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Accessing Server Side Data using Flex 4.0

March 11, 2011 //  by Krishna Srinivasan//  Leave a Comment

Introduction

Flex provides 3 classes to communicate with servers namely HttpService,WebService and RemoteObject HTTPService component of Flex 4 can be used with any kind of server-side technology, including PHP pages, ColdFusion Pages, JavaServer Pages (JSPs), Java servlets. This article aims at discussing the httpservice component with JSP for the following task.

  • To send a request to retrive data from Database
  • To send a request with parameters to insert data into the database.

also read:

  • Adobe Flex Tutorials
  • Java FX Tutorials
  • Charting with Flex 4.0
  • New Features in Flex 4.0

To send a request to retrive data from Database

First let us look at the HttpService tag

 <S:HTTPService
		id="No default."
		method="GET|POST|HEAD|OPTIONS|PUT|TRACE|DELETE"
		resultFormat="object|array|xml|e4x|flashvars|text"
		url="No default."
		fault="No default."
		result="No default."
	>
 

Explanation

  • id-refers to the name of the HttpService instance.
  • Method-Mentions the way how the request is send to the server.
  • resultFormat-configured to specify the format the way the result is expected
  • URL-The URL to which the request is send
  • Fault-A event handling mechanism which makes a call to the handlercode if there is a exception.
  • result-A event handling mechanism which makes a call to the handlercode when the result is recieved from the server.

Example:

The Example shows a Flex application which invokes a JSP page that retrives data from database. The data is formated by JSP code as XML and sent to the flex application and displayed on a data provider.

Files in the project

  1. FlexJSPdemo.mxml:The Flex application that invokes a JSP page
  2. Itemlist.jsp :The JSP page that retrieves data from database using JPA and formats the result in XML format
  3. Product.java :The Entity class that is mapped to Product Table in the database using JPA.
  4. ProductRetriever.java:The Java class that is contacted by JSP to interact with database using JPA.

FlexJSPDemo.mxml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
		xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
		xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" color="#196F82" fontWeight="bold">
		<fx:Style source="CopyofFlex4_demos2.css"/>
		<fx:Declarations>
			<s:HTTPService id="myserv" url="http://localhost:8080/JSPDEMONET/ItemList.jsp"/>
		</fx:Declarations>
		<s:Panel x="26" y="97" width="705" height="350" title="Using the HttpService">
			<mx:DataGrid dataProvider="{myserv.lastResult.Data.Item}" width="508" height="158" enabled="true" color="#3B8FA1" x="81" y="40"/>
			<s:Button label="Fetch Data" click="myserv.send()" x="248" y="235"/>
		</s:Panel>

ItemList.jsp

 <%@page import="a.ProductRetriever,
		a.Product,
		java.util.*"%>
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<Data>
		<%
		ProductRetriever srv = new ProductRetriever();
		List list = null;
		list = srv.getData();
		for (int i=0; i<list.size(); i++)
		{
			Product  product = (Product)list.get(i);
			%>
			<Item itemid='<%= product.getProductId()%>'>
			<name><%= product.getProductCode() %></name>
			<description><%= product.getDescription() %></description>
			</Item>
		<%}% > </Data>

Product.java

 /*
	* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
	* and open the template in the editor.
	*/

	package a;
	
	import java.io.Serializable;
	import javax.persistence.Basic;
	import javax.persistence.Column;
	import javax.persistence.Entity;
	import javax.persistence.Id;
	import javax.persistence.NamedQueries;
	import javax.persistence.NamedQuery;
	import javax.persistence.Table;
	
	/**
	*
	* @author RekhaKG_Nair
	*/
	@Entity
	@Table(name = "PRODUCT")
	@NamedQueries({@NamedQuery(name = "Product.findAll", query = "SELECT p FROM Product p"), @NamedQuery(name = "Product.findByProductId", query = "SELECT p FROM		Product p WHERE p.productId = :productId"), @NamedQuery(name = "Product.findByProductCode", query = "SELECT p FROM Product p WHERE p.productCode =			:productCode"), @NamedQuery(name = "Product.findByDescription", query = "SELECT p FROM Product p WHERE p.description = :description")})
		public class Product implements Serializable {
			private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
			@Id
			@Basic(optional = false)
			@Column(name = "PRODUCT_ID")
			private Integer productId;
			@Column(name = "PRODUCT_CODE")
			private String productCode;
			@Column(name = "DESCRIPTION")
			private String description;
			
			public Product() {
			}
			
			public Product(Integer productId) {
				this.productId = productId;
			}
			
			public Integer getProductId() {
				return productId;
			}

			public void setProductId(Integer productId) {
				this.productId = productId;
			}
			public String getProductCode() {
				return productCode;
			}
			public void setProductCode(String productCode) {
				this.productCode = productCode;
			}

			public String getDescription() {
				return description;
			}

			public void setDescription(String description) {
				this.description = description;
			}
			
			@Override
			public int hashCode() {
				int hash = 0;
				hash += (productId != null ? productId.hashCode() : 0);
				return hash;
			}
			@Override
			public boolean equals(Object object) {
				// TODO: Warning - this method won't work in the case the id fields are not set
				if (!(object instanceof Product)) {
					return false;
				}
				Product other = (Product) object;
				if ((this.productId == null && other.productId != null) || (this.productId != null && !this.productId.equals(other.productId))) {
					return false;
				}
				return true;
			}
			@Override
			public String toString() {
				return "a.Product[productId=" + productId + "]";
			}
		}

ProductRetriever.java

 package a;

	import java.util.List;
	import javax.persistence.EntityManager;
	import javax.persistence.EntityManagerFactory;
	import javax.persistence.Persistence;
	import javax.persistence.Query;
	
	/*
	* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
	* and open the template in the editor.
	*/

	/**
	*
	* @author RekhaKG_Nair
	*/
	public class ProductRetriever {
		EntityManagerFactory emf;
		EntityManager em;
		public  ProductRetriever()
		{
			emf   = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("JSPDEMOPU");
			em=emf.createEntityManager();
		}
		public List getData()
		{
			Query q=em.createNamedQuery("Product.findAll");
			return q.getResultList();
		}
	}

Persistence.xml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<persistence version="1.0" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd">
		<persistence-unit name="JSPDEMOPU" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
			<provider>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.PersistenceProvider</provider>
			<class>a.Product</class>
			<exclude-unlisted-classes>true</exclude-unlisted-classes>
			<properties>
				<property name="eclipselink.jdbc.password" value="rekha"/>
				<property name="eclipselink.jdbc.user" value="rekha"/>
				<property name="eclipselink.jdbc.driver" value="org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver"/>
				<property name="eclipselink.jdbc.url" value="jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/JPA"/>
			</properties>
		</persistence-unit>
	</persistence>

Output:

How to insert data to a database using Flex and JSP?

In the last section we have seen how to make a request to the server and retrieve the information. This sesction
we will look at sending some parameters as well with our request.We will modify our previous application by

  • creating a new mxml file(SendtoJSPDemo.mxml) to capture input from the user and send it to the server.
  • Modify the ProductRetriver.Java class to perform the insertion operation.
  • Creating a Upload.jsp which gets the request from our Flex code.

SendtoJSPDemo.mxml.

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
		xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
		xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" color="#196F82" fontWeight="bold">
		<fx:Style source="CopyofFlex4_demos2.css"/>
		<fx:Declarations>
			<s:HTTPService id="myservsd" url="http://hydhtc130252d:8080/JSPDEMONET/upload.jsp" resultFormat="text" fault="faulthand(event)"           
				result="callme(event)" >
				<s:request xmlns="">
					<PID>
						{PID.text}
					</PID>	
					<Name>
						{Name.text}
					</Name>	
					<Disc>
						{Disc.text}
					</Disc>	
				</s:request>
			</s:HTTPService>
		</fx:Declarations>
		<fx:Script>
		<![CDATA[
			import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
			import mx.controls.Alert;
			import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
			import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent; 
			function callme(event:ResultEvent)
			{
				 
				var k:String=event.result.toString();
			    msg.text=k.substr(42,k.length);
			}
			function faulthand(faulte:FaultEvent)
			{
				mx.controls.Alert.show(faulte.fault.faultString);	 
			}
		]]>
		</fx:Script> 
		
		<s:Panel x="20" y="110" width="726" height="350" chromeColor="#D5CECE">
			<s:TextInput x="141" y="88" id="PID" width="150"/>
			<s:TextInput x="141" y="158" id="Name"/>
			<s:TextInput x="141" y="219" id="Disc" width="154"/>
			<s:Button x="120" y="268" label="ok" click="myservsd.send()"/>
			<s:Label x="14" y="98" text="Productid :" width="95" color="#101212"/>
			<s:Label x="9" y="158" text="Product Code:" width="124" color="#0B0C0C"/>
			<s:Label x="10" y="219" text="Description :" color="#101212"/>
			<s:Label x="62" y="25" text="Item Detail Form" width="159" color="#090B0B"/>	
			<s:Label x="466" y="66" text="Message:" width="149" color="#0C0D0D"/>
			<s:RichText x="470"  id="msg" y="99" text="Wait....." width="208" height="157" color="#9B2929"/>
        </s:Panel>
		<s:Label x="184" y="68" text="HttpService" width="329" fontSize="35" color="#111111"/>
	</s:Application>

Explanation:

    • Look at the HTTPService instance that was created ,there is the request tag which configures the data that can be posted.
 <s:request xmlns="">
		<PID>
			{PID.text}
		</PID>	
		<Name>
			{Name.text}
		</Name>	
		<Disc>
			{Disc.text}
		</Disc>	
	</s:request>

Here the code shows that we are sending the parameters PID,Name,Disc so formating as XML.

    • The Event handler code when a result or fault event is generated by HttpService
      The highlighted code below shows the string returned by our JSP code.
 function callme(event:ResultEvent)
	{
		var k:String=event.result.toString();
		msg.text=k.substr(42,k.length);
	}
	function faulthand(faulte:FaultEvent)
	{
		mx.controls.Alert.show(faulte.fault.faultString);	 
	}


ProductRetriver.Java

Let us Modify the ProductRetriver.Java to add the Java code to insert data to the database using JPA and sends a boolean value true if insertion was successful otherwise sends false.

 public boolean insertProduct(Product p)
	{
		boolean b =true;
		try
		{
			em.getTransaction().begin();
 			em.persist(p);
			em.getTransaction().commit();
		}
        catch(Exception e)
		{
			em.getTransaction().rollback();
            b=false;
		}
		if(b)
			return true;
		else
			return  false;
	}

Upload.jsp.

 <%@page import="a.ProductRetriever,
		a.Product,
		java.util.*"%>
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<%
		Product  product = new Product();
		System.out.println("1"+request.getParameter("PID"));
		System.out.println("2"+request.getParameter("Name"));
		product.setProductId(Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("PID")));
		product.setProductCode(request.getParameter("Name"));
		product.setDescription(request.getParameter("Disc"));
		boolean b=new ProductRetriever().insertProduct(product);
		if(b)
		{
			out.print("done saved the data about:["+product.getProductId()+","+product.getProductCode()+","+product.getDescription()+"]");
		}
	%>

Output:

Conclusion

Flex can not only connect to java but even other server-based applications like ColdFusion, PHP, ASP.NET.
You can retrieve plain text or XML data using HTTP.

Category: Adobe FlexTag: Adobe Flex 4.0

About Krishna Srinivasan

He is Founder and Chief Editor of JavaBeat. He has more than 8+ years of experience on developing Web applications. He writes about Spring, DOJO, JSF, Hibernate and many other emerging technologies in this blog.

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