THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
...
- 1/11/2013 - MXML-based project can now be compiled into a working HTML/JS project
- 2/10/2013 - Added HTTPService, LazyCollection, and a List class.
- 3/01/2013 - Added Adobe Flash Builder integration.
Set Up
This is the setup for developers working with the source code. If you only want to use Flash Builder to play with the FlexJS framework, see: Using FlexJS with Adobe Flash Builder.
- Get Apache Flex 4.9 up and running. We don't really use any of its code, but getting it up and running makes sure you have the build tools and playerglobal.swc we need.
- Get the ASJS code from: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/flex/asjs/branches/develop/
- In the frameworks/as folder, run ant. You may need a local.properties or a FLEX_HOME environment variable to build successfully. This should result in a frameworks/as/libs/FlexJSUI.swc
- Get the Falcon code from https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/flex/falcon/trunk/
- Run ant to build Falcon.
- Change to compiler.js folder and run ant to build FalconJS.
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and the FalconJS compiler will (currently) generate a bunch of .js files, one for each .mxml and .as file. These files go along with the Google Closure Library's base.js and an HTML file to create a rough equivalent to the SWF. Someday, FalconJS will output a single minified .js file instead of all of these files. But for now, you can use the Google Closure tools and scripts to combine all of the .js files into a single minified .js file. In the ASJS folders under branches/develop/publisher is an attempt to create a build script that does all of these things. If you can't get it all to work, or you want to see the code un-minified, you can create an html file that looks something like this:
| Code Block |
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="goog/base.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="FlexJSTestDeps.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
goog.require("FlexJSTest");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var app = new FlexJSTest();
</script>
<title>FlexJSTest</title>
</head>
<body onload="app.start()">
</body>
</html>
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where FlexJSTestDeps.js looks like this:
| Code Block |
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// This file was autogenerated by /Applications/GoogleClosure/builder/depswriter.py.
// Please do not edit.
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/FlexJSTest.js', ['FlexJSTest'], ['MyInitialView', 'MySimpleValuesImpl', 'StockDataJSONItemConverter', 'controllers.MyController', 'models.MyModel', 'org.apache.flex.core.Application', 'org.apache.flex.net.HTTPService', 'org.apache.flex.net.JSONInputParser', 'org.apache.flex.net.dataConverters.LazyCollection']);
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/MyController.js', ['controllers.MyController'], ['MyInitialView', 'org.apache.flex.core.IDocument']);
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/MyInitialView.js', ['MyInitialView'], ['org.apache.flex.binding.ConstantBinding', 'org.apache.flex.binding.SimpleBinding', 'org.apache.flex.core.ViewBase', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.Label', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.List', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.TextButton']);
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/MyModel.js', ['models.MyModel'], ['flash.events.Event', 'flash.events.EventDispatcher']);
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/MySimpleValuesImpl.js', ['MySimpleValuesImpl'], ['org.apache.flex.core.SimpleValuesImpl', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.TextButtonBead', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.TextFieldBead', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.models.ArraySelectionModel', 'org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.models.TextModel']);
goog.addDependency('../examples/FlexJSTest_again/StockDataJSONItemConverter.js', ['StockDataJSONItemConverter'], ['org.apache.flex.net.JSONItemConverter']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/FlexGlobal.js', ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal'], ['flash.events.Event']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/FlexObject.js', ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject'], []);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/flash/events/Event.js', ['flash.events.Event'], []);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/flash/events/EventDispatcher.js', ['flash.events.EventDispatcher'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/binding/ConstantBinding.js', ['org.apache.flex.binding.ConstantBinding'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/binding/SimpleBinding.js', ['org.apache.flex.binding.SimpleBinding'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/Application.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.Application'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject', 'org.apache.flex.core.SimpleValuesImpl', 'org.apache.flex.core.ValuesManager', 'org.apache.flex.core.ViewBase', 'org.apache.flex.utils.MXMLDataInterpreter']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/IDocument.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.IDocument'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/SimpleValuesImpl.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.SimpleValuesImpl'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/UIBase.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.UIBase'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/ValuesManager.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.ValuesManager'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/core/ViewBase.js', ['org.apache.flex.core.ViewBase'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.core.UIBase', 'org.apache.flex.utils.MXMLDataInterpreter']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/Label.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.Label'], ['org.apache.flex.core.UIBase']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/List.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.List'], ['org.apache.flex.core.UIBase']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/TextButton.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.TextButton'], ['org.apache.flex.core.UIBase']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/beads/TextButtonBead.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.TextButtonBead'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/beads/TextFieldBead.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.TextFieldBead'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/beads/models/ArraySelectionModel.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.models.ArraySelectionModel'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/html/staticControls/beads/models/TextModel.js', ['org.apache.flex.html.staticControls.beads.models.TextModel'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/net/HTTPService.js', ['org.apache.flex.net.HTTPService'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/net/JSONInputParser.js', ['org.apache.flex.net.JSONInputParser'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/net/JSONItemConverter.js', ['org.apache.flex.net.JSONItemConverter'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/net/dataConverters/LazyCollection.js', ['org.apache.flex.net.dataConverters.LazyCollection'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
goog.addDependency('../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src/org/apache/flex/utils/MXMLDataInterpreter.js', ['org.apache.flex.utils.MXMLDataInterpreter'], ['org.apache.flex.FlexGlobal', 'org.apache.flex.FlexObject']);
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and was generated via Google Closure's depswriter.py:
| Code Block |
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depswriter.py --root_with_prefix="examples/FlexJSTest_again ../examples/FlexJSTest_again" --root_with_prefix="frameworks/js/FlexJS/src ../frameworks/js/FlexJS/src" >FlexJSTestDeps.js
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generate an example html file and a single minified .js file.
If you then open the HTML file in a browser (I've used FireFox and Safari on Mac and FireFox on Windows) you will again see the button and text and clicking on the button will change the text but hey! no Flash is involved. It is pure HTML/JS. Right now the appearance of things is a bit different, but that is a To Do item. I don't know if we can make it exactly the same as it looks in Flash, but we should be able to get better visual match.
MXML->Cordova/PhoneGap
Once you have the HTML and JS file(s), you can copy these into the www folder in a Cordova/PhoneGap application and publish it and see it work on a phone or desktop emulator. A To Do item is to automate this process.
Debugging
If you set the -debug flag on the compiler, instead of a single minified .js file you will get one .js file for each of your MXML or AS files, and the compiler will output a XXXDeps.js file and html file. See the console output when you compile. To get it to run, you will need to copy in code from various places. The desired The directory structure looks like this:
| Code Block |
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index.html (contains the html described above) FlexJSTestDeps.js examples (the examples folder from asjs/branches/develop) goog (the goog folder from Google Closure) third_party (the third_party folder from Google Closure) frameworks (the frameworks folder from asjs/branches/develop); |
If you then open the HTML file in a browser (I've only been using FireFox on Mac) you will again see the button and text and clicking on the button will change the text but hey! no Flash is involved. It is pure HTML/JS. Right now the appearance of things is a bit different, but that is a To Do item. I don't know if we can make it exactly the same as it looks in Flash, but we should be able to get better visual match.
MXML->Cordova/PhoneGap
Once you have the HTML and JS file(s), you can copy these into the www folder in a Cordova/PhoneGap application and publish it and see it work on a phone or desktop emulator. A To Do item is to automate this process.
Notes
- The code does not currently support the classic {} data-binding syntax. Instead, you can install a "beads" plug-in to handle simple binding scenarios. See the use of SimpleBinding in MyInitialView.MXMLmxml.
Discussion
As you can hopefully see, the first building blocks are now in place such that the ASJS framework and FalconJS compiler can create applications using familiar tools, components, and workflows. You can use Adobe Flash Builder or other Flex-capable IDE to quickly build or prototype an application on Flash using structured-programming techniques afforded by ActionScript, then convert it to a HTML/JS application that can run on browsers or mobile devices without Flash.
Next Steps
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- More components
- FalconJS option to output minified js file
- FalconJS option to generate html file as well?
- CSS handling for default values
- Data-binding syntax support