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What am I downloading?

If you do not have a software license for the software you wish to download, the software you download will run in either the development mode (WebORB products) or evaluation mode (all other products).  If you do have a license, your download will automatically convert to Enterprise Edition mode.  You can download the latest releases for as long as you have an active subscription or support plan.  

The limitations of development mode and Community Edition are:

Enterprise Edition running in development mode.  You can develop freely with this product, but access to this server will be limited to 5 IP addresses and if you are working with ASP.NET, you will need to run with IIS.

Community Edition - your software will only run on one server and will not operate if it detects another licensed instance of WebORB on your network.  Only one Community Edition license is authorised per company.

What is the cost of a WebORB license?

WebORB for .NET is available in Community and Enterprise Editions.  The Community Edition is free and the Enterprise Edition can be purchased on a perpetual, OEM or project basis.  Please contact sales@themidnightcoders.com or call 888-MYWEBORB, option 1, to discuss your licensing and support needs.

Can I use Flex Builder or Flex SDK to develop Flex apps with WebORB?

Yes, WebORB integrates very well with both Flex Builder and the Flex SDK. Flex developers can use the standard ActionScript API to communicate with server objects. This includes Flex remoting (RemoteObject), Flex data management (DataService) and Flex messaging (Producer/Consumer) MXML and API classes.

How do I get started with WebORB?

Download the Free Enterprise Edition (development mode) product.  You'll have access to most of the Enterprise Edition features, except that the free download is limited to 5 IP addresses and does not run in standalone mode.  You can familiarize yourself with some of the documentation included with the product or with documents and screencasts provided on our website. 

If you need access to the KnowledgeBase and commercial support or need to run with more than 5 IP addresses or run in standalone mode, give Sales a call at 888.MYWEBORB, option 1 or email sales@themidnightcoders.com to discuss your needs. 

If you'd like to shorten your learning curve, consider augmenting your download with some training classes.

Where can I find Community Edition?

You may apply for a FREE Community Edition license HERE.

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Do I need anything special on the client side to integrate with .NET?

No, since WebORB handles all the client/server integration, your Flex application does not require anything special. In fact, you can use the same Flex client to communicate with both .NET, Java, PHP, CF or Ruby (assuming your server application supports the same functionality).

Why would I want an Enterprise Edition?

Enterprise Edition supports running multiple instances of WebORB on a network, standalone mode and disconnected mode operation, data management conflict resolution and (soon) AMF caching. 

What is Development Mode Operation?

Development Mode Operation is for those who want to develop with Enterprise Edition, but don't quite have the budget to purchase Enterprise Edition for their development servers, nor do they have a need for support.  Enterprise Edition running in Development Mode is free, but is limited to 5 IP addresses and does not support Standalone Mode operation. 

What happens if I exceed 5 IP addresses in Development Mode?

Enterprise Edition running in development mode will not allow access by a 6th IP address.  To get around this, you have one of three options.  (1) Restart WebORB to reset the address register, (2) email sales@themidnightcoders.com to request a temporary full Enterprise Edition license or (3) purchase a full Enterprise Edition subscription.

What is Standalone Mode?

Standalone Mode is applicable to WebORB for .NET only.  It allows WebORB to be run without IIS and is supported in Enterprise Edition only.  Typically, this way of running WebORB falls under our OEM licensing and different pricing applies.  To learn more, contact sales at 1-888-MYWEBORB or email sales@themidnightcoders.com.

What happens if I try to run WebORB without IIS?

WebORB running without IIS is considered standalone mode operation.  Only the Enterprise Edition product supports standalone mode operation.  If you try to run without IIS in development mode or with Community Edition, WebORB will timeout after 30 minutes.  To get around this, you have two options: (1) contacts sales to receive a temporary full Enterprise Edition license or (2) contact sales to discuss purchasing  an Enterprise Edition subscription.  Sales can be reached at 888-MYWEBORB or sales@themidnightcoders.com.

Do my .NET classes need to use any special APIs or dependencies on WebORB?

No, your server-side code can be 100% WebORB-free. Unless you require some advanced features, you do not need to use any special classes, interfaces or attributes. Your method arguments and return types can be standard .NET classes, collections and interfaces or types from your application domain. WebORB will automatically handle all the translation between client objects and their server-side counterparts. You do not need to use any special base classes or attributes to expose your classes for remote access.

How does WebORB map client-side objects to the corresponding .NET types?

The WebORB client/server type mapping system is one of the most powerful features of our product. WebORB intelligently adapts client-side objects to any corresponding server type. For example, if a Flex or Flash client sends a linear array, the server side type can be any linear .NET collection or a custom array of application objects. Additionally, developer can override default type mapping mechanism and map specific .NET types to their corresponding ActionScript classes.

How can my .NET application deliver errors and exceptions to the client side?

Delivering exceptions to the client application does not require any special programming techniques. Your .NET application can simply throw an exception and WebORB takes care of serializing it as a Flex/Flash fault event. Your client application also receives all the information the server code passed with the exception (error message, error code, stack trace).

Where can I find coding examples?

Your WebORB console contains many helpful examples.  You can also go to our Developer Zone for access to other helpful information.  Support Plan subscribers and Enterprise Edition subscribers have access to a rich online KnowledgeBase and support technicians as well.

Show me a basic example of Flex to .NET connectivity.

The following example demonstrates basic invocation of a method in a .NET class. Consider the following very basic .NET class: The class can be compiled in any of the following Visual Studio solution types: Class Library, Web Application or Web Service.

C#	VB.Net
namespace Example  {   class BasicService   {     public String SayHello()     {       return "hello world";     }   } }	Namespace Example  Class BasicService    Public Function SayHello() As String      Return "hello world"    End Function   End Class End Namespace

The following code can be used to invoke the SayHello() method shown above from a Flex client:

var ro:RemoteObject = new RemoteObject( "GenericDestination" ); ro.source = "Example.BasicService"; ro.SayHello.addEventListener( ResultEvent.RESULT, gotHelloResult ); ro.SayHello(); public function gotHelloResult( result:ResultEvent ):void {   Alert.show( “Server responded – “ + result.result ); }

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How can I deploy my .NET application so Flex clients can consume its services?

Deployment of a .NET application is as simple as copying the assembly files into a WebORB-enabled IIS virtual directory. WebORB does not require any additional configuration changes and once copied over, you can start accessing your .NET classes from a Flex client.

I'm ready to deploy into production, what are my options?

You may deploy into production with either the Community Edition or the Enterprise Edition.  To ensure you are deploying with the most reliable, scalable and secure edition, we recommend you deploy with the Enterprise Edition.  There are several options available to fit any budget.  Please contact sales at 888-MYWEBORB, option 1 or sales@themidnightcoders.com if you would like to discuss your options. 

Why is it better to deploy into production with Enterprise Edition?

Enterprise Edition is the most reliable, scalable and secure integration and runtime solution available.  We're so sure about this that we certify our product's performance, scalability and security features, because we know they matter the most to you.  Commercial support is also available to Enterprise Edition customers.  If your name and business success depends upon the reliability of the applications you build, Enterprise Edition is the smart choice.  Please contact sales@themidnightcoders.com or call 888-MYWEBORB option 1 to learn more.

Am I allowed to distribute WebORB with my application?

There are a four ways to look at distribution:  (1) You could be distributing access to your application through a SaaS model.  (2) You could be creating a custom application that would be distributed to one customer for their own use.  (3) You could be creating an application that would be distributed to multiple customers.  (4) You could be creating an application that would be distributed either as a shrink-wrapped offering or in non-standard computing products.  Scenarios (3) and (4) require you to license WebORB under an OEM/ISV licensing agreement.  Please contact us if you are unsure if your distribution would require an OEM/ISV license. 

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Automated exposure of the deployed classes sounds dangerous. How can I restrict access to my application?

A main requirement for WebORB was to make it as simple as possible for a developer to get started with the product. As a result, the deployment mechanism is super simple – it requires zero configuration changes. At the same time, WebORB supports a very powerful security system, which can limit access to the executable code at any level, starting with assemblies right down to a particular method declaration. These two requirements coexist through the ‘deployment mode’ set in the product’s configuration file. By default, the mode is ‘open’, so the deployed classes are available for prototyping and application development. The other mode is ‘closed’, where no classes are exposed unless there is an explicit security grant.

How can I secure my application to prevent unauthorized use?

There are two ways to configure code-level security – using your WebORB Management Console or through the product configuration file. Security restrictions can be applied to namespaces, classes and methods. Access to any of these can be restricted to users with particular credentials, or users accessing the application from a defined IP address mask.

Can I add my own authentication or authorization mechanism?

Yes, in fact, WebORB provides a rich extensibility mechanism for custom authentication and authorization implementations. Applications can be secured to authenticate users against a database or custom security domains.

How can my Flex client know if authentication failed?

When WebORB security restricts access to a secured method (or class, or namespace), WebORB delivers an exception to the client as a FaultEvent. To indicate a problem with security, the extendedData field of the Fault object encapsulated within FaultEvent is set to 401. As a result, your Flex application code can do a simple check as shown below:

public function handleFault( event: FaultEvent ):void {   if( Number( event.fault.extendedData ) == 401 )   {      // authentication failure logic goes here   } }

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Can I use ADO.NET to fetch data from a database and show it in Flex?

Yes, WebORB contains special serialization logic to serialize System.Data.DataTable as an array of complex types. Each complex type in the array is an object with fields corresponding to the column names. As a result, when the server code returns a DataTable, the client side can assign the return value as a data provider for the databindable components (DataGrid, List, etc). Server-side code does not need to include any WebORB specific code.

Does WebORB support Flex Data Management Services (FDMS)?

WebORB currently implements a subset of the FDMS functionality. Application can perform all four basic database operations (CRUD) using the mx.data.DataService API. Data destination classes can be registered in data-management-config.xml. Client applications can use mx.data.DataService class to perform fill and sync operations. The current release does not support FDMS client synchronization and conflict resolution; however, these features are available in the Flex ActiveRecord implementation (see below).

What is Flex ActiveRecord for WebORB?

Flex ActiveRecord for WebORB is Midnight Coders enhanced implementation of Flex Data Management Services functionality. It borrows some of the best ideas from the frameworks like Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord and Hibernate. The system provides a rich interface for all data related operations (data retrieval, construction, update and deletion). It supports transactions and can be easily extended with custom operations. The framework includes a powerful code generator for both ActionScript and .NET (C#/VB.Net) classes. The client-side API is very similar to the Rails’ ActiveRecord with support for dynamic, patterned methods. For more info, see the WebORB Blog.

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Does WebORB support Flex Messaging?

Yes, WebORB supports both Flex Producer and Consumer MXML/API and provides integration with MSMQ. WebORB associates MSMQ queues with messaging destinations. Messages published by Flex producers to a messaging destination get delivered to the corresponding queue. Flex consumers subscribe to a destination and become queue listeners. WebORB facilitates the delivery of all messages from the queue to all listeners. Also, WebORB can deliver any messages published by non-Flex producers thus providing integration between Flex and Windows-based applications.

Does WebORB support real-time messaging?

WebORB contains an implementation of the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). As a result, the product supports all the functionality delivered on top of RTMP, including support for Remote SharedObjects, client stream recording, video streaming, server-to-client invocations.

Can Flex application use Remote SharedObjects in WebORB?

Yes, WebORB includes support for remote SharedObject API. See the Sample Applications section of the WebORB for .NET product page.

Can I send a message from a client to all other connected clients?

Yes, you can use the SharedObject API to perform a client-side function invocation from a client on all other clients connected to the same SharedObject.

Can I stream Flash video to a Flex/Flash client through WebORB?

Yes, WebORB supports FLV video streaming. An example is included with the WebORB for .NET product distribution.