Prepared by Stephen Olaño June 12, 2007

Rich Internet Applications It allow to build rich applications with data and multimedia contents, offering a high interactivity level. RIA is the fusion of the interactive and multimedia user interface functionality of desktop applications with traditional WebApps. Under the use of the client plug-in you will develop your WebApps one time and no one time per client system

Rich Internet Applications Characteristics Expressiveness Rich media integration Performance / Responsiveness Real time Offline Deep back-end integration Web deployment model

Traditional WebApps problems 1. Process problems: complex WebApps often require that the user navigates through a series of pages to complete a single task 2. Data Problems: they do not support interactive explorations of the data 3. Feedback Problems: they do not allow a continued and ordered interaction without page refreshments 4. Configuration problems: many Web applications require the configuration of a product/system from multicriteria choices

RIA Benefits

What is Flex 2? Flex 2 Application Built with the Flex Framework 2 Interface defined via MXML Logic implemented using ActionScript 3 Client-side, deployed as Flash.swf Requires Flash Player 9 to view Look and Feel are defined using CSS

Flex 2 Framework MXML (Macromedia XML) Declarative language to define User Interface Similar to XHTML User Interface Components Buttons, ComboBoxes, Layout Managers, Containers, Effects Class Libraries Everything in the mx.* packages Validation Routines, Web Services, DataTypes

Flex 2 Class library

Flex Architecture

How Flex works

Flex 2 Product Line

Flex Builder 2 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Edit MXML Edit ActionScript Built on top of the Eclipse Platform Pluggable architecture for anything and everything Killer features Integrated compiler Code hints Debugger Design View Integrated Version Control (CVS, SVN, etc.)

LiveCycle Data Services Formerly “Flex Data Services” or FDS

LiveCycle Data Services Architecture

RPC Services by LDS WebService - The WebService component can be used to access any Web service that complies with the WSDL 1.1 standard HTTPService — The HTTPService component can send HTTP GET, POST, HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, TRACE, or DELETE requests. It does not support multi-part requests. RemoteObjects — The RemoteObject component uses Action Message Format (AMF) to transfer data that is a binary format and is the fastest of the RPC Services.

Flex Compiler mxmlc Converts.mxml into ActionScript code Compiles ActionScript code to.swf compc Similar to mxmlc Used to create libraries.swc archives Similar to Java.jar files

ActionScript 3 Core of the Flex Framework 100% ECMAScript 4 compliant Standard is still being written Flash Player Engineers are part of standard committee Similar to ActionScript 2, but.. Much much (much) faster Just-in-time compiled to native machine code Powerful new features Native Regular Expression support E4X syntax makes working with XML easy

ActionScript 3 Basics Familiar syntax Similar to C++, Java, C#, JavaScript Dynamic Language, Weak Typing Similar to ColdFusion Variables can hold any type Support for Strong Typing Can bind variable to specific data type Faster code execution Easier to develop More help from compiler Easier to find bugs via Flash Debug Player and type errors

MXML Sample Sample Output:

ActionScript sample package com.company.sample { public class MyClass implements MyInterface { public var firstname:String; public var lastname:String; public var String; public function doSomething():void { try { } catch (e:Exception) { } }

Flash Player 9 New World Class Virtual Machine - Performance (JIT Compiler) - Reduced memory consumption ActionScript 3 - Standard compliant (ECMAScript4) - Strong and dynamic typing - Runtime Error checking - ECMAScript for XML (E4X) Seamless Deployment - One-click upgrade - Full backward compatibility

Flash Player Penetration Flash content reaches 98% of Internet viewers Adobe® Flash® Player is the world's most pervasive software platform, reaching 98% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets as well as a wide range of devices.

Flex 2 Charting Part of the Flex Framework 2, but technically a separate “product” Provides data visualization components Pie Charts, Bar Charts, Area Charts, etc. Made to integrate seamlessly with FES2 Remotely synchronized data “Shared dashboard”

Flex 2 and AJAX together Flex and AJAX can communicate thru FABridge Library (Comes with FDS)

That’s all folks! If you have comments and suggestions about this presentation slides, pls contact me at