Professional Adobe® Flex® 3

Chapter 61. Introduction to Cairngorm

This chapter is the first of three covering Cairngorm, the most established architectural framework for building Flex and AIR applications. It provides a brief introduction for those new to Cairngorm, while the later chapters examine the underlying patterns in more detail, covering best practices, common pitfalls, and customizations to get the most out of Cairngorm on larger projects.

Overview

Cairngorm dates from the early days of Flex but has been updated several times as the Flex framework has evolved. Its unusual name comes from a mountain range in the Scottish Highlands, while its substance is derived mostly from well-known patterns of the Enterprise Java world. The main objective of Cairngorm is to provide a consistent structure for building Flex and AIR applications that helps developers to separate concerns and focus on implementing new features.

This chapter uses a single end-to-end interaction to introduce the main concepts of Cairngorm and demonstrate how it is traditionally applied. More detailed information about the patterns that comprise the framework and their subtleties when applied in real project situations is postponed until Chapter 62, "Applied Cairngorm." Chapter 63, "Advanced Cairngorm," is aimed at those already familiar with Cairngorm and covers alternative approaches to using Cairngorm, customizations, and anti-patterns.

The Steps of a Cairngorm Interaction

Most of this chapter covers a single Cairngorm interaction, beginning ...