ActionScript Developer's Guide to PureMVC: Code at the Speed of Thought

by Cliff Hall

Overview

Gain hands-on experience with PureMVC, the popular open source framework for developing maintainable applications with a Model-View-Controller architecture. In this concise guide, PureMVC creator Cliff Hall teaches the fundamentals of PureMVC development by walking you through the construction of a complete non-trivial Adobe AIR application.

Through clear explanations and numerous ActionScript code examples, you’ll learn best practices for using the framework’s classes in your day-to-day work. Discover how PureMVC enables you to focus on the purpose and scope of your application, while the framework takes care of the plumbing in a maintainable and portable way.

• Get a detailed overview of the PureMVC process for developing your application
• Model the domain by designing the schema and creating framework-agnostic value objects
• Implement framework-agnostic View components that expose an API of events and properties
• Use the Proxy pattern to keep track of value objects and hide service interaction
• Facilitate two-way communication between a View component and the rest of the application
• Stitch the Model and View tiers together with command objects in the Controller
• Manage problematic View component life cycles, and learn how to reuse the Model tier

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449314569
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/28/2011
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.19(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Cliff Hall has been developing software professionally since the early 1980s. He is the author of the PureMVC framework and owner of Futurescale, Inc., where he consults as a business software architect specializing in Adobe Flex and AIR. When he isn't coding, he enjoys reading, writing, creating music and being one with the universe (all preferably from the peace and quiet of home).

Table of Contents

Preface; Code at the Speed of Thought; The Purpose of This Book; Who Should Read This Book; Acknowledgements; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 Classic MVC Architecture; 1.2 The PureMVC AS3 Reference Implementation; 1.3 The Role of PureMVC in Your Application; 1.4 Actors at the Boundaries; 1.5 Actors Between the Boundaries; 1.6 The Rest of the Gang; 1.7 Packaging Your Classes; 1.8 Standard and MultiCore Versions; 1.9 Writing Portable Code; Chapter 2: Building an Application with PureMVC; 2.1 Choosing the Platform; 2.2 It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; 2.3 StoryArchitect, A Tool for Writing Fiction; 2.4 Erecting the Startup Scaffolding; 2.5 Building from the Outside In; Chapter 3: Modelling the Domain; 3.1 Designing the Schema; 3.2 Creating the Value Objects; 3.3 Creating the Enums; 3.4 Testing the Entities; Chapter 4: Implementing the User Interface; 4.1 A Tale of Two Views; Chapter 5: Proxying the Model; 5.1 Proxy Life Cycle; 5.2 Persistence Strategy Revisited; 5.3 Building the Proxys; Chapter 6: Mediating the View; 6.1 Mediator Life Cycle; 6.2 Communicating with the Component; 6.3 Communicating with the Application; 6.4 Determining Granularity of Mediation; 6.5 Building the Mediators; Chapter 7: Applying Business Logic; 7.1 Two Shades of Logic; 7.2 Command Life Cycle; 7.3 Building the Commands; 7.4 Registering the Commands; Chapter 8: Advanced Model Topics; 8.1 Handling Synchronous Behavior; 8.2 Handling Asynchronous Behavior; 8.3 Reusing the Model Tier; Chapter 9: Advanced View Topics; 9.1 Managing Pop Ups; 9.2 Deferred Instantiation; 9.3 Dynamically Adding View Components; 9.4 Flex Mobile Mediation Strategy; Chapter 10: Onward; 10.1 Using a Debugger with PureMVC; 10.2 PureMVC Utilities; 10.3 Other Resources;