As has been previously noted, AMF is the preferred method of communication between applications running in the Flash Player and server back-ends. ColdFusion developers have long benefited from AMF being built into the core ColdFusion server. And Java developers have been able to obtain AMF support via BlazeDS and LiveCycle Data Services. But what about PHP developers? There are several 3rd party options for PHP AMF support, including AMFPHP, WebORB for PHP, SabreAMF, and AMFEXT. Thus far there has been no official support from Adobe for our friends using PHP, but that is about to change.

Zend and Adobe are working together on a proposal that would add AMF support to the popular Zend framework, and some details have now been posted on the Zend Framework Wiki. The project is being led by Wade Arnold who also runs the AMFPHP project.

Of course, if PHP developers really want to experience productivity, we invite them to try ColdFusion and experience its Flex and Flash integration. But, even if they opt not to do so, I'm glad that they'll still be able to leverage AMF to build their Rich Internet Applications.