You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 12 Next »

History

  • 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.
  • 4/23/2013 - Updated to use FalconJX instead of FalconJS.
  • 6/27/2013 - Added the beginnings of MXML states and data binding.
  • 7/22/2015 - Updated to latest process.

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.

  1. Get the ASJS code from Apache Git via

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-asjs asjs
cd asjs
git checkout develop

  2. Get the Falcon code from Apache Git at

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-falcon.git falcon
cd falcon
git checkout develop

  3. Get the FlexUnit code from Apache Git at

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-flexunit.git flexunit
cd flexunit
git checkout develop

  4. Get the Flex SDK code from Apache Git at

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-sdk.git sdk
cd sdk
git checkout develop

  5. Get the TLF code from Apache Git at

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-tlf.git tlf
cd tlf
git checkout develop

  6. Get the BlazeDS code from Apache Git at

    git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-blazeds.git blazeds
cd blazeds
  7. In the sdk folder, follow the README to set up environment variables, then run ant to build the sdk.
  8. In the flexunit folder, run ant to build flexunit.
  9. In the falcon folder, run 'ant all' to build Falcon.
  10. In the asjs folder, follow the README to download Google Closure Library, the linters and set up more environment variables, then run ant to build the FlexJS libraries.
  11. In the asjs folder, change to examples/DataBindingTest and run ant there.  It should create bin-debug/DataBindingTest and bin/js-debug and bin/js-release folders containing a debug SWF, a debug HTML/JS/CSS version and a minified HTML/JS/CSS version respectively.  Open the .html file in those folders in your browser.

 

Using Eclipse

We are using Eclipse Helios for Java 1.6 compatibility because at least one of the jars (flex-oem-compiler) needs to be 1.6 compatible to work with Flash Builder.  There are eclipse project files in the falcon repo. The run/debug configuration for building a FlexJS SWF in Eclipse needs the following settings (/Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs is my asjs repo):

Program Arguments:

+flexlib="/Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs/frameworks" -debug /Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs/examples/DataBindingTest/src/DataBindingTest.mxml

VM Arguments:

-Xmx384m -Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false -Dflexcompiler="/Users/aharui/git/flex/master/falcon/compiler" -Dflexlib="/Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs/frameworks"

And the environment variables:
FLEX_HOME points to a Flex SDK and PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME are points to a playerglobal.swc as specified in the 

For cross-compiling with FalconJX the Program Arguments are:

+flexlib="/Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs/frameworks" -debug /Users/aharui/git/flex/master/asjs/examples/DataBindingTest/src/DataBindingTest.mxml -js-output-type=FLEXJS -closure-lib=/Users/aharui/closure-library-master

The Demo

MXML->SWF
The latest demo is http://people.apache.org/~aharui/FlexJS/FlexJSStore. Run the bin-release/FlexJSStore.html and right-click and choose "View Source" to see the source. You should be able to compile FlexJSStore.mxml into a working SWF by using the Apache Flex SDK Installer to install a FlexJS release and using the bin/mxmlc on Mac or bin/mxmlc.bat on Windows to compile the source.  This is a port of the old FlexStore demo to FlexJS.  You can click on the Products button, hover over the people and see toolTips, drag them to the compare window and see drag-and-drop work and effects play.

MXML->JS
Now you should be able to create an HTML/JS equivalent by running js/bin/mxmlc on Mac or js/bin/mxmlc.bat on Windows.  The FalconJX compiler will generate an index.html file and a single minified .js file in bin/js-release and a debug version with many .js files in bin/js-debug.

If you then open the HTML file in a browser (I've used FireFox, Chrome and Safari on Mac and FireFox, Chrome and IE8 and IE9 on Windows) you will again see the people and tooltips and drag-and-drop and effects but hey! no Flash is involved. It is pure HTML/JS. Compare the SWF version and the HTML/JS version. They should look pretty similar. 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.

Discussion

As you can hopefully see, the first building blocks are now in place such that the ASJS framework and FalconJX 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

  • More components
  • More advanced and complete CSS handling for default values
  • More advanced Data-binding syntax support
  • No labels