Hi Franck, I am also impressed at how powerful Flex + web services seem like they could be and I don't think my issue is related to a bug. My complaint is that, as far as I know, there are zero Adobe sponsored articles or tutorials about using web services in anything but the most basic and mundane ways. As both of us have said, web services are the mechanism that will allow the widest adoption and impact of Flex (I also work in an environment where money is not the deciding factor), yet they have seemingly ignored the topic in their communications to developers, in favor FDS at every turn.
Like FDS, web services are a very complex topic, but we have virtually no information on the finer points of their implementation. How does WSDL structure affect Flex's serialization of objects (my current issue)? What differences are there in Flex's treatment of Doc/Literal vs RPC/Encoded web services? Those kinds of things. Without Jesse's sample app on how to use web services with Flex 2 + Cairngorm 2 we'd really be screwed. All I am saying is that the focus on FDS seems unrealistic and counter-productive to the overarching goal of massive Flex adoption. I would venture to guess that the overwhelming majority of organizations (90%+) will not deploy FDS. Whether it be due to financial, platform or other infrastructure reasons, it simply doesn't fit into most stacks. That being said, you would think they could give some more detailed info on how to implement the pieces of the framework that the rest of us are going to use. Like I said, I think Flex is great. Really great. I just don't want to see them blow the adoption challenge. Again. Ben PS - I am using Doc/literal web services --- In flexcoders@yahoogroups.com, "Franck de Bruijn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Ben, > > > > Let's try not to be too pessimistic, although you might be right that > Adobe's focus is more on the FDS part than the webservices part. It must be > a hell of a complicated module and indeed, more money to be gained. > > > > I have quite some experience now with webservices, and they are extremely > difficult to work with. And I don't believe that the first release of a > product can be error free. So far, I am quite impressed with the support of > Flex for webservices, but there will be bugs. It's up to us to signal them. > > > > I agree with you though that webservices is actually the only interesting > way of communication with a back-end. For the near future, I don't expect to > use any of the FDS features for the applications that I wish to build (and > that is for large corporations that could afford the investment of an FDS > module). Although webservices are a pain-in-the-neck, they are the only hope > for a full heterogeneous world of clients and servers. > > > > How are you exposing your webservice? Doc/Literal or RPC/Encoded? > > > > Cheers, > > Franck > > > > > > > > > > _____ > > From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of ben.clinkinbeard > Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 8:59 PM > To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [flexcoders] Re: Clarification needed on how WSDL affects > conversion of AS objects to SOAP > > > > Hi Franck, > > I am pretty sure this is all related to types and the fact that Flex > will serialize primitive types differently than complex ones. The C# > code that creates the WS looks like this for the correctly functioning > elements: > > [XmlArray("ContainersToRetrieve")] > [XmlArrayItem("ContainerType", typeof(ContainerType))] > ContainerType[] containersToRetrieve, > > and like this for the incorrect ones: > > [XmlArray("SelectedPlans")] > [XmlArrayItem("PlanNumber")] > string[] SelectedPlans > > I think the only way to fix this would be to have SelectedPlans be an > array of complex objects rather than an array of strings. > Unfortunately, I don't believe this is an option as there is other > code that relies on this WS. > > Sigh. I really wish there was more focus on, documentation of and > support for web services in Flex. The apparent concentration on FDS > seems misguided to me as I don't see is as being a viable option for > nearly as many organizations as web services are. I suppose I > understand that FDS deployments are where the real money would be for > Adobe, but it rings of the unrealistic and arguably unsuccessful model > upon which Flex 1 and 1.5 were based on. > > Ben > > --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com> ups.com, > "Franck de Bruijn" > <franck.de.bruijn@> wrote: > > > > Hi Ben, > > > > > > > > I'm not sure if I'm following you, but I'll try :). > > > > > > > > I don't have answers, just questions. Let me put them to you: > > > > * Could it maybe be the type="s:string" part? Is 's' pointing to the > > right xsd namespace? > > * I'm curious what is exactly making the 'ContainerType' element in > > your SOAP-message. Is it the name attribute or the type attribute? > If it is > > the type attribute, then for sure in the PlanNumber element it'll > not work > > ... > > * Could the nesting be a problem? What I see from your code example, > > is that the PlanNumber elements are one level deeper than the > ContainerType > > elements. Maybe it's an idea to test a webservice operation that takes > > straight PlanNumber elements? > > > > > > > > Good luck! > > > > Franck > > > > > > > > _____ > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com> ups.com > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com> ups.com] > On > > Behalf Of ben.clinkinbeard > > Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 7:29 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com> ups.com > > Subject: [flexcoders] Re: Clarification needed on how WSDL affects > > conversion of AS objects to SOAP > > > > > > > > I meant to hit preview... here is the rest of my post. > > > > The pieces of the WSDL that correspond are: > > > > <s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="ContainerType" > > type="tns:ContainerType"/> (works correctly) > > > > and > > > > <s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="PlanNumber" > > nillable="true" type="s:string"/> (array is disregarded) > > > > Is nillable="true" causing a problem here? What changes need to be > > made to make Flex treat arrays just like objects, like it does in the > > first operation? > > > > Thanks, > > Ben > > > > --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com> > ups.com, > > "ben.clinkinbeard" > > <ben.clinkinbeard@> wrote: > > > > > > In one part of my app, I am creating my Operation.arguments object > > > like this: > > > > > > args.ContainersToRetrieve = new Array(); > > > args.ContainersToRetrieve.push("Client"); > > > args.ContainersToRetrieve.push("IndustryTrends"); > > > > > > which, as expected, results in a SOAP call like this: > > > > > > <ContainersToRetrieve> > > > <ContainerType>Client</ContainerType> > > > <ContainerType>IndustryTrends</ContainerType> > > > > > > In a different spot, I am constructing a call in the same manner: > > > args.RPRSelections = new Object(); > > > args.RPRSelections.SelectedPlans = new Array(); > > > for(var i:int = 0; i < model.arr_selectedPlans.length; i++) > > > { > > > args.RPRSelections.SelectedPlans.push(model.arr_selectedPlans[i]); > > > } > > > > > > but that produces the following output, seemingly ignoring the > > > SelectedPlans array that was created. > > > > > > <RPRSelections> > > > <item>78167</item> > > > <item>78173</item> > > > > > > -- Flexcoders Mailing List FAQ: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/files/flexcodersFAQ.txt Search Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com Yahoo! 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