Flash Speaks Actionscript

AMFPHP has been stirring up some well earned interest lately within the Flash/Flex community. If you are not familiar with AMFPHP, it is a free open-source PHP implementation of the Action Message Format(AMF). AMF allows for binary serialization of ActionScript native types and objects to be sent to server side services. If you’re one of those individuals looking to learn more on AMFPHP, be sure to check out Lee Brimelow’s 2 part series as he introduces AMFPHP and demonstrates a few examples on how to get data in and out of Flash.

Introduction to AMFPHP 1

Introduction to AMFPHP 1: Part 1 of a 2 Part Series

Lee breaks down how to install AMFPHP and create a simple service that sends email.  This video does a nice job setting you up to learn AMFPHP by giving a run down of what AMFPHP is and what it can do.

Introduction to AMFPHP 2

Introduction to AMFPHP 2: Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

In this tutorial Lee will show you how to directly return database records to Flash using AMFPHP.

Any Flash developer who has worked on RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) that needed to interact with PHP knows that this isn’t a simple process at all. While in the past the only two options to send and load data from PHP were LoadVars and XML, AMFPHP looks to simplify the process from the server and the client side.

Imagine writing a function on the server that queries the database and returns an array, then calling that function via Actionscript to retrieve your data. This pretty much sums up what AMFPHP does. It eases the complexity when dealing with loads of data. Read more on AMFPHP.