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In this new Adobe TV episode, I demonstrate how to build Flex applications that connect to a Spring back-end using the new Spring / BlazeDS Integration project.
If you are interested in this integration, make sure you check out the Spring / BlazeDS Integration page on the SpringSource web site and the new Spring / BlazeDS Integration Test Drive.
There have been a lot of discussions around Flex Frameworks lately. Tony Hillerson has an interesting series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6
A relative newcomer on the list is Swiz, the work of Chris Scott. I figured I would give it a try, and create a Swiz version of the inSync application that I often use to try out and demonstrate different features and techniques in Flex and Adobe AIR. This is not an endorsement of Swiz over other frameworks. I simply wanted to share the sample application I built as part of my own research as a (neutral like a Swiss) Evangelist.
I have written several times about the Flex / Spring integration on this blog. Now things are about to get even simpler and more integrated. This is very exciting news!
From the press release:
Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced that it is working with SpringSource to simplify the development and deployment of rich enterprise Java(TM) applications through a collaboration that will provide integration between the Adobe(R) Flash(R) and SpringSource platforms. This collaboration will make it easy for Java developers to create enterprise-class rich Internet applications (RIAs) using Adobe Flex(R) software, a cornerstone of the Adobe Flash Platform, and Spring, the de facto standard for enterprise Java.
With support from Adobe, SpringSource is introducing Spring BlazeDS Integration, a new open source project to provide tight integration between Spring and BlazeDS, Adobe’s open source server-based Java remoting and Web messaging technology. A beta version of the Spring BlazeDS Integration will be available from SpringSource in mid-December.
Also in development for early next year is the SpringSource Adapter for Adobe(R) LiveCycle(R) Data Services ES(TM) which will provide integration with Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES, enabling the creation of server push-based applications based on Adobe Flex for real-time and near real-time solutions.
When using the LCDS data management service, developers usually create a custom assembler for each destination, or use the Hibernate assembler if they happen to use Hibernate as their persistence framework. Other developers don’t use the data management service at all because of its perceived complexity.
The Data Management Service provides a set of low level APIs on top of which you can build your own higher level / higher productivity framework. The Hibernate assembler provides an example of a “generic assembler”, but you can also create your own. When used in this fashion, the Data Management Service can provide, by far, the most productive way to build data-driven applications.
To illustrate this point, I have been showing a demo at a few conferences this year, and I finally decided to package it. The demo combines a generic assembler and the runtime configuration feature of LCDS to provide a zero (server-side) code, zero configuration strategy to build data-driven applications. The demo goes like this:
I have been working on a Tomcat-based “Flex Test Drive Server”. The Test Drive Server is a minimal and ready-to-use version of Tomcat (currently version 5.5.20) in which the Flex Data Services (version 2.0.1) WAR file has already been deployed and configured along with a variety of tutorials and sample applications. It allows you to get up and running integrating Flex with Java back-ends in a matter of minutes. Download fds-tomcat.zip, expand the file, and run…
The Test Drive Server includes:
Many people in the Java community have recently been asking how to use Flex with the Spring framework, and more specifically, how to remotely invoke Spring beans methods from Flex applications.
Spring is one of the most popular Java frameworks. It is based on a lightweight component container that implements the Inversion of Control (IoC) pattern. Using an IoC container, components don’t instantiate or even look up their dependencies (the objects they work with). The container is responsible for injecting those dependencies when it creates the components (hence the term “Dependency Injection” also used to describe this pattern). The result is looser coupling between components. The Spring IoC container has proven to be a solid foundation for building robust enterprise applications.
The Flex and Spring integration process is actually very straightforward. Based on the interest in combining these technologies, I wrote a document providing background information, configuration information, and three examples with source code.
You can read the “Using Flex with Spring” document here.
UPDATE (1/12/2007): I put together a Tomcat-based Test Drive Server that includes these samples running out-of-the box. Read this post for more info.
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