This 2008 example used a contact form to demonstrate a broader application architecture with Adobe Flex, PHP, Zend Framework, and AMFPHP. A simple HTTPService would have required less code, but the goal was to show how a contact module could fit into a larger system.

Historical security note: the frameworks and code predate modern PHP security practices. Do not deploy the example without current input validation, CSRF protection, authentication, secret management, mail controls, and supported dependencies.

Architecture

Zend Framework abstracted database access with Zend_Db_Table and provided loading and configuration utilities. AMFPHP connected Flex and PHP over the binary AMF3 protocol.

The server application was divided into these packages:

  • entitybean: relational persistence and CRUD behavior;
  • sessionbean: use-case validation and business rules;
  • facade: transaction boundaries and exception handling;
  • vo: value/data-transfer objects exchanged between layers;
  • services: operations exposed through AMFPHP;
  • config: paths and database settings;
  • libs: Zend Framework and AMFPHP dependencies.

The original design also used a DB object to begin, commit, or roll back a transaction. Although its singleton approach would deserve reconsideration today, the intended invariant was sound: the facade owned the transaction for a complete use case.

Typed values across PHP and Flex

Instead of passing unstructured arrays, both sides declared a compatible ContatoVO. AMFPHP used _explicitType to map the PHP value to its ActionScript counterpart.

class ContatoVO
{
    var $idContato;
    var $dsNome;
    var $dsEmail;
    var $nuTelefone;
    var $dsCidade;
    var $dsEstado;
    var $dsMensagem;

    var $_explicitType = "ContatoVO";
}
package com.digows.Artigos.FlexPHP.vo
{
    public class ContatoVO
    {
        public var idContato:int;
        public var dsNome:String;
        public var dsEmail:String;
        public var nuTelefone:String;
        public var dsCidade:String;
        public var dsEstado:String;
        public var dsMensagem:String;
    }
}

Request flow

  1. Flex called a method on ContatoService through AMFPHP and sent a ContatoVO.
  2. The service delegated to ContatoFacade.
  3. The facade opened a transaction and invoked the session bean.
  4. The session bean applied the use-case rules and called the persistence layer.
  5. The facade committed on success or rolled back after an exception.

This flow kept transport, orchestration, business rules, and persistence separate.

Flex client

The example created the value object from form fields and invoked the remote service asynchronously:

var contatoVO:ContatoVO = new ContatoVO();
contatoVO.dsNome = txtNome.text;
contatoVO.dsEmail = txtEmail.text;
contatoVO.nuTelefone = txtTelefone.text;
contatoVO.dsCidade = txtCidade.text;
contatoVO.dsEstado = txtEstado.text;
contatoVO.dsMensagem = txtMensagem.text;

RemoteConnection.call(
    "ContatoService",
    "save",
    function(event:ResultEvent):void
    {
        Alert.show("Email enviado com sucesso!", "SUCESSO!");
        clear();
    },
    contatoVO
);

The original downloadable project, database archive, diagrams, and running demo are no longer available. The detailed Portuguese version preserves the remaining configuration and source fragments.