BlazeDS: Creating endpoint at runtime

Why? Because I do not want to bother end users with xml configuration files. Simple as that.
Biggest enemy of your application is user itself. Therefore, reducing possibility to make a mistake is most important goal if you wish to left good impression with your app. This was one of steps that I take on the road to make Collyba installation procedure as easy as possible.
As I said in previous blog, while I was working on this, insight  to BlazeDS source files was of great help. Actually that is where I found a solution.

What are channels and endpoints?

Channels are client-side objects that encapsulate the connection behavior between Flex components and the BlazeDS server. Channels communicate with corresponding endpoints on the BlazeDS server. You configure the properties of a channel and its corresponding endpoint in the services-config.xml file.

But in our case, we won't configure it in XML file but programmatically.

/**
* Creates endpoint. Run this before creating destination.
* @id hint="Channel Id which communicate with corresponding endpoints on the BlazeDS server."
*/
public void function createEndpoint(required string channelId){
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/core/src/flex/messaging/MessageBroker.java
 var brokerClass = createObject('java','flex.messaging.MessageBroker');
 var broker = brokerClass.getMessageBroker( javacast('null','') );
 var channelSets = broker.getAllChannelSettings();
 var chennIds = broker.getChannelIds();
 
 //check if channel/endpoint is already created
 if (arrayContains(chennIds,arguments.channelId)){
  return;
 }
 
 /*Channel definiton properties*/
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/common/src/flex/messaging/config/ChannelSettings.java
 var channelSettings = createObject('java','flex.messaging.config.ChannelSettings').init(arguments.channelId);
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/common/src/flex/messaging/config/ConfigMap.java
 var channelProperties = createObject('java','flex.messaging.config.ConfigMap').init();
 var chPropSerialize = createObject('java','flex.messaging.config.ConfigMap').init();  
 var endpoint = '';
 
 channelSettings.setClientType("mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel");
 channelSettings.setEndpointType("coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint");
 channelSettings.setUri("http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}/flex2gateway/cfamflongpolling");

 channelProperties.addProperty("add-no-cache-headers","false"); 
 channelProperties.addProperty("polling-enabled","true");
 channelProperties.addProperty("polling-interval-seconds","0");
 channelProperties.addProperty("client-wait-interval-millis","1");
 channelProperties.addProperty("wait-interval-millis","60000");
 channelProperties.addProperty("max-waiting-poll-requests","200");

 chPropSerialize.addProperty("enable-small-messages","false");
 channelProperties.addProperty("serialization",chPropSerialize);  
 
 channelSettings.addProperties(channelProperties);
 
 /*Channel definiton endpoint*/
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/core/src/flex/messaging/endpoints/Endpoint.java
 //Creates an Endpoint instance, sets its id and url
 endpoint = broker.createEndpoint(
     arguments.channelId, 
     "http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}/flex2gateway/cfamflongpolling",
     channelSettings.getEndpointType());
 // Initialize the endpoint with id and properties
 endpoint.initialize(arguments.channelId, channelSettings.getProperties());
 //Start the endpoint
 endpoint.start();
 
 channelSets[arguments.channelId] = channelSettings;
 broker.setChannelSettings(channelSets);
}

XML equivalent of  this channel/endpoint definition ( set in services-config.xml) is:

<channel-definition id="collyba-longpolling-amf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel">
<endpoint uri="http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}/flex2gateway/cfamflongpolling" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint"/>
<properties>
 <enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
 <add-no-cache-headers>false</add-no-cache-headers>
 <polling-enabled>true</polling-enabled>
 <polling-interval-seconds>0</polling-interval-millis>
 <client-wait-interval-millis>1</client-wait-interval-millis>
 <wait-interval-millis>60000</wait-interval-millis>
 <max-waiting-poll-requests>200</max-waiting-poll-requests>
 <serialization>
  <enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
 </serialization>
</properties>
</channel-definition>

There are 2 crucial points here:
a) flex.messaging.config.ChannelSettings class holds all information from channel-definition definition element from services-config.xml file
b) createEndpoint method call. This is a place when we create Endpoint instance assign it to MessageBroker

Easy, isnt't it. Well it wasn't for me. But, knowing that I'll save you at least a day of R&D makes me happy :)