Macromedia MAX 2003

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Macromedia MAX 2003
Mach-II Intro
Stephen Rittler CounterMarch Systems
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Agenda

• Genesis of Mach-ii
• Components of a Mach application
• Overview of a request/response cycle with Mach
• A peek under the covers of a functioning Mach
  application

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Components

• Mach-ii.xml
• ltpropertiesgt
• ltevent-handlergt
• ltpage-viewgt
• ltlistenergt
• Plugins and filters

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Mach-ii.xml

• The controller
• Defines application flow
• Lots of fun to work with in a development team!

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Properties

• The area of the XML file where you stash
  variables that you used to drop in
  Application.cfm
• ltpropertiesgt
• ltproperty name"applicationRoot" value"" /gt
• ltproperty name"defaultEvent"
  value"showWelcome" /gt
• ltproperty name"eventParameter" value"event"
  /gt
• ltproperty name"parameterPrecedence"
  value"form" /gt
• ltproperty name"maxEvents" value"10" /gt
• ltproperty name"exceptionEvent"
  value"exception" /gt
• ltproperty name"systemEventID" value"14" /gt
• ltproperty name"dsn" valuenoneofyourbusiness
  " /gt
• ltproperty name"dsn_ems" value"noneofyourbusin
  ess" /gt
• ltproperty name"dsn_campus" value"noneofyourbu
  siness" /gt
• ltproperty name"dsn_forms" value"noneofyourbus
  iness" /gt
• ltproperty name"adminEmail" value"srittler_at_coun
  termarch.com" /gt
• ltproperty name"senderEmailAddress"
  value"alumni_at_lehigh.edu" /gt
• lt/propertiesgt

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Event handlers

• Each action that a user takes (and some that are
  done implicitly) is an event
• Each event is mapped to an event-handler in
  the xml file
• Inside each event-handler are the data retrieval
  and display tags related to that event
• ltevent-handler event"ems_showCategories"
  access"public"gt
• ltnotify listener"categoryManager"
  method"getCategories" resultKey"reques
  t.qCategories" /gt
• ltview-page name"ems_showCategories"
  contentKey"request.content" /gt
• ltview-page name"ems_appNavigation"
  contentKey"request.appNavigation" /gt
• ltview-page name"baseTemplate" /gt
• lt/event-handlergt

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Page-view

• A page-view is just display logic and any user
  input fields
• There is no data retrieval in the view template.
  All data is passed in via request variables
• real, live code demo

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Listeners

• The data go-getters
• They sit out there in application scope and wait
  to be called on
• real, live code demo

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Plugins and Filters

• Stolen from Sean Corfield
• Rule of thumb if you need to do it on every
  single request, event handler, or view, you
  should use a plugin.
• If you need to perform some operation on data
  provided to certain events or listener methods,
  you should use a filter.
• The inner workings of plugins and filters are
  beyond the scope of todays workshop. They are a
  great way to implement a login/security framework
  though!

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Lets look at an application!

• Reviewing the request/response cycle

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Lessons Learned

• Weve been developing applications using Mach-ii
  for a little over a year now
• We were not Fusebox developers learned from
  scratch with the Amkor guys (you rock!)
• Spin-up time was FAST
• Solid naming conventions are key to
  maintainability
• Fundamentals of OOP are important
• More learning in this area is warranted
• Version control software is vital. The XML file
  changes frequently, especially on a large
  development team

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Q and A

• Questions? Comments?

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Resources

• http//www.mach-ii.info/
• http//tutorial345.easycfm.com/
• http//livedocs.macromedia.com/wtg/public/machiide
  vguide/