Last installment we looked at the tools we'll be discussing in this series. Now we're going to look at the sample code that uses those tools as a way to show Flex working in an enterprise setting.
To run the sample code you need to do a little preparation:
- 1. Create a database called bookie.
- 2. Unzip enterprise-flex-code.zip to a working directory.
- 3. Unzip m2_repository.zip and copy the contents into ${user.home}/.m2/repository.
On a Mac, this should be in /Users/<your username>/.m2. On Linux, this should be in /home/<your username>/.m2. On Windows, this will be in C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\.m2.
Edit the properties files in the working directory for your system:
In
Run maven build: At a command prompt in the root of your project, run `mvn package`.
Run ant deploy: At a command prompt in the root of your project, run `ant dev-deploy`.
- 1. Start JBoss.
- 2. Point your browser at http://localhost:8080/bookie.
- 3. Log in with card number 123456.
- 4. Try out the application!
Our Project: Bookie
Introducing Bookie
Our project is for an imaginary online book reservation application called Bookie. This application will be a self-service system for a hypothetical library. It will allow a user to log in with a library card number, search for books, and reserve them online so that by the time she gets to the library, the books will be ready for her to pick up.
It also allows library administrators to add and update information regarding authors and their books. While they’re working, they’ll also see automated notifications of new book reservations so that they can be prepared when a user shows up to get the book she reserved.
Use Cases
A use case, or user story, as mentioned earlier, describes the functionality we want our application to offer users. A use case highlights the functionality we need to include in our application, not just as raw functionality but also as proposed solutions to problems that users would like to have solved. You can think of a use case as a story that describes the way the user will use the application.
For instance:
“The user enters his shipping information, including state, and the system calculates the tax for that state."
Use cases don’t make technical demands explicitly, such as what kind of database schema to use or which language to use, nor do they use jargon or technical terms.
Table 1 and Table 2 list the use cases for Bookie. We’ll make them simple and condensed—simpler than they would be “in the wild"; just the titles, really. We have use cases that discuss both user and administrator stories.
| Table 1: user Use Cases | |
|---|---|
| USE CASE NAME | DESCRIPTION |
| Sign In | Users will sign in to the application with their library card number. This is all the authentication we’ll do in this simple application, but it will be enough to identify a user against whom we can save data in the database. |
| Find by Author | The user will be able to find all the books by a certain author. |
| Find by Subject | The user will be able to find all the books under a certain subject. |
| Find by Title | The user will be able to search for books by the book’s title. |
| Browse Authors | The user can browse a list of all authors. |
| Browse Titles | The user can browse a list of all titles. |
| Browse Subjects | The user can browse a list of all subjects. |
| Find Author | The user can search for a specific author by name. |
| Find Subject | The user can search for a subject by name. |
| Table 2: administrator Use Cases | |
|---|---|
| USE CASE NAME | DESCRIPTION |
| Create, Update, Delete Subjects | Administrators can manage all the subjects in the system. |
| Create, Update, Delete Books | Administrators can manage all the books in the system. This includes assigning the book, author, and subject. |
| Create, Update, Delete Authors | Administrators can manage all the authors in the system. |
| Create, Update, Delete Users | Administrators can manage all the users in the system. |
| Check Books Out | Administrators can manage the outstanding reservations and mark them checked out as they’re picked up. |
| Check Books In | Administrators can manage a list of checked out books, and check them in as they’re dropped off. |
This is a nice, small project with just a few use cases, which should let us get a sense of the process and use the tools we’ve learned without dealing with a lot of technical details. Each section that follows discusses a “layer" of the application. The layers build from the database to the data model to the service interaction to the user interface of the application, giving you a chance to study the technology used at each layer.
Next installment we'll start to break the project down and show how we'll use Maven to automate the process of building the project's code. You can always find the entire series here.
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