQL as library + create example application
- Screencasts: Record Moo card/getting started screencast
- Screencasts: Record API screencast
- Screencasts: Record database screencast
- Core/APIs: Add automatic RSS to PHP objects convertor utility method (generic XML to SWX class provided by Florian Plag. Will be added to next release.)
- Flash: Add ARP-based examples
- General: Write Internet Drafts for SWX and SWX RPC, whitepaper
- SWX PHP: Unit test coverage has dropped dramatically since I started creating bytecode that is slightly different from what the Flash compiler produces. Create tests for all data types, edge cases, etc. based on currently functional bytecode generated by the SWX Compiler.
- SWX PHP: The localConnection support in SWX PHP (currently used by the analyzer debug versions) makes SWX useful for AS3/Flex 2 apps also (the Analyzer itself is a Flex 2 application.) Document and test this. What limits, etc. are there, if any?
- SWX PHP: Add true object support (currently objects are converted to associative arrays).
- SWX Data Analyzer: Update Adobe AIR version.
SWX Data Analyzer and Service Explorer: Add documentation and help.- Optimization: Optimize AS2 bytecode assembler
- SWX PHP: Create native C extension for use in deployment
Ports
Various ports are currently available. Look in the SWX Showcase for links.
Aral, I may be interested in getting going with your Ruby port. Get in touch with me about where you want to go from here. Hopefully, I will come get to see you at FF.
Hi Timothy,
Jed Hurt is pretty far in a Ruby port. He just got the SWX Assembler working. It might be worth talking to him to see if you guys can work on this together.
Going to send you his details in an email now.
Please put on the wishlist Flex 2 / AS3 support and “getting started” screencast for PC users. Thanks!
Hey Aral,
I’m gonna have a go at porting the AS classes to haXe, if it’s okay with you? It would be great to have a decent data transfer system in haXe that will work seemlessly with other server platforms… The current haXe remoting infrastructure is fantastic, but it’s JS and Neko only.
Hi Lee,
Please feel free to go right ahead — that would rock!
Do let me know if you need to run anything by me. If you need my email address, send me a bunny message with yours from my blog (http://aralbalkan.com) and I’ll get back to you! Good luck! Can’t wait to see it 
@judah: Cool, it’s on the list
hi aral
Please develop it for support other language such as Thai ,Japanese language.I cannot show data from mySQL.
Where is the ColdFusion port? Is there no ColdFusion port because AMF is built into CF or is this just lacking a developer?
Hi Aral,
could your new SWX-Format also be used in a data-driven (REMOTE-OBJECT) Flex-Application or is there a better approach when using amfphp/remote-object with flex?
Hi John,
Kai König expressed some interest into possibly doing a CF implementation of SWX RPC. As you know there is also a Java implementation in progress and once SWXJava exists, doing SWXCF should be as easy as writing a wrapper on it.
Of course, the proprietary nature of CF means that the full philosophy of SWX cannot be applied on that platform. We cannot create a CF bundle with SWX in it, for example. But I don’t see any reason why there won’t be a CF version SWX RPC in the future.
@Boris: At the moment, you can use SWX RPC with Flex 1.5 but not 2 or 3. This is because the only implementations of SWX RPC available have AVM1 assemblers. This is a limitation of the current implementations, not the RPC protocol itself, and is on the roadmap for development.
We might add a Python implementation in PyAMF soon: http://dev.collab.com/pyamf/ticket/42
Cheers,
Thijs
Hi, it’s been a while, are there any updates coming to SWX soon? I would like to use it in a new AS3 project - still not possible? Thanks and keep up the great work.
It would be great if SWX PHP for AS3 will be released!