Java® and Flex® Integration Bible

Chapter 12. Developing a Storefront Server Application with Java

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Application best practices

• Developing the Java

• Deploying and testing the Web application

In this chapter, you write a basic Web store back-end application by using Java. The Java Web application accepts incoming requests for data, communicates with a MySQL database by using Hibernate to save and retrieve data, and finally presents the data to the Flex client as blocks of XML. The Flex client application you develop in Chapter 13 takes that XML, parses it, and then renders the information into a user interface that presents the store to the user. Users can then see a set of products filtered by category and click to add products to their shopping cart.

Note

For the complete Flex front end for the Web store application, see Chapter 13.

Application Best Practices

Application development doesn't end when the first version is released to the world. There are bugs that need to be fixed and features that your users will clamor for. In the world of Web applications, users have come to expect that exciting new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes will continuously roll out throughout the life of the application.

Following a few development best practices can make all these things easier for you to provide to your users. Code modularity makes it easier to fix or upgrade portions of your applications with minimal impact on other parts. Separation of interface and implementation makes your code reusable by ...