Real Time Messaging

Finally, after two days of hard work and lots of hick ups , I was able to implement real time messaging between C# and Flex.

Let's get into code real fast as I know it must have been very frustrating trying to get it done (without any documentation from Fluorine or any help, I was unable to find it on google too, surprising).

The example I show here is same as one of the samples provided by Fluorine however, I think if you are able to run this sample by your own code you can develop an application that is able to send messages as your requirements are. The example I used is of Date feed. We will send send date and time from the server side (C#) to the flex RTMP client and display it here.

The C# code is as below. Create an empty solution add a Fluorine class library and a Fluorine Website to the solution. In the class library add a class "DateFeedService" as below.

<br /> using System;<br /> using System.Collections;<br /> using System.Threading;<br /> <br /> using FluorineFx;<br /> using FluorineFx.Messaging;<br /> using FluorineFx.Messaging.Messages;<br /> <br /> namespace ServiceLibrary<br /> {<br /> /// <summary><br /> /// Summary description for DateFeedService.<br /> /// </summary><br /> [RemotingService]<br /> public class DateFeedService<br /> {<br /> private static Thread _thread;<br /> private static bool _isRunning = false;<br /> static object _objLock = new object();<br /> <br /> public DateFeedService()<br /> {<br /> }<br /> <br /> public void toggle()<br /> {<br /> lock (_objLock)<br /> {<br /> if (!_isRunning)<br /> {<br /> _isRunning = true;<br /> _thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Push));<br /> _thread.Start();<br /> }<br /> else<br /> {<br /> _isRunning = false;<br /> _thread.Join();<br /> _thread = null;<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> <br /> private void Push()<br /> {<br /> while (_isRunning)<br /> {<br /> MessageBroker msgBroker = MessageBroker.GetMessageBroker(null);<br /> DateTime now = DateTime.Now;<br /> AsyncMessage msg = new AsyncMessage();<br /> msg.destination = "datefeed";<br /> msg.clientId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("D");<br /> msg.messageId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("D");<br /> msg.timestamp = Environment.TickCount;<br /> Hashtable body = new Hashtable();<br /> body.Add("userId", "daemon");<br /> body.Add("msg", now.ToString());<br /> msg.body = body;<br /> msgBroker.RouteMessage(msg);<br /> Thread.Sleep(1000);<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> <br />


And the Flex side code is as below.

<br /> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" width="100%" height="100%" verticalScrollPolicy="off" horizontalScrollPolicy="off" creationComplete="initMessaging()"><br /> <mx:Script><br /> <![CDATA[ import mx.messaging.channels.StreamingAMFChannel; import mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel; import com.MyCompany.MyProject.event.GetMessageEvent; import mx.messaging.events.MessageEvent; import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent; public function initMessaging():void { myConsumer.subscribe(); } public function clickHandler():void { feeder.toggle(); } public function messageHandler(event:MessageEvent):void { var body:Object = event.message.body; lab1.text = body.userId + ": " + body.msg; } ]]><br /> </mx:Script><br /> <br /> <mx:RemoteObject id="feeder" destination="fluorine"><br /> <mx:method name="toggle"/> <br /> </mx:RemoteObject><br /> <br /> <mx:Consumer id="myConsumer" destination="MyMessaging" message="messageHandler(event)"/><br /> <br /> <br /> <mx:Button label="Start" click="clickHandler()"/><br /> <mx:Label id="lab1"/><br /> <br /> </mx:Application><br /> <br /> <br />


Now comes the most important (and undocumented) part that will instruct the .NET side to start a RTMP server and listen on a particular port, this is the configuration part.

Since we are using Remoting and Messaging both in the same application we will have to configure both for the application to work.

Moreover, configuration is required in the Flex and .NET side as well.

The configuration for the flex side is as below:

<br /> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <br /> <services-config><br /> <services><br /> <service id="remoting-service" class="flex.messaging.services.RemotingService" messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.RemotingMessage"><br /> <destination id="fluorine"><br /> <channels><br /> <channel ref="my-amf"/><br /> </channels><br /> <properties><br /> <source>ServiceLibrary.DateFeedService</source><br /> </properties><br /> </destination><br /> </service><br /> <br /> <service id="message-service" class="flex.messaging.services.MessageService" messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.AsyncMessage"><br /> <adapters><br /> <adapter-definition id="messagingAdapter" class="FluorineFx.Messaging.Services.Messaging.MessagingAdapter" default="true"/><br /> </adapters><br /> <destination id="MyMessaging"><br /> <adapter ref="messagingAdapter"/><br /> <channels><br /> <channel ref="my-rtmp"/><br /> </channels><br /> <properties><br /> <source>*</source><br /> <network><br /> <!-- The session-timeout element specifies the idle time in minutes before a subscriber is unsubscribed. When you set the value to 0 (zero), subscribers are not forced to unsubscribe automatically. The default value is 20. --><br /> <session-timeout>20</session-timeout><br /> </network><br /> </properties><br /> </destination><br /> </service><br /> <br /> </services><br /> <br /> <channels><br /> <channel-definition id="my-amf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel"><br /> <endpoint uri="http://localhost:3262/MyWebsite/Gateway.aspx" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint"/><br /> <properties><br /> <!-- <legacy-collection>true</legacy-collection> --><br /> </properties><br /> </channel-definition><br /> <br /> <channel-definition id="my-rtmp" class="mx.messaging.channels.RTMPChannel"><br /> <endpoint uri="rtmp://{server.name}:2037" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.RTMPEndpoint"/><br /> <!-- <properties><br /> <idle-timeout-minutes>20</idle-timeout-minutes><br /> </properties><br /> --><br /> </channel-definition> <br /> <br /> </channels><br /> </services-config><br />


Configuration for the C# side is as below. These files must be located in the Fluorine website we created earlier within the WEB-INF/flex folder.

Three files are necessary.
1. services-config.xml
<br /> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <br /> <services-config><br /> <services><br /> <service-include file-path="remoting-config.xml" /><br /> <service-include file-path="messaging-config.xml" /><br /> <!-- <service-include file-path="data-management-config.xml" /> --><br /> </services><br /> <br /> <security><br /> </security><br /> <br /> <channels><br /> <channel-definition id="my-amf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel"><br /> <endpoint uri="http://{server.name}:{server.port}/{context.root}/Gateway.aspx" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint"/><br /> <properties><br /> <!-- <legacy-collection>true</legacy-collection> --><br /> </properties><br /> </channel-definition><br /> <br /> <channel-definition id="my-rtmp" class="mx.messaging.channels.RTMPChannel"><br /> <endpoint uri="rtmp://{server.name}:2037" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.RTMPEndpoint"/><br /> <properties><br /> <idle-timeout-minutes>20</idle-timeout-minutes><br /> </properties><br /> </channel-definition><br /> <br /> </channels><br /> </services-config><br />

2. remoting-config.xml
<br /> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br /> <service id="remoting-service" class="flex.messaging.services.RemotingService" messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.RemotingMessage"><br /> <br /> <!-- DO NOT CHANGE <adapters> SECTION--><br /> <adapters><br /> <adapter-definition id="dotnet" class="FluorineFx.Remoting.RemotingAdapter" default="true"/><br /> </adapters><br /> <br /> <default-channels><br /> <channel ref="my-amf"/><br /> </default-channels><br /> <br /> <destination id="fluorine"><br /> <properties><br /> <source>*</source><br /> </properties><br /> </destination><br /> </service><br />

3. messaging-config.xml
<br /> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br /> <service id="message-service" class="flex.messaging.services.MessageService" messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.AsyncMessage"><br /> <br /> <!-- DO NOT CHANGE <adapters> SECTION--><br /> <adapters><br /> <adapter-definition id="messagingAdapter" class="FluorineFx.Messaging.Services.Messaging.MessagingAdapter" default="true"/><br /> </adapters><br /> <br /> <br /> <destination id="MyMessaging"><br /> <adapter ref="messagingAdapter"/><br /> <properties><br /> <network><br /> <session-timeout>0</session-timeout><br /> </network><br /> </properties><br /> <channels><br /> <channel ref="my-rtmp"/><br /> </channels><br /> </destination><br /> </service><br />

The first configuration file sets up channels for Remoting and messaging and instructs to load the remaining two config files for the services section.
The other two files deal with the configuration of the messaging and remoting adapters. The messaging config file configures the application to start RTMP server on a particular port and listen for incoming requests from subscribers.

Hope the above example help you to send real time messages to your flex application from C#.
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