Building a mobile employee directory sample with Flex and Flash Builder

Overview

In this tutorial, you use the Flash Builder 4.5.1 and Flex 4.5.1 updates to build a simple, yet fully functional employee directory application for Android devices.

You don’t need a mobile device to complete this tutorial: you can use the simple emulator available in the Flash Builder 4.5.1 update to run and debug the application.

The Employee Directory application allows you to:

• Search for employees
• View employee details
• Navigate up and down the org chart
• Call, text, and email employees

In this section, you build a simple mobile application that shows a list of employees.

Step 1: Create the Flex Mobile Project

1. Select File>New>Flex Mobile Project in the Flash Builder menu.
2. On the Project Location tab, specify EmployeeDirectory as the project name and click Next (see Figure 1).

3. On the Mobile Settings tab, keep the default values and click Finish (see Figure 2).

4. Copy the assets directory from the FlexMobile60Minutes folder you just unzipped and paste it under the src directory of the EmployeeDirectory project.

Step 2: Code the application

1. Open EmployeeDirectory.mxml:
   • Notice the root node: ViewNavigatorApplication
   • Notice the firstView attribute of VieNavigatorApplication referencing EmployeeDirectoryHomeView
2. Open EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml and implement the View as follows:

Notes:

• Make sure you implement this code in EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml, not EmployeeDirectory.mxml.
• Don’t forget to add the creationComplete event to the view.

Step 3: Run the application

1. Right-click anywhere in EmployeeDirectory.mxml and select Run AS>Mobile Application
2. Select On desktop and choose a device to simulate. For example, Apple iPhone 4 (see Figure 3).

3. Click Run and test the application. The application should look like this (see Figure 4):

In this section, you define a mobile item renderer for the list of employees.

Steps

1. Open EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml and define an inline itemRenderer for the List. The item renderer displays the first name and the last name of the employee on the first line and the tile of the employee on the second line.

2. Run and test the application. The application should look like this (see Figure 5):

In this section, you create an EmployeeDetails view that shows the details of the employee selected in the list. You learn how to navigate and pass information between views.

Step 1: Creating the EmployeeDetails View

1. Right-click the views folder in the EmployeeDirectory project and select New>MXML Component. Specify EmployeeDetails as the component name and click Finish (see Figure 6).

2. Implement EmployeeDetails as follows:

Step 2: Opening the Details View

1. Open EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml and provide the List with a change handler used to open the details view for the selected employee:

Step 3: Run the Application

1. Select an employee in the list: an employee details view should appear for the selected employee (see Figure 7).

In this section, you provide the Employee Directory with an Action Bar:

• You provide all the views of the application with a Home button that the user can click to go back to the first view of the application.
• You provide the EmployeeDirectoryHomeView’s Action Bar with search controls to search for employees.

Step 1: Creating a Home Button

1. Open EmployeeDirectory.mxml and define the following navigation bar content (just before the closing </s:ViewNavigatorApplication> tag):
   

2. Run and test the application. Notice that because the navigation control is defined at the application level, it is shared by all the views of the application (see Figure 8).

Step 2: Creating a Search Bar

1. Open EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml
2. Add the following titleContent and actionContent (just after the closing </fx:Declarations> tag) to create a search bar:

With this initial implementation, clicking the search button returns all the employees no matter what you type in the search field. You implement a working search capability in Part 6.

3. Since we now send the request for data when the user clicks the Search button, remove the creationComplete handler defined on the View.
4. Run and test the application.

   Note that both the EmployeeDetails and the EmployeeDirectoryHome views inherit the Home button defined in EmployeeDirectory.mxml. Although it is generally a good idea for all the views of the application to have a Home button, it is superfluous (and potentially confusing) for the Home view of the application to have a Home button (see Figure 9).

Step 3: Removing the Home Button in EmployeeDirectoryHome

1. Open EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml and add an empty navigatonContent tag just before the <s:titleContent> tag:

2. Run and test the application (see Figure 10).

Note that when you open the details view for an employee, and then go back to the list using the back button of your device (or the home button of the application), the list is empty. This is because the previously active view is automatically destroyed when another view becomes active. When you click the back button, the previous view is actually re-instantiated.

Step 4: Persisting the Search Results

Although a view is destroyed when it becomes inactive, its “data” attribute is persisted and re-assigned when the view is re-instantiated.

To persist the search results leveraging the data attribute:

1. Add a result event handler to the HTTPService in which you assign the lastResult of the HTTP service invocation to the data attribute of the view.

2. Bind the List to data attribute of the view.

3. Run and test the application.

In this section, you allow the user to call, text, or email an employee from within the application.

Step 1: Display a List of Actions

1. In EmployeeDetails.mxml, add a <fx:Script> block just before the <s:HGoup> opening tag.

2. Inside the new <fx:Script> block, define a bindable ArrayCollection to hold the list of actions available for the selected employee:

Note: Make sure you import the ArrayCollection class for this code to compile:

3. Define the following embedded icons. You’ll use them in the action list itemRenderer.

4. Override the setter for the “data” attribute of the view to populate the action list with the actions available for the employee based on the available data. For example, an “SMS” action should only be presented to the user if the mobile phone number is available.

5. Display the list of actions: Below the closing </s:HGroup> tag, add a List component bound to the actions list.

6. Run and test the application.

   When you select an employee in the list, you should see the list of available actions for that employee (see Figure 11). The actions don’t work yet. You make them work in the next step.

Step 2: Triggering the Actions

1. Add a change handler to the List:

2. Implement list_changeHandler as follows:

Note: Make sure you import spark.events.IndexChangeEvent (and not mx.events.IndexChangedEvent) for this code to compile:

3. Run and test the application.

In this section, you change the data access logic of the application: instead of using an HTTPService, you use the SQLite database available on your device to access the data.

Steps

1. Copy the dao directory from the FlexMobile60Minutes folder and paste it under the src directory of the EmployeeDirectory project.
2. Explore the source code of the EmployeeDAO and Employee classes:
   
   • The EmployeeDAO class provides a basic implementation of the Data Access Object (DAO) pattern: it encapsulates the data access logic to create, update and delete employees. If the employee table doesn’t exist in the database, EmployeeDAO also includes some logic to create it and populate it with sample data.
   • Employee is a basic value object that also provides some lazy loading logic to load the employee’s manager and direct reports as needed.
3. In EmployeeDirectoryHomeView.mxml, replace the HTTPService with an instance of EmployeeDAO

Note: Make sure the model namespace is bound in the View definition at the top of the mxml document:

4. Modify the search button click event handler accordingly. 

Note that in this case, we can directly assign the return value of the findByName function to data because EmployeeDAO uses the synchronous version of the database access API.

5. Open EmployeeDirectory-app.xml, and scroll down to the end of the document. In the <android><manifestAdditions> section, uncomment the following permission:

6. Run and test the application

In this section, you add the “View manager” and “View direct reports” actions to the Employee Details view to allow the user to navigate up and down the org chart.

Step 1: Create the DirectReports View

1. Right-click the views folder in the EmployeeDirectory project and select New>MXML Component. Specify DirectReports as the component name and click Finish (see Figure 12).

2. Implement DirectReports.mxml as follows:

Step 2: Add the Actions to Navigate the Org Chart

1. In EmployeeDetails.mxml, add two possible actions to the set data function:

2. In the List change handler, add two case statements to trigger the corresponding actions:

Step 3: Run the application.

1. Select an employee who has a manager (see Figure 13) and click the “View manager” action (see Figure 14).

2. Select an employee who has a direct reports (see Figure 14) and click the “View direct reports” action (see Figure 15).

Here are some of the resources you’ll find useful during your development of applications for Android:

• Introducing Adobe Flex 4.5 SDK
• What's new in Flash Builder 4.5
• Flex Test Drive for Mobile
• Mobile development using Adobe Flex 4.5 SDK and Flash Builder 4.5
• Flex 4.5 SDK sample applications
• Flex Developer Center
• Mobile and Devices Developer Center

For more information on packaging an application for final deployment for each platform, see:

• Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Google Android devices
• Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Apple iOS
• Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for BlackBerry Tablet OS devices