So, buried in the documentation around ColdFusion Builder is the fact that you can write extensions in Flex. I decided to fool around with this for a bit.
If you want to skip all of the demo and explanation and just try it out, feel free to pull down the extension:
Create a remote service CFC for all of the information that you want to expose to Flex
Have your ColdFusion Builder extension pass information to the Flex generated SWF
Pass any variables to the SWF just like you would pass URL variables
On the Flex side:
Pull in the remote service cfc as a WSDL* using Flash Builder's Data/Services
Write your Flex app to use the services that get created
Alter the generated ActionScript classes to use a WSDL that is passed into the SWF via the URL (Flash Params)
One more thing:
I'm not sure if this is a Flex thing, a ColdFusion thing, an OS thing, a webservices thing, or a me being dumb thing, but the automatically generated WSDL for my remote service CFC was different on Windows and Mac. Consequently the SWF could call the Mac hosted WSDL but not the Windows hosts WSDL. My solution? Create a static WSDL file that had the service spelled both ways. Maybe a hack but worked like charm.
Anyway, if you want to see the code, it's available on github:
*WSDL? Why not Flash Remoting (or ColdFusion in the Data/Services list)? Remoting needs to be configured to each system's configuration, and isn't very discoverable. WSDL doesn't require knowing about the Extension user's AMF setup; it just uses a URL, which can be easily discovered.
I'm going to show off the features that the ColdFusion team have added to make ColdFusion work easier with Flex as well as the features in Flash Builder that make working with ColdFusion ridiculously easy.
You have to register in advance so head on over to the Online Events page and register.
I have probably said this before but Wharton is an incredible place to work. It promises better than decent pay, interesting work, brilliant co-workers, and incredible benefits.
The timeout on the Flex Builder for Linux has been extended, and can now be used until sometime near the end of 2010. No new features, but the hardcoded timeout has been extended.
The catch?
No catch, but if you're using the most recent previous Alpha, it expires on December 1st. Go get the updated bits on Labs.
I'll be doing an eSeminar, tomorrow, Thursday, November 5th at 2pm EST /11am PST.
The topic will be using ColdFusion Builder and Flash Builder together. Flash Builder obviously is the best tool for building RIAs with Flex. However Flash Builder added a lot of extra functionality. On top of that ColdFusion Builder adds even more.
This session will explore these integration points, and show you just how fast you can build your applications.
To register and get all of the info you need to participate go to our Online Events site.
I think a few people have picked this up already, but I figured I would add my voice to the fray to make sure everyone is completely inundated with this deal.
Adobe is running free Flex 4 training events for ColdFusion developers from November 13th to November 20th in various cities throughout the US:
Friday, November 13
Marriott at Legacy Town Center, 7120 Dallas Parkway, Plano, TX 75024
Saturday, November 14
Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center, 4700 Emperor Boulevard, Durham, NC 27703
Monday, November 16
The Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80202
Tuesday, November 17
Radisson Hotel Newport Beach, 4545 MacArthur Boulevard, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Wednesday, November 18
The Georgian Terrace Hotel, 659 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
Thursday, November 19
Hyatt Regency Chicago on the River Walk, 151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601
Friday, November 20
Fig Leaf Software Training Center, 1400 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Friday, November 20
Adobe, 601 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Each event is free. Free... FRRRREEEEEEEEEE… Free. So go register already:
This got lost a little in the shuffle around MAX. If you're interested in teaching RIA development, or Flex development in general have we got a site for you:
We've brought together a wide range of resources for you here including small tutorials, course project ideas, best practice documents, and book recommendations. All it all, a one stop for designing RIA courses around the Flash Platform.
I've been working on a class for some of our higher education community members. I take the class from an Illustrator comp, through Flash Catalyst, then Flash Builder, and Flex to a Flex Application, then on to an AIR application. Because I'm starting in Catalyst, when I get to the AIR application I don't really want to use AIR's chrome. Rather, I'd like to go chromeless and let the UI handle things like closing the application and whatnot.
I found a good tutorial on doing chromeless AIR applications. But no matter what I tried, I couldn't get rid of this big blank whitespace in my application, despite following the directions to the letter.
After a lot of trial and error it turns out that the old way of making the Application background disappear using CSS (step 6 in the article) doesn't work with the new component model. Instead you have to use a custom skin on the WindowedApplication tag.
The following skin works for me. I'm by no means an expert at this skinning stuff yet, but it gets the job done.
Now let me make it clear. There may be another way to do this. There may be a better way of doing it. It's also possible that this is the flat out wrong way to do it. But when I searched for this, I got nothing. So I figured, I could at least help somebody just get the job done, and worry about "the right way" later.
A few people have asked me about the tour and the status of their city.
Allow me to explain a little more. Adobe is doing a whirlwind tour of 119 cities over two weeks. We will be talking about both Flex 4 and ColdFusion 9. Since we are going for a short intense tour, there are many of us doing our own unique tour agendas. Tours are being done by more people than I can name. If your city is not on my list, it may very well be on someone else's list.
We're doing a multi-city tour of ColdFusion and Flex user groups. I'll be talking about the next version of both products, currently code named Centaur and Gumbo respectively. Here's the schedule:
