ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4: Application Development Ryan Stewart Platform Evangelist, Adobe Systems

About Ryan Adobe Employee: 2 years CF Developer at Wharton Interests: Beer, the Outdoors

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

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

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 your-coldfusion-builder-beta-settings-for-flash-builder- 4-beta your-coldfusion-builder-beta-settings-for-flash-builder- 4-betahttp:// your-coldfusion-builder-beta-settings-for-flash-builder- 4-betahttp:// your-coldfusion-builder-beta-settings-for-flash-builder- 4-beta

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

Working with Data New Data Features in Flash Builder 4 for ColdFusion Developers

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

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. Advanced Data Features

Checking the Flow of Information Were you a Flex 1.5 developer? Do you remember the Network Monitor? It’s 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

Demo Using the Data Centric Development Workflow with Flex and ColdFusion

Flex 4 Fun New Features for Creative ColdFusion Developers

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

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) BehaviorLogicData GraphicsLayoutAnimationStates

Creative Suite Tools Support FXG Graphics XML-based Map closely to the Flash Player Model SupportsGradientsFills Shapes and Paths Filters MXML Graphics and FXG <s:fill> </s:fill> <s:stroke> </s:stroke> <s:filters> </s:filters>

Demo Components in Flex 4

ColdFusion As a Service Using ColdFusion Inside of your Flex and AIR Applications

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

There is a Better Way Consume ColdFusion services from right within a Flex/AIR application Use similar syntax and properties Take advantage of ColdFusion’s more powerful features

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

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

Configuring ColdFusion Services: cf:InternalConfig 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 cf:InternalConfig to set up the URL, port, and user for the ColdFusion Services That cf:InternalConfig tag applies to all other ColdFusion services called CF Administrator Configured Users and IP Addresses AMF Web Service Flex Application cf:InternalConfig Information cf: Services

Demo Using ColdFusion as a Service in Flex

Q&A