June 2010 Update: This original blog post was written prior to the release of Spring Flex Scaffolding support in MyEclipse for Spring 8.6. Wanna build an entire Spring Flex CRUD app using your tables or code in a matter of seconds?  This tutorial is now productized in the MyEclipse for Spring 8.6 release.  Download and try it today! Check out the what’s generated blog or the getting started video.

This blog/tutorial covers the basics to getting started with spring-flex development in Skyway.  The spring-flex framework uses Adobe’s open source BlazeDS project, which is the remoting and messaging foundation for connecting a Flex-based front-end to Java back-end services.  Skyway is used to accelerate the Spring development by providing a visual environment to generate all the necessary Spring configuration files and CRUD operations in a SpringSource certified Spring MVC application.  The tutorial then goes on to tweak the Skyway generated configuration files to support Flex Remoting to produce the list view above that calls the Skyway generated Spring service.

This blog is divided into 2 parts:

• Part 1: Setup & CRUD
• Part 2: Adding Spring Flex

What you’ll need first

Before creating the project, there are a handful of items you’ll need to setup your Skyway Flex Builder environment.

1. Download BlazeDS: I downloaded the BlazeDS turnkey ready-to-use distribution, which comes with a version of tomcat.  The BlazeDS installation guide was very helpful after the download.
2. Get FlexBuilder: You’ll need something to compile your mxml into swf.  There’s a 60 day trial of FlexBuilder 3.  IMPORTANT: per M. Zach’s comments, it is essential to download Eclipse Ganymede (3.4 – for Java Developers) first, then install the FlexBuilder 3 plug-ins on top of that install, and finally install the Skyway Builder plug-ins.
3. Get Skyway: Install the Skyway plug-ins on top of the FlexBuilder Eclipse instance. Download the Community Edition, or test drive the full featured Commercial Edition.
4. Server & DB: Create your server and datasource connections inside Eclipse.  If you need help, Skyway has a sandbox setup guide that can help.  Point the server to the BlazeDS tomcat installation.
5. References: Have the references section at the end of this blog handy.  They are great resources for deeper understanding on any topic discussed here.

Create the Project & CRUD

There are several ways to create a Flex Project with Skyway’s generation capabilities.  If you have an existing Flex Project, follow the recipe on setting up and Eclipse Dynamic Web Project.  For new projects, the cleanest way I found to set up the project is to create a Skyway Project and then add the Flex Nature described here:

1. New Skyway Project: File > New > Skyway Project.  Name it BodyBuilder. Accept all defaults and click Finish.
2. Add Flex Nature: Right-click the created BodyBuilder-Web project, and select Flex Project Nature > Add Flex Project Nature.  Modify the defaults as described in the following:
   1. Application server type: J2EE
   2. Use remote object access service: Checked
   3. LifeCycle Data Services: Enabled
      
   4. Click Next
   5. Flex WAR file: <Blazeds installation>\blazeds.war
   6. Click Finish.
      
      
3. Clean up the Errors: You may get some errors in the Problems tab after adding the Flex Nature (also see M. Zach’s comments below):
   1. Server SDK: Directory does not contain a Flex SDK.  To resolve, right-click the Web project > Properties > Flex Compiler.  Choose Use default SDK in the Flex SDK version. This will then create another error about Cannot create HTML wrapper.  Just follow the instructions in the error:right-click and choose Recreate HTML Templates.
   2. Web library project archive commons-codec-1.3.jar conflicts with another archive also mapped to the WEB-INF/lib folder: This is due to Skyway’s default library classpath container management.  The easiest way to resolve is to go to the Web Project > WebContent/WEB-INF/lib folder and delete all the jars that do NOT start with flex-*.
4. Create the Domain Object: This is the start of CRUD Scaffolding.  If you aren’t familiar with Skyway’s CRUD Scaffolding capabilities, please take a look at the short How To on CRUD App Scaffolding for more details.
   1. Right-click the Spring DSL artifact under the BodyBuilder project, and select New > Model Package.  Name it com.bodybuilder.domain.
   2. Right-click that Model Package, and select New > Domain Object.  Name it Contestant. Add any fields to the Contestant Domain Object, making sure a primary key is specified.  It may look something like the following image (click to enlarge):
   3. Scaffold CRUD: With a few short clicks, all the necessary Java and Spring MVC artifacts will be generated to support Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations on this domain object.  Right-click the Contestant visual Domain Object, and select Scaffolding > Scaffold CRUD.

Add Spring Flex

Covered in Part 2 of 2

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