FMIS and FMSS differences?

[KenoICON]

Hi: I found the product information between FMIS and FMSS very
confusing--really lacking. The Developer download cannot help me understand
the difference! Basically, I would like to know if I can write any Server
Side Scripts (.AS), for example, calling a database and getting more
information about the users before streaming media files to them, in FMSS? Or
is FMIS the only way to go? Ken

[tadmazik]

To run your own applications with any kind of code (.asc), you need the
interactive version. It sucks, it's not documented well at all. The streaming
version only allows you to run their prebuilt and signed 'live' and 'vod'
applications. Your own code will not run at all.

[Graeme Bull]

The documentation for FMIS is great, it has been since version 1. That's
actually the one area that has been consistenly praised. What page are you
looking at that isn't helping you understand the difference? You'd have to be
looking at the index page of the FMS product page to get that impression,
anymore looking around and the differences would be obvious. Here's a good
example of that: [url]http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediainteractive/features/[/url]
[url]http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediastreaming/features/[/url] and of course the
link on the left 'Compare Editions', this is a good page to look at:
[url]http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/compare/[/url] Hope that helps.

[tadmazik]

I disagree. The frontpage of the FMS website needs to say what the live and
vod stream readme's say: Flash Media Streaming Server only runs Adobe-built
applications, also called 'signed' applications. Flash Media Interactive Server
and Flash Media Development Server support unsigned (user-created)
applications. If you're using one of these server editions, you can modify the
live service source code to create your own applications.

[eigentopia]

Graeme- I disagree with you. The documentation is dismal. For someone doing
their first project on FMS 3, the amount of digging for information and hacking
I had to do to get my own code to work is shameful. With every install of Win
Server 2k and up, there has been a streaming service available for free that
load balances and bandwidth checks and supports multiple connections with
encrypted connections and is completely documented- yes, even the callbacks. MS
trounces FMS in this regard. That leaves us with the thing that FMS can do-
platform neutrality. On to the comparison page: Multi-way applications. Umm,
what is that type of thing? That is not mentioned again on the overview pages.
And that sneaky little bit about not being able to write custom code with FMSS-
that's a little too devious, even for me. A developer wouldn't know about that
using the free version, since it can do both, unless they really read between
the lines.

[Graeme Bull]

I'm not sure how sneaky it is that they didn't add coding on the SS for the
FMSS version, but you're right in that it may not be quite obvious that you
can't code there. I suppose asking on a forum is the next best bet and the
answer has been posted on this forum alone at least 3 times (I know that
because I answered those ones). So if that is this case, it does seem rather
obvious that it's not the first thing that jumps out on the product page. I
think it should be made a bit more obvious too. As for the docs, it's to each
his own. I've never really had a problem with them and always found the answer
I wanted. I guess now I'm so used to them that I don't think twice on what
certain things mean. Perhaps if I could look at it from a point of view of just
getting into this again I may think different. But I can also say that a lot of
people have put praise on the docs as well written.

[Dr. Dave]

Exactly. Why should a developer have to hunt out the answer to a question they
don't know to ask? I was actually going to recommend that our company buy the
Streaming server because of the way the code I wrote is working on the dev box-
but I accidentally found this thread and that limitation. Not good. And as far
as the docs go- last night our code architect had to actually step through the
sealed box that is one of your components(don't ask me how) to figure out why I
was able to play h.264 files and unable to play FLV with the same exact code
from the docs. Apparently there is a special parameter one must pass with FLV-
which is not documented. Not Good. Point being- avoid superlatives and large
britches.