How to implement Flex front end with back ends of Java hibernate and JPA?

Question

Hi guys

I have a designed a back end solution with Java Hibernate and JPA. Now I want to implement it with Flex front end. How shall I do it? Is it possible without using BladeDS? Just using Servlet or something?

Please guide

Thanks

Answer 1

Depending on the type and speed of data you are serving up to your flex application you can either create servlets that will be publishing XML to communicate with the application and calling those XML services via the Flex HTTPService object. Or you could use something like GraniteDS (http://graniteds.org), BlazeDS or WebOrb to publish AMF services through EJBs. It really depends on how far along you are with your Database implementation, but personially I am loving GraniteDS and its support for JEE6 in Glassfish v3.0.1.

Answer 2

You need some service layer that exposes access to your entities. This can be POJOs, EJB Session Beans, Spring Beans, whatever. Then you need some way to access that services layer from the Flex client. This can be SOAP, Plain Old XML (through a servlet / JSP), or Remoting with BlazeDS (or GraniteDS, etc). My personal preference is Spring with BlazeDS. I created a screencast that walks through how to combine Flex, Spring, BlazeDS, and Hibernate that might be helpful. But if you want to see how to do it via Plain Old XML (HTTPSerivce) or SOAP then check out this screencast.