Comments for Anvil - a Flash and Java-Based Open Source Portal Server (http://www.insideria.com/2008/12/anvil---an-flash-and-java-base.html)

Anvil - a Flash and Java-Based Open Source Portal Server

2008-12-04T16:00:00Z

Portal servers are popular for enterprises, because they provide a mechanism to aggregate multiple web-based applications, including news feeds and content management. The applications running in portals are called portlets, and they are specified by JSR 168 and Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP).

Software vendors have responded with compliant portal servers, and some of the more popular portal servers are made by RedHat/JBoss, IBM, BEA, Oracle, Sun, Vignette, SAP and Plumtree.

Some organizations have attempted to have a Flash-based portal web application, and plug in HTML or Flash portlets. One trick has been to use iframes to display HTML in front of the Flash - however, that approach is fraught with problems. The open source Anvil project addresses this need with a Flex-based portal application.

Anvil is powered by a Java-based server that uses LiveCycle or Blaze Data Services with Spring and Spring Security. Java / Spring Beans as exposed as remote flex services. Anvil portlets are called 'pods', and are implemented as Flex modules. Modules are secure, loaded and unloaded, cached and displayed. Ant scripts build both the server (Java) and client (Flex), and can deploy automatically. Anvil includes a Java to ActionScript class generator, and an Eclipse project generator.

Anvil can generate Flex or AIR applications. Flex applications do not have very good HTML support, but AIR applications use the WebKit engine, built into the AIR runtime. This means that Anvil-powered portal servers which power portals packaged as AIR applications can have embedded HTML, including portlets written in PHP, JSP, Flash, etc.

For further information:

An Introduction to Anvil

Using Macromedia Flex in a Portal Environment

Providing Rich Portlets with Adobe Flex

Introducing Java Portlet Specifications: JSR 168 and JSR 286

Comment from TJ Downes on 2008-12-04

2008-12-04T16:49:48Z

Hey Mike, cool stuff, will definitely check this out.

A point to note:

"but AIR applications use the system HTML renderer."

AIR applications actually use the WebKit engine, built into the AIR runtime, to render the HTML

Comment from Mike Slinn on 2008-12-04

2008-12-04T17:04:48Z

I meant to correct the WebKit info, thanks for catching it.

Comment from Bouiaw on 2008-12-04

2008-12-04T21:20:17Z

Interesting, it have some common ideas and technologies with our Flex Cms/eCommerce open source project Igenko (http://code.google.com/p/igenko/).

I am going to have a look at their code to compare more deeply both projects.

Comment from ryan on 2008-12-08

2008-12-08T11:57:12Z

i was taking a look at this project the other day and noticed that they have a faster flex sdk compiler... not sure how it works but there are many good things inside this project...

even if you are not interested in developing a flex portal, it is worth your while to take a closer look...

Comment from Mike Slinn on 2008-12-08

2008-12-08T15:59:34Z

Ryan - which project were you referring to?

Comment from Korn Matt on 2009-06-09

2009-06-10T01:43:18Z

Well...I was taking a look at this project the other day and noticed that they have a faster flex sdk compiler not sure how it works but there are many good things inside this project. Even if you are not interested in developing a flex portal, it is worth your while to take a closer look.
Matt - club penguin

Comment from David on 2009-10-25

2009-10-25T15:21:06Z

Hey Mike, cool stuff, will definitely check this out.

A point to note:

"but AIR applications use the system HTML renderer."

AIR applications actually use the WebKit engine, built into the AIR runtime, to render the HTML

David from Webkinz

Comment from Mike Slinn on 2009-10-26

2009-10-26T12:42:32Z

That is weird, I fixed that error last December, as you can see from the previous comments. I'll fix it again. Thanks for catching it.

Comment from Richard on 2009-10-30

2009-10-30T23:01:25Z

I think this project has a great flex dsk compiler. There seems to be loads of good things in this project. I would recommend everyone take a closer look.