Connecting to FCS, dropped connections and timeouts

Hello,

We getting ready to launch our app next week (March 1st). This is the first
flash app / FCS app we've ever done. We have extensive experience with
large CF applications, but the combination of Flash, Remoting and FCS is
new to us. I have some concerns, I hope the veterans can help me with. Let
me give you a brief overview of our app:

The application is a multi user program that allows attorneys and their
clients to file bankruptcy petitions together. FCS is used for text chat
and for controlling locked records and distributing updated data to
connected parties. Each bankruptcy Case is a separate room on the FCS
server. A remote shared object contains a list of connected users and what
record/window(s) they have open, the window mode (readonly,shared or full)
and their position in the queue.

My Questions/Concerns are:

1. Connecting to FCS
Currently I am using a simple connection script like this. Will this be
sufficient? Will it handle tunneling over port 80 automatically or do I
need to write a more robhust connection script. Anybody have any
suggestions in this regard?

this.client_nc = new NetConnection();
rtmpPath = 'rtmp://dev.bkone.com/bkOne_muser/';
this.client_nc.connect(rtmpPath +
user.getSO('CASE_ID'),user.getSO('USERNAME'),user.getSO('ROLES'));

this.client_nc.onStatus = function(result){
if (result.code == 'NetConnection.Connect.Success'){
// connection to FCS established! Tell the caseManager to
continue loading the case
caseManager.loadCase_continue(user.getSO('CASE_ID'));
chatManager.connectionStatus = 'connected';
}
else if (this.owner.connectionStatus != 'loggingOut')
{
// use the common method for FCS errors (skip errors if
the connectionStatus = loggingOut
chatManager. showFCSconnectionError('full',result,thi
s.owner.fcsAbruptDisconn
ect,this.owner);

}
}

2. Timeouts and Re-connect attempts
Do I need a keep alive script? Do FCS connections get lost frequently?
Currently, if the connection is lost, the user is logged out of the
application and they need to log back in. I did this because if the
connection to the FCS is lost, it may cause data integrity issues due to
the nature of the application and the fact the FCS is maintaining the list
of connected users and what data is being edited. The easiest solution was
to log the user out on a disconnection so that no data integrity issues
came up. However, if this is something that will happen frequently in
production (it has not happened in development) then we may need a more
elegant solution.

3. Security
What is involved in using SSL to encrypt the FCS stream and even the flash
remoting stream for that matter. Can someone point me to a good resource
for this.

4. Firewall FAQ
Our application will be used by law firms. I expect to encounter some
firewall issues. Should I set up an FAQ page with a port testing
application and some details about whats required for FCS usage? Are there
any good samples available?

5. Server Stability
For a text chat and data exchange application like this (no video), what is
the server stability like?  How do you automate monitoring of your FCS serve
r?

Thank you very much for any insight! We really have a very short testing
period for this app (due to the development taking longer than expected),
and as I mentioned I have some concerns. Thanks again!

Brook Davies
logiforms.com

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