Mar 05
JRuby + RED 5 = Ruby + RTMP
JRuby is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting projects out there. Primarily because it makes it possible for Ruby developers to take advantage of all the technologies that have been built in Java. In particular, it makes it possible to take advantage of one of the other most exciting projects out there: Red 5.
Red5 is an Open Source Flash Server written in Java that supports:
- Streaming Audio/Video (FLV and MP3)
- Recording Client Streams (FLV only)
- Shared Objects
- Live Stream Publishing
- Remoting
Red 5 is, or very soon will be, a viable free, open source alternative to Flash Media Server. Most important of all to the Ruby community is the fact that Red 5 recently added a scripting framework that makes it possible to use it with Ruby (via JRuby), as well as Javascript (via Rhino), Python (via Jython), and Groovy. Though, even if there was no scripting framework in Red 5, it should now be relatively easy to do using a simple wrapper class in Java that loads your Ruby classes using the new scripting framework in Java 6.
To get started with Red 5 and Ruby, first download a copy of Red 5, then check out this tutorial by Paul Gregoire.
If you want to try to use Rails with from the scripting framework in Red 5, then be sure to read the ‘Gotchas’ at the bottom of this page.
More to come on this in future posts.

March 5th, 2007 at 1:28 am
v. interesting. Getting up-and-running with Red5 is way too hard to encourage wide-spread adoption, so any articles you post will be of great value.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Sounds great! If someone can make a package that seamlessly lets you use RED 5 and Ruby (I’ve heard it’s quite difficult to set RED 5 up) than I’m sure it’ll be v popular. Looking forward to more posts on the subject.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
It is not too hard to setup if you use the .war version.
May 7th, 2007 at 10:42 am
[...] could also be solved using Red5. In doing so we would have to hack into those Java apps (or use Red5 Jruby ducktape). Also we would have to do database access in Java (And burn in DAO Factory Hell™). No [...]
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hey guys, if you are stuck somewhere with using red5 you can seek my professional or free help . Unless your problem is big and time consuming one, i will do it for free. I have developed several audio-video applications .
September 18th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Sounds great! I’ve been working with red5 for a while and it’s very interesting. I have developed some chats, IMs and video conference applications. We need more documentation for projects like red5 and jruby, but I think it;s a matter of time.
Will be a pleasure helping to anybody with red5 stuff.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Looking interesting, I have developed many applications using Red5 and it
just works like a charm. Nice article
May 11th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Red 5 is, or very soon will be, a viable free,
open source alternative to Flash Media Server
Very True
October 14th, 2008 at 5:27 am
[...] Derek Wischusen :: JRuby + RED 5 = Ruby + RTMP [...]
October 14th, 2008 at 8:13 am
[...] Derek Wischusen :: JRuby + RED 5 = Ruby + RTMP [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 am
[...] Have you looked at this page: http://flexonrails.net/?p=64 [...]