ActionScript Developer's Guide to Robotlegs

Table of Contents......Page 7
Robotlegs: Something a little bit special......Page 11
Conventions used in this book......Page 12
Safari® Books Online......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 14
Direct conversation......Page 15
Robotlegs helps with direct conversations and message passing......Page 16
Consistency......Page 17
Performance tradeoffs......Page 18
Less boilerplate code is a good thing.........Page 19
80% of the problems can be solved with 20% of the API......Page 21
Coding for Robotlegs shouldn’t tie you to the framework......Page 22
Robotlegs aims to enable and not dictate......Page 23
Testing, testing! (We test, and we make it easy for you to test)......Page 24
Some final things every Robotlegs cadet should know......Page 25
Joel’s Personal Kanban......Page 27
Lindz’s Mosaic Design Tool......Page 29
Architecture begins with Events and Commands......Page 30
The ‘context’ is the heart of your Robotlegs application......Page 33
The CommandMap makes things happen......Page 34
Personal Kanban example: Moving a task from ‘backlog’ to ‘doing’......Page 35
All of this is possible because of the Robotlegs Injector......Page 36
A dependency is just a requirement to use another object......Page 37
You already use Dependency Injection......Page 38
Statics and globals make code rigid, brittle, hard to test, and prone to memory leaks......Page 39
Automated DI gets around the need to ‘pass the parcel’, but keeps code flexible......Page 40
Automated DI is a handshake......Page 41
And you also have to tell the injector what you would like it to do......Page 42
Robotlegs has different types of injection......Page 43
What if my class has to be created elsewhere? (e.g. a factory)......Page 45
Named rules let you create multiple rules for each class (but they’re icky)......Page 46
FlashBuilder/FlexBuilder solution......Page 47
Flex SDK Solution—compiling with ant......Page 48
The injection point and rule have to be of exactly the same type......Page 49
If you override a method that has an [Inject] tag, you need to add it in the subclass......Page 50
Provide the context with a root-view......Page 51
Use startup() to provide your injection rules, map your mediators to views and commands to events......Page 52
Now you have some Context......Page 54
A Command is a concise single-purpose controller object......Page 55
Commands can be any class with an ‘execute’ method......Page 56
Commands should do their thing and then die......Page 57
Commands know about the injector, command map, mediator map and context view......Page 58
Great command names pay dividends......Page 60
Detain and release when you need your command to hang around......Page 61
They don’t listen, they only talk......Page 63
Classes that don’t dispatch events to the shared event dispatcher don’t need to extend Actor......Page 64
Configuring services using a command......Page 65
Working with non-Actor models and services (including third party code)......Page 66
Use the command that acts upon them to dispatch the events......Page 67
Model design tips for Robotlegs......Page 68
Use strong-typed wrappers for collections......Page 69
Managing the relationships between models and services......Page 70
Wiring views with the MediatorMap......Page 73
Mediator Structure......Page 74
Avoid logic in your Mediators......Page 75
Do your wiring in onRegister()......Page 76
Use the ‘eventClass’ parameter to make mappings that are type safe......Page 80
You can do manual clean-up in onRemove......Page 81
Working with complex composite views......Page 82
Using the same mediator with more than one view......Page 83
A good Mediator is just a mailman......Page 85
Never put view logic into the mediator.......Page 86
Challenge 1: Keeping things on a need-to-know basis......Page 89
Challenge 2: Keeping the view snappy......Page 90
Keeping the models in line with the visual design......Page 91
The crucial Robotlegs mappings that tie it all together......Page 92
The tile color update again, but this time with code......Page 94
Feature implementation walk-through: Personal Kanban App......Page 97
How new tasks are entered......Page 98
Adding a new task again, but this time with code......Page 99
Wait, I want more examples!......Page 104
Your test provides the injections......Page 105
Testing models......Page 106
Testing services......Page 108
Testing commands......Page 110
Testing mediators......Page 112
Testing that an event received on the shared event dispatcher results in an action on the view......Page 113
Bootstraps can break up fat contexts......Page 117
Tag methods with [PostConstruct] to run them after injection is complete......Page 119
Use Signals between complex views and their mediators......Page 120
Modular and multiple-context Robotlegs......Page 123
ModuleEventDispatcher and child injectors make it work......Page 124
Extend Robotlegs with utilities and add-ons......Page 125
ViewMap—injection for your views......Page 126
Mediator map performance......Page 128
Broken injection point declaration......Page 129
Problem: Things work for a while and then mysteriously stop......Page 130
Make mediator mappings from the inside out......Page 131
Missing injection mapping......Page 132
Warning: Duplicate mapping in the injector......Page 133
Where to get more help......Page 134
What does Swiftsuspenders actually do?......Page 135
We think limited metadata is a good thing......Page 136