Programming Flex 3

Using Blueprints and Microarchitectures

Even with the best practices mentioned in the preceding section, the idea of building a Flex application from scratch can be a bit daunting. Where should you begin? Sometimes too much freedom can be paralyzing. Artists often report that their greatest creativity stems from having boundaries. Likewise, you may find that having structure may provide the right environment for building a successful Flex application. This is the role of a microarchitecture.

Microarchitectures are intended to provide a general guideline and structure for building applications. A microarchitecture doesn’t deal with the specific requirements of a specific application, but rather concerns itself with a philosophical approach to how applications should be structured and designed in general. Microarchitectures provide these oft-needed boundaries and guidelines that help remove the paralysis you might otherwise experience. To that end they can be useful.

Various individuals and organizations promote many microarchitectures for Flex applications. A few of the more popular of these are as follows:

• Cairngorm (http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Cairngorm)

• PureMVC (http://www.puremvc.org)

• MVCS (http://www.joeberkovitz.com/mvcs)

We don’t advocate the use of any one microarchitecture over another. In fact, we don’t really advocate the use of microarchitectures at all. Instead, we recommend that you find a system that works best for you. For the sample application, we are borrowing ...