Flex 3 with Java

Table of Contents

Flex 3 with Java

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code for the book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Installing and Configuring Adobe Flex

Installing open source Flex 3 SDK

Installation directory structure

About configuration files

Flex compilers

Using compc—the component compiler

Using mxmlc—the application compiler

Installing Flex Builder 3

Creating a Flex project

UI designer and source code editor

Flex LiveDocs

Summary

2. Introduction to Flex 3 Framework

How Flex works

Compiling and running an application

About MXML

Understanding namespaces

Using namespaces in your code

Containers

Layout manager

Layout containers

Using Box, HBox, and VBox containers

Navigator containers

Form containers

Constraint-based layout

Using events in MXML

Creating custom events

Validating and formatting data

Restricting user entry

Formatting

Data binding

Using the [Bindable] metadata tag

Creating MXML custom components

Understanding Flex itemRenderers

Drop-in itemRenderers

Inline itemRenderers

External itemRenderers

Summary

3. Introduction to ActionScript 3.0

ActionScript 3.0 language features

Strict data typing

Runtime exceptions

Sealed classes and dynamic classes

Method closure

XML and E4X

New primitive data types

Regular expressions

Object-oriented programming

ActionScript 3.0 fundamentals

Variables

Access modifiers

Packages

Classes and interfaces

Classes

Interfaces

Implementing an interface in a class

Inheriting classes

Functions and methods

Named functions

Anonymous functions

Function parameters

The default parameter values

The ...(rest) parameter

Setter and getter methods

Flow control and looping

If/else statement

switch statement

Looping

While looping

do..while looping

for looping

for..in looping

for each..in looping

Exceptions and error handling

try...catch...finally statements

Create your own custom Error class object

Reserved words and keywords

Using ActionScript 3.0 with MXML

Using the tag

Using the include directive

Working with events

Registering event handlers

Dispatching an event

About the target and currentTarget properties

Event propagation

Capturing phase

Targeting phase

Bubbling phase

Creating custom events

Creating and using ActionScript components

The commitProperties() method

The createChildren() method

The layoutChrome() method

The measure() method

The updateDisplayList() method

Summary

4. Using External API and LocalConnection

Using External API

Using the ExternalInterface class

Getting information about external container

Calling JavaScript code from ActionScript

Calling ActionScript code from JavaScript

Using LocalConnection

Summary

5. Working with XML

XML basics

Understanding E4X

The XML object

The XMLList object

Working with XML objects

Using XML as dataProvider

Loading external XML documents

An example: Building a book explorer

Summary

6. Overview of LiveCycle Data Services and BlazeDS

LiveCycle Data Services

BlazeDS

BlazeDS vs LiveCycle Data Services

LiveCycle Data Services

BlazeDS

Understanding AMF

Summary

7. Flex Data Access Methods

Flex data access components

The HTTPService class

Using the HTTPService tag in MXML

An example of HTTPService

Using the HTTPService class in ActionScript

The WebService class

Using the WebService tag in MXML

An example of WebService

WSDL document

Using the WebService class in ActionScript

Working with SOAP headers

The RemoteObject class

Using the RemoteObject tag in MXML

An example of RemoteObject

Working with strongly-typed objects

Understanding the Flash Player security sandbox

Understanding the cross-domain policy file

Creating a proxy service

Summary

8. Communicating with Server-side Java

The HTTPService class

Working with XML data

Working with JSON data

Summary

9. Debugging Techniques

Flash Debug Player

Using client-side logging

Flex Builder Debugger

The Debug view

The Variables view

The Breakpoints view

The Expressions view

Network monitoring

ServiceCapture

Charles Web Debugging Proxy

Summary

10. Styling your Application

Using inline styles

Using external CSS files

Creating and designing Cascading Style Sheets

Loading stylesheets at runtime

Summary

11. Packaging and Deployment

Packaging your application

Using Flex Ant Tasks

Deploying your application

Flex deployment options

Using a single SWF file deployment

Using web-tier compilation

Summary

12. Internationalization and Localization

Internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n)

Language

Assets

Culture

Time zones

Localization of Flex applications

Creating a resource file

Creating resource modules

Summary

13. Creating an E-commerce Application

The general anatomy of the application

Let's start coding

The Flex code

The Java code

Directories and files

Summary

Index

Flex 3 with Java

Satish Kore

Flex 3 with Java

Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: June 2009

Production Reference: 1220609

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847195-34-0

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<vinayak.chittar@gmail.com>)

Credits

Author

Satish Kore

Reviewers

Wim Bervoets

Trevor Burton

Acquisition Editor

James Lumsden

Development Editor

Swapna Verlekar

Technical Editor

Dhiraj Bellani

Copy Editor

Sneha Kulkarni

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Editorial Team Leader

Abhijeet Deobhakta

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Neelkanth Mehta

Proofreaders

Laura Booth

Lynda Sliwoski

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Satish Kore is a software engineer, an amateur blogger, and a dreamer based in a beautiful city Bangalore in India. He has worked on a variety of technologies including Adobe Flex, Java, and J2ME over the past eight years. He has always been passionate about Rich Internet application (RIA) technologies and loves working on Adobe Flex. He always enjoyed writing software applications and solving common problems using technology. You can keep up with his work by visiting his blog at http://blog.satishkore.com, or by following him on Twitter http://twitter.com/satishkore.

I thank my family for being encouraging and supportive and special thanks to my friends for always inviting me on parties even though I constantly refused to join them by giving them the same boring reason that I am busy with writing.

This book means a lot to me since I have spent all my weekends and free time writing this book for the past 6-7 months. However, this book would not have been possible without some individuals who have worked alongside me during the writing, reviewing, and publishing phases.

I would thank James Lumsden for giving me the opportunity to write this book. I would also like to thank Neelkanth Mehta, Swapna Verlekar, Dhiraj Bellani, and all my technical reviewers for proofreading, reviewing, and refining the content of this book; without their efforts, this book wouldn’t have been completed.

About the Reviewers

Wim Bervoets is a Senior J2EE/Java software engineer and architect from Belgium, Europe, who helps organizations to implement complex web-based business applications.

Since 2000, Wim Bervoets has specialized in developing and architecting web-based solutions in various companies and industries (for example, banks, pharmacy, and so on) and in various roles (as a lead developer, architect, consultant, designer, and so on).

Since 2008, he has also started working with Adobe Flex RIA Technologies in combination with existing Java applications.

Wim Bervoets is also no stranger to Web2.0, internet marketing and web site launches. He created successful international web sites, such as http://www.javablog.be —a blog about Java and Flex, http://www.dancevibes.be —a blog about music, and http://www.wimsbios.com — a site for PC tech enthusiasts.

To contact Wim Bervoets, please email to<wim@javablog.be>or go to his blog at http://www.javablog.be.

Trevor Burton is a software developer based in London, UK. He works primarily in Actionscript and Java. He has been working with Flash since the release of Flash 4 and Flex since the release of version 3 and has a wealth of experience developing Flash games from the banner advergames to multi-million pound online gambling applications.

He currently works for Infrared5, developing a wide range of web applications. In his spare time, he experiments with multi-user interaction and human—computer interaction.

Dedicated to my beautiful wife, Archana. I remain thankful to her for being supportive and understanding

Preface

Rich Internet applications (RIAs) are a new breed of web applications that are capable of doing things such as loading and handling heavy data ten times faster than HTTP, designing great-looking and sophisticated user interfaces that resemble desktop-based applications, and having the possibility of utilizing existing server technology such as Java, that would have never been possible with typical web technologies, such as HTML. Flex 3 is a leading technology for developing RIAs for the Web, as well as for the desktop. This book gives you an insight into, and provides a hands-on experience in, programming in Flex 3 by utilizing your existing knowledge of Java programming.

This book includes comprehensive information on various concepts of Flex 3 and ActionScript 3.0, such as developing simple applications and handling events to creating custom components and events, using RPC services, integration with Java and BlazeDS, styling and formatting, and how to package and deploy Flex applications. Finally, this book provides a step-by-step tutorial for developing e-commerce applications using Flex 3, ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS, and Java.

You will start with downloading, installing, and configuring Flex 3 SDK and Flex Builder 3 and learn basic concepts, such as what is Macromedia Flex Markup Language (MXML) and ActionScript, understanding UI components, controls and compilers, and so on. Furthermore, you will start developing simple applications and slowly go into more depth where you will learn advanced concepts, such as creating custom components, debugging, integrating with Java, using RPC services, styling, internationalizing, and deploying Flex applications, and much more.

What this book covers

Chapter 1: Installing and Configuring Adobe Flex—In this chapter, you will learn the basics of Flex programming, that is, downloading, installing, and configuring Flex SDK and Flex Builder 3.

Chapter 2: Introduction to Flex 3 Framework—This chapter will introduce you to the MXML scripting for laying out User Interfaces (UI) in the Flex world. This chapter also provides hands-on examples required to get you started with MXML programming.

Chapter 3: Introduction to ActionScript 3.0—This chapter will introduce you to the ActionScript 3.0 programming language along with detailed code samples.

Chapter 4: Using External API and LocalConnection - In this chapter, you will learn how to communicate with JavaScript from a Flex application and vice versa.

Chapter 5: Working with XML—In this chapter, you will learn how to work with XML data using Flex's E4X approach.

Chapter 6:Overview of LiveCycle Data Services and BlazeDS—This chapter will provide an overview of BlazeDS and LiveCycle Data Services.

Chapter 7: Flex Data Access Methods—This chapter provides you with in-depth information about various data access methods available in Flex with detailed and step-by-step code samples along with Flash Player security model. It also gives you a detailed insight into how to use RemoteObject to communicate with Java code.

Chapter 8: Communicating with Server-side Java—This chapter provides step-by-step code examples to get started with Flex and Java communication along with clear and simple code examples..

Chapter 9: Debugging Techniques—In this chapter, you will learn how to debug your Flex application using Flex Builder 3 and some third-party tools.

Chapter 10: Packaging and Deployment—You will learn how to build and package a Flex application using available tools, such as Apache Ant, and learn about various deployment options that you can use.

Chapter 11: Styling Your Application—This chapter will give an overview of using Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) for changing the look and feel of your Flex application and components with brief code examples and tools for designing CSS files.

Chapter 12: Internationalization and Localization—This chapter will give you an overview of internationalizing your application.

Chapter 13: Creating an E-commerce Application—This chapter will provide a step-by-step guide for creating an end-to-end e-commerce application using Flex 3, ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS, and Java.

What you need for this book

First and foremost, you need to have a need for learning Flex 3 technology; yes, I say that because most of us learn a new technology either by accident or because of some need, such as client/project demand or for doing things that are not possible with current technology or maybe you just want to upgrade your skill sets. Whatever is your reason behind learning Flex 3, I assure you that this book will serve as a simple and clear handbook for any developers to get started with Adobe Flex 3 programming.

Although this book is very easy to read and understand for any novice programmer, having some basic knowledge of Java programming in general, including Java Server Pages (JSP), would help you to pick up quickly. Apart from this, I assume that you have already heard about terms such as Rich Internet applications (RIAs) and understand theory behind it; if not, then please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Internet_application.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: The ExternalInterface.available property can be used to determine if the container application that is hosting your Flash Player instance supports an external interface.

A block of code is set as follows:

Label

{

color: #ffff00;

fontSize: 20;

fontWeight: bold;

}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

Label

{

color: #ffff00;

fontSize: 20;

fontWeight: bold;

}

Label.helloStyle

{

color: red;

fontSize: 20;

fontStyle: italic;

}

Label.bonjourStyle

{

color: blue;

fontFamily: Arial;

fontSize: 20;

}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

mxmlc -library-path+=..../MyLibraries/bin/Main.mxml

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

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If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book on, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the example code for the book

Visit http://www.packtpub.com/files/code/5340_Code.zip to directly download the example code.

The downloadable files contain instructions on how to use them.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration, and help us to improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the let us know link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata added to any list of existing errata. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at<copyright@packtpub.com>with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at<questions@packtpub.com>if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Installing and Configuring Adobe Flex

In this chapter, you will learn how to install and configure Basic Flex 3.0 SDK (Software Development Kit) and Flex Builder 3. The Adobe Flex SDK contains everything you need to build and deploy Flex Rich Internet applications (RIAs). You can write Flex programs typically using any freely available text editing tools, such as Notepad, TextPad, or any Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of your choice. Adobe provides a specialized IDE for developing and designing Flex applications known as Flex Builder. Flex Builder is built on top of Eclipse platform. So if you are familiar with the Eclipse development paradigm, it will be very easy for you to use Flex Builder.

Although you do not need Flex Builder to write and compile Flex applications, Flex Builder does facilitate development with powerful tools, such as debugger, profiler, and visual designer apart from what the Eclipse platform offers you.

I prefer using Flex Builder 3, since I use Eclipse a lot for my Java development and I have installed Flex Builder 3 as a plugin to my Eclipse IDE.

I am assuming that you have prior knowledge of installing and configuring software packages on the Windows platform. In this chapter, I will explain how to install Flex Builder 3 on Windows. Mac and Linux users should visit Adobe's web site at http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flex/3/releasenotes_flex3_fb.html for installation instructions.

Installing open source Flex 3 SDK

Flex SDK comes in different types such as licensed Free Adobe Flex SDK (with a mixture of open source and closed open source components) and open source Flex SDK. The latter package contains entirely open source components under the Mozilla Public License version 1.1 (MPL) agreement, which includes its binaries. To know more about the available types of SDKs, visit http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Downloads. In this chapter, I will cover open source Flex SDK as an example.

In order to install Flex 3 SDK, download