1. Flex Tahirhussain

2. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 2 Contents 1. What is Flex 2. Why Flex

3. Why Flex  Flex 3 Beta 3 is open source under Mozilla Public License  Free SDK with command line compiler and debugger  Support for AIR (formerly the Apollo project)  UI Components are amazing! – Excellent standard components – Open source libraries like flexlib are great  Large community of Flex developers  Excellent documentation from Adobe

4. What is Flex  Group of technologies that produce SWF (Shockwave file) binaries, a.k.a Flash movies – Tag based XML programming language : MXML – ActionScript 3.0 scripting language – Flex Builder IDE – mxmlc compiler & debugger  Develop Rich Internet Applications, instead of traditional page based web applications  Direct manipulation (drag & drop) behavior  Client side state management

5. What is Flex Action Script MXML Flex Class Library Flex Runtime Services J2EE Middleware RDBMS Presentation Tier Business Tier Integration Tier

6. Flex Architecture

7. How Flex Works

8. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 8 Flex  Flex Software Development Kit (SDK)—The core component library, development languages, and compiler for Flex applications  Flex Builder IDE—An Eclipse-based development environment that includes code editors, visual layout tools, project management tools, and an integrated debugger.  Flex Data Services—A Java server-based application that enables high-performance data transfer, cross-tier data synchronization and conflict management, and real-time data messaging.  Flex Charting—A library of extensible charting components that enables rapid construction of data visualization applications

9. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 9 LiveCycle Data Services Overview  Publish/Subscribe messaging infrastructure for building push and collaborative applications  Straightforward programming model for communicating with back-end systems  Automatic data synchronization  Offline synchronization for AIR applications  RIA to PDF document generation  LiveCycle document and process services integrations LiveCycle Data Services ES Data Management RPC Services Messaging Service Adapters Data Synchronization Off-line Applications Data Paging Web Service HTTP Service Remote Object Service Publish & Subscribe Collaboration Real Time Data Push Proxy Service Web-tier Compiler Portal Deployment RIA-PDF Generation LiveCycle SQL Hibernate ColdFusion JMS Java Custom…

10. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 10 Introducing Open Source BlazeDS  BlazeDS is the remoting and HTTP- based messaging technology which Adobe is contributing to the community under LGPL v3  Capabilities  Easily connects Flex & AIR applications to existing server logic  High performance data transfer for more responsive applications  Real-time data push over standard HTTP  Full pub/sub messaging that extends existing messaging infrastructure  Publication of the Action Message Format (AMF3) binary data protocol specification  Certified builds, warranty protection and enterprise support subscriptions available BlazeDS Data Management RPC Services Messaging Service Adapters Data Synchronization Off-line Applications Data Paging Web Service HTTP Service Remote Object Service Publish & Subscribe Collaboration Real Time Data Push Proxy Service Web-tier Compiler Portal Deployment RIA-PDF Generation LiveCycle SQL Hibernate ColdFusion JMS Java Custom…

11. How Flex Works

12. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 12 Flex Struts Integration Approach 1: Add Flex on top of existing Struts app as is. User Machine J2EE Application Server Browser Action Class Struts Action Servlet Application reguest HTML With Flash Player JSP Action Mapping POJO / EJB Form Flex Data Services Data request (HTTPService) Data response - XML

13. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 13 Flex Struts Integration Do we really need the request-form maze of Struts User Machine J2EE Application Server Browser Action Class Struts Action Servlet Application reguest Action Mapping POJO / EJB Flex Data Services Data request: Typed Beans Data response: Typed Beans Flex Data Services Remote POJO (Façade) JSP HTML With Flash Player

14. Confidential | Copyright © Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. 14 Flex Struts Integration As RIA handles UI navigation on the client, the entire notion of Flow-based Web frameworks becomes obsolete. User Machine J2EE Application Server Browser Action Class Struts Action Servlet Application reguest Flex Data Services Data request: Typed beans Data response: Typed beans Flex Data Services Remote POJO (Façade) POJO / EJB JSP HTML With Flash Player

15. Flex Data Services

16.  Flex currently supports three types of data communications with external sources: – XML via HTTP Requests – SOAP Web-Services – AMF / Remote Objects  With this combination, one can virtually talk to any back- end server

17. HTTP Service  The HTTPService MXML tag allows for the most basic communication level between Flex and a web server – Mostly used for legacy middleware applications and static XML documents – Any application that can generate proper XML on the fly can talk to the Flex app using this tag  Common Parameters – id : Used to name the component – url : The full URL of the component – result : The even function that will be fired when the result came back successfully The XML document will be stored in the event.result object – fault : The event function that will be fired when the result did not come back correctly

18. HTTPService  How it is used: – Place the HTTPService tag at the application or component level (root level) of the MXML document

19. Web-Services  SOAP or Web-Services can easily be called using the component  Web Services allow to communicated data back to the web- server, and retrieve typed objects (strings, numbers, arrays, queries)  As it is XML based, it is very verbose and often slow for large sets of data.  Common Parameters – id : Used to name the object – wsdl : Points to the WSDL file – showBusyCursor : Changes the current pointer to a rotating clock to let the user know something is happening

20. Web Services  Passing parameters: – One can pass parameters to web-services by naming operations (methods or functions). – The operation tag allows for result or fault functions – Web Services are case sensitive so make sure that the parameters match case

21. AMF  AMF or Remote Objects are the most efficient way to transmit data between the application server and Flex aap – Data is transmitted in Binary, so it is fairly compressed – Objects will stay in their native form when transmitted  Very easy to use  What is needed – A service-config.xml for the environment – Modify the destination section and channels as per the need

22. AMF  Service-config.xml – This file is compiled into the project and will convert the “detination” portion of the RemoteObject call to the tcp/ip hostname and port numbers – Depending on how this file looks, the application can be very portable, or not portable at all.

23. AMF  Service-config.xml

24. AMF  How it is used – Destination : Destination from the service-config.xml

25. Advanced Communication  By customizing the services-config.xml file, we can also enable some advanced communication – By using the and tags, we can “produce” content to other applications – This allows for many-to-one or many-to-many applications with little or no work

26. Messaging Code  Declare and :  Publish message with producer:  Receive message with consumet:

27. Flex Advantages  Rich development environment  Single runtime environment  Optimized client/server integration  Disconnected mode support  Data management infrastructure  Build-in support for real time messaging

28. ActionScript 3.0  ECMA-4 compliant  Object oriented – Packages – Classes – Inheritance – Interfaces  Strong and weak typing  Online API – http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/201/langref/index.html http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/201/langref/index.html

29. Compilation  mxmlc compiler 1.Stage one 1.Parse MXML into ActionScript classes 2.Compile ActionScript into bytecode 3.Insert bytecode into a binary SWF file 2.Stage two (just-in-time compilation) 1.Flash Players contain an ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM). At runtime, the AVM turns the bytecode into machine language code that the particular OS can interpret.

30. Compilation  Compilation can be done from: – Command line – Ant script – Flex Builder IDE – Web compiler (part of LiveCycle Data Services ES) Like JSP compilation model, pages are compiled when first requested, then cached mxmlc --show-actionscript-warnings=true c:/myDir/firstProgram.mxml

31. Build Tools  Free SDK includes: – mxmlc command line compiler – Debugger – Component class library – Documentation  Flex Builder 3.0 (Beta) includes: – Eclipse based IDE – SDK – Debugger – Design view – Flex Builder 2 is $250, no pricing on latest version yet

32. Data  HTTP session is unnecessary! As Flex creates an RIA, you keep state on the client. – Asychronous Remote object invocation (access Java POJO) Web service HTTP GET/POST – Callback required to give client the response data – User can continue working while request is processed  HTTPService (make GET & POST requests) –  WebService (access a web service) –

33. Data Exchange Protocols : SOAP  SOAP? – You can use it, but passing XML is not as efficient as using binary exchange. Adobe claims it is 10 times slower. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/blazeds/

34. Data exchange protocols: AMF  Action Media Format (AMF) data protocol – Binary data exchange over HTTP – Default protocol behind, which is used to access data using remote object invocation – Now open source! Goal is to provide AMF for all platforms

35. Remote Object Invocation  Add Java classes to Flex app classpath – WEB-INF/classes – WEB-INF/lib  Integrates with J2EE security  Class by class exposure to Flex via deployment descriptors  – Asynchronous method call – Callback ‘handler’ – Fault-handling

36. Remote Object Invocation  Example – – Fault handling is done by callback handler fault(arg), where ‘arg’ is the error. It can handle Java exceptions and network failures. – Successful results are processed by callback handler result(arg)  remoting-config.xml – com.me.myService application

37. Blaze DS  What provides access to Java objects? – Blaze DS Taken from LiveCycle Data Services ES, the final release will be open source under the LGPL v3 license Release Candidate became available 2.1.08 Offers remoting and messaging capabilities – LiveCycle Data Services ES Rather expensive… Provides remoting and messaging capabilities, data synchronization between client and server, publish/subscribe messaging, and PDF creation

38. Flex vs. Flash  Flash is a great tool for developing videos, animations, or any small application that is well suited to be developed on a timeline, or by layering visual elements  Flash requires the $700 IDE  Flex is a web application developer’s approach to creating web applications  Flex development can be free

39. Feature areaBlaze DS LiveCycle Data Services Community Edition LiveCycle Data Services ES LicenseOpen source Commercial RPC servicesyes Messagingyes Clustered messagingyes Pub/sub messagingyes Web container – based messaging services (hundreds of clients per CPU)yes Non Blocking IO (NIO) based messaging (thousands of clients per CPU)no yes Per-client Quality Of Service (QOS)no yes Data managementno yes RIA-to-PDF file generationno yes Offline synchronization Supportno yes WSRP portal integrationno yes Platinum maintenance and supportno yes Gold and Bronze maintenance and supportnoyes

40. Choose LiveCycle Data Services ES if you need:  High-performance data streaming, paging, and data synchronization  Reduced development and maintenance costs for complex database applications  Offline support for Adobe AIR  Integration with portals  LiveCycle connectivity to integrate RIAs with business processes and document services  Advanced deployment options for maximum scalability  Access to enterprise support resources to help you run business-critical applications Choose BlazeDS if you need  Ease of integration with existing Java™ code  High-performance data delivery and transfer  Publish/subscribe and push messaging over standard HTTP Choose LiveCycle Data Services Community Edition if you need:  BlazeDS functionality with platform certification and the latest security and bug patches  Access to enterprise support resources to help you run business- critical applications

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