JumpShip 3.2 Update Released.

This minor update of the JumpShip Framework fixes bugs in the JSDataModel and JSViewBase classes.

JumpShip Framework An MVC Based ActionScript with the following features:

• A Ruby on Rails like Data Mode
• A Command Pattern Based Controller (similar to ARP and Cairngorm
• A standardized View with asset loading tools.
• Model / View Data Binding
• Controller Before / After filtering
• Controller Command Cascading (the ability for commands to call other commands).

The following bugs have been fixed:

• JSDataModel: Fixed a bug in the ‘getItemIndex()’ method that returned an improper value.
• JSViewBase: Fixed a scope issue that prevented proper data binding.

Awesomeness with JSEnumerable and JSArrayEnumerable

JSEnumerable and JSArrayEnumerable are included in the core JumpShip library but are powerful classes in their own right and can even be used outside of the JumpShip Framework.

The enumerable classes provide standard methods for traversing and manipulating collections of data. The methods they define are meant to mirror standard Enumerable modules in other programing languages like Ruby. A lot of the time one of the more tedious tasks of managing data is the need to iterate over the entire data set to find the specific piece of data you need to retrieve or perform a transformation on.

The two enumerable classes in JumpShip each provide the same functionality but in two different ways. JSEnumerable is a class that can be extended by your data model so that it inherits all of the enumerable functionality. JSArrayEnumerable is a static class that manipulates the prototype of the standard Array class so that all Arrays in your app gain the enumerable functionality. Even though prototype manipulation has become a frowned upon practice in AS3, the Array is the most often used class for enumeration. If you want to make extensive use of the enumerable methods, using JSArrayEnumerable can save you a lot of work by simply allowing you to use Array objects throughout your application instead of sub-classes of JSEnumerable. Either way is fine, however, and will allow you to take full advantage of the enumerable methods to do some great tricks with your data. Let's see some examples.

Let's start with some dummy data. We're using JSDataModel as our data collection. It extends JSEnumerable:

var test = new JSDataModel();

var rec1:JSDataRecord = new JSDataRecord();

var rec2:JSDataRecord = new JSDataRecord();

var rec3:JSDataRecord = new JSDataRecord();

var rec4:JSDataRecord = new JSDataRecord();

rec1.create({firstname:"joe", lastname:"smith", purchases:10});

rec2.create({firstname:"jamie", lastname:"doe", purchases:1});

rec3.create({firstname:"jamie", lastname:"scanlon", purchases:50});

rec4.create({firstname:"mickey", lastname:"mouse", purchases:16});

test.addItem(rec1);

test.addItem(rec2);

test.addItem(rec3);

test.addItem(rec4);

Let's also turn on the JSArrayEnumerable class to make all Array objects enumerable:

JSArrayEnumerable.enable = true;

Now the fun part. Let's say we want a way to quickly compile a list of all of the last names in our data set.

var names:Array = test.pluck("lastname"); // smith,doe,scanlon,mouse

The 'pluck' method pulls out a filed from the records in the collection and presents it as an Array. If you were to think of the data in the form of a table, pluck returns a column. In this case we pluck the 'lastname' column. Now lets say we want to only pull out the last names that contain the letter 's'.

var sortedNames:Array = names.grep( /s/, function(item, index) {

return item;

}); // smith,scanlon,mouse

Notice that we have called the 'grep' method on the 'names' variable which is an Array. Since we have enabled JSArrayEnumerable, all Array's now have this method. If we hadn't enabled JSArrayEnumerable, this would throw a compile error. The 'grep' method is one of the most powerful. It lets you use a RegExp ( Regular Expression ) to filter which records to return in the form of an Array. The capability to filter the records in your data set is only limited by your ability to create a good Regular Expression. The 'grep' method calls toString() on each item in the data set so it is also valuable to make sure that you implement a meaningful toString() method if you are working with complex datatypes, ( here we are only dealing with Strings and Numbers so this isn't an issue ). 

Hopefully you can begin to see the power of using the enumerable classes. We just performed two operations that would normally require a loop and at least one 'if' statement. Here's another example. Let's say we want to get a running total of all customer purchases.

var total:Number = 0;

total = test.inject(total, function(memo, item, index) {

return Number(memo) + Number(item.purchases);

}); // 77

The 'inject' method allows you to specify a variable ( in this case a Number ) that will be submitted to a function for each item in the data set. The function also gets the item in the data set and the index. Whatever is returned by the function is submitted to the next item in the data set. This is a great way to apply a recursive function to every item in the data set. In this case, we use it to tally the values of the 'purchases' field.

JumpShip, an AS3 MVC Framework for Flex and Flash, has been updated.

JumpShip, an AS3 MVC Framework for Flex and Flash, has been updated.

This update features the following changes:

• Addition of a new core class JSArrayEnumerable which adds Enumerable methods to Array objects.
• Minor bug fixes for JSDataRecord.

JumpShip mxmlc Compiler Bug

An email from a member of the community pointed out that certain JumpShip Framework's JSEnumerabler Class and it's descending JSDataModel Class might cause errors due to a compiler bug which is documented here:

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-9508

It is a bug that has been fixed as of Flex 3.

I've ditched my site and turned it into a Flash blog.

I've decided to ditch my two year old web desing site in favor of a Flash blog. http://www.jsjstudios.com.

There you will find articles related to Flash / Flex but not Jumpship specific. There is a lot of great content there already, hope you enjoy it.

Jamie

JumpShip Has Buzz

I've been monitoring traffic for a little while now but ever since I announced the release of JumpShip 3.0, interests seems to have spiked. So thanks to all who are reading, we are now 63 countries strong!

Jamie

JumpShip 3.0 is Here!!

JumpShip 3.0 has been released.

www.osflash.org/projects/jumpship

Release Notes:

The main goal of this version of JumpShip has been to lower the barrier to entry both in the learning curve, and in the time it takes to get an application up and running.

Former versions of the JumpShip Framework required you to extend base classes to get even the simplest application working. In JumpShip 3.0, the base classes are still there but they are fully implemented. JumpShip 3.0 lets you extend the framework one piece at a time, leaving the rest to perform in a minimal way. In this way you can get an application up and running almost instantly. Using an agile programming style, you can add and change functionality as you need it.

In order to lower the learning curve, JumpShip 3.0 has come more in line with the way other popular MVC frameworks work. Although JumpShip still takes the unique point of view that it is easier to work with a framework that sets reasonable conventions rather than try to be everything to all people, JumpShip 3.0 brings these conventions more in line with other frameworks like Cairngorm, PureMVC and ARP. The goal was to make the concepts familiar to those who have used other frameworks while still providing all of the great tools that JumpShip is known for.

JumpShip 3.0 has also made significant improvements to the Ruby on Rails Gateway. The new JSRailsGateway takes advantage of the RESTful scaffolding that is standard in the latest version of Rails. The Gateway talks directly to you Rails models, eliminating the need for a Gateway on the Rails side to capture, translate, and send data from Flash to Rails.

So to put it simply, JumpShip 3.0 can preform standard Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations on a standard Ruby on Rails back end with no extra sever-side code. The JumpShip Rails Gateway works with the JumpShip Data Model (JSDataModel) so everything sent and received through the Gateway is understood by the rest of your JumpShip application.

Take a look in the examples folder in the rails package and see how to put together a simple database driven address book in minutes.

Enjoy!

Jamie