BlazeDS uses a messaging technology that sends data in real-time to Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR applications for more responsive rich Internet application (RIA) experiences.
The evolution to more engaging RIAs has created the need for better data connectivity options. Remoting simplifies the reuse of existing server logic automatically marshalling calls between the Flash client and the Java methods on the server.
In addition, the use of a AMF binary data transfer format increases performance, allowing applications to load data up to 10 times faster than with text-based formats such as XML or SOAP.
Here are some key features of "BlazeDS":
Remoting:
· Remoting provides a call and response model for accessing external data from Flex or Ajax applications. Developers can create applications that make asynchronous requests to remote services, including HTTP services, SOAP-based Web services and direct invocation of native Java objects.
· Provides transparent data transfer between ActionScript and Java data types, including data structures that use Java 5 enumerations. High-performance binary data transfer between client and server is dramatically faster than textual protocols, such as SOAP or XML.
Proxy Services:
· The proxy service helps you get around browser sandbox limitations such as "cross domain restrictions" and the inability to get/set certain request headers and see the response code and response body for errors. NOTE: The Proxy Service is specifically for SOAP-compliant web services and HTTP (REST) services.
Software Clustering:
· Supports messaging applications which employ clustering to ensure that messages received by one server in a cluster are forwarded to all subscribed clients connected to other servers. Also supports client-side load balancing so the client can connect to the first available server in a list of URLs.
Action Message Format (AMF) transport protocol:
· Provides a very compact binary format for data serialization/deserialization and remote method invocation. Use of AMF can significantly increase data delivery performance compared to applications using plain XML over HTTP or web services
Runtime Configuration:
· Server-side APIs that let developers create and delete data services, adapters, and destinations, which can be modified even after the server is started. Easily integrate existing code in a Flex or Ajax application with dynamic component creation at runtime.
Open Adapter Architecture:
· Open adapter architecture to integrate with JMS, EJB, ColdFusion components and other data sources. Customizable adapter architecture provides ease-of-connectivity to back-end data systems and applications.
Java Message Service (JMS) Adapter:
· Allows Flex applications to publish and subscribe to JMS topics and queues. Java applications can publish messages to Flex and Java code can respond to messages that Flex applications send. Easily integrate RIAs with back end applications and business processes.
Ajax Client Library:
· Allows developers of RIAs to create advanced user experiences that blend Flex and Ajax with a common programming model for remoting and messaging. Also supports API access to JMS functionality so Java code can easily receive JMS messages and re-publish these messages for consumption by Flex clients using different topics
Server-side component framework integration:
· Developers can directly expose components
Requirements:
· JDK 1.5 or later
· Java Servlet container supporting servlet 2.3 or later
· Flex SDK 3.2 build 3794
· AIR 1.1 runtime
· Flash Player 9
What`s New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· This version fixes known issues in the previous BlazeDS release, but adds no new features.
· This release also includes a documentation update to the "Using the Remoting Service" chapter from the "BlazeDS Developer Guide" describes a resolution to bug BLZ-231 for using the AMFConnection API to call remote objects from Java applications. Download the PDF file to obtain this update.
· BLZ-83 - LC DS now supports NetConnection calls over HTTP from FMS3.
· BLZ-176 - No authentication error when a Producer tries to send a message over streaming channel with insufficient credentials.
· BLZ-188 - MBeanServerGateway.queryNames() and queryMBeans() methods can throw a ClassCastExceptions error.
· BLZ-198 - MBeanServerGateway.getFlexDomains() can throw a StringIndexOutOfBoundsException error.
· BLZ-200 - Setting virtual-host in proxy-config can cause a ConfigurationException error.
· BLZ-201 - Configuring a host and port for proxy setting can cause a ConfigurationException.
· BLZ-210 - Java-Enums not mapped ...
