BlazeDS Java to ActionScript

Question

Hello, I am trying to send certain data types from a Java
back-end through BlazeDS to my Flex clients. I wrote a ant script
that takes JAXWS generated types and converts them into
ActionScript types. One problem that I am facing is that the Seq
classes are not being translated. What I mean is that JAXWS classes
that contain List get wrapped into a class name ClassBSeq which
contains a List<T> object. From the Java back-end I send the
JAXWS types in a List to BlazeDS. The List contain a Seq classes
that have List<t>. It seems on the client side that the main
List gets translated but any List after that are null. Seems like
it translated the top level List but no other List after that. Is
there a way to tell the channel, in this case a
StreamingAMFChannel, to transverse the object being translated?
Here some code to help with my explanation.
The Java Type:
package handjam.gmiContainer;
import java.util.List;
public class GMIContainer {
public List dataObjects;
public String methodName;
public GMIContainer() {
public void setMethodName(String methodName) {
this.methodName=methodName;
public void setDataObjects(List dataObjects) {
this.dataObjects=dataObjects;
The ActionScript Type:
package generated.handjam.gmiContainer
import flash.utils.*;
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="handjam.gmiContainer.GMIContainer")]
public class GMIContainer
private var _dataObjects:ArrayCollection;
private var _methodName:String;
public function GMIContainer()
public function get dataObjects():ArrayCollection {
return _dataObjects;
public function get methodName():String {
return _methodName;
public function set
dataObjects(dataObjects:ArrayCollection):void {
trace("Setting the dataObject from Java = " + dataObjects);
this._dataObjects=dataObjects;
public function set methodName(methodName:String):void {
trace("Setting the methods Name from Java = " + methodName);
this._methodName=methodName;
Code setting the List:
GMIContainer container = new GMIContainer();
List data = new ArrayList();
data.add(id);
data.add(mapItems);
mapItems is a MapItemTypeSeq Java Type
package mil.army.monmouth.webmap.data;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlType;
* Array of MapItemType
* <p>Java class for MapItemTypeSeq complex type.
* <p>The following schema fragment specifies the
expected content contained within this class.
* <pre>
* &lt;complexType name="MapItemTypeSeq">
* &lt;complexContent>
* &lt;restriction base="{
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}anyType">
* &lt;sequence>
* &lt;element name="mapItems" type="{
http://www.gmiweb.com/schema/mapdata}MapItemType"
maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0"/>
* &lt;/sequence>
* &lt;/restriction>
* &lt;/complexContent>
* &lt;/complexType>
* </pre>
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "MapItemTypeSeq", propOrder = {
"mapItems"
public class MapItemTypeSeq {
protected List<MapItemType> mapItems;
* Gets the value of the mapItems property.
* <p>
* This accessor method returns a reference to the live list,
* not a snapshot. Therefore any modification you make to the
* returned list will be present inside the JAXB object.
* This is why there is not a <CODE>set</CODE>
method for the mapItems property.
* <p>
* For example, to add a new item, do as follows:
* <pre>
* getMapItems().add(newItem);
* </pre>
* <p>
* Objects of the following type(s) are allowed in the list
* {@link MapItemType }
public List<MapItemType> getMapItems() {
if (mapItems == null) {
mapItems = new ArrayList<MapItemType>();
return this.mapItems;
Here is what the JAXWS Java class look like:
package mil.army.monmouth.webmap.data {
import flash.utils.*;
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="mil.army.monmouth.webmap.data.MapItemTypeSeq")]
public class MapItemTypeSeq {
public var _mapItems:ArrayCollection;
public function get mapItems():ArrayCollection {
return _mapItems;
public function set mapItems(mapItems:ArrayCollection):void
this._mapItems=mapItems;
when the message comes to my client the flashlog.txt tells me
something like this.
GMIContainer => MapItemTypeSeq
_mapItems = (null)
mapItems = null
Has anyone else ran into this issue with complicated data
objects? All examples I have seen uses very simple
data types.
Thanks for your help,
dk

Answer 1

Hi Martin. The way that AMF serialization/deserialization works for BlazeDS is the same regardless of which service is being used, so yes that code will work for messaging as well. On the server, the serialization/deserialization of messages happens at the endpoint. For an incoming message for example, the endpoint deserializes the message and then hands it off to the MessageBroker which decides which service/destination to deliver the message to.
That was a good question. Thanks for asking it. Lots of people are used to doing custom serialization/deserialization with the RPC services (RemoteObject/RemotingService) but I'm not sure everyone realizes they can do this for messaging as well.
-Alex