Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Some questions and answers on using HibernateAssembler, EJB3/JPA in Flex/LiveCycle Data Services applications

Some days ago on the Comtaste's blog  we published an article on LiveCycle Data Services and Hibernate integration in Flex RIA applications.

I found an interesting comment that gave us the possibility to goo deep into that topic :

I'm currently investigating the use of LCDS 2.5 and EJB3/JPA and am wondering about a couple of things.
First - would it be likely that in the near future we would have a JPAAssembler class, much like what Jeff has been doing with Hibernate?

Second - if not a JPAAssembler, what would be the best way of wiring data management to JPA?

Third - do I really need a DTO, can't I just 'return' domain objects, and how does this work with lazy loaded instances as set by JPA annotations.

Fourth - conceptually I've been thinking about this quite a lot. Looks to me that datamanagement is specifically geared towards CRUD like applications. But what if the use case at hand requires some more involved server side processing, most likely contained within a JTA transaction. Shoud I instead implement this as a RPC call and thus mix 'n match RPC and DM?

You can read the reply on the next page >>

New tutorials and articles published by FlexGala UserGroup

FlexGala has published some new contents dedicated to Adobe AIR and Flex 3 :

• PDF contents in Adobe AIR applications
  
• Develop a password generator using Adobe AIR and Flex Builder 3
• Programming Flex 2 Book's Review

FlexGala won't stop to publish the contents during the holidays. In fact thanks to the great supporter members the UG will be able to garantuee at least one article per week in August !

Leaving for Barcellona for one day course on LiveCycle Data Services

In the next few hours I'll leave for Barcellona for a one day training on LiveCycle Data Services. It's not a real course but it's something like a day where I'll show all the benefits of using LiveCycle Data Services in Flex enterprise applications.

Next week I'll post some examples I created and that I will show to the company !

Flex vs Silverlight round 2

I wrote some times ago a post titled Flex vs Microsoft Silverlight took some notes and trying to show advantages/disadvantages to use Flex or
I'm playing around with Silverlight (while I use to work hard hard with Flex as you probably know) and I discovered that none mechanism to create and handle data binding exists at the moment.

As I wrote on the Chapter 1 of my upcoming book (sorry for the marketing activity ;)), Flex Solutions:Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and Flex 3 Developers, one of the features of Flex  that you use more during the development phase of an application is data binding.  For data binding in Flex, we mean the process which binds an object to a component in such a way that the latter becomes automatically added when the value to which it is binded changes. In Flex there are three methods to create a data binding: 

• Using the curly braces syntax
• With the <mx:Binding> tag defined in the MXML code
• Declaring the BindingUtils method with Actionscript

The first beta of Microsoft Silverlight doesn't allow developers to have the support for data binding. Even JavaFX doesn't forget to support this important feature :
Carrying that approach to data binding, JavaFX is supposed to enable developers to create and configure components by automatically synchronizing application data with GUI widgets. Sun also claims that the language is far more scalable for the Java environment compared to other scripting languages, as it is supposed to be able to handle very large programs in Java. (via ComputerBusiness)

Flex wins this second round !

Flex configurator applications wanted !

I'm preparing some links to show during a presentation with Adobe aobut Flex and RIAs. I'm collecting any cool configurator application developed in Flex/Flash.
My list is so far made up of  :

Mini US Configurator
Golf Course Finder by OOBGolf.com
TrailTracer
Snapfish
YouThru
HomeLocator
Harley Davidson
YuBuk.com

Feel free to add your favorite RIA configurators so that I can show the best ever RIAs !

How to Prototype Applications with Flash:practical issues of developing with Adobe Flash Lite

I don't know if this was posted by someone because this document came out when I was on vacation last week :)

Forum Nokia has released the following PDF :

S60 Platform: How to Prototype Applications with Flash

Learn how to develop UI prototypes for S60 mobile devices with Adobe Flash Lite. Although the focus is on the S60 platform, most of the techniques in this document are applicable to other mobile platforms, too.

This is a good documentation that Flash Lite and no Flash Lite developers should take care of !

Improving the RemoteObject remote call performance in Flex RIAs

On the Adobe Flex DevNet section has been published a great article by Michael Herron:

Improving RPC performance in Flex RIAs : this article demonstrates using a basic tool, ServiceCapture, to capture client-server performance for an example application,     highlights some typical performance issues, and suggests potential solutions to     those issues whilst discussing implementation considerations.
This article focuses on monitoring and improving the     performance of an application using RemoteObject RPC calls. However, the     recommended practices also apply to the WebService and HTTPService components.
These practices are useful for existing applications that extensively use RPC components, and also for those considering using Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES. This article also shows where the built-in LiveCycle Data Services ES features provide out-of-the box solutions

UserMatter No. 3 is out with Flex, Java, EJB3, Actionscript 3, Illustrator CS3, Premiere Pro CS3 articles

UserMatter is the free magazine dedicated to the development and creativity of the user experience.
The latest number is out with a lot of interesting articles on Flex, Java, EJB3, Actionscript 3, Illustrator CS3, Premiere Pro CS3.

You can read UserMatter on the web of donwload the PDF version for printing.
The magazine is totally free and it's in italian language.

Zend and Flex integration and how to use the ChangeWatcher class with the Cairngorm's ViewHelper

I'm back to the holidays and in one week I've many news to share.
I'll start from  2 new great posts on the Comtaste blog that deals with Zend framework and Flex integration and how to extend the ViewHelper of the Cairngmorm microarchitecture using the ChangeWatcher Flex's class :

• Building a Rest Server with Zend and retrieve data with Flex and the HTTPService
• Conditional visualization in Cairngorm using the ChangeWatcher class

Leaving for Santorini, Greek to make a short break vacation

I'm preparing my luggages. In a few hours I'll leave for Santorini, Greek for one week holiday.
I'll be back by 22 of July.

Santorini  is a small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km south-east from Greece's mainland. It is also known as Thera (or Thira, Greek Θήρα, IPA: ˈθira). It is the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km² (28 mi²), and in 2001 had an estimated population of 13,600. Santorini is essentially what has been left from an enormous volcanic explosion which destroyed the settlements thereon and led to the creation of the current geological caldera. Its spectacular natural beauty along with its eminent nightlife make the island one of Europe's top tourist hotspots.