Red5 With MySQL

Red5 flash server with MySQL database.

A very good tutorial that you can follow to start working with Red5 and MySQL 5.0 was posted few months back on actionscript.org by Milan Toth.

Read more about this good post here.

It's very detailed article with both client and server side sample code. Hope it will help for those who are looking for MySQL along with red5 flash server.

Create a Poll application in Red5 and Flash

Red5 flash server is not just a server written to deliver the streaming of media.it's much more powerful server.
Here i am writing about how we can create a shared poll application using Red5 flash server which can be a part of Video conference application.

Note:-This article assumes that you have working knowledge of Red5 server and Flash.

Lets assume a typical video conference application , where a host and few other users are participating. Host has given access to create a poll.
As soon as host creates a poll, it will broadcast to every user including host in that conference and every user will participate in poll.

Flash Client Side Work:-

Create a user interface for creating the Poll.
A typical user interface for 3 kinds of Poll ( Single Answer, Multiple Answer and Free Text ) could be similar to the below diagrams.

Sample Poll creation window

When host click on next after selecting single answer or multiple answer. the screen may be like this.


For Free Text type, It may be like below screen.



All these screens will give the idea of a sample Poll user interface.

Now we move to second step, the XML representation of this UI. XML description of UI could be like this.


<poll polltype = "Single Answer">
<question text = "Will Red5 replace FMS in long run?">
<option id = "1" text = "Yes"/>
<option id = "2" text = "No"/>
<option id = "3" text = "Don't Know"/>
<option id = "4" text = "May be"/>
</question>

</poll>


The above XML will be created when host will select either Single Answer or Multiple Answer question. We will pass this XML String to Red5 server.

For Free text type question we can use the XML like below.

<poll polltype = "Single Answer">
<question text = "Explain Red5">
</question>

</poll>


Red5 server Side Work:-

Now we move to Red5 server side. Red5 side application will pick this XML and will
distribute this XML among all users including Host.

Flash Client Side Work:-

Once again this XML is on the flash client side with every user of the conference. Now client application will parse this application and build the user interface for participating in Poll based on type of question and number of options.
A sample poll participation screens for the above XML could be same as in below diagram.

Sample for Single answer type.

For Multiple answer type, we can replace the radio buttons with check boxes.

Sample for Free Text answer

For collecting the result data, we can use XML again. This way we can build a shared poll application with Red5 and Flash.

Note:- For distributing XML string to every user in conference, we can use the concept of shared object in Red5.


Interested to create a shared whiteboard application using Red5 and Flash? It is here

Red5 Showcase-- Applications using Red5

Today many of well known applications are using Red5 flash server. Few of them are listed below.



http://www.snappmx.com/ - a Rapid Application Development System that supports the creation of Red5 applications.



http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings - Open source video Conference. Detail post about openmeetings is here.



http://www.dokeos.com Dokeos is a learning management system used in more than 600 companies and public administrations to manage e-learning and blended learning programmes.



http://spreed.comMeet and Present Any Time, Any Where - At a Push of a Button
spreed is the world´s first free web meeting service. spreed provides a free and worldwide Web 2.0 meeting service for consumers and professionals.


http://www.videokent.com/videochat.php Video Chat


http://blipback.com BlipBack is a video comment widget that you can embed on any number of social network sites or blogs you have. Blipback lets you or your friends record short video comments directly to your page.


http://artemis.effectiveui.com/ Bridge AIR applications to the Java runtime.


http://facebook.com/video Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.Video uploading/recording/messaging system that allows you to record a video on the upload page or send a private message to another user and attach a video.


http://www.streamingvideosoftware.info/ Streaming video chat software script is a RED5 based system that allows you to build a comprehensive pay per minute / pay per view video chat site.


http://nonoba.com/chris/fridge-magnets - Classical fridge magnet toy.


http://www.quarterlife.com - Video blogging application


http://www.avchat.net - Red5 Flash Audio/Video Chat Software


http://www.avchat.net/fms-bandwidth-checker.php - Red5 bandwidth checker with upload/download and latency tests


http://www.justepourrire-nantes.fr - Red5 Flash Video streaming


http://www.nielsenaa.com/TV/tv.php - Red5 Flash Php/MySql/Ajax driven scheduled & streamed multi channel TV


http://www.videoflashchat.com - VideoFlashChat - Red5 version for Web Based Video Chat


http://www.videogirls.biz - VideoGirls BiZ - Red5 version for Pay Per View Video Chat Software.

For detail list of applications using Red5, visit at red5 official showcase page here.

Red5 Project Roadmap

Red5 flash server is a free alternate of Flash Media server and its gaining popularity among open source users, conference calling companies and web conferencing solution providers.
Below is the project roadmap of the Red5 server development.

RED5 – Project Roadmap
Current Release: 0.7.0
Next Release: 0.7.1


0.1 Echo, Echo, Echo
Released Early October 2005

Proof of concept release showing RTMP and AMF support.

Standalone server
Spring and Mina integrated to form server base
AMF data encoding and decoding
RTMP packet encoding and decoding
Service invocation layer
Echo service exposed using RTMP

Read more at Red5 official roadmap page here

Red5 support and Hosting service

Red5 is an open source flash server with a large community of users behind it.


red5server.com provides complete Red5 support and hosting service. They have dedicated and cluster solution for supporting many simultaneous connections.They have solutions for disk space and Bandwidth transfer also.
Their service works from anywhere in the world.To know more about red5 hosting and support, follow the link of red5server here.

Red5 and RTMPE -- Just a thought

Adobe released the Flash media server 3 and it features RTMPE(Real time messaging protocol with encryption), an enhanced version of RTMP for higher performance and 128 bit encryption to increase the security of streamed media.
It's going to be very important feature for every FMS user who is concern about the security of his content.
Good post about DRM feature of flash media server from flashcomguru is here.
Just a thought, Will Red5 flash server( The open source alternate to FMS) support this new protocol.

Red5 Tutorials

Below is the link from where you can download many good Red5 tutorials in pdf format.

Download Red5 Tutorials

Enjoy!!

Red5 clustering of stream data with Terracotta

Red5 is an open source flash server and alternate of flash media server from Adobe.Red5 load balancing was required to cluster the stream data.For this Red5 team has worked with Terracotta and now they have comeup with load balancing of Red5 in the red5 v 0.7.0 final release using MRTMP(Multiplex RTMP).
More information on reference links.

1.Terracotta Red5
2.Red5 and Terracotta POC
3.Clustering Red5
4.Edge origin solution on Terracotta

Red5 now in V0.7.0 Final

Red5 has released the version 0.7.0 final. Below are the details of the changes.Red5 v0.7.0 final 02.23.2008
The Red5 Team is proud to announce the release of Red5 0.7.0

Major changes since 0.6.3:

Initial Edge/Origin clustering support for multiple Edges with a single Origin New Flex admin tool
Added a multi-threaded ApplicationAdapter that allows multiple clients to connect simultaneously to the same application
Added stream listeners that can get notified about received packets
Fixed a critical memory leak bug in networking due to MINA ExecutorFilter
Added new Flash Player 9 statuses NetStream.Play.FileStructureInvalid and NetStream.Play.NoSupportedTrackFound