Building a data-centric application using Flash Catalyst beta and Flash Builder 4 beta

In this tutorial, you'll build an employee address book application that lets users enter search criteria and view a list of results fetched from a database (via a ColdFusion service), from which they can select an employee to get their full contact information. The completed application could work either as a browser-based application (using Adobe Flash Player) or a desktop application (using Adobe AIR). For this tutorial, the application will be deployed via the browser.

Figures 1 through 3 show what the completed application looks like.

1. The user can enter a letter or part of a surname to search for matching employees in the database.

   

   Figure 1. The application's search box.

2. A list of matching employees is presented to the user, from which the user can make a selection to see more detail.

   

   Figure 2. List of matching employees based on search.

3. Detailed information about an employee—including employee ID, date of birth, job title, and contact information—is shown to the user.

   

   Figure 3. Detailed information of selected employee.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you need the following software and files:

Illustrator CS4

• Try
• Buy

Flash Catalyst beta

• Download

Flash Builder 4 beta

• Try
• Learn more

ColdFusion 8

• Try
• Buy

Sample files:

• fcfb_assets.zip (ZIP, 238K)

Prerequisite knowledge

Familiarity with developing rich Internet applications using Flex

Note: This tutorial focuses on the use of Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder to complete the client-side application. The use of Illustrator for the user interface design and ColdFusion/PHP for implementing data services is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

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