ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4: Application Development

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ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4Application Development

• Ryan Stewart
• Platform Evangelist, Adobe Systems
• ryan_at_adobe.com
• Twitter _at_ryanstewart

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About Ryan

• Adobe Employee 2 years
• CF Developer at Wharton
• Interests Beer, the Outdoors

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Agenda for Today

• Using Flash Builder 4 with ColdFusion 9
• Fun new features in Flex 4
• ColdFusion as a Service in your Flex Applications

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Flash Builder for CF Developers

• Both Flash Builder and ColdFusion Builder run on
  Eclipse
• Best way to get started
• Install ColdFusion Builder as a plugin into the
  standalone version of Flash Builder 4

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Plugging Flash Builder into CF Builder

• In the current beta you can install the plug-in
  version of Flash Builder into the standalone
  version of ColdFusion Builder
• It requires a change in settings to the
  CFBuilder.ini file in the root directory of your
  installation
• http//www.adrocknaphobia.com/post.cfm/update-you
  r-coldfusion-builder-beta-settings-for-flash-build
  er-4-beta

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Helpful Flex Features in ColdFusion Builder

• ColdFusion Builder supports extensions
• Ships with an AS Class Generator
• Create AS classes based on a database model
• RDS Query Viewer
• Create queries right from the IDE
• Snippets Panel
• Save Flex code for reuse

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Working with Data

• New Data Features in Flash Builder 4 for
  ColdFusion Developers

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Data Centric Development

• Flash Builder 4 includes new data wizards for
  ColdFusion and other languages
• Consume or Generate CFCs
• Inspect methods and generate return types
• Drag and drop services on to UI components
• Generate UI based on a data model

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Advanced Data Features

• Map client side data operations to server side
  operations
• Create, Update, Delete, etc.
• Automate bulk updates deletions
• Support for rollback of changes to data
• One instance of any record
• Changes reflected wherever data is displayed
• Paging for large recordsets
• Automatic fetching of X records at a time
• Ideal for large datasets in grids, lists, etc.

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Checking the Flow of Information

• Were you a Flex 1.5 developer? Do you remember
  the Network Monitor?
• Its back!
• Allows you to see network traffic between your
  Flex app and ColdFusion server
• See requests and responses in tree or raw view
• Debug network calls right from Flash Builder

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Demo

• Using the Data Centric Development Workflow with
  Flex and ColdFusion

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Flex 4

• Fun New Features for Creative ColdFusion
  Developers

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• Improved States Syntax
• 2-way Data Binding
• Advanced CSS
• New Animation
• New Layout Model

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New Component Model

• Referred to as the Spark Component set
• Clean separation between logic (ActionScript) and
  visual elements (MXML)
• Visual elements stored in a separate file
• Designs are swappable at runtime

Component (AS)
Skin (MXML)
Graphics Layout Animation States
Behavior Logic Data
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MXML Graphics and FXG

• Creative Suite Tools Support FXG Graphics
• XML-based
• Map closely to the Flash Player Model
• Supports
• Gradients
• Fills
• Shapes and Paths
• Filters

ltsstrokegt ltsSolidColor /gt lt/sstrokegt
ltsPath /gt
ltsfillgt ltsLinearGradient /gt lt/sfillgt
ltsfiltersgt ltsDropShadowFilter /gt lt/sfiltersgt
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Demo

• Components in Flex 4

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ColdFusion As a Service

• Using ColdFusion Inside of your Flex and AIR
  Applications

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Working with ColdFusion and Flex Today

• Create a CFC with ColdFusion service
  functionality built into it
• Make sure to expose that CFC remotely
• Use the RemoteObject tag to call CFC from Flex
• Rinse, Wash, Repeat for every Service

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There is a Better Way

• Consume ColdFusion services from right within a
  Flex/AIR application
• Use similar syntax and properties
• Take advantage of ColdFusions more powerful
  features

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Supported Services

• PDF generation and access (cfpdf)
• Chart generation (cfchart)
• Document creation (cfdocument)
• Send mail (cfmail)
• Retrieve POP3 (cfpop)
• Create and alter images (cfimage) - no captcha (

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Using CFAAS in Flex

• Add the cfservices.swc to your Flex project
• Scope the cfservices classes to the cf namespace
• Create a configuration tag
• Start consuming services

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Configuring ColdFusion Services cfInternalConfig

• In the CF Administrator, create a user and expose
  specific services
• Enable specific IP addresses (the one your Flex
  application will be served from)
• Use cfInternalConfig to set up the URL, port,
  and user for the ColdFusion Services
• That cfInternalConfig tag applies to all other
  ColdFusion services called

CF Administrator
Configured Users and IP Addresses
AMF
Web Service
Flex Application
cfInternalConfig Information
cf Services
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Demo

• Using ColdFusion as a Service in Flex

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QA

• ryan_at_adobe.com