[Help Wanted] soap1.1 webservice, filling a tree with the result of calls...

Question

Hi,
I'm having trouble with filling a tree with the result to
calls to a document/wrapped soap 1.1 webservice.
I first declared the webservice in the mxml file as it was in
the examples and tried to call it with no luck. The fault was it
wasn't finding the document type for the call's unique parameter. I
figured out the solution to this, I added a method in the
webservice declaration having a single element named the same as
the required parameter, and inside it, the "actual" parameters,
bound to variables defined elsewhere.
The reason for wanting the tree to be filled programatically,
is the potential whole contents of the tree can be about 1.000.000
nodes. Huge.
quote:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="
http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="absolute" applicationComplete="initM()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.controls.treeClasses.TreeListData;
[Bindable] public var aParentId:String = null;
[Bindable] public var aLevel:Number = 0;
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:WebService id="lws" wsdl="
http://myServer/myContext/myPortURI?WSDL"
useProxy="false" makeObjectsBindable="true">
<mx:operation name="getNodes" resultFormat="object">
<mx:request>
<getNodesElement>
<parentId>{aParentId}</parentId>
<level>{aLevel}</level>
</getNodesElement>
</mx:request>
</mx:operation>
</mx:WebService>
<mx:Tree x="0" y="0" width="326" height="100%"
id="layoutTree" enabled="true" labelField="nodeName">
<mx:dataProvider>{lws.getNodes.lastResult}</mx:dataProvider>
</mx:Tree>
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
public function initM():void {
lws.getNodes.send();
return;
]]>
</mx:Script>
</mx:Application>
So, here's the problem:
1.- In both Java2 and .NET, I've been able to produce sets of
proxy classes from the webservice wsdl, these include a proxy class
for the service port and a set of classes for both the call
parameter types and the call result types. I have not found yet a
way to do the same with flex2, so I wonder, can I produce the
required classes for dealing with such a webservice in an automatic
way with flex2?
2.- The second problem, is I haven't found a way to make a
webservice call in sychronous mode, and I can't seem to find a way
to set the parameters for the subsequent calls to the webservice.
Is there a way to make a call to such webservice programatically? I
mean, I've been able to make the first call I need programatically,
but what if I end up making 2 or more simultaneous calls? I can't
rely on setting the `variables defined elsewhere` before each call,
because of possible concurrency issues (calls will be long after
the 2nd level of the tree), so I wonder if there's a way to make a
call to such webservice (document/wrapped, soap1.1) passing it the
parameters programatically. If so, can I just put the parameters or
do I have to produce the complete enclosure? If I have to produce
also the enclosure, any hint on how to do so? I will need to pass
different parentId, level pairs probably triggered by tree events.
3.- the other problem, finally, is Tree looks quite different
to me than the Java2 one. In java2, I can easily produce a changing
model for the tree wich will even handle the calls to the
webservice as needed (triggered by the tree itself), making it a
`live model`. If there is a way to produce the same behaviour in
flex2, I haven't found it yet. Sure, I've only downloaded the trial
version yesterday, so I may have overlooked some docs or blogs.
Any hints would be appreciated, specially on programatically
modifying the tree, and making calls to the webservice changing the
parameters every time.

Answer 1

1. Not yet, but we're looking into supporting this in an
upcomming release.
2. All RPC requests must be made asynchronously... this is a
restriction of the way the Flash Player makes network requests
(otherwise movies, which are single threaded, would hang waiting
for results). You should be able to use the ActionScript API to
programmatically call web services with normal parameters.
3. If you leave makeObjectsBindable="true" (which it is by
default) the Objects and Arrays will be wrapped in ObjectProxies
and ArrayCollections automatically and will report change events,
however I don't believe that we have an example that links these
change events up to subsequent web service calls, but it would be
possible (but not automatic). A feature that does do this sort of
thing automatically is the Data Service, although this does not use
WSDL/SOAP to describe/communicate with remote services and you have
to setup a Java assembler to work with our adapters on the
server.