Can a Flex client app connect to BlazeDS running on a different server?

Question

As far as In understand the Flex technology, a Flex client connects to a Flex server to retrieve business information. Is this the only allowed connection for the client, back to the originating server? Or can a Flex client also open a secondary connection to a different server wich runs BlazeDS for message exchange? (This might offer an option for load balancing and cross-platform development).

Update: thanks for the answer! I have found this page which links to the Cross-domain policy file specification:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/crossdomain_policy_file_spec.html

Answer 1

Yes, a Flex client can connection to a variety of servers, including BlazeDS. What could prevent a client from conenctiong to a BlazeDS server is the crossdomain.xml, which is a connection policy document hosted on the server.

I've got one concern about your question, and that is using the term 'Flex server'. That was something folks talked about with Flex 1, circa 2005! Adobe is now on Flex 4, and some relevant server technologies/platforms/software/protocols of interest are BlazeDS, Red5, FMS LiveCycle Data Services, JSON, AMF3, etc.

Answer 2

If BlazeDS is your main server side endpoint and your primary goal is load balancing then you may want to explore the clustering capabilities of BlazeDS -- http://livedocs.adobe.com/blazeds/1/blazeds_devguide/help.html?content=services_clustering_1.html.