Christophe Coenraets | Rich Internet Applications, Flex, AIR, Java, Android | Page 2

Tomcat Launcher using AIR Native Process API — Update for AIR 2 GA

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: June 17, 2010

I updated my “Tomcat Launcher” sample application for AIR 2.0 GA.

“Tomcat Launcher” allows you to start / stop Tomcat and view the standard output log without opening a DOS box or Terminal window. It also allows you to open that log in your default Text Editor which is another new feature of AIR 2.0 that I covered in the “AIR2Excel” sample application. Tomcat Launcher also provides a generic example showing how to use the AIR 2.0 native process API to execute Java code.

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Posted in Flex | 2 Comments

“AIR 2 Excel” Sample App Updated for AIR 2 GA

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: June 17, 2010

I updated the “AIR 2 Excel” sample application for the official AIR 2 launch. “AIR 2 Excel” demonstrates different techniques for AIR/Excel integration, including the new AIR 2 File.openWithDefaultApplication() API.

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Posted in Air, Flex | 8 Comments

“Voice Notes” Updated for AIR 2 GA

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: June 16, 2010

To mark the official release of AIR 2, I’m upgrading the samples I built during the beta, starting today with “Voice Notes”.

Voice Notes is a sample application that leverages the new Microphone API. The application lets you record voice notes and store them in a SQLite database so that you can replay them later.

Make sure you have the AIR 2 runtime installed (you can download the AIR 2 runtime here), and install the application using the badge below:

Please upgrade your Flash Player This is the content that would be shown if the user does not have Flash Player 9.0.115 or higher installed.

View Source (right click) is enabled.

NOTE: You can download the AIR 2 SDK here.

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Posted in Air, Flex | 4 Comments

Sample Application using Flex and AIR for Android

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: May 20, 2010

Here is a simple Employee Directory application I wrote to demonstrate how to build Flex applications for Android using the AIR runtime.

Watch the video:

The key point when you look at the source code of this application is that you build Flex applications for Android the exact same way you build Flex applications for the Browser and the Desktop: same programming model, same language, same tools, same code. This application for example uses a local SQLite database on your device that you access using the same database API you’d use for any other Flex application running on the AIR runtime.

The other good news is that you have access to additional APIs (GPS, accelerometer), and you can integrate with other applications on your phone (dialer, SMS, email, etc).

Download the Application and Source Code

  • You can download the application (EmployeeDirectory.apk) here
  • You can download the source code (EmployeeDirectory.fxp project file) here
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Posted in Air, Android, Flex | 26 Comments

Android Trader Application with Flex 4 and AIR

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: May 20, 2010

I recently blogged about building a Real Time Trader Desktop Application using Flex 4 and LiveCycle Data Services. I posted the source code for the AIR version and the Browser version of the application. The next logical step was to build a Mobile version. I used Flex 4 and the prerelease version of AIR for Android.

Watch the video:

I made some changes to the User Interface to work better on a smaller screen, but for the most part, this version of the application uses the same code as the browser and the desktop versions: same data feed, subscription logic, model, controller, components, etc. This made it amazingly easy to take an existing Flex application and deploy it on Android… Three different deployment targets (Browser, Desktop, Mobile), same programming model, same language, same tools, same code.

The developer prerelease of AIR for Android is now available. More information here.

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Posted in Air, Android, Flex | 10 Comments

Using the Flash Builder 4 Data Centric Features with Parsley (and other frameworks)

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: May 5, 2010

I have blogged about the new data-centric features in Flash Builder 4 here and here. One question people often ask me is: “Can I use this feature if I use a Framework (Cairngorm, Mate, Parsley, Spring ActionScript, Swiz, etc)?”

The answer is yes: The classes generated by Flash Builder (Value Objects and Service Stubs) are standard building blocks that are part of most RIA design patterns, regardless of whether or not you use a framework.

The way you leverage these classes in your application may differ slightly depending on the framework you are using. For example, each framework may have a different approach to configure service endpoints or to instantiate generated service stubs.

To demonstrate this, I built a version of my “Contacts” application (also known as InSync) using the Flash Builder 4 data-centric features and the Parsley Framework.

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Posted in BlazeDS, Flex, LCDS, Parsley | 15 Comments

Trader Desktop Performance Console: Fix, Source Code, and Fast DataGrid

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: April 26, 2010

I fixed a problem in the Trader Desktop Performance console I posted last week: Using the AIR client and the RTMP channel, the message latency started to increase when the application was deactivated (lost focus)… Background: When an AIR application loses focus, the AIR 2 runtime lowers the frame rate of the application to a smaller value to prevent the application from using unnecessary CPU resources if it’s running in the background. Because of the current dependency between frame rate and RTMP message processing, this behavior is not appropriate for our Trader Desktop application when using an RTMP channel, because it would significantly reduce the number of real time messages the application can handle. This would lead to a rapidly growing queue of messages waiting to be processed, and the message latency growing out of control. The fix is to force a higher frame rate on the “deactivate” event of the WindowedApplication.

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Posted in Flex | 4 Comments

Performance Tuning: Real Time Trader Desktop with Flex and LCDS

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: April 22, 2010

In the last few months, I’ve seen an explosion in the number of Financial Services firms interested in building Real Time Trader Desktop applications using Flex and LiveCycle Data Services.

The new Quality of Service features available in LCDS 3.x (guaranteed message delivery, message throttling, etc) have contributed to this intensified interest. But for many real time applications, performance is what matters most. So, in addition to adding and improving features, we also spent a lot of time running benchmarks and optimizing performance. Damon has been blogging about this recently. The tests he describes are mostly “server-focused”. They answer the question: How many messages per second can the server push to how many clients with what latency? In one of the scenarios tested, the answer was a total of 400,000 messages per second spread over 500 clients with an average latency of 15 milliseconds.

Another more “client-focused” question customers have asked me is: How many messages per second can one client consume and render with what latency? To answer that question, I built my own Performance Console and feed generator.


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Posted in Flex | 15 Comments

Speaking at Skills Matter in London this Thursday Night (Free Event)

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: April 14, 2010

I’m in London this week and will make a stop at Skills Matter on Thursday for a free event at 6:30pm… I’ll be presenting on Flex 4, Flash Builder 4, Flash Catalyst, LCDS 3.1, Mosaic, etc. More info here. No, I didn’t come up with the title of the session :)

I hope to see you there if you live in the area.

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Posted in Flex | 5 Comments

Video: Using the Flash Builder 4 Data Wizards with BlazeDS 4

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: March 23, 2010

In this video, I demonstrate how to build Flex 4 applications with a Java back-end using the new “Data-Centric Development” features of Flash Builder 4 (including service introspection, value object and service stub generation, etc).

If you want to try it yourself, the environment I used for the demo is part of a new Test Drive I put together to allow you to get started quickly with Flex 4, Flash Builder 4 and Java. The Test Drive environment consists of a minimal version of Tomcat with BlazeDS 4 preconfigured to work with the Flash Builder 4 data centric features and a sample application. You can download the Test Drive here.

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Posted in Flex | 8 Comments