Flash Builder 4 makes a new marriage proposal between Flex and Java!

Data Centric Rapid Application Development one of the star-strickers in the Flash Builder 09 BETA league ensures seemless connectivity between Flex client and Java back-end. Said so, it promises literally “ZERO” Flex code to build a Rich Internet Application.It also provides kick-ass support for client-side Data Management and Paging.

Let us build a sample Inventory application which displays all the mobile phones available in a mall.

Pre-requisites:

a) Downloadand install Flash Builder 4 BETA from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4/

b) Download the latest BlazeDS release build from http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/blazeds/Downloads

FYI,  BlazeDS is the server-based Java remoting and web messaging technology that enables developers to easily connect to back-end distributed data and push data in real-time to Adobe® Flex™ and Adobe AIR™ applications for more responsive rich Internet application (RIA) experiences. In short, a bunch of libraries to connect ColdFusion or Java back-ends to Flex.

c)Basic knowledge in Java Programming.

d)ZERO knowledge in Flex Programming

BlazeDS  Set-Up:

BlazeDS comes bundled with Tomcat, but one may also deploy it on other servers like Apache,JBOSS etc.In this post i would assume the BlazeDS sits on in-built tomcat.

a) Go to tomcat\webapps\blazeds\WEB-INF and uncomment the servlet definition and mapping for “RDSDispatchServlet” and set the <param-value> as ‘false’.

b) Kindly set up your data base  as mentioned here

c)Add the following class files from Files

and place it under tomcat\webapps\blazeds\WEB-INF\classes\com\random.

d)Open remote-config.xml from tomcat\webapps\blazeds\WEB-INF\flex and add the following mapping:

<destination id=”CreatingRpc1″>

<properties>

<source>com.random.Inventory</source>

</properties>

<adapter ref=”java-object”/>

</destination>

<destination id=”MyService”>

<properties> <source>com.random.Inventory</source> </properties>

<adapter ref=”java-object”/>

</destination>

e) Add the mysql jdbc jar file “mysql-connector-java-5.1.7-bin” to tomcat\webapps\blazeds\WEB-INF\lib.

Your BlazeDS set-up is now complete, GOTO tomcat\bin and start the server.

Here are the step-by-step instructions to achieve the workflow:

a) Launch Flash Builder and create a Flex-BlazeDS project as shown in the image below:

Project Creation

Server Configuration

Click NEXT from “Project Creation” wizard and set the

server configuration based on the BlazeDS  installation directory,click “Validate Configuration” and FINISH.

b) Goto Data->Connect to BlazeDS..

c) An authentication dialog will pop-up, select “No password” check-box and click OK

d)In the Import BlazeDS/LCDS service wizard, enter the service name as “MyDestination”, select the destination and FINISH.

e) Click on J2EEProject.mxml and switch to the design view.

f) Go to Components->Data Controls, select Data Grid and drag-drop onto the design view

g) Now drag-drop getAllItems functions onto the Data Grid. The preview is shown above.

h)Context click on project and select ‘Run Application’ . All the values in the data base gets populated in the data grid launched in the browser.

Similarly all the CRUD operations can be performed including client-side Data Management and Paging without any Flex code.

Wanna know what’s the magic ?? Hoping to get back soon with the MAYA “behind the scenes”

Now how many of us agree that Java Developers can tie KNOT with Flex for their RIA development ???

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Tutorial on model-driven development using Flash Builder 4 and LiveCycle DS 3
• Why are you NOT using LiveCycle DS?
• ruce Phillips Blog on Java, ColdFusion, Flex and Spry Using Flex, BlazeDS, …