Spring ActionScript is an IoC container for ActionScript 3 that allows for dependency injection and loose coupling between application components. It uses XML or MXML configuration to define objects and their dependencies. The speaker has 10 years of experience with Flash and founded Spring ActionScript and AS3Commons. The presentation demonstrated how to use the IoC container, configure objects and properties, implement MVC architecture with operations and events, and autowire dependencies between classes. A demo application was shown to illustrate these concepts in practice.

1. Spring ActionScript byChristopheHerreman Flex Consultant at Boulevart

2. Overall presentation Introduction to Spring ActionScript: whatit does and howyou benefit fromusingit

3. Agenda What is Spring ActionScript The IoC container Configuration MVC Architecture Demo Q&A

4. Speaker’squalifications CertifiedAdobeFlex & AIR expert 10 yearsplayingwith Flash technology Founder and leaddeveloper of AS3Commons & Spring ActionScript Tech reviewerforFoED/Apress

5. What is Spring ActionScript(1/2) Inversion of Control (IoC) forActionScript 3.0 Flash/Flex/AIR/Pure AS3 IoC container MVC?

6. What is Spring ActionScript(2/2) Started as anin-houselibrary Formerlyknown as the Pranaframework Incubated as a Spring Extension project Upcoming release 0.9 AS3Commons: Lang, Logging, Reflect, …

7. The IoC Container (1/3) = Object Factory Creates and assembles objects Centralizeddependency management Spring AS: configuration via XML or MXML

8. The IoC Container (2/3) Object (bean): object managed and/orcreatedby the container Object Factory: factorythatcreates and managesobjects factory.getObject(“myObject”) Object Definition: blueprintforan object Application Context: smarter Object Factory

9. The IoC Container (3/3) Object Scopes Singleton: onlyoneinstance in the container Notlinked to the Singleton Design Pattern The default scope factory.getObject(“obj”) == factory.getObject(“obj”) Prototype: newinstancecreatedoneachrequest factory.getObject(“obj”) != factory.getObject(“obj”)

10. Configuration(1/9) MXML Configuration // AppContext.mxml file, compiledinto the application <Objects> <app:ApplicationModelid=“appModel” /> <app:ApplicationControllerid=“appController” applicationModel=“{appModel}”/> </Objects>

11. Configuration(2/9) MXML Configuration: loading varcontext:MXMLApplicationContext = newMXMLApplicationContext(); context.addConfig(AppContext); context.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, context_completeHandler); context.load(); function context_completeHandler(event:Event):void { varappModel:ApplicationModel = context.getObject(“appModel”); varappController:ApplicationController = context.getObject(“appController”); }

12. Configuration(3/9) MXML Configuration: alternativeapproach // AppContext.mxml file, compiledinto the application <Objects> <Object id=“appModel” clazz=“{ApplicationModel}”/> <Object id=“appController” clazz=“{ApplicationController}”> <Property name=“applicationModel” ref=“appModel”/> </Object> </objects>

13. Configuration(4/9) MXML Configuration: pros Editor support Simple to use

14. Configuration(5/9) MXML Configuration: cons Compiledinto the application Explicitdeclaration: limited to singletons, noexternalreferences, no prototypes -> use Spring AS MXML dialect

15. Configuration(6/9) XML Configuration // externalcontext.xml, loadedonapplicationstartup <objects> <object id=“appModel” class=“com.domain.app.ApplicationModel”/> <object id=“appController” class=“com.domain.app.ApplicationController”> <property name=“applicationModel” ref=“appModel”/> </object> </objects>

16. Configuration(7/9) XML Configuration: loading varcontext:XMLApplicationContext = newXMLApplicationContext(); context.addConfigLocation(“context.xml”); context.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, context_completeHandler); context.load(); function context_completeHandler(event:Event):void { var appModel:ApplicationModel = context.getObject(“appModel”); var appController:ApplicationController = context.getObject(“appController”); }

17. Configuration(8/9) XML Configuration: pros Richer dialect than MXML config Usablefornon-Flexprojects No need to recompile (in some cases) Familiar to Spring Java users

18. Configuration(9/9) XML Configuration: cons Classes need to becompiledinto the app, noclassloading (!) No editor support, only XSD

19. MVC Architecture(1/2) No realprescriptivearchitecture Do youreallyneedone? Rollyourownbecauseone does NOT fit all Many MVC architectures out there: Cairngorm, PureMVC, Mate, … … Spring AS wants to support them

20. MVC Architecture(2/2) Spring AS MVC ingredients Operation API Event Bus Autowiring Recommendations Presentation Model (Fowler) LayeredArchitecture (DDD – Evans)

21. The Operation API (1/7) Asynchronousbehavior in Flash Player: loadingexternal resources, RMI, sqlite, Webservices, HTTPServices, … No threading API Many different APIs: AsyncToken, Responders, Callbacks, Events… we need a unifiedapproach!

22. The Operation API (2/7) Problem: a user repository (or service) interface IUserRepository { functiongetUser(id:int): ??? } What does the getUsermethod return? AsyncToken (Flex/RemoteObject), User (In memory), void (events)

23. The Operation API (3/7) Spring AS solution: return a IOperation interface IUserRepository { functiongetUser(id:int):IOperation; } Cannowbeused in anyActionScript 3 context and easilymockedfortesting

24. The Operation API (4/7) In Spring AS, an “operation” is used to indicateanasynchronousexecution IOperation interface with “complete” and “error” events IProgressOperationwith “progress” event OperationQueuebundlesoperations (a compositeoperation)

25. The Operation API (5/7) Defininganoperation: publicclassGetUserOperationextendsAbstractOperation { functionGetUserOperation(remoteObject:RemoteObject, id:String) { vartoken:AsyncToken = remoteObject.getUser(id); token.addResponder(newResponder(resultHandler, faultHandler)); } private functionresultHandler(event:ResultEvent):void { dispatchCompleteEvent(User(event.result)); } private functionfaultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void { dispatchErrorEvent(event.fault); } }

26. The Operation API (6/7) Usage: varoperation:IOperation = newGetUserOperation(remoteObject, 13); operation.addCompleteListener(function(event:OperationEvent):void { varuser:User = event.result; }); operation.addErrorListener(function(event:OperationEvent):void { Alert.show(event.error, “Error”); });

27. The Operation API (7/7) A progressoperation: varoperation:IOperation = newSomeProgressOperation(param1, param2); operation.addCompleteListener(function(event:OperationEvent):void { }); operation.addErrorListener(function(event:OperationEvent):void { }); operation.addProgressListener(function(event:OperationEvent):void { var op:IProgressOperation = IProgressOperation(event.operation); trace(“Progress:” + op.progress + “, total: “ + op.total); });

28. The Event Bus (1/3) Publish/subscribeevent system Usedforglobalapplicationevents Promotesloosecoupling Works withstandard Flash Events

29. The Event Bus (2/3) Listening/subscribing to events: // listen for all events EventBus.addListener(listener:IEventBusListener); functiononEvent(event:Event):void { } // listen forspecificevents EventBus.addEventListener(“anEvent”, handler); functionhandler(event:Event):void { }

30. The Event Bus (3/3) Dispatching/publishingevents: // dispatchstandardevent EventBus.dispatchEvent(newEvent(“someEvent”)); // dispatchcustomevent classUserEventextendsEvent { ... } EventBus.dispatchEvent(newUserEvent(UserEvent.DELETE, user));

31. Autowiring(1/2) Auto DependencyInjection via metadata Autowireby type, name, constructor, autodetect Works forobjectsmanagedby the container and for view components Be careful: magic happens, noexplicitconfiguration

32. Autowiring(2/2) Annotate a propertywith [Autowired] classUserController { [Autowired] public var userRepository:IUserRepository; } [Autowired(name=“myObject“, property=“prop”)]

33. Summary Dependency Management Loosecoupling, type to interfaces Usewithotherframeworks Spring mentality: provide choice Promote best practices

34. DEMO A sample application

35. Thanksforyourattention! www.herrodius.com info@herrodius.com www.springactionscript.org www.as3commons.org