Using Flex and AMFPHP without a services-config.xml file

I've been working a bit with amfphp, sending data between Flex and PHP using the RemoteObject class. Initially I put the generic services-config.xml file in my application's src directory:

<services-config>
    <services>
        <service id="amfphp-flashremoting-service" 
            class="flex.messaging.services.RemotingService" 
            messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.RemotingMessage">
            <destination id="amfphp">
                <channels>
                    <channel ref="my-amfphp"/>
                </channels>
                <properties>
                    <source>*</source>
                </properties>
            </destination>
        </service>
    </services>
    <channels>
        <channel-definition id="my-amfphp" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel">
            <endpoint uri="http://localhost/amfphp/gateway.php"
                      class="flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint"/>
        </channel-definition>
    </channels>
</services-config>

And changed my project properties to add this line to the Flex Compiler page:
-services services-config.xml

But I just came across this post which shows how to get around having to have an XML file by defining the channel at runtime.

So here is my simplified Flex code:

import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent; import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent; import mx.rpc.remoting.RemoteObject; import mx.messaging.ChannelSet; import mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel; var url:String = "http://localhost/amfphp/gateway.php"; var channel:AMFChannel = new AMFChannel("my-amfphp", url); var channelSet:ChannelSet = new ChannelSet(); channelSet.addChannel(channel); var ro:RemoteObject = new RemoteObject("amfphp"); ro.channelSet = channelSet; // Specify the PHP class ro.source = "TestService"; ro.addEventListener(FaultEvent.FAULT, function(event:FaultEvent):void {     trace("Fault: " + event.fault); }); ro.addEventListener(ResultEvent.RESULT, function(event:ResultEvent):void {     trace("Result: " + event.result); }); // the TestService class must have a public helloWorld function ro.helloWorld();

You could also do the same in MXML:

<mx:ChannelSet id="channelSet">
    <mx:channels>
        <mx:AMFChannel uri="http://localhost/amfphp/gateway.php"/>
    </mx:channels>
</mx:ChannelSet>
<mx:RemoteObject source="TestService" destination="amfphp" 
                 channelSet="{channelSet}" id="remoteObject"
                 fault="trace('Fault: '+event.fault)" 
                 result="trace('Result: '+event.result)"/>

And the corresponding PHP code (put the php file inside your webroot/amfphp/services directory):

<?php

class TestService {     public function helloWorld() {         return "Hello from PHP";     } }

?>

So what are the benefits of this approach? Well, I'm not sure. In my case it was better because I have one logging class that does all the remoting, and is used by many different Flex applications. So instead of having to duplicate the services-config.xml file in every flex application this way I could define my endpoint url (http://localhost/amfphp/gateway.php) in one place.

Here is another site that is useful when getting started with amfphp:

amfphp video tutorials