Here is a cool article from the Flex 3 livedocs on ActionScript 3.0 and how the language handles fixed property and prototype inheritance. There is also a brief history of AS from version 1.0 to present. The content may not help you with day-to-day tasks, but it is an interesting and fun read.
Archive
(Go to ‘Cairngorm Series‘ to view all titles)
This is the third post in a series on Cairngorm fundamentals. We will be binding data from the ModelLocator (created in the previous video) to a new View component. There are countless ways to achieve similar results, so do some research and come up with a method that meets your requirements. I establish some goals to strive for when creating views but the focus of this series is on Cairngorm. Feel free to post links to additional resources on the subject. Continue reading for the video and example with source …
Continue reading ‘Create a View and bind to application data’
(Go to ‘Cairngorm Series‘ to view all titles)
This is the second post in a series on Cairngorm fundamentals. We will be covering the concept of the ModelLocator, the Model in MVC. In short, the ModelLocator is a Singleton which implements a marker interface (no method definitions) from the Cairngorm framework called com.adobe.cairngorm.model.IModelLocator. The ModelLocator class defines properties that hold all application data. From now on we’ll just call this class the Model.
(Go to ‘Cairngorm Series‘ to view all titles)
This is the first post in a new series on Cairngorm fundamentals. I begin the series with three steps towards a Model View Controller implementation using familiar concepts and no framework. Future posts will build on these concepts using the Cairngorm framework until we have built a working application.
MVC Flex applications with Cairngorm
I will be presenting at the 615Flex user group meeting (Nashville, TN) on March 11, 2008. This presentation will cover the fundamental concepts needed to begin using Cairngorm to build Flex applications with the Model View Controller pattern. The presentation should last around an hour with the following agenda:
1) What is Cairngorm?
2) Why use a MVC framework like Cairngorm?
3) How is the MVC pattern carried out in a Flex + Cairngorm application?
- Model: Role of the ModelLocator & Model Objects
- View: Role of View Components & Event Objects
- Controller: Role of the FrontController & Command Objects
4) Build an example Flex + Cairngorm app from scratch w/ group input
5) Practical tips going forward
Have ideas or questions?
If you plan to attend, please let me know if you have any specific interests in the topic or questions you would like answers or examples for. If MVC is a new concept or if you’re new to AS3 (or if you’re an expert on both), that would be great to know as well. Feel free to comment on this post or send me an email: tsclausing[at]gmail.com. I would really appreciate your input as I’m putting together material for the presentation.
Update: The presentation went very well but the audio recording was poor. I will be rerecording the presentation in chapters and posting them here in a new series. Next month’s presentation will focus on Delegates and Responders in Cairngorm with additional input on the Model Object.
I’ve been searching for a way to write view code in my Flex & AIR projects that is completely reusable, scalable and simple yet powerful. I’ve read about and used the questionably named ‘code-behind‘ techniques that Ted and Adobe promote. I’ve tried the ‘script src‘ technique that Tink is passionate about. I’ve used ‘view helpers‘ and I’ve even tried the rarely discussed ‘code-in-front‘ technique that Marc has written about. However, I’ve recently been creating my views with a technique I call the ’simple’ method which is in the same school of thought as Marc’s idea. Here’s a table that describes the five methods mentioned above for creating views in Flex:
Continue to try out each technique in a Flex application with source and find out why I especially like the all MXML ’simple’ method …
Continue reading ‘Flex View Component Techniques in MXML & AS’
The Nashville (615 Flex) User Group threw an Adobe sponsored launch party last night for the release of Flex 3 and AIR. Thank you to Aaron West for putting the event together.
Aaron snagged a few of us with his flip video camera answering the “Why Flex? Why AIR? Why CF?” questions for 30onair. You can view the videos on YouTube or view all the videos at the 30onair website.
I have started a series of posts on Flex from a ‘ground up’ perspective. View the series by clicking the ‘Flex Series‘ tab above. The URL’s to these articles won’t change, but the titles, text and examples will evolve (so be careful linking and quoting). The goal of the series is to establish a resource of Flex best practices specifically related to application structure and coding practices ((specifically not dealing with server side technologies nor GUI design)).
If you have suggestions for topics or feel that something could use another perspective or elaboration, please leave comments. I really appreciate involvement from the Flex & AS community. Continue reading for a list of assumptions that this series will make …
This post is an extension of an earlier post entitled “Flex Part 02: Value Objects & Model Objects“.
Recap: Model Objects are similar to Value Objects in that they hold the same data, except that the Model Object is responsible for making sure that no ‘bad’ data gets into the VO. The Model Object enforces business rules like, “phone must be at least ten digits long” which a VO cannot do on its own. A Model Object may even include methods for easily manipulating properties.
In the earlier post I presented some example code for a Model Object. It turns out that what I provided is a pain to maintain over time. There’s just too much duplication and poor use of public properties. Continue reading for my attempt at a better, easier Model Object …
To view the connect presentation, click here (1 hour 20 min).
Ben Stucki delivered a great presentation last night to the Nashville (615) Flex user group. The topics were Degrafa, an open source declarative graphics framework for Flex and OpenFlux, a component model based on MVC (Model View Controller).
The presentation covers MXML syntax as well as complex CSS component skinning with Degrafa. Some of the examples are available on the Degrafa website at http://samples.degrafa.com.
Ben also shows off some of his work on OpenFlux - which looks very cool. If you are interested, skip to around 55:00 in the presentation. Also, check out Doug’s post titled “We’re not waiting for Flex 4” for even more cool info.
