Flex - generating Flex on Java Project

I collected the following from The Flex On Java Book.

$workspace > mvn archetype:create -DarchetypeGroupId=org.foj -DarchetypeArtifactId=flex-mojos-archetype -DarchetypeVersion=1.0-SNAPSHOT -DgroupId=org.foj -DartifactId=flex-bugs-ria -DremoteRepositories=http://flexonjava.googlecode.com/svn/repository

However, I still need to solve some dependency problems. In particular I needed to install the following packages:

• com.adobe.flex.compiler:asdoc:zip:template:3.2.0.3958
• org.graniteds:granite-generator:jar:1.1.0
• com.adobe.flex:compiler:pom:4.0.0.7219

But this is solved by using the correct repository by adding
<repositories>
   ...
    <repository>
       <id>flexcompiler-repo</id>
       <url>http://repository.sonatype.org/content/groups/flexgroup/</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

However, after running:

$flex-bugs-ria >mvn package

it runs quite a while with an error. It seems it just could not start the flash player. So it may be all good ;-).

It returns successful and the generated swf can be displayed in the browser

$flex-bugs-ria >mvn package-Dmaven.test.skip=true

Next step: do a more complex flex example.

Flash with Flex

So I tried a few things with Flash now that I more or less know the basics of flex (and only the basics).

So I wrote my first little movie in flash and compiled it using flex's compiler.

I can not really do an introduction yet to flash and flex. I still need to get use to too many things. For example, I am not really happy not knowing which data structures are available in action script. Maybe I have been spoiled by java using the java.util collections. Yet I think it sensible to expect the existence of a number of standard libraries one can use to prevent the inventingthewheelitis.

One thing I found at least im internet is from a developer from Mannheim who wrote some data structures for games in action script. I will have to take a look at it. It sure sounds really interesting.

I have also been interested in what is the best way to create small movies for fun. So I just thought of the general object oriented structure of my character creations. Actually I already had some project of the sort in java. But I had not that much because other priorities popped up as they always do.

Interesting Week

A lot happened during the last week. I learnt flash, flex, action script 3. I don't know everything... But I did get a good glimpse of the whole. It was a lot of fun trying to solve my brother's problem, which consisted in trying to command some light software using a flash or flex interface. It is not completely solved yet. But we are getting close to it. I will also write a few important things I noted while looking for solutions for the problem. There are two types of problems:

• network problems with TCP/UDP broadcast
• flash/flex sandbox security issues