User Guide

Workflow for creating and deploying applications 27
Workflow for creating and deploying
applications
You use the Flash authoring tool to create your application’s client component, which runs in
Flash Player. The Flash SWF file provides the application’s user interface, and also contains
ActionScript for connecting to, and managing interactions with, Flash Media Server. For
more information on client-side Media ActionScript, see the Client-Side ActionScript
Language Reference for Flash Media Server 2.
The server component consists, minimally, of an application folder you’ve created on the
computer that’s running Flash Media Server. This folder can optionally contain server-side
ActionScript (ASC) files that enable control of shared-state information, provide the logic for
mediating real-time interactions among multiple users, or communicate with external
resources, if necessary.
You can write ASC files in Flash Professional, a text editor, or a JavaScript editor. For
information on server-side ActionScript, see the Server-Side ActionScript Language Reference.
To deploy an application, the client and server files need to be published to their proper
locations. For applications deployed over the web, client files—the Flash application (SWF
file) and any required HTML wrapper code—need to be published to a directory on a web
server.
NOTE
You can optionally include a secure.asc or secure.js file in the application folder. This file
is loaded automatically before any other server-side script files and lets you implement
secure system calls. For more information, see “Forcing the Player Settings panel to
appear” on page 91.
NOTE
You can test SWF files by running them locally; they don’t need to be served from a web
server to communicate with Flash Media Server.