Flex: Using Responder with WebService

As a newbie to Flex, I faced a scenario where I had to consume a web service within the Flex 3 ActionScript class using the class mx.rpc.soap.mxml.WebService.

On utilizing Google, I came across of blog’s which published the code that I required.
On implementing the code, strangely in my case the Result Handler and Fault Handler event handlers never got triggered, even after the web service operation had completed

So I made use of the mx.rpc.Responder class which I attached to mx.rpc.AsyncToken object returned by the operation.send( ) method. The Result and Fault handlers are attached to the Responder class.

Now the event handler’s are getting triggered as soon as the Asynchronous call to the web service ends and I am able to retrieve the data.

Code Snippet:

package testservice
{
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.rpc.AsyncToken;
import mx.rpc.Responder;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.rpc.soap.mxml.Operation;
import mx.rpc.soap.mxml.WebService;

public class CallService
{

private var serverData:ArrayCollection;

public function CallService ()
{
super();

var webService:WebService = new WebService();
webService.wsdl = "http://xyz.com/?wsdl";
webService.useProxy = false;
webService.loadWSDL();

var operation:Operation = new Operation(null,"OperationName");
operation.resultFormat = "object";

webService.operations = [operation];

var asyn:AsyncToken = webService.getOperation("OperationName ").send();
var responder:Responder = new Responder( resultHandler, faultHandler );
asyn.addResponder(responder);

}

private function faultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void{
Alert.show(event.fault.faultString);
}

private function resultHandler(event:ResultEvent):void{
serverData = new ArrayCollection(event.result.source);
}
}
}

Thundering Clouds

Hello guys… hope you all are doing fine…..

Couple of weeks back I had a very interesting email conversation with one of my friends over Cloud Computing. The debate was whether Cloud OS which is a facet of cloud computing would stand tall and adhere to the ever growing appetite of future humans or should I say humanoids. Thought I would preserve the conversation here. So here it goes...

Mail by Me

Hi All,

Clouds are thundering my friends...

Check out this tool which claim to take computing to the web

http://lifehacker.com/5208903/icloud-takes-your-computing-to-the-web

The article also spoke about the two cloud operating systems EyeOS and Glide.

http://lifehacker.com/364873/set-up-a-web+based-desktop-with-eyeos

http://lifehacker.com/394146/glide-web+based-desktop-now-syncs-local-files

Microsoft has Azure to take over the clouds.

I am sure google would have something coming soon... after all google would just need to integrate its existing stuffs.

Geekiii...

Friend

This looks pretty useless to me. For one you need to boot into your present OS and then log on to the internet and then again boot into your web based OS. Its like doing a remote desktop to a machine on the internet and then using it. Secondly you'll need very good internet connection (in India this is a myth).

I think the future is in low cost low weight netbooks. You can carry them anywhere you want and they have very good battery life.

For LAN based environments this may just be useful, but there's already no.of solutions available like thin clients which many universities already use.

Ameya, I am curios to know as to why you think this is a useful product?

Mail by Me

Hi Friend,

Well I am just curious about every second thing.. but thats just me.

Yes you are right in terms of saying its pretty useless considering the current day usages.

But these are the initial steps towards cloud computing which I believe is the future of High speed on the run computing.

Internet speed is a dismal in India, but that’s just India where internet is still a commodity rather then a “Janam sid Adhikar” ;)

We rank 115th in the Internet speed chart.

South Korea has an average Internet speed of 15mbps

http://www.techpark.net/2009/04/08/internet-connection-speed-the-top-10-countries/

I think that should a sufficient speed to run application like Cloud OS.

Companies like Google had already proved that internet storage had become inexpensive.

Low cost low weight notebooks are the future, but they still might be running a hefty OS like Win VistaXXX which would require XGB RAM.

Current scenario: I asked my office hardware people to upgrade my Lappy with 2 GB RAM and they laughed right on my face.
“2GB are you serious”

But I still managed to successfully upgrade my office Lappy from 512 to 1 GB RAM... and that is an achievement as only few manager have got it.

You must have heard of Kindle 2
Check this out
http://astore.amazon.com/kinddle-20/detail/B00154JDAI
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/kindle-2-wont-change-your-life-someday-kindle-3-will

Approx Rs. 16000 in India

This slim device is Wireless enabled and has a built in browser using which you can download eBooks.

Drawback the browsing is grayscale, but it supports display of Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC...

You never know Kindle 3 might have a beefed up processor and browser which would allow us to render better graphics.

And such a device could become one of the first clients of Cloud OS

Kindle 3 with Cloud OS - could be renamed as Low Cost Low Weight notebooks in the future.

Regarding on the run internet, cities like Taipei have proved the ability of wireless internet by becoming a completely Wireless city
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei

Clouds OS are no way replacements for Desktop OS, it would certain have its own set of Enterprise user and on the run users.

Slowly we might even see the gap between Desktop OS and Cloud OS becoming shorter and shorter.

Well it’s all in the future… and we all would certainly have fun seeing how it unfolds.

Friend

Hi Ameya,

I somehow think that there are just too many variables that go into using cloud computing. To name a few:

• Stable browser
• Good Internet connection
• What OS will the cloud deliver you? Do you like this OS? Does it run all the applications you want?
• If its Windoze, you'd better know for sure that its going to come at a good cost! (unlike free google products/services)
• Windoze (unfortunately) is still the most widely used OS. Most useable softwares on Windoze come at a cost, who pays for it?
• If you need 2GB ram to run applications on your windoze lappy, then most likely you'll need the same amount on your part of cloud.

Its very likely your cost/convienience ratio boils down to the same as you would have in a normal lappy scenario. If they really manage to get all of this sorted out, think about the blow it would give to the hardware manufacturers! I am pretty sure hardware manufacturers would come up with something even more fantastic/competitve to offset this! .
This sounds like a tough sell to me, but as you rightly said that if gaints like google come into this they could provide more value and make this a reality!

As far as Kindle goes I would much rather put in a few more $$ and get a netbook which can do a lot more things for me and probably as portable as a Kindle. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product1000.html

Bulky OS are going to be a thing of the past, Windows 7 promises to be sleeker and more fun to use. I am yet to try out the beta version.

Mail by Me

Just to share a news article which I had read a couple of days ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7969458.stm

It was about the fight for ownership rights in cloud computing strategy and the proposal to make the tech open...

Big brand companies including Google are actively intrested in it.

If Google and Nasa are intrested in something that means their labs are already working on it ;)

Home Sweet Home

There were couple of very interesting blogs recently in SDN.

1) Home energy monitoring with iPhone and Twitter
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/13731

AND

2) The Open Cloud Manifesto
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/13720

In the first blog the writer demonstrated a geeky application which helped him to monitor the real time energy consumption at his home. He could monitor it via iPhone or through a web page http://www.astill.org/house/showdata.php which provides a dashboard display of real time energy consumption. The dashboard is created using SAP's tool Xcelsius. The system also Tweets the writer (www.twitter.com) if there is an over consumption.

The second blog spoke about the in news hot hot technology 'Cloud Computing' and its potential in providing Enterprise Solutions.

After reading the blogs I was just having some wild thought, so I decided to bore you down with it...

Cloud computing is a rapidly growing tech and knowing or unknowing we are the user of this tech in our day to day life.
Google and it various services could be argued to be examples of cloud computing...

Just for fun sake what would happen if we mix both the tech's mentioned in the above two blogs. My guess would end up having a delicious chocolate cake right out of the oven.

Hypothetically speaking we could come out with generic cloud computing solution and establish a company name Badal(Cloud) Enterprise ;).

People would register for this solutions to maintain and monitor their house hold energy consumption and the various other 'Make them lazy services'.

I was always fascinated by the documentaries shown in Discovery channel about future homes. It talked about how the future homes would be smart enough and filled with gadget to carter to our day to day needs and make our life more comfortable (... and eventually increase our belly size which in my case is already exponentially increasing).

But making each and every house smart might have its own heavy expense attached to it. Imagine running a mini server plugged to the hitech gadgets

How about we take the smart stuff out of the house and throw it into the clouds (managed by companies like Badal enterprise).

In that way we could build the houses and it gadgets - enabled with pluggable sockets which could be seamlessly plugged to the clouds created by our company "The Badal Entrprise - bEnt.com " and thus save people's money which they would rather enjoy spending on their wines (We could also think about automatic delivery of wines based on the inventory figures retrieved by our cloud from the pluggable wine cellar, and thus making double profit... yo).


Hmm... what could the benefit of such a techie home:

1. You left in a hurry and forgot to switch off your AC/Heater. Don't worry the bEnt.com is at your services... just tweet me
2. Your fridge inventory of vegetables, ice creams, chocolates and milk and of course beer is running low. Don't you worry your pluggable fridge had already informed bEnt.com - and by the time you return home "Goods would be delivered at you doorsteps Madam (and of course billed on your husbands credit card)"
3. Its a hot day and your are on my way home. Tweet to bEnt.com using your iPhone and val la you will find your home having the perfect temperature.
4. I want the food to be hot by the time my children reach home from school... tweet bEnt.com and we will take care of your microwave.(PS: we still can't serve food, we still have 5 yrs to go for household robots to be available in market)
5. Tweet from bEnt.com: 'Hi George you have a termite attack on your attic, should I inform pest control...? just say Yes and leave the rest to me'
6. Tweet from bEnt.com: '<shout...> George you son Tom has been playing XBox since last 3 hours, should I switch off the TV?'
7. Tweet from the (perky) bEnt.com again: '<whisper...>Your daughter has brought her boyfriend home... psst... should I call the Police ?
   

I am sure you people would come up with many more ideas .

Imagine what help smart homes would be to people with disabilities.

I am sure there is lot of work going on in this front.
A simple google search gave me the following links:
http://www.smarthome.com/_/index.aspx
http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJSH/

I think giving smart homes a Midas touch of Cloud Computing would give leaps and bounds to its core abilities.

A Positive Step

 

A positive news during recession time.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India_will_be_big_tech_innovator/rssarticleshow/4279997.cms

But I beleive we still are decades behind in terms of innovation... although it might be my ignorance or unawareness.

The second page of the article enlighted some good grass root level innovations, but I don't think that they are funded across the country.
It also talked about the IT and mobile telephony powered healthcare delivery system, which is already in place but not across the country. BJP's election IT portfolio promised to extensive implement the use of this healthcare system in the remote rural parts of india.

 

Lets hope that the article proves to be true...

Nanotechnology - The future for science students

For around half hour today I was browsing the Internet for Nanotech news... and yes it was on office time. I was quiet astonished on the kind of development that has been done on this front.

 

It all started after reading a blog written in the Leading Edge Forum - a forum maintained by CSC for internal publishing. http://www.csc.com/ee/lef/

 

 

After reading I realized that for the next 50 years or so there is immense scope of research related work in Nanotechnology.

 

Last year there was report that the Chinese government had huge plans for Nanotechnology http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/the-chinese-gov.html#previouspost

 

So how do our students get themselves started in Nanotechnology. Are there any courses in India? A simple Google search left me baffled that there are lot of course conducted by our countries various universities and research organizations

 

Amity University:

http://amity.edu/admission/programoffered.asp?stream=Both&campus1=Both&discipline=18#A12029QQQ

 

Others including IIT kanpur:

http://www.winentrance.com/nanotech.htm

 

and many more…

 

This link show the research going around in universities and Research Centers

http://www.indiananotechnology.com/uploads/Nanotechnology_Research_in_India_By_U-Shu_Nanotech_rev_B.pdf

 

There are research related to Nanobiology, Nanomaterials, Nanocomposites and what not...

 

More blogs related to Nanotech

http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/science_technology/

 

Have fun… and do share your thoughts.

Claytronics - one more leap for Nanobots

Well well well yesterday I saw one of the series in Discovery Channel - "Next World: The Future"

They discussed about all the fascinating research that is gone around the world.

One of research concept that gave me goose bumps was the one named Claytronics

If you do a simple define:claytronics search on Google you would get the following definition

"Dubbed 'Claytronics' by Carnegie Mellon University, this is an emerging field of engineering concerning reconfigurable nanoscale robots"

Simple enough definition isn't it?

The first invention that Carnegie Mellon University is trying to implement using this technology is to create a device which would enable you to send and receive 3D fax.

If the research goes successful then you would be able to:
1) Create a 3D model of an object (Eg: Architect a building) on your office table using just your hands.
2) Color the model by giving command using you finger tips
3) Fax the model to your client - and the client would see a 3D model miraculously emerge in his office table 3D fax receiver.

3D Faxing is just one of the many things that can be done using claytronics

If you too want to get goose bumps then go to http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/ and go to the 'Multimedia' page and check out the video named "Future Ad" which elaborates the immense future possibilities of this technology if the research is a success, which I certainly pray to be.

Really Scary Stuff

Really Scary Stuff...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29147679/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6901573/

I guess our future rocket would have laser guns mounted on their nose to disintegrate the orbitting debris in an attempt to just get out of earths atmosphere... its that scary

Our scientist must be already on their way to invent a gismo to solve this seemingly unavoidable problem of the future.

At that orbitting speed even a debri of a size of a marble would be a disaster