The past year has seen an rapid growth in the development and adoption of a new breed of frameworks for Flash and Flex development. Based around Dependency Injection, these frameworks are lightweight and flexible. But why should you consider these newcomers over the existing incumbents, and if you are to adopt a member of this new gang, which should it be? In this session Richard will show you four of these newcomers – Robotlegs, Swiz, Parsley, and Spring Actionscript. He’ll discuss what they have in common and where they differ, why he thinks they are ready for mainstream use, and how to choose between them.

1. gotoAndSki(), June 2010
Application Frameworks
The new kids on the block
Richard Lord twitter.com/Richard_Lord
Technical Architect www.richardlord.net
BrightTALK www.brighttalk.com

2. Application Frameworks
Robotlegs (1.0)
Swiz (1.0)
Parsley (2.2)
Spring Actionscript (1.0)

3. History and evolution
Generation 1.0 Cairngorm Out of date
PureMVC
Generation 1.5 Mature
Mate
Swiz
Parsley
Generation 2.0 Entering their prime
Robotlegs
Spring AS

4. Coming Up
Similarities
Dependency Injection
Event Bus
Differences
Conclusions

5. They are very similar
• Open-source.
• May be used with the Flex Framework, Pure AS,
or Flash CS.
• Non-prescriptive about your architecture.
• MVC is optional.
• Provide a dependency injection container.
• Provide an event bus.

6. Dependency Injection

7. Dependency Injection
How objects obtain references to each other

8. Not dependency injection
New class Controller {
private var _model:Model;
public function Controller() {
_model = new Model();
}
}
Singleton class Controller {
private var _model:Model;
public function Controller() {
_model = Model.getInstance();
}
}
Registry class Controller {
private var _model:Model;
public function Controller() {
_model = Registry.get( Model );
}
}
Factory class Controller {
private var _model:Model;
public function Controller() {
_model = Factory.create( Model );
}
}

9. Dependency injection
Constructor class Controller {
Injection private var _model:Model;
public function Controller( model:Model ) {
_model = model;
}
}
Setter class Controller {
Injection private var _model:Model;
public function set model( value:Model ) {
_model = value;
}
}

10. Dependency injection container
• The DI Container is an object for managing
these dependencies.
• The DI Container is configured to inject the
correct objects into the correct classes.
• We may ask the DI Container to create our
objects.
• Or we may ask it to inject objects that are
created by some other means.

11. Dependency injection container
Model
1. Create
2. Create
DI Controller
Container
3. Inject Model
4. Inject Model
View
(created by
Flex)

12. Configure DI with XML
Spring Actionscript
<objects>
<object class="package.Model" id="model"/>
<object class="package.Controller" scope="prototype">
<property name="model" ref="model"/>
</object>
<object class="package.View" id="view" singleton="false">
<property name="model" ref="model"/>
</object>
</objects>
Supported by
Robotlegs Parsley Spring AS

13. Configure DI with MXML
Parsley
<Objects>
<Model id="model"/>
<Object type="{Controller}" singleton="false">
<Property name="model" value="{model}"/>
</Object>
<View type="{View}">
<Property name="model" value="{model}"/>
</View>
</Objects>
Swiz
<BeanProvider>
<Model id="model"/>
<Prototype type="{Controller}" id="controller"
constructor-arguments="{model}"/>
</BeanProvider> Supported by
Swiz Parsley Spring AS

14. Configure DI with actionscript
Robotlegs
class MyAppContext extends Context {
override public function startup():void {
injector.mapSingleton( Model );
injector.mapClass( Controller );
}
}
Swiz
class MyAppContext {
public function startup():void {
var model:Model = new Model();
var proto:Prototype = new Prototype( Controller );
proto.constructorArguments = model;
bp = new BeanProvider( [ model, proto ] );
}
}
Supported by
Robotlegs Swiz Parsley

15. Configure injections with metadata
Robotlegs, Swiz & Parsley
class View {
[Inject]
public function set model( value:Model ) {
_model = value;
}
}
Spring Actionscript
class View {
[Autowired]
public function set model( value:Model ) {
_model = value;
}
}
Supported by
Robotlegs Swiz Parsley Spring AS

16. Injecting into view components
Use Annotations
Supported by
Robotlegs Swiz Parsley Spring AS
Use Configuration
Supported by
Parsley Spring AS

17. The Event Bus

18. Event Bus
dispatch dispatch dispatch
event event event
Event Bus
listen for listen for listen for
event event event

19. Using a single event dispatcher
dispatch dispatch dispatch
event event event
Event
Dispatcher
listen for listen for listen for
event event event

20. Using a single event dispatcher
Dispatcher
var event:Event = new
Event( EventNames.CUSTOM );
eventBus.dispatchEvent( event );
Listener
eventBus.addEventListener( EventNames.CUSTOM, eventHandler );

21. Implementations

22. Inject the event bus
Robotlegs
[Inject]
public var eventBus:EventDispatcher;
var event:Event = new Event( EventNames.CUSTOM );
eventBus.dispatchEvent( event );
Swiz
[Dispatcher]
public var eventBus:EventDispatcher;
var event:Event = new Event( EventNames.CUSTOM );
eventBus.dispatchEvent( event );
Supported by
Robotlegs Swiz Parsley

23. Inject the event bus
Robotlegs
[Inject]
public var eventBus:EventDispatcher;
eventBus.addEventListener( EventNames.CUSTOM, eventHandler );
Swiz
[Dispatcher]
public var eventBus:EventDispatcher;
eventBus.addEventListener( EventNames.CUSTOM, eventHandler );
Supported by
Robotlegs Swiz Parsley

24. Use metadata to indicate bus events
Parsley
[Event(name="custom",type="Event")]
[ManagedEvents("custom")]
var event:Event = new Event( EventNames.CUSTOM );
dispatchEvent( event );
Spring Actionscript
[Event(name="custom",type="Event")]
[RouteEvents("custom")]
var event:Event = new Event( EventNames.CUSTOM );
dispatchEvent( event );
Supported by
Parsley Spring AS

25. Use metadata to indicate listeners
Parsley
[MessageHandler( selector="custom")]
public function eventHandler( event:Event ) {...}
Spring AS
[EventHandler( selector="custom")]
public function eventHandler( event:Event ) {...}
Swiz
[Mediate( event="EventNames.CUSTOM")]
public function eventHandler( event:Event ) {...}
Supported by
Swiz Parsley Spring AS

26. Autowire commands
Robotlegs
commandMap.mapEvent( EventNames.CUSTOM, MyCommand,
Event );
Parsley
<DynamicCommand type="MyCommand" selector="custom"/>
Supported by
Robotlegs Parsley

27. Which leaves one question

28. Which is best?

29. Spring Actionscript
Favours XML configuration
Very good for Spring Java developers
Very detailed documentation
Lots of configuration options
Still has a few bugs (but they're working on it)

30. Parsley
Greatest range of features
Favoured by Adobe Consulting
Few examples
Little community involvement
Single developer

31. Swiz
Favours MXML configuration
Loves Metadata
Extendable metadata processor
Lots of community involvement
Limited documentation (but improving)

32. Robotlegs
Favours Actionscript configuration
Choice of DI Container
Reference MVCS implementation
Lots of community involvement
Good documentation

33. You choose.

34. This is me
www.richardlord.net
twitter.com/Richard_Lord