Using Flex, BEA Workshop, and BlazeDS for Enterprise RIAs

By James Ward | Published: January 8, 2008

One of the most exciting Flex-related announcements in 2007 was the BEA Workshop and Flex Builder bundle. In case you missed it you can find coverage here, here, here, and a bunch of other places. It was big news! This was further validation that Flex is the standard for Enterprise Rich Internet Applications.

As a long-time Java developer I’ve always respected BEA. They build solid software that is the backbone of many large and mission critical systems. Their stuff just works. And their development tools are no different.

When we first began meeting with BEA about Flex it became evident very quickly how well the two technology sets fit together.

Flex Builder + Workshop = Amazing tooling for Enterprise RIAs

With BlazeDS the stack gets even better.

BlazeDS + Weblogic = Solid back-end for Enterprise RIAs

But how do you fit all these pieces together? An article I wrote was recently published on just this:

Using BEA Workshop Studio and Java to create Flex-based RIAs


(Note: I used Tomcat instead of Weblogic in the article so that there wasn’t one more prerequisite for readers to download. However the steps to use Weblogic are identical – just setup a Weblogic server instead of a Tomcat server.)

Also if you would like to purchase the Workshop and Flex Bundle check out Pieter Humphrey’s Blog for an amazing promo discount code.

I hope that this combination of technologies allows you to build some amazing applications! Let me know how it goes.

This entry was posted in BEA, BlazeDS, Flex, Java. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • Karunya

    Hi James,

    I have been looking for some help where I can build a FLEX app on Java app’s without Flex Data Services.

    I don’t know what I am doing wrong, I have followed your instructions step by step.But I am not seeing the Output at the end.

    Are any other settings requried for BlazeDS ?

    Any help is appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Karunya

  • http://www.jamesward.org James Ward

    Hi Karunya,

    Are you seeing any errors in the Tomcat console or in the browser? You can increase the log verbosity in the services-config.xml to DEBUG and restart Tomcat. Let me know what you find.

    -James

  • Karunya

    Hi James,

    Thanks for reply. I have set log verbosity to DEBUG and restarted the Tomcat. No errors showed as well as the output.

    Karunya

  • http://www.jamesward.org James Ward

    Hi Karunya,

    It seems like the request is not even making it to the server. So you might want to install Firebug and watch the network traffic to see what is going on. Also make sure that you have set the “Output URL” for your Flex project and that it’s URL when you run it is http://localhost:8080 (or something similar) rather than file://something

    Let me know if that helps.

    -James

  • Q

    What’s the difference between BlazeDS and FDS ? How much is the license ?

    Do you know of any nice tutorial on how to setup your J2EE application to enable the remote Object communication ?

    Thanks in advance!!!
    Q

  • http://www.ru55e77.com ru55e77

    Has anyone bench tested BlazeDS AMF3 against AMFPHP. I am setting up a RIA environment at the moment and AMFPHP seems the choice when working with a team of developers. But are there speed/performance gains with BlazeDS when working with data transfers.

  • Christina

    Hi James,

    I am trying to set up blazeDS on a remote server, and I am not sure how to configure the compiler (-services) and server settings (root folder) when I create the flex application locally. I keep getting errors about invalid root folder, or the web server cannot be connected. I would appreciate any pointers you can give me. Thanks a lot!

    Christina

  • http://www.jamesward.org James Ward

    Hi Christina,

    It might be helpful to look through my tutorial on this:
    http://www.infoq.com/articles/blazeds-intro

    Let me know if that helps.

    -James

  • Christina

    Hi James,

    Thanks for the link. In the examples, from the use of localhost it looks like the server is running on the same machine the flex app is being created. In my case, the server is running on a remote machine. I followed the instructions on http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/1/flex_builder_en/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=Using_Flex_Builder&file=brady105.htm to set the server root folder and url, but I am still getting errors for invalid root folder. Am I supposed to have a server run locally while developing the app? I would appreciate any pointers you can give me.

    Thanks a lot!
    Christina

  • http://www.jamesward.org James Ward

    Hi Christina,

    The documentation you are pointing to is for Flex 1. So it probably isn’t valid if you are using Flex 2 or 3.

    Are you using Flex Builder 2 or 3? If so you can follow the instructions in the article I linked to above or you can try to edit the server settings (found in project properties).

    -James