Building a Server Dashboard Application with ColdFusion-Powered Flex

Macromedia Flex is a brand new server product, one that is poised to change the way you think about building rich and engaging user interfaces.

Yes, I did say "server." No, Flex does not compete with ColdFusion. Yes, Flex and ColdFusion are designed to work together.

Having now dispensed with the obligatory preliminaries, I'd like to present Macromedia Flex to the ColdFusion audience from a distinctly ColdFusion angle. And so in this article I will:

• Explain exactly what Flex is, from a ColdFusion user's perspective.
• Discuss the ColdFusion/Flex relationship.
• Walk you through a real (and really useful) example of a ColdFusion-powered Flex application (one that I have been using myself recently).

The first half of this article involves no hands-on examples and presents relevant information to any and all ColdFusion users, or rather, those interested in learning more about Flex and how it relates to what they do.

The second half of this article walks through and explains a real, albeit simple, ColdFusion-powered Flex application that reports ColdFusion server vitals in a dashboard interface. The ColdFusion dashboard is a useful little application, and one that nicely demonstrates Flex controls and their use with ColdFusion. But the dashboard application uses internal and undocumented ColdFusion functionality to expose administrative details. This code will work with ColdFusion MX and ColdFusion MX 6.1, but may not work with future versions of ColdFusion. Now that that is clear, read on.

And one other point to note before beginning. Flex is designed as enterprise software. As a ColdFusion developer, to be successful with Flex, Macromedia recommends that you are familiar with Java application development and deployment (WAR and EAR files) and that you use a structured approach to development. A structured approach with ColdFusion means that you adopt best practices, and write modular and tiered code, leveraging ColdFusion components (CFCs). Your team should also include an experienced object-oriented programmer and a person with user-centered application interface design skills. To learn about who Flex is designed for, check out David Wadhwani's article, Macromedia Flex: Is It the Right Fit for You? or the Flex Frequently Asked Questions.

Requirements

To try this example for yourself you will need:

Macromedia ColdFusion MX 6.1 (Standard or Enterprise on any platform supported by ColdFusion)

• Try
• Buy

Macromedia Flex

(Installed and running on any server and platform supported by Flex. To learn more about the Flex trial, please read the Flex Frequently Asked Questions.)

• Try
• Buy

The steps in this article do not use any specific development environment, so feel free to use whatever you are most comfortable with.

Sample files:

• dashboard.zip (4K) contains cfdb.mxml, cfdb.cfc, and struct2tree.as. I explain where to put these files in the second half of the tutorial.

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