Flex and Ruby on Rails

Question

Hi all,

I'm trying to implement a Dashboard using Abobe Flex which is fed from a Ruby on Rails application. The Dashboard will just display charts and tables which can be fed by JSON, XML etc. feeds.

A User will need to login into the Flex frontend before they can view the Dashboard, so I have two main requirements for this to work:

1. A User can login via the Flex frontend, however Flex uses my Ruby on Rails application to perform the authentication

2. Gather data from feeds being provided by Ruby on Rails web application based on the User (id)

Is this setup possible with Flex and Ruby on Rails? If so can anyone provide me with some advice on how to get this working on any great tutorials out there which could help?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Since the rails can easily expose the models through RESTful web services, and FLEX has a way of accessing data from restful web services I don't see why the setup would not be possible.

This is the site that covers your area of interest: http://flexonrails.net/

Answer 2

If you want some fancy looking flash charts and you don't want to bother with Flex, you can try Open Flash Charts and the associated Rails plugin.

• http://ofcl.onrails.com.ar/

Answer 3

If you want to pass typed objects back and forth, RubyAMF is the way to go. It easily plugs into your controllers and has handy generators. I prefer AMF over XML or JSON. Less parsing/hassle in general.