Parsley is a client-side application framework and does not require any particular server-side technology to be useful. Nevertheless in this chapter we want to describe some common scenarios when integrating remoting solutions with Parsley.
For a general discussion on how to integrate services into the application architecture see 11 Building MVC Architectures.
Of course apart from AMF based remoting solutions presented in this chapter you can also integrate HTTP Services or WebServices into your controller actions. The approach is similar to that presented in the MVC chapter: You write a controller action class that registers handlers for messages or events dispatched from the View or from Mediators, transform them into any kind of asynchronous service invocation, wait for the result, and finally dispatch an application message containing the result through Parsleys Messaging Framework.
For remoting the framework can help you in two respects. First you can declare your RemoteObjects in a Parsley configuration class alongside other objects and inject them into your commands. Second (since version 2.2) you can use the convenient support for asynchronous commands to also route result and faults of remote invocations in a decoupled manner.
Configuration
Since Parsley offers MXML-based container configuration you can easily integrate the existing MXML tags for RemoteObjects with other Parsley configuration tags:
<Objects
xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley">
<fx:Declarations>
<fx:RemoteObject
id="loginService"
destination="loginService"
showBusyCursor="true"
/>
<!-- other object definitions -->
</fx:Declarations>
</Objects>
You can then chose to inject those RemoteObjects into controller actions. But due to the nature of RemoteObjects not being type-safe you'd need to stick with id-based injection then:
[Inject(id="loginService")]
public var service:RemoteObject;
public function execute (message: LoginMessage): AsyncToken {
return service.login(message.username, message.password);
}
For Commands the framework will manage the AsyncToken for you. Other objects can then listen for the results:
[CommandResult]
public function loginResult (user: User, trigger:LoginMessage) : void {
[...]
}
[CommandError]
public function loginFault (fault: Fault, trigger:LoginMessage) : void {
[...]
}
Note that if you want result handlers inside the command itself, you have to omit both the metadata and the trigger parameter as this mapping information is not required. The framework knows that it has to invoke the result handler on the command for the results produced by that command.
Using BusinessDelegates
If you prefer to use delegates instead of injecting the RemoteObjects directly you could define both the RemoteObjects and the delegates in Parsley MXML:
<Objects
xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley">
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import com.bookstore.services.*;
]]>
</fx:Script>
<fx:Declarations>
<fx:RemoteObject
id="loginService"
destination="loginService"
showBusyCursor="true"
/>
<Object id="loginDelegate" type="{LoginDelegate}">
<ConstructorArgs>
<ObjectRef idRef="loginService"/>
</ConstructorArgs>
</Object>
<!-- other objects -->
</fx:Declarations>
</Objects>
With delegates you can then return to injection by type:
[Inject]
public var loginDelegate:LoginDelegate;
public function execute (message: LoginMessage): AyncToken {
return loginDelegate.login(message.username, message.password);
}
Pimento integrates JPA/Hibernate and Spring with Flex, Flash and AIR clients. It is another Open Source Project under the Spicefactory umbrella. See the Pimento Info Page for more details.
The Pimento Support extension for Parsley (available on the Parsley download page) includes custom configuration tags for Pimento for MXML and XML that allow you to define the Pimento configuration and custom services.
MXML Example
<Objects
xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley"
xmlns:pimento="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/pimento">
<fx:Declarations>
<pimento:Config
url="http://localhost:8080/test/service/"
timeout="3000"
/>
<!-- other objects -->
</fx:Declarations>
</Objects>
This minimal setup is all that is required to be able to inject Pimentos AS3 EntityManager into any object (in this case a command mapped to a message):
[Inject]
public var entityManager:EntityManager;
public function execute (message:DeleteCartMessage) : ServiceRequest {
return entitiyManager.remove(message.cart);
}
You can additionally configure custom services with parameters and return values managed by Pimento:
<pimento:Service
name="loginService"
type="{LoginServiceImpl}"
/>
The service interfaces and remote stubs are usually generated by Pimentos Ant task. These services can then of course be injected into other objects, too.
XML Example
<objects
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley"
xmlns:pimento="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/pimento"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/schema/2.3/parsley-core.xsd
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/pimento
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/schema/2.3/parsley-pimento.xsd"
>
<pimento:config
url="http://localhost/test/service/"
timeout="3000"
/>
<pimento:service
name="loginService"
type="com.bookstore.services.LoginServiceImpl"
/>
</objects>
Since this is an XML extension it has to be initialized explicitly before using the XmlContextBuilder:
PimentoXmlSupport.initialize();
If you don't need Pimentos data management capabilities and just want to use AMF-based Flex/Flash-to-Java Remoting you can stick with Cinnamon instead. See the Pimento/Cinnamon Info Page for more details.
The Pimento Support extension for Parsley (available on the Parsley download page) includes custom configuration tags for Cinnamon for MXML and XML that allow you to define the channel and services.
MXML Example
<Objects
xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley"
xmlns:cinnamon="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/cinnamon">
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import com.bookstore.services.*;
]]>
</fx:Script>
<fx:Declarations>
<cinnamon:Channel
url="http://localhost:8080/test/service/"
timeout="3000"
/>
<cinnamon:Service
name="loginService"
type="{LoginServiceImpl}"
/>
<cinnamon:Service
name="cartService"
type="{CartServiceImpl}"
/>
<!-- other objects -->
</fx:Declarations>
</Objects>
If you define only a single channel (like in most use cases) you don't have to explicitly refer to it in the service definitions. Parsley will automatically wire the single channel to all services then. In case of multiple channels you'd have to set the id property for the channel and reference it in service definitions:
<cinnamon:Channel
id="mainChannel"
url="http://localhost:8080/test/service/"
timeout="3000"
/>
<cinnamon:Service
name="loginService"
type="{LoginServiceImpl}"
channel="mainChannel"
/>
You can then inject services into your command (or other object):
[Inject]
public var loginService:LoginService;
public function execute (event:LoginMessage) : ServiceRequest {
return loginService.login(event.username, event.password);
}
With Cinnamon there is no need for BusinessDelegates: The remote services implement business interfaces themselves, so you can directly inject them into actions. These interfaces are usually generated by Cinnamons Ant Task, automatically porting existing Java service interfaces to AS3.
XML Example
<objects
xmlns="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley"
xmlns:pimento="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/cinnamon"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/schema/2.3/parsley-core.xsd
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/cinnamon
http://www.spicefactory.org/parsley/schema/2.3/parsley-cinnamon.xsd"
>
<cinnamon:channel
url="http://localhost:8080/test/service/"
timeout="3000"
/>
<cinnamon:service
name="loginService"
type="com.bookstore.services.LoginServiceImpl"
/>
<cinnamon:service
name="cartService"
type="com.bookstore.services.CartServiceImpl"
/>
</objects>
Since this is an XML extension it has to be initialized explicitly before using the XmlContextBuilder:
CinnamonXmlSupport.initialize();