Oops. Don't know why my previous message posted while I was editing it....

Anyways, when the Apex method receives my parameter, it thows an error saying my custom apex class does not have attribute "type."  I can't add a "type" attribute to my class because 'type" is reserved, and I guess is used for proxy kind of services.  Is there any way I can do this?

Thanks.

Hi Jay,

The flex toolkit did not support that ability, although the platform is perfectly capable of handling Apex defined classes as arguments to Apex webService methods.  We are in the process of publishing a new version of the toolkit that does support this.

Here is a sample of perfectly valid Apex webService configuration and usage.

Code:

Apex webService Class and Method:

global class webServices {
 webService static String classObjectTest(ValueObject vo) {
  //Simply echo the object back to the caller
  return 'Class object test: Success \n' + vo.toString();
 }
}

Apex Class used as webService argument:

global class ValueObject {
 
 webService String fieldOne;
 webService String fieldTwo;
 webService ChildValue child;
}

Apex Class used as nested child object:

global class ChildValue {
 
 webService String childFieldOne;
 webService String childFieldTwo;
 
}

Flex/ActionScript invocation of the Apex webService:

private function callWebService():void {
 var responder:AsyncResponder = new AsyncResponder(handleResults, handleFault);

 //Create dynamic class to represent Apex Class
 var vo:ObjectProxy = new ObjectProxy();
 vo.fieldOne = "field one";
 vo.fieldTwo = "field two";
    
 //Add the nested Apex class (ChildValue)
 vo.child = new ObjectProxy();
 vo.child.childFieldOne = "child field one";
 vo.child.childFieldTwo = "child field two";
    
 //Set parameter name and value
 var param1:Parameter = new Parameter("vo", vo);

 //Execute the Apex Web Service passing in the nested object
 apex.execute("webServices", "classObjectTest", [ param1 ], responder);
}
private function handleResults(res:Object):void {
 Alert.show("Web service call was successful:\n" + ObjectUtil.toString(res));
}

A couple of things to note about the code and pattern above. 

• The webService must be declared as global as described in the documentation.
  
• The classes used as arguments to the web service (even if the class is referenced indirectly) must also be declared global.
• The fields that are exposed to the web services client must be declared webService.  You might have many other fields that are used in the class, but only the ones declared webService will be serializable and deserializable.

That's it.  This is a powerful aspect of the Apex language and a pattern that should prove very useful.



Cheers