New Adobe Article: Building your first data management application with ColdFusion and Flex

Hello Brian,

Thanks for the article, very informative !!

How about an example when the data in the grid comes from multiple tables !!

Most of the data I present in grids in my app comes from multiple tables since I defined a proper relational model in my db. So No_Customer is often replaced be the Customer name in grids which makes more sense for the users.

So it would be nice to have an example where you would display a list of orders in a grid where the customer name would replace the No_Customer but still the list would update automatically when another user creates a new order.

If you would have a pointer to such an example it would be appreciated !!

Thanks

Yves

Hey Brian,
The artical was really good.
I have tried to get the code to work but I am getting a multiple markers error in the MXML file.
"Multiple Markers at this line" private var dummy:ARTISTS = new ARTISTS();
-1046 Type was not found or was not a compile time constaint. ARTIST.
-1180 Call to possiblely undefined method ARTISTS.

I am trying desperately to figure out what is involved in getting Flex to communicate with a database. If I could get the I/O operations of how and what’s involved in making it talk I would be most appreciative. It unfortunately is not a server client technology like CF or Asp.Net. I really love this stuff but I need more info on the very thing you posted with your article.

Any URL or advice is very, very welcome.

Thanks for everything.

Gene

To Yves,

The way that the wizard works is based only on a single table. I wish myself it would let you define relationships and build the files accordingly. I use the wizard to get the basic code down, then I modify those files to fit the situation.

Gene,

This sounds like the compiler cannot find the ARTISTS class. You are using Flex 3 correct? Is com.adobe.devnet.example folder under the src folder in your project? Also make sure in ARTISTS.as that the package path is com.adobe.devnet.example.

Let me know what you find out :)

Brian,

I tried your example from the devnet article, but I am getting the following error on Flex builder;

channel not found for reference 'cf-rtmp' in destination 'artgallerydataservice'.

I went and uncommented the cf-rtmp channel in the services-config.xml file, restarted the ColdFusion server, and it still is giving me that error. I am pretty sure there is something not configured correctly, but I have no Idea where to start looking?

Thank you,
David Fekke.

Brian,
I believe I have RDS working. I can browse through tables and columns on a MS Sql Svr database on my server. I'm stuck on the "Configure ColdFusion Server" screen in the wizard.
It's a standalone ColdFusion server, running on Windows IIS. Nothing I enter into the ColdFusion root folder, Web root, and Root URL boxes will validate,

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the article! I am also having problems, similar to David... I think. Below is a copy of the error I receive after trying to Run the mxml file.

[MessagingError message='Destination 'artgallerydataservice' either does not exist or the destination has no channels defined (and the application does not define any default channels.)']

I'm not running J2EE.. instead I have CF set up as a standalone server.

Am getting same type of errors that others reporting. Am on IIS with stand alone cf. Uncommented the cf-rmpt in services-config.xml too.
Below is error message:

[RPC Fault faultString="Error invoking fill-method 'fill' for destination artgallerydataservice: Unable to invoke CFC - Error invoking CFC fill operation:Could not find the ColdFusion Component or Interface com.adobe.devnet.example.ARTISTSAssembler." faultCode="Server.Processing" faultDetail="null"]

Great tutorial and nice stuff about setting up for CF. All went fine until tried to use browser!

Keith

Hi Brian,
I've gotten up to the point where I think Gene is above, although my message is a little different. When I browse to myProject, I am now getting the following:

2 Errors found.

Error C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myProject.mxml:10
Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: ARTISTS.

9: //This dummy variable forces Flex Builder to include Artists object in build
10: private var dummy:ARTISTS = new ARTISTS();
11:

Error C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myProject.mxml:10
Call to a possibly undefined method ARTISTS.

9: //This dummy variable forces Flex Builder to include Artists object in build
10: private var dummy:ARTISTS = new ARTISTS();
11:


Using your suggestion to Gene, I verified the location of com.adobe.devnet.example folder and I edited ARTISTS.as package path from src.com.adobe.devnet.example to com.adobe.devnet.example (removing the "src." from the beginning).

I still get the same error when I browse to the page.

Thanks for any help you can give. I really need to get the flex/cf data connection going.

I am set up with IIS. Are you saying in this that my com folder (with the adobe.devnet.example folders) should be right under Inetput/wwwroot/, regardless of where the myProject folder is? Am restarting from scratch and want to start correctly.

Thanks

Still getting error that can't find the assembler cfc.

I have structure of: inetpub/wwwroot/dmProject/ and put the com under that.
Changed the datamanagement config component to dmProject.com.adobe.devnet.example.ARTISTSAssembler

To test my set up, I wrote a cfm template to invoke the assmembler cfc:
<cfset myComp = CreateObject("component", "com.adobe.devnet.example.ARTISTSAssembler") />
It finds the assembler, but produces an error when the assmember tries to find the DAO. The only way I can get the fill method to work (running just in cfm) is to remove all com.adobe, etc stuff so the assember and dao just look for the component name (ie: ARTISTSDAO).

Not sure that's any insight, but ...

Keith

Hi
I Face the same error which is:

[MessagingError message='Destination 'artgallerydataservice' either does not exist or the destination has no channels defined (and the application does not define any default channels.)']
   at mx.messaging.config::ServerConfig$/internalGetChannelSet()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\config\ServerConfig.as:624]
   at mx.messaging.config::ServerConfig$/getChannelSet()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\config\ServerConfig.as:255]
   at mx.messaging::MessageAgent/initChannelSet()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\MessageAgent.as:1083]
   at mx.messaging::MessageAgent/internalSend()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\MessageAgent.as:1059]
   at mx.messaging::Producer/internalSend()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\Producer.as:143]
   at mx.messaging::AbstractProducer/connect()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\AbstractProducer.as:408]
   at mx.data::DataStore/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::initia...()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\DataStore.as:2196]
   at mx.data::ConcreteDataService/fill()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\ConcreteDataService.as:895]
   at mx.data.mxml::DataService/fill()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\mxml\DataService.as:526]
   at Tests/fillArtistDP()[C:\Documents and Settings\salsheeb\My Documents\Flex Builder 3\Tests\src\Tests.mxml:19]
   at Tests/___Tests_Application1_creationComplete()[C:\Documents and Settings\salsheeb\My Documents\Flex Builder 3\Tests\src\Tests.mxml:3]
   at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
   at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
   at mx.core::UIComponent/dispatchEvent()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:9051]
   at mx.core::UIComponent/set initialized()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:1167]
   at mx.managers::LayoutManager/doPhasedInstantiation()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\LayoutManager.as:698]
   at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/builtin::apply()
   at mx.core::UIComponent/callLaterDispatcher2()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:8460]
   at mx.core::UIComponent/callLaterDispatcher()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:8403]
I did all what you say step by step.

Maybe you typed something wrong or you miss something. Please Help me I need it urgent.

Thanks

Here's the error I get when I run the app:

[RPC Fault faultString="Send failed" faultCode="Client.Error.MessageSend" faultDetail="Channel.Connect.Failed error undefined url:'rtmp://10.100.0.210:2048'"]
   at mx.data::ConcreteDataService/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::dispat...()
   at ::DataListRequestResponder/fault()
   at mx.rpc::AsyncRequest/fault()
   at mx.messaging::ChannelSet/::faultPendingSends()
   at mx.messaging::ChannelSet/channelFaultHandler()
   at flash.events::EventDispatcher/flash.events:EventDispatcher::dispatchEventFunction()
   at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
   at mx.messaging::Channel/mx.messaging:Channel::connectFailed()
   at mx.messaging.channels::PollingChannel/mx.messaging.channels:PollingChannel::connectFailed()
   at mx.messaging.channels::RTMPChannel/mx.messaging.channels:RTMPChannel::tempStatusHandler()

Thanks for any help!

Steven,

Can you check your CF admin logs after running the example and see if there are any CF app errors logged? Let me know what you find...

Brian

Hey Brian,

Please can you advice how can we fetch Paged data using Flex, Cold Fusion 8 & LCDS. Please can you site some example.

Cheers,
Shaishav

I am running CF on an IIS server. It seems that in order to get this to work, I need to copy the com\adobe\devnet\example\*.cfc folder structure and files into jrun4\servers\cfusion\cfusion-ear\cfusion-war. It seems that the RTMP channel is configured to use port 2048 on my server and only looks in the cfusion-war folder for the cfcs. I would like to learn if it is possible to deploy just to IIS as the example describes.

hi Brian,

I'm not familiar with Coldfusion at all, but thanks to your tutorial I've gotten this much to work.

Now I'd like to be able to add a new record to the database. I have a table with 3 fields, and I have 3 corresponding text entry ui elements with a button that runs a function createAndAdd(). This fills the dummy object we created with the contents of the text entry elements and tries to run

DataService.createItem(dummy);

But when I try to run this, I get this error:

[RPC Fault faultString="Error during create: Error Executing Database Query." faultCode="null" faultDetail="null"]

My question is: after having followed your tutorial, is the "create" function in the DAO.cfc able to add records to the database. If so, how. If not, how do we change it to make it do that. Thanks!!!!

I was getting the "Error invoking fill-method 'fill' for destination" until I added a mapping for the com directory.

@Gary,
I figured it out.

Wow! Flex has some possibilities here!

To Sam,

Try adding a mapping in the CF admin that points to your com folder under the IIS website. That should do the trick.

To TIM:

"DataService.createItem(dummy);

But when I try to run this, I get this error:

[RPC Fault faultString="Error during create: Error Executing Database Query." faultCode="null" faultDetail="null"]"

Tim, I would need to know a little more. Are you creating a brand new instance called dummy in this case and trying to commit that back to the DataService. It looks like your commit is making it to the create in the DAO, however there is an SQL error happening. In my experience I always end up editing the DAO as you will get errors like this sometimes.

Remember, the wizzard gets the base code down for you to save some time but you may still need to make some tweaks depending on your situation.

Please let me know if you have any other trouble :)

For those having problems with "Definition mx.data:IManaged could not be found" have a look at
http://accidentalpatterns.blogspot.com/2008/04/fle... - it worked for me!

Hello Brian,

This is a very nice article, I got everything working, and took the next step trying to connect to another database. I tried connecting to the ‘Northwind’ database, I even got that working sort of, it return the data but when it does an update I get a strange error message, when I run your project I don’t get the error message and updates work fine. The table I am connecting to is the ‘Customers’ table in the ‘Northwind’ database. I have searched online and can’t find any other resources related to LCDS errors have you seen any errors like this before. We like using LCDS but if we can’t get it working with a simple database it is going to be a hard sell to management. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

Error

Error: Unknown Property: 'constructor'.
   at mx.collections::ListCollectionView/http://www.adobe.com/2006/actionscript/flash/proxy...()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\collections\ListCollectionView.as:692]
   at mx.data::Conflict()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\Conflict.as:82]
   at mx.data::DataStore/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::proces...()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\DataStore.as:2292]
   at mx.data::CommitResponder/result()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\CommitResponder.as:363]
   at mx.rpc::AsyncRequest/acknowledge()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AsyncRequest.as:74]
   at NetConnectionMessageResponder/resultHandler()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\channels\NetConnectionChannel.as:469]
   at mx.messaging::MessageResponder/result()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\MessageResponder.as:199]



Marc Truitt

Jeremy,
I believe I got the message you refer to before I stopped and then restarted the server. I guess the data service is not registered till rebooted.

Marc,
I got the same message you get when trying to connect to a different database. However when looking further I noticed that I can also get the same error if you try to edit records
7, 11,13,14 and 15 in the Artists example application. Anybody else get the same 'Unknown Property 'contructor' error on those records? I don't see any odvious data differences in these records.


I was able to get the example app to work

I don't get any response about the 'constructor' error on some fields (as mention previously), but now i have another problem, i try the example with my own MySql DB, the application launch without any errors, but my datagrid is totally empty !!
Is it Coldfusion or LCDS related or either flex.. don't know, i have no trace :(
LCDS seems to be a fantastic tool but if we get errors on errors, i'll let it to other ;)

thx

Francois

now it works, and another one, i don't know why, but i still get the
Unknown Property: 'constructor'.
at mx.collections::ListCollectionView/http://www.adobe.com/2006/actionscript/flash/proxy.........()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\collections\ListCollectionView.as:692]
at mx.data::Conflict()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\Conflict.as:82]
at mx.data::DataStore/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::proces.........()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\DataStore.as:2292]
at mx.data::CommitResponder/result()[C:\depot\flex\branches\enterprise_bridgeman\frameworks\mx\data\CommitResponder.as:363]
at mx.rpc::AsyncRequest/acknowledge()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AsyncRequest.as:74]
at NetConnectionMessageResponder/resultHandler()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\channels\NetConnectionChannel.as:469]
at mx.messaging::MessageResponder/result()[E:\dev\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\MessageResponder.as:199

error message... it seems that it's a bug coming from Coldfusion or Mysql : http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-14661 ...
if it's a bug ,it's unbelievable !!

regards

I don't get any response about the 'constructor' error on some fields (as mention previously), but now i have another problem, i try the example http://www.nakliyatfirmalari.org with my own MySql DB, the application launch without any errors, but my datagrid is totally empty !!
Is it Coldfusion or LCDS related or either flex.. don't know, i have no trace :(

http://www.shooope.com

To Francois:

This can mean a couple things. is the class com.immovillages.lc.test.users in you Flex application. Meaning do you see an import statement. If not do this, private var _test:MyClass = new MyClass;

See, you can get back typed objects from CF and display them in a grid. Lets say the returning object type is User. Here is the thing, if your Flex application does not have the actionscript equivalent of the User class compiled it the swf. Flex will view these return objects as generic objects.

So, since Flex views your User object now as a Generic object. When you make a change to a record in the grid and Flex sends an object down to CF, its sending a generic object, NOT and User object. Thus CF throws an error, because you not passing a proper object. It will fail on create operations as well.

If you noted in the code from the article you will see this in the code:
//This dummy variable forces Flex Builder to include Artists object in build
         private var dummy:ARTISTS = new ARTISTS();


Hope this helps.

Thanks Brian, I found a chat example similar to your idea, I hope it will be useful for you and the readers of your blog.It is using a messaging event gateway.
http://www.onflexwithcf.org/index.cfm/2007/8/2/Col...
cheers