Combining Flex with PHP and Open Source

Day 1. Session 1. David Zuckerman from Adobe discusses using PHP as a back-end for Flex data integration.

PEAR is a great PHP library that provides a set of functions that will convert query data to XML, as well as MDB2 (a database abstraction layer like JDBC). PHP5 has moved many of their libraries to native functions, making them much faster. PHP also has 2 AMF frameworks for using remote objects: AMFPHP and WebORB.

AMFPHP’s interface has changed for each release, and David has experienced a few bugs while using it.

WebORB has been very stable and supports both AMF0 and AMF3. Both options require describing the available functions for a class, whether via a “method table” function in the class or a separate XML configuration file. One last bit of sweetness for you: You can easily add PHP support to Flex Builder 2 since it’s based on Eclipse. You start your PHP project and add the Flex “Nature”.

Tags:

Trackbacks & Pings

  1. Flex 2 and .NET at Nate Said on 29 Nov 2006 at 6:35 pm

    […] Again, this was just a short summary - flip through the PDF of the presentation slides, and also check out the AMF resources. Everything I’ve read indicates AMF transmission of data is the way to go no matter the back-end. I’ve now seen AMF working with ColdFusion (7.0.2+), Java (with FDS), PHP, and now .NET. Tags: […]

Comments

  1. nate wrote:

    Update: David will be providing all his code samples on his blog, at the end of the conference.

  2. Homme wrote:

    Dude, the acronyms are killing me! Back er down a notch. Now WTF is AMF and is MDB2 a PHP layer? What the hell is eclipse?

  3. nate wrote:

    Hey Hommme, I think I can help here:

    WTF is the World Taekwondo Federation

    AMF is Action Message Format - used for Flash Remoting.

    MDB2 is a database abstraction layer for PHP. It was modeled after JDBC for Java.

    Eclipse is an advanced IDE built using Java technology that enables development in many languages, and has fostered a plethora of 3rd-party plugins for additional features. If you haven’t already, check it out. The new Flex Builder IDE from Adobe is built on top of the open-source Eclipse.

  4. Homme wrote:

    Sweet, thanks for clarifying each of those.

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