file.asc and file.far

Question

Could you let me know the difference between .asc and .far file extensions? What are the contexts in which each is used, and can .far be used in place of .asc?

Answer 1

.asc files are Action**S**cript**C**ommuncation files, 'class' files you would use to create applications for Flash Media Server. Before Flash Media Server was dubbed this was it used to be called Flash Communcation Server. You can read more about it here.

.far files are newer.

Flash Media Server includes a command-line archive compiler utility, far.exe, which lets you package server-side scripts into a FAR file, which is an archive file like a ZIP file, to simplify deployment. You can also use the archive compiler utility to compile server-side script files to bytecode (with the file extension .ase) to speed the time required to load an application instance.

A large application can contain multiple server-side script files stored in different locations. Some files are located in the application directory and others are scattered in the script library paths that are defined in the server configuration file. To simplify deployment of your media application, you can package your server-side JS, ASC, and ASE files in a self-contained Flash Media Server archive file (a FAR file).

The FAR file is a package that includes the main script file (which is either main.js, main.asc, main.ase, applicationName.js, applicationName.asc, or applicationName.ase) and any other script files that are referred to in the main script.

From FMS LiveDocs, look under Packaging server-side files.