Cairngorm Jumpstart

bFlex
September 7th, 2008
Kevin Schmidt
http://www.flexinabox.com
 About This Presentation
• Intended Audience:
– For beginning Flex developers and/or those
with minimal exposure to the Cairngorm
framework
– Not intended to debate the merits of
Cairngorm
• Organization:
– This discussion is organized according to a
standard Cairngorm event flow (your actual
coding order may vary)
 Who am I?
• Adobe Community Expert
• Adobe Certified Instructor
• Indianapolis Flex User Group
Manager
• Speaker at Adobe MAX
• Blog – flexinabox.com
• Founder – Other Side Productions -
othersidellc.com
– Flex and ColdFusion Consulting
Why Does Cairngorm Seem So Difficult?

• This presentation will attempt to be

different through:
• Focusing on the how rather than the why
• Boiling Cairngorm development down to a
step-by-step process
 Why Should You Care?
By providing this consistent architecture and proven design patterns,
using Cairngorm can offer a number of benefits to your Flex
application, including:
• Centralized model (i.e. the Model Locator)
• A centralized event/response system
• Separation of concerns along the lines of the Model-View-Controller
pattern
– isolate business logic
– simplify maintenance
• Straightforward and documented structure for application building
within a team environment
• A well-known approach towards Flex development that a wide-
range of Flex developers are already familiar with
– If you develop Flex, you will encounter Cairngorm at some point
 Getting Started - Installing Cairngorm

• Download -
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Cairngorm
• Current version is 2.2.1
• Place the Cairngorm.swc anywhere on your
computer
• Create your Flex/AIR project in Flex Builder
• Under “Flex Build Path"
• Choose the "Library Path" tab
• Click on the "Add SWC" button
• Locate your Cairngorm.swc and click “ok”
 Basic Terms and Concepts
1. Control (FrontController):
• Determines where to route the request (Command class).
• Same concept as ColdFusion frameworks such as Mach ii,
Model-Glue or Fusebox
2. Command
• Executes the service call via a Delegate, returning the data to
result() (success) or a fault() (fail)
3. Delegate
• Encapsulates access to a business service.
4. Model (ModelLocator)
• State of the application and its variables (conceptually similar
to application scope in ColdFusion)
• Using data-binding any component in the application that is
bound to the model is immediately updated when a variable
within the model is updated
 When to Use Cairngorm
• You have a decent level of comfort with
Flex
• Your project is of moderate to high level
complexity
• Your project has several or more "use
cases"
• You are working with a group of
developers (or other developers will
maintain the code upon completion)
 Cairgorm Event Process
Cairngorm events are triggered by user interaction or application
events

VIEW
VIEW // EVENT
EVENT
GESTURE
GESTURE
CONTROL
CONTROL

MODEL
MODEL COMMAND
COMMAND DELEGATE
DELEGATE

SERVICE
SERVICE
 Step 1a - Architecting the View
Cairngorm doesn't care how you architect your
view. However, some practices are
recommended:
• Separate reusable portions of your application
into components to improve maintainability
• Utilize data-binding to auto-update model
changes
• Define constants for view-state management
 Step 2 - Creating an Event
• Simple class that has a contructor and properties (if
necessary)
• Every event extends
com.adobe.cairngorm.control.CairngormEvent
• Can contain data to be passed along with the event type
– super(EVENT_FOO);
• Must establish the event type with the front controller
• Must implement clone() method
– see
http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2006/06/events_in_flex_
2.html
 Step 3 - Modify the Controller
• Establish the Command class that will
respond when this event is announced.
The Cairngorm framework makes

Syntax:addCommand(FooEvent.EVENT_ANNOUNCE_FOO,FooCommand);
 Step 4 - Creating a Command
• Taken from "Gang of Four" pattern catalog - allows you to
invoke a command without requiring knowledge of what the
command does.
• Implements the com.adobe.cairngorm.commands.ICommand
interface
– Command interface deprecated as of 2.1
• Must have an execute() method that accepts a CairngormEvent
• Often has two additional methods (when connecting to remote data)
– Successful result handler
– Failed result handler
• Most frequently, the command will announce an external data call
via the delegate
• Can modify the model
• Does not negate the need to create your own "business objects" to
abstract reusable portions of business logic
 Step 5 - Creating a Delegate
Note: Steps 5 and 6 are only necessary for events that
require access to remote data.
• Abstracts the specifics of the server side implementation
• Allows remote calls to be reusable
• Does not modify the model
• Makes the appropriate asynchronous remote service call
– Remote calls are centralized via the ServiceLocator
class
• I generally align each delegate with a ColdFusion service
(remote facade) matching the method names
 Step 6 - Call Service
Services are contained within an
ServiceLocator MXML file
• Included in your root MXML file
• Can define web services, HTTP requests
or Remote Object calls
–For ColdFusion you will most frequently
use RemoteObject calls to the
predefined "ColdFusion" destination
 Step 7 - Creating a Value Object
Value Objects are not a requirement of Cairngorm but you will
generally want to use them if you wish to take advantage of the type
translation between ColdFusion and Flex (specifically CFC types).
They also give “meaning” to your data - for example, instead of
having FirstName and LastName, you have a User.

The simplest way to create a VO based upon a CFC is to use the built
in generator included in the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse.
• Right-click CFC
• ColdFusion Wizards > Generate AS Class (based on CFC)
Your AS class properties will match the properties defined within the
<cfproperty> tags in your CFC
 Rinse and Repeat
Essentially you will find that you repeat this
process while building each event. After
you gain some experience you may find
that you don't follow the steps in this
particular order.
 Additional Resources
Cairngorm Class Documentation
• http://www.cairngormdocs.org/docs/cairngorm_2_1/
Cairngorm Docs
• http://cairngormdocs.org/
Cairngorm Interactive Diagram
• http://www.cairngormdocs.org/tools/CairngormDiagramExplorer.swf
Cairngorm Tutorial by Stephen Webster of Adobe Consulting
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/cairngorm_pt1.html
Cairngorm Tutorial By David Tucker
• http://www.davidtucker.net/category/cairngorm/
Cairngorm Tutorial by Jeffry Houser
• http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2007/2/15/How-do-you-learn-
Cairngorm
 Questions?
• Feel free to email me:
– [email protected]