We need to analyze the movie's input parameter, showID; if it's not present, the movie should show the "Idle" message. It is very easy to pass the input parameter to the show; just add it to the movie URL (i.e., "smallworld.swf? showID=1").

if (showID==null)
{
initMsg._visible=true;
waitMsg._visible=false;
}
else
{
initMsg._visible=false;
waitMsg._visible=true;
}

The following lines establish the connection to the server's gateway and properly initialize Flash Remoting.

NetServices.setDefaultGatewayURL
("http://localhost/publications/Slide
Shows/gateway.aspx");
connection=NetServices.create
GatewayConnection();

Now we are ready to connect to the service itself. Note that the path to the service must match the path to the ASP.NET application; in our case the application is called SlideShows and is under the publications directory. slideService=connection.getService("publications/SlideShows");

As soon as we are connected to the service we can call the method. The name of the method matches the name of the appropriate ASP.NET page that contains FlashGateway.Flash control (without extension). The first parameter of the call is the response handler class; the rest is the data that will be sent to the server:

slideService.Slides
Manager(new AsdResult(),showID);

The response handler class has to have two methods, onResult for success, and onStatus for exception (see Listing 7).

The server returns an array of images in which each element contains the image URL and the name of the slide; we will load the images using the loadjpg function and store them and their names into the array.

For an explanation of loadjpg method, see http://actionscript-toolbox.com/samplemx_loadjpg.php.

Conclusion
The system we created uses three very different technologies. Every technology has its own use; we use J2EE for scalability, ASP.NET for the ease and speed of development, and Macromedia Flash for its UI and graphics capabilities. I am not suggesting that every system must use this kind of architecture; a lot of systems can be developed on a single platform or technology. However, when needed, let's use what is the best on the market and get the best out of it!

About the Author
Roman Smolgovsky is responsible for architecting industry-leading flight intelligence solutions as well as managing the product development process at FlyteComm, Inc. He brings over 15 years of experience in system architecture, design, implementation, and deployment of software solutions and has a history of leading development teams to success. Roman has an MS in computer science from the University of Radio Engineering Minsk, Belarus. romans@flytecomm.com

	



Listing 1

<project name="ejblink" default="all" basedir=".">
	…………………………………………………………
	<taskdef name="servicegen"
	 classname="weblogic.ant.taskdefs.webservices.servicegen.ServiceGenTask"/>
	…………………………………………………………
	<target name="ear" depends="build-ejb">
		…………………………………………………………
		<servicegen destEar="<name of the EAR file>" 
	warName="<name of the WAR file>" contextURI="<URL of web
					  services root>">
		<service ejbJar="<name of the EJB JAR file>" 
				  targetNamespace="<namespace name>" 
	serviceName="<service name>" serviceURI="<path to web service>" 
				  generateTypes="True" 
				 expandMethods="True"/>
		</servicegen>
	</target>
	…………………………………………………………
</project>

Listing 2

public final class ShowsResult implements Serializable
{
	private int showID;
	private String showName;

	public ShowsResult()
	{
	}

	public ShowsResult(int showID, String showName)
	{
		this.showID=showID;
		this.showName=showName;
	}

	public int getShowID()
	{
		return this.showID;
	}

	public void setShowID(int showID)
	{
		this.showID=showID;
	}

	public String getSlideName()
	{
		return this.showName;
	}

	public void setSlideName(String showName)
	{
		this.showName=showName;
	}
}

Listing 3

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>  
  <system.web>
	…………
    <sessionState ...../>    
    <httpModules>
	<add name="GatewayController" 
	type="FlashGateway.Controller.GatewayController,flashgateway"/>
    </httpModules>
   <globalization ...../>   
	…………
 </system.web>
</configuration>

Listing 4

<%@ Register TagPrefix="Macromedia" Namespace="FlashGateway"
 Assembly="flashgateway" %>
<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="SlidesManager.aspx.cs"
 AutoEventWireup="false"
 Inherits="SlideShows.SlidesManager" %>
<MACROMEDIA:FLASH id="flash" runat="Server"></MACROMEDIA:FLASH>

Listing 5

using System;
………
using FlashGateway.IO;
using SlideShows.SlideShowsWebService;

namespace SlideShows
{
	public class SlidesManager : System.Web.UI.Page
	{
		protected FlashGateway.Flash flash;

		private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
		{
			if (flash.Params.Count<1)
			{
				throw new Exception("Parameter is missing!");
			}

			int showID=Convert.ToInt32(flash.Params[0]);
			DataTable tbl=new DataTable();
			tbl.Columns.Add("ImageName",typeof(String));
			tbl.Columns.Add("Url",typeof(String));

			using(SlideShowService ssSrv=new SlideShowService())
			{
				SlidesResult [] res=ssSrv.getSlides(showID);

				foreach(SlidesResult sr in res)
				{
					DataRow dr=tbl.NewRow();
					dr.BeginEdit();
					dr["IMAGENAME"]=sr.slideName;
					dr["URL"]=sr.slideURL;
					dr.EndEdit();
					tbl.Rows.Add(dr);
				}
			}
			flash.DataSource=tbl;
			flash.DataBind();	
		}
		#region Web Form Designer generated code
			...........
		#endregion
	}
}

Listing 6

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
		………………………………….
		Hashtable hst=new Hashtable();
		hst.Add("param1",param);
		hst.Add("param2",param);
flash.Result=hst;
   }


Listing 7

function AsdResult(result)
{
	this.onResult=function(result)
	{
		_global.imgArr.clear();
		_global.namesArr.clear();
		_global.imagesToLoad=result.getLength();
		for(var i=0;i<_global.imagesToLoad;i++)	
		{
			var hld="h"+i;
			image.loadjpg(result.getItemAt(i).Url, hld);
			_global.imgArr.push(image[hld]);
			_global.namesArr.push(result.getItemAt(i).ImageName);
		}
	}
	
	this.onStatus=function(status)
	{
		stop();
		trace("Error "+status.description);
		_global.logStatus(status);
	}
}