How does URLRequest communicate with a server?

Question

Hi
I've been using URLRequest in my AIR desktop app to deal with server communications. I understand how to make it work, but I'm curious how it works under the hood - ie what header info etc is sent?
I'm setting up an api for another developer to communicate with my server using a non-Flash app, and I'm having difficulty understanding what he needs, as I am used to having my php script first just look for an $_POST variables to deal with - so I just gave him a list of what POST values to send. But he needs more info to send data - here's what he's asking...
url including command type
headers
blank line
body (json string)
eg
https://www.mysite.com POST /api/account.php?command=login HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json
Connection: close
{"pass":"superhardpass","token":"","appID":"myApp","user":"billClinton","ver":"2.01","Coll ection_ID":"1"}
He's asking me...
"what i need is a list of:
url string
list of header values you expect
body string"
What does Flash usually send?
Thanks guys
[Moved here from Flash Pro forums]
Message was edited by: sinious

Answer 1

It sounds like he has only worked with RESTful interfaces and doesn't remember when the world mostly worked with GET and POST. RESTful interfaces also support PUT, DELETE, and I think some other thing I forget at the moment. Mainly, he just needs to educate himself about how basic form/html sends work and have worked since like the 90's, but here are some things that might help you and him speak to each other.
Flash isn't really able to use anything but GET and POST, so basically it sounds like you just need to tell him "POST" for command type.
Flash can't send headers, so those aren't applicable. If he wants to use an encoding type, he can send "multipart/form-data", though I don't think the back-end cares one way or another about that.
Tell him to send just individual POST variables, and that you're not looking for JSON or anything fancy like that.
If you're not trying to leverage existing back-end code and want to meet him halfway, do a web search on writing RESTful web services in your language of choice. But honestly this is basic stuff he should have learned BEFORE he learned to just call web services. You may also find that the Dreamweaver forum can give you better answers about how to learn to write web services if that's what you want to do.