Macromedia recently released an AS2 version of their Flash Remoting Components. You can download them here. They are also offering the source code for download. It will be exciting to see how the community extends these classes.

I have used XPath many times and I love its functionality. That is why I was so thrilled when I ran accross this resource. XFactor Studio has developed a series of XPath AS2 classes for Flash MX 2004. These classes are nearly a complete 1.0 implementation of the XPath specification. I also noticed that they are currently developing an upgrade that would be a complete implementation.

Avoid building web services using ColdFusion (or Axis) when they are going to be accessed by Flash. It is a known issue that ColdFusion does not handle multiple levels of complex data types well via web services. You may want to avid CF as your server-side solution until the problem is resolved. Otherwise use Flash Remoting instead of web services to connect to ColdFusion CFCs.

Check out this Macromedia technote for more information.

Looks like there may be support in the next version of Flash Player to dynamically load either GIF or PNG files. Mike Chambers has opened this topic up for discussion on his blog. The discussion began on the Flash Coders mailing list.