Agile Enterprise Application Development with Flex

Chapter 12. Model-Driven Development with LCDS ES2

A computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match.

—Bill Bryson

This chapter introduces you to the model-driven development workflow of LiveCycle Data Services ES2 (a.k.a. LCDS 3). The authors of this book are huge proponents of automated code generation wherever possible, and we applaud Adobe for moving in this direction. We believe that if this “stupid machine” is given the right instructions in the first place, it can generate smart code over and over again and free “smart programmers” to make their mistakes elsewhere.

Note

This chapter is not intended to be a detailed tutorial on building a sample application. Instead, we’ll highlight the key points and provide some sample configuration files that are important to understanding the process of model-driven development with LCDS 3.

If this leaves you hungry for more detail, you can consult several sources online. For example, at Adobe MAX 2009, Christophe Coenraets demonstrates the entire step-by-step process of model-driven development with Flash Builder 4 and LCDS 3. You can watch a recording of it at http://2009.max.adobe.com/online/session/277. A nicely written tutorial by Justin Shacklette, “Getting Real with LCDS 3,” was published at O’Reilly’s InsideRIA (http://www.insideria.com/2009/12/getting-real-with-lcds-3-beta.html ...