Flex: testing/running php proxy locally

When accessing URL’s through HttpServices from a remote domain, it often works fine on the local system but fails to connect when the swf is uploaded to the web (google searh ‘flex crossdomain.xml proxy’).

A common way around this is to place a PHP file on your web server that acts as a go-between for the remote site and the swf (an example discussed on Dennis Jaamaan’s site, with proxy code).

This article explains how to setup a local PHP server, and test your PHP proxy locally through Flex Builder 3

1. Download a PHP server: http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php

2. Install it, leaving whatever default settings it suggests.

3. Click the WampServer taskbar icon, and go to PHP/PHP_extensions/ and click php_curl (need to enable this to use the example below). Then click Start All Services & Put Online.

4. Create a php file named flexProxy.php and put in the code below:

<?php
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 30;
$userAgent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];

$url = $_REQUEST['url'];
$place = $_REQUEST['place'];

$fullGoogleWeatherPath = $url . $place;

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$fullGoogleWeatherPath);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $userAgent);

$response = curl_exec($ch);

if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo curl_error($ch);
} else {
    curl_close($ch);
    echo $response;
}
?>

5. Save this file and put it in the localhost directory: C:\wamp\www\

6. Now for the Flex part. In a new project, create a webservice like the following one:

<mx:HTTPService url="http://localhost/flexProxy.php?"
 	id="googleWeatherService"
 	method="POST" showBusyCursor="true" resultFormat="e4x"
 	fault="serviceFault(event)" result="googleResult(event)">
 	<mx:request xmlns="">
 		<url>http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=</url>
 		<place>
 			{googleRequestString}
 		</place>
 	</mx:request>
</mx:HTTPService>

<mx:TextArea x="459" y="133" width="419" height="297"
         id="googleResultTextArea"
         text="{googleWeatherService.lastResult.weather}" />

7. Somewhere in you code set the googleRequestString and call the web service:

googleRequestString = “Dublin,Ireland”;
googleWeatherService.send();

This should then populate the textArea as its text is bound to the lastResult. Nice one.

8. When you want to load your code to the web, change the following bit of code:
<mx:HTTPService url=”http://localhost/flexProxy.php?&#8221;
to
<mx:HTTPService url=”assets/flexProxy.php”

and make sure that you have included an ‘assets’ forder in your source with ‘flexProxy.php’ inside it.

9. In Flex Builder 3 go to Projects, Export release build, and copy all the files/folders in the release-build folder to your web server.

10. Bada bing, you’ve got google weather data (how do these thing always work out to 10 steps?)

Update: to test for errors/conflicts directly put the following in your browser:
http://localhost/flexProxy.php?url=http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=&place=Dublin,Ireland
You wont see the xml response, but you should get no errors.

Use http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=Dublin,Ireland to see the xml.

Tags: crossdomain.xml, Flex, local, locally, PHP, Proxy, server