Group items tagged

JSR-303 (“Bean Validation”) ActionScript3 framework for form validation

validation framework is a specific adaptation of the JSR-303 (Bean Validation) specification to Flex: like its Java counterpart, it relies on validation annotations placed on bean properties and provides an engine API that lets you validate your forms without writing by hand a specific validator for each of your input fields

code generation tools provided by GraniteDS so that when you write your Java entity bean with validation annotations, they are automatically replicated in your ActionScript3 beans

problem with LCDS is mainly that it promotes a strict “client / server” architecture, with – roughly speaking – a heavy Flex client application connected to a server almost reduced to a database frontend

big majority of  these organizations use BlazeDS, a free and open-source subset of LCDS

need more advanced mechanisms than just Remoting start looking for open-source libraries to enable deeper integrations with the Java business layer, and GraniteDS is for sure the most popular project

“Flex Data Services” (now renamed to “Live Cycle Data Services”)

Flex Data Services seemed too “client-centric”

for GraniteDS users keeping their Java domain model and ActionScript3 domain model in sync via Gas3, the constraints are kept in sync

a couple of gotchas to be aware of

the constraint implementation is in the same class as the constraint declaration (not a problem in a dynamic language) @Pattern has a sightly different semantic because the regexp engine in Flex is a bit different. instead of the features provided by ConstraintValidatorContext, you can define a properties attribute in your constraints to make it belong to several sub-properties. not as flexible but good enough in many cases.

AS3 Date

deserialized as java.util.Date

Gas3 may also replicate validation annotations in order to use the Flex side validation framework

implemented as an Eclipse plugin

Ant task.

Maven Plugin (Flexmojos)

flexmojos-maven-plugin

org.sonatype.flexmojos

must declare your classes in separated source files if you want them to be correctly handled by the generator

can be handled on the

by defining a

possible to define common handlers for particular fault codes on the client-side, and exception converters on the server-side, to convert server exceptions to common fault codes

define an

class

Converter

ExceptionConverter

t.getMessage(), detail, t

ENTITY_NOT_FOUND

This class will

all EntityNotFound exceptions on the server-side, and convert it to a proper ENTITY_NOT_FOUND fault event.

exception converter has to be

scan="true" in granite-config.xml

in the jar containing the exception converter class

granite-config.xml

<exception-converters> <exception-converter type="com.package.SomeExceptionConverter"/> </exception-converters>

Handler

register it as an exception handler for the

in a static initializer block to be sure it is

ExceptionConverter

5. Exception Handling

5. Exception Handling

describing its parameter object and is therefore not type-safe and its use is subject to many syntax errors.

GraniteDS provides a Java-like reflection API that encapsulates describeType calls and offers a type-safe, object-oriented, set of reflection classes and methods

caches its results for better performance

supports advanced features such as ApplicationDomain and namespaces

Class as parameter

serverside

Remote call using class as parameter

Does GraniteDS could manage date and TimeZone ?

Flash Player (GMT +X) -> IExternizable methods (GMT + X - X = GMT + 0) - > AMF over HTTP (GMT + 0) -> Granite AMF0Deserializer (GMT + 0) -> Granite Converter (GMT + 0 + Y = GMT + Y) -> Java Services (GMT + Y)Java Services (GMT + Y) -> Granite Converter (GMT + Y - Y = GMT + 0) -> Granite AMF0Deserializer (GMT + 0) -> AMF over HTTP (GMT + 0) -> IExternizable methods (GMT + 0 + X = GMT + X) -> Flash Player (GMT + X)

We use

for AMF for convention

define a

for your AMF that is over HTTP

: timezone for your flex client

: timezone for your server

don't want to modify the default templates

summary of templates used by the generator depending on the kind of Java class it encounters:

these templates are bundled in the granite-generator.jar archive, in the org.granite.generator.template package and accessible as resources via the class loader

class: protocol is used because all standard templates are available in the classpath

Alternatively, you may use the file: protocol to load your template from the filesystem. These templates can be specified either by using absolute paths (eg. file:/absolute/path/to/mytemplate.gsp) or paths relative to your current Eclipse project root directory (eg. path/to/mytemplate.gsp).

ActionScript 3 generator is able to write AS3 typed client proxies for exposed remote services

Compared to the usual Flex RemoteObject, this can greatly help development by bringing

in Flex when using remote services.

replicate validation annotations in order to use the Flex side validation framework

 Known Limitations

Gas3 does not support inner classes

must declare your classes in separated source files if you want them to be correctly handled by the generator