February07FlexWebMas tersGuild

Adobe© Flex – RIAs: 

Adobe© Flex – RIAs The Forum Webmasters Guild Friday, March 02, 2007 Jerry Ela Anthony DeBonis Troy Web Consulting Certified Adobe© Instructors

Agenda: 

Agenda What is Flex Accessibility FlexBuilder MXML & AS3 Flex Data Services OCC-Occasionally Connected Client

What is Flex: 

What is Flex Demo: Photo Gallery Rich Internet Applications The Pieces Platform Framework / SDK IDE Backend Components

Platform - Flash Player 9: 

Platform - Flash Player 9 Latest version of Flash Player 96% of internet users have FlashPlayer Version 9 Released 6/06 40% penetration as of 9/06 in US Projected 90%+ penetration by 4/06 in US Flex 3 will also target FlashPlayer 9 Simple upgrade process encourages rapid adoption Cost - Free

Flex Framework & SDK: 

Flex Framework & SDK Contains Class Library Compiler Documentation 7 PDF Manuals (~3000 pages) Language Reference (HTML AsDoc) Cost - Free

IDE - Flex Builder 2: 

IDE - Flex Builder 2 Eclipse Based IDE Standalone Includes Eclipse 3.1 Single install Can add other plugins like CFEclipse Plug-in Can be added to Eclipse 3.1 or 3.2 like any other plugin Cost - $499

Backend: 

Backend XML via HTTP/HTTPS REST request Web Services POJO-Plain Old Java Objects JavaBeans DAO Hibernate EJBs ColdFusion Remote Objects Flex Data Services 2

Flex Data Services 2: 

Flex Data Services 2 Was required in previous versions Now provides optional backend services Cost Express Edition (limit 1 CPU) Free Department Edition (limit 100 concurrent users) $6K per CPU Enterprise Edition $20K per CPU

Components - Flex Charting: 

Components - Flex Charting Intended to jump start Component Market Charting Components Bar / column Line / area Pie / donut High-low-close / candlestick Plot / bubble Cost - $299

Components: 

Components Commercial Adobe Exchange Open Source Adobe Exchange Adobe Flex Cookbook RIA Forge EverythingFlex

Accessibility: 

Accessibility Like html based accessible forms you should think about it upfront and put the effort into being good at it. You need to test and re-test Test a variety of accessibility issues Just like you would test for different Browsers

Accessibility Steps: 

Accessibility Steps Enable accessibility – Checkbox or configuration Create a AccessibilityProperties object private var accName:AccessibilityProperties… Set name property = to word(s) you want reader to voice. accName.name="Full Name"; For each form item use 3 tags Test it out! – Order a Pizza….

FlexBuilder: 

FlexBuilder Eclipse Code view Design view Debugger RDS Plugin CF Wizard

MXML & AS3: 

MXML & AS3 MXML – XML based declarative language AS3 – ECMAScript based OO language Example: Memory Tracker

FDS-Flex Data Services: 

FDS-Flex Data Services NOTE: Not required for Flex Application Development Help with deciding were the line is to answer the question: – Do I need it?

FDS-Flex Data Services: 

FDS-Flex Data Services

FDS-Flex Data Services: 

FDS-Flex Data Services Deploy as a J2EE application on Websphere WebLogic, Tomcat + others Deliver data-intensive applications High performance (binary) data connectivity Data Pagination Data integration with your existing middleware Data synchronization with client and server Robust Messaging (publish/subscribe + Push)

FDS-Flex Data Services: 

FDS-Flex Data Services

FDS-cont: 

FDS-cont Demo CRM – Customer Relationship Manager with 2 users/different browser http://localhost:8700/samples/dataservice/crm/companyapp.mxml Co-borrows Dashboard

OCC: 

OCC Does not stand for Orange County Choppers

OCC-Occasional Connected Client: 

OCC-Occasional Connected Client The ability for a user to enter data offline and once connected synchronize that data to the server. Flash as a built in memory space we can use to store objects in called Local Shared Object Like a complex cookie with out cookie limitations User can close the browser & reboot the PC and data is still available Example of OCC

Apollo: 

Apollo Apollo is a cross-OS Desktop Application Host Allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, Ajax) to build and deploy desktop RIA’s. In alpha now – soon beta (public) access at Labs. Best Example – EBay Application at Max http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo

References & Sources: 

References & Sources adobe.com/flex Flexcoders Christophe Coenraets-blog blog.universalmind.com/enclosures/cfunited_06_ThomasBurleson.ppt http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/jaws.html

Examples: 

Examples Multi-user form w/ concurrence issues Co-browsing the dashboard Fauxto Census Mashup Distortion Effects Demo

Questions?: 

Questions? Jerry Ela jerry.ela@troywebconsulting.com Anthony DeBonis anthony.debonis@troywebconsulting.com Thanks You