Portable Data Types in Web Services

Since Flash doesn't understand query objects, I often find myself returning an array of structures (using the QueryToArrayOfStructures() function that I found on cflib)... it works well with Flash but not with other platforms... like VB doesn't know what a structure is. What are my alternatives for passing query data to a VB application? I heard someone mention passing using a CFC data type but I don't really know what that means.. I must've missed that session at MAX last year :) Thanks.   - Rick

Rick You could use the concept of a thinArray to represent a CF query or array and publish taht via a web service. This web service could be easily consumed and manipulated as a query   by any client programming language that has split/join functions.   AFAIK, this includes JavaScript Flash ActionScrtpt and VBScript. There are CFCs that serialize/deserialize cf queries and cf arrays into thinArrays. There are JavaScript routines that serialize/deserialize thinArrays and allow manipulation of the [querey or array] recordset. You can see/get the thinArray code at Rob Rohan's site.     http:///www.rohanclan.com/products/neuromancer/ Note:  The client-side web-services part of Rob's Neuromancer system   only runs on newer browsers -- Mozilla, Firefox, etc.  The client-side thin array manipulation runs on any javaScript 1.0. The server-side (including thinArrays) runs on anything. HTH Dick P.S. It is flexible, concise, and very fast On May 20, 2004, at 9:14 AM, Rick Root wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

> I heard someone mention passing using a CFC data type but I > don't really know what that means.. I must've missed that > session at MAX last year :) You can define a custom data type using a CFC with nothing but CFPROPERTY tags. You can then specify that CFC as your RETURNTYPE attribute value. There's an example in the CF documentation, I think. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ phone: 202-797-5496 fax: 202-797-5444

Dave Watts wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- Thanks Robert, after reading your response I found this technote describing the process: http://www.macromedia.com/support/coldfusion/ts/documents/cfc_datatypes_webservices.htm   - Rick