Flex & Drupal Integration

Flex & Drupal Integration Presented by: Matthew Connerton

Matthew Connerton
Who the heck is he?
Flex Developer
Php Developer
Drupal Developer
YAY BEER!

Today’s Session
Flex What??
Flex Myths
HTML & Flex
Flash & Flex
CSS In Flex
Flex & Drupal
Example!
Discussion!

Flex What?
Flex is a framework
Adobe has a commercial IDEs:
Flex Builder 3
Flash Builder 4
Flash Catalyst
Flex is a declarative language: MXML
<button label=“Click me” click=“btnClicked()” />

Why Flex?
Rapid Application Development
Not complicated
Large community
Publish for web and desktop (adobe air)
Open source

Who Uses Flex?
IBM
SAP
MTV
Intel
E*Trade
Citicorp
FedEx
MasterCard
Symantec
Xerox
Kodak
LG
Playboy
American Cancer Society
Johnson & Johnson
Kaiser Permanente
Northrop Grumman
Lockheed Martin
Boeing
Monster.com
Raytheon
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Army
U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Department of Education
Brinks Inc.
Macys
FAA
Cingular Wireless
Alltel
MCI Worldcom
T-Mobile Wireless
Oracle
Cisco Systems
Pfizer
Johnson & Johnson
eBay
CDW
Mercedes-Benz
Disney

Flex Myths
You need a “Flex Player”
(Flash Player is the only thing you need)
Flex is proprietary
(Flex is open source – opensource.adobe.com)
Flex only loads XML/RSS
(Binary, Sockets, RPC, TXT, PHP/Java/.Net, ...)
Flex costs money to run/use/get
(Flex is free: SDK, Framework, knowledge)
No “back” button or deep-linking
(Flash/Flex have had this capability since v6)
Flex doesn’t play nice with AJAX
External Interfaces for seamless integration

Similarities Between XHTML & Flex
Both are XML based languages/markup (tags)
Both can use higher level interactive languages:
HTML has JavaScript
Flex has ActionScript
Both support CSS
Both have forms, text control, and support for the media trio (images, video, audio)
Both support custom namespaces
Both are free
Both support the “back” and “forward” buttons

Differences Between HTML & Flex
Flex and ActionScript are compiled languages, not interpreted like HTML/CSS/JS/PHP
Compiled Outputs = SWF & AIR file formats
HTML, by default, uses multiple files/pages
Flex can be multiple pages or just one file.
HTML doesn't have a framework
Web standards HTML/CSS render natively, while Flash Player needs to be installed for Flash/Flex content

Similarities Between Flash & Flex
Both run on the Flash Player and AIR runtime
Both have ActionScript at their hearts
same code, same effects & filters, same capabilities.
Both have commercial and free IDE's
Adobe.com, OSflash.org, RIAforge.org
Both can share components (SWC), classes, and media (SWF, FLV, MOV/MP4/M4V, AAC/MP3/M4A)
Both have a connection to open source.

Differences Between Flash & Flex
Flash has a time line, and art design tools
Flash is targeted for design and animation
Flash does not have a native framework
Flash isn't a language
Flash will get you a rich, cool web site
Flex is only code
Flex Builder has design tools for theming (CSS)
Flex is targeted for any developer.
Flex is a framework.
Flex is a language.
Flex really speeds up development of rich applications (RIA's)

Just what is an RIA?
RIA (Rich Internet Applications)
Rich interface design, multimedia (images, video, audio)
Examples: Twitter client, Adobe Media Player, Adobe Premiere Express, Agile Agenda, Adobe Photoshop Express)

MXML & ActionScript Code
MXML:
<mx:CheckBox label=”Click Me” click=”chkBoxClicked()”/>
ActionScript:
package com.mrconnerton.drupalcampatlanta
{
import mx.flash.utils.*;
public class MyActionScriptClass
{
public function DynamicCall()
{
var someText:String = 'I like Drupal';
trace(someText);
}
}
}

CSS in Flex
CSS can be loaded
CSS can be embedded
CSS can be shared
CSS can be compiled (SWF)
Code your own custom CSS features, like the open-sourced Degrafa project

Drupal Integration
AMFPHP (module)
this is a binary gateway for you to pass your data through and send to Flex in an insane speed. Super tiny versus XML.
Services (module)
make “services” (functions) that Flex calls to get and send data (XML or AMFPHP)

Example: eVoiceSpot Builder http://www.evoicespot.com

New Stuff (Flex 4)
Flash Catalyst will be the designer-developer liaison
If Flash Player has 3D, Flex will have 3D
Database Drivers
Public beta and staying open-source

Learn More
Flex.org
Drupal Modules
http://drupal.org/project/services
http://drupal.org/project/amfphp
Adobe Labs
http://labs.adobe.org

Discussion
Email me if you have any more questions
[email_address]
mrconnerton.com
Huge Thanks to:
Chris Charlton
chrischarlton.us

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Flex & Drupal Integration

by Matthew Connerton on Sep 23, 2009

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Flex & Drupal Integration — Presentation Transcript