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Programming Flex 2 Chafic Kazoun Joey Lott

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Programming Flex 2 Chafic Kazoun Joey Lott Programming Flex 2 Chafic Kazoun Joey Lott Programming Flex 2 Chafic Kazoun Joey Lott

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Programming Flex 2 Chafic Kazoun Joey Lott
Programming Flex ™ 2 Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
Programming Flex 2™ by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Editor: Steve Weiss Developmental Editor: Audrey Doyle Production Editor: Philip Dangler Indexer: Reg Aubry Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Interior Designer: David Futato Illustrators: Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read Printing History: April 2007: First Edition. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Programming Flex 2, the image of a Krait Snake, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. This book uses RepKover™ , a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. ISBN-10: 0-596-52689-X ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52689-4 [M]
v Table of Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi 1. Introducing Flex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Understanding Flex Application Technologies 1 Using Flex Elements 6 Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) 7 Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications 9 Understanding How Flex Applications Work 10 Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring 11 Understanding Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 12 Summary 12 2. Building Applications with the Flex Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Using Flex Tool Sets 13 Creating Projects 15 Building Applications 19 Deploying Applications 31 Flash Player Security 31 Understanding HTML Wrappers 33 Using SWFObject 34 Using Runtime Shared Libraries 35 Summary 42
vi | Table of Contents 3. MXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Understanding MXML Syntax and Structure 43 Making MXML Interactive 50 Summary 52 4. ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Using ActionScript 54 MXML and ActionScript Correlations 57 Understanding ActionScript Syntax 58 Variables and Properties 61 Inheritance 72 Interfaces 73 Handling Events 74 Error Handling 76 Using XML 78 Reflection 82 Summary 85 5. Framework Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Understanding the Flex Application Life Cycle 86 Differentiating Between Flash Player and Framework 88 Bootstrapping Flex Applications 89 Understanding Application Domains 92 Understanding the Preloader 94 Summary 95 6. Managing Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Flex Layout Overview 96 Making Fluid Interfaces 116 Putting It All Together 117 Summary 120 7. Working with UI Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Understanding UI Components 122 Buttons 128 Value Selectors 129 Text Components 130 List-Based Controls 131 Pop-Up Controls 140
Table of Contents | vii Navigators 143 Control Bars 147 Summary 149 8. Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Tool Tips 150 Pop-Ups 156 Cursor Management 162 Drag and Drop 164 Customizing List-Based Controls 172 Focus Management and Keyboard Control 183 Summary 188 9. Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Overview 189 Adding Media 191 Working with the Different Media Types 197 Summary 210 10. Managing State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Creating States 211 Applying States 212 Defining States Based on Existing States 213 Adding and Removing Components 214 Setting Properties 216 Setting Styles 217 Setting Event Handlers 218 Using ActionScript to Define States 218 Managing Object Creation Policies (Preloading Objects) 228 Handling State Events 230 When to Use States 231 Summary 231 11. Using Effects and Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Using Effects 232 Creating Custom Effects 244 Using Transitions 251 Creating Custom Transitions 256 Summary 257
viii | Table of Contents 12. Working with Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Using Data Models 258 Data Binding 268 Enabling Data Binding for Custom Classes 277 Data Binding Examples 280 Building Data Binding Proxies 284 Summary 287 13. Validating and Formatting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Validating User Input 288 Formatting Data 308 Summary 314 14. Customizing Application Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Using Styles 316 Skinning Components 333 Customizing the Preloader 344 Themes 348 Runtime CSS 351 Summary 354 15. Client Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Local Connections 356 Persistent Data 360 Communicating with the Host Application 374 Summary 379 16. Remote Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 Understanding Strategies for Data Communication 381 Working with Request/Response Data Communication 382 Web Services 395 Real-Time/Socket Connection 406 File Upload/Download 407 Summary 408 17. Application Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 The Flash Debug Player 409 Using FDB 413 Debugging with Flex Builder 2 414
Table of Contents | ix Remote Debugging 418 Logging Using trace( ) Within an Application 419 The Logging Framework 421 Debugging Remote Data 425 Summary 426 18. Application Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 The Importance of Application Components 428 MXML Component Basics 429 Component Styles 440 Summary 443 19. Building Custom Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Component Framework Overview 444 Component Life Cycle 446 Component Implementation 449 Adding Custom Properties and Events 457 Adding Styling Support 460 Summary 462 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
xi Foreword1 Whenever I talk to people about Flex 2, the most common questions they ask are the basic ones: what is it, who is it for, and why did we build it? It turns out that although these questions are basic, they really get to the heart of what Flex 2 is all about. Flex 2 is a new technology for building rich web applications and experiences that run on Flash Player, so they look great, are responsive, and are highly interactive. It was designed specifically to be comfortable and productive for those coming from a web or application development background, though it is suitable for anyone. Why did we build it? Well that’s a longer story. This Shouldn’t Be Too Hard The genesis of my involvement with Flex 2 really started with a seed of inspiration. Like everyone who surfs the Web, I would occasionally come across an application that just blew me away. It would be responsive, look incredible, and have an almost cinematic quality to it. Being curious, I would poke around to figure out how it was built. What I discovered was that it was almost always built with Flash. Because my back- ground is in software development and I like to build things, this made me want to try Flash, so I did. The result was shocking and humbling. I failed miserably, and I came away unable to fathom how anybody built anything with Flash, never mind how they built the amazing creations that had inspired me. Part of my problem was with the Flash authoring tool. Not only didn’t it feel like the developer tools I’d used before, but also it didn’t really seem to have been designed for what I was trying to do. For example, the Timeline is one of the most notable fea- tures of Flash. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how I would use it to build an application. Although developer tools often provide a toolbox of components, such as buttons and lists that you can drag onto the design surface, the Flash toolbox was
xii | Foreword different. Here the components were things such as a line, rectangle, pen, pencil, ink bottle, and paint bucket. How do I build an application with a pencil? The other problem I had was with the terminology used to describe the concepts pre- sented by Flash Player. In Flash, small reusable UI elements are called Movie Clips. The main display area is called the Stage. The output of compiling the project is a Movie. I can’t tell you how weird it was to try to track down a problem by running the Debug Movie command. Maybe We Need a Different Approach From my experiment, I concluded that Flash simply was not designed for building applications, or for developers like me. However, rather than see this as a problem, I saw it as an opportunity. How many more great Flash applications would there be if it was easier for developers to build them? I focused on this question, instead of just trying harder to use Flash, because my main interest in software is not so much in writing applications, but in improving the process of doing so. That is, I’ve been most concerned with what the code actually looks like. As a result, I’ve spent most of my career working on application frame- works and tools that simplify development. My first framework was called zApp, and I began writing it in 1989. I had been developing for Windows for three years, starting with version 1.03, and had grown frustrated by how difficult it was. zApp not only made Windows development much easier, but also solved another key problem for developers. It allowed you to move your application to other platforms, such as OS/2 or Unix, simply by recompiling. zApp was released in 1991 and it became a popular cross-platform application framework. During the mid-’90s, while working at Microsoft, I became more involved with web applications and was amazed at how hard it was to write them. So, in 1997, a col- league and I developed a prototype web development framework that we called XSP. Based on the prototype’s success, I led a team to build a production version that we shipped in 2002 as ASP.NET. So, as I thought about Flash, I felt the same level of excitement that I had in those previous projects, and I wanted to do something about it. Doing so would enable me to simultaneously explore two areas that I loved: web application development and rich, cross-platform UIs. Therefore, in mid-2004, I joined Macromedia to help make Flash a great platform for developers.
Foreword | xiii My First Meeting with Flex At Macromedia, my first task was to learn about all of the projects underway that were related to Flash, and it was then that I first heard about Flex. Version 1.0 had been released a few months earlier, and it was described to me as a presentation server for experienced Java developers building enterprise applications. When I heard this and learned the price, which was very high, I realized why I had not previ- ously noticed it. A high-priced enterprise server did not jump out at me as an easier way to build Flash applications. However, as I learned the details of how Flex actually worked, I began to become more interested in it. The key thing Flex provided was a powerful, easy-to-use, devel- oper-friendly framework for developing Flash applications. It also had a nice XML- based language for defining the UI structure that ironically felt very similar to pro- gramming in ASP.NET. The server component of Flex provided two things. The first was the compiler that translated all of the code into a SWF file for the Flash Player to run. The compile-on- demand model was also very similar to how one built applications in ASP.NET. However, unlike ASP.NET, the code you wrote ran on the client, not on the server. So, the main question I had at this point was why is Flex a server? You don’t need a server to compile, and it seemed to me that that would be much more easily done on a developer’s machine. There was one other server component of Flex, which was a gateway that enabled Flash to talk to the server using an optimized binary protocol and integrated with backend Java code. This was the one component of Flex that really needed to be a server. However, it was used for only certain scenarios, and it really was optional. It also was not addressing the fundamental problem I was looking to solve: namely, making it easier and more intuitive for developers to build Flash applications. Flex, Take 2 So, the biggest problem that I saw with Flex 1.0 was not with the technology per se, but with the packaging and positioning. Selling Flex as an expensive enterprise server made it irrelevant to developers who just wanted to build cool stuff in Flash. I just could not imagine anyone who went through what I did with Flash saying, “Hmmm, this isn’t really for me, maybe I’ll check out that multithousand-dollar enterprise pre- sentation server.” As a result, an opportunity was missed, because I had become con- vinced that if developers tried Flex, they would love it. After I finished looking around, I made some recommendations as to what I thought should be done. The first was that the part of Flex used to build Flash applications (i. e., the Flex framework and compiler) should be offered separate from the server. I had no problem with the server, as it had a lot of value, but it should not be required.
xiv | Foreword I also recommended that we build a real developer-style tool for Flex that enabled a more traditional client development model. Flex 1.0 did have a development tool, called Flex Builder, but it was built as an extension to Dreamweaver and it lacked many features one expected in a real developer IDE. What I wanted was something that felt more like a tool such as Visual Studio or Eclipse. The Flex 2 Framework Fortunately, there was broad agreement, and my recommendations were reflected in what we actually did to create Flex 2. So, what is it? The core of Flex 2 is the Flex framework, a library of ActionScript objects that pro- vide a great foundation for building rich Internet applications that run on Flash. It is a developer-centric framework that provides a strong architecture and uses design patterns that will be familiar to developers coming from a .NET, Java, or web devel- opment background. Flex 2 has a rich component model, similar to the ones found in Visual Basic, .NET, and Java. Components expose properties to enable configuration, provide methods to enable invoking their functionality, and fire events when their state changes. Flex 2 provides standard mechanisms for providing data to components, for customizing their look and feel, and for managing their layout. But Flex doesn’t just provide architecture. It also provides a wealth of useful compo- nents so that developers don’t have to build everything from scratch. These include buttons, lists, menus, sliders, tabs, accordions, data grids, and more. Of course, it is easy to build your own components from scratch or customize the ones provided. The primary way one programs with Flex is via a mix of ActionScript and an XML- based language called MXML. Each tag in MXML maps to a component, so unlike HTML, you don’t have a fixed set of tags. If you write new components, you have new tags to use. Properties on a component become the tag’s attributes. MXML also supports script blocks where you can put ActionScript event-handling code and util- ity functions. One exciting decision we made was to provide the Flex Framework SDK, which includes the Flex framework with complete source, compilers, and other utilities, for free. We did this to encourage adoption and enable it to be freely used with non- Adobe tools. You can download it by going to the official Flex web site, http://www. flex.org. Flex Builder 2 Flex Builder 2 is an IDE that makes using the Flex framework more productive. It provides a great code-editing environment for both ActionScript and MXML, a
Foreword | xv WYSIWYG design view to allow you to build your UI visually, a powerful debugger, and a project system that automates compiling your application. The source editors are especially valuable because they help you to write correct code more easily and they streamline learning the framework object model. We put a lot of work into code completion to make it always up-to-date, whether it’s providing suggestions for built-in classes or for ones that you create. One of the challenges in doing this was that because MXML and ActionScript are essentially two languages defining and using the same objects, what you do in one affects the other. For example, you can define a class in ActionScript and use it from MXML, and as you make changes to the class definition, they will be reflected in the hints you are offered when editing MXML code. Because we wanted to make Flex Builder a tool that developers would really like, we built it on the Eclipse framework as a set of plug-ins. Eclipse is a widely adopted, open source tools framework originally developed by IBM. It has a huge extension- building community, and many of its extensions are free and open source and can easily be integrated into Flex Builder 2. You can install Flex Builder as a standalone tool, or as a set of plug-ins to an existing installation of Eclipse. ActionScript 3 One of the most important aspects of Flex 2 is that it is written entirely in Action- Script 3, which was introduced as part of Flash Player 9. Both products shipped simultaneously. ActionScript 3 is an incredibly important new language for a num- ber of reasons. First, ActionScript has always been based on EcmaScript, which is the standard that JavaScript is based on, but in the past was not implemented 100% to specification. To better support the standard and help it move forward, Macromedia played an active role on the EcmaScript planning committee and made ActionScript 100% compatible with the next major revision of the standard. One thing you’ll find is that this is not the JavaScript you have in today’s browsers, but rather is a much more modern and robust language. In fact, I find it to be much more like C# or Java and think it will really appeal to developers coming from either of those languages. A key feature that I really like is the option of strong typing. This results in much more useful error messages and enables you to produce much more correct and reliable code. To provide a more robust execution environment for ActionScript 3, the Flash Player team developed a new virtual machine (VM), called ActionScript Virtual Machine 2, or AVM2 for short. It was created from the ground up to be fast and scalable, and it features a just-in-time (JIT) compiler that turns the ActionScript 3 bytecode into native code. In that respect, it is much more like a Java VM or the .NET CLR than the script engines in today’s browsers. The result is that it is 10 times faster than the
xvi | Foreword previous VM and it uses much less memory. Note that the previous version of the VM, now called AVM1, continues to be included within Flash Player to ensure back- ward compatibility. We recently made AVM2 open source by donating it to the Mozilla Foundation for incorporation into Firefox. We believe this will speed adoption of the new standard, and help ensure compatibility with future implementations of JavaScript. Flex Data Services The final component of Flex 2 is Flex Data Services (FDS), which represents the evo- lution of the original Flex server. FDS has added an incredible array of features to enable richer, more responsive applications, including client server messaging, JMS integration, a rich data model and data synchronization framework, data paging, and proxy services. One of the most intriguing features is that FDS supports bidirectional messaging between the client and the server. This allows the server to actually push data to the client without the client having to poll for updates. This solves one of the key prob- lems in building rich web applications for real-time data display, such as for finan- cial services. Although FDS is not always required when building a Flex application, it is extremely valuable when it is required. To encourage easy adoption of FDS, we cre- ated a free Express edition that allows free, nonexpiring commercial use. The only limitation is that the applications can’t be clustered or run across multiple CPUs. Taking Another Look at Flash After joining Macromedia, I was able to take another look at Flash and spend more time programming with it. This was important so that I could get a better under- standing of how Flash developers work today. Over time, I was able to break through some of the barriers I had initially encountered and began to understand how Flash abstractions relate to those I was used to. As such, I gradually got the hang of the fact that a Movie Clip is just another type of component. I also had the opportunity to meet a number of the world’s top Flash developers, which was really great, because they were the ones who inspired me to learn about Flash in the first place. This was when I first met Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott, the authors of the book you hold in your hands. One of the things that I found interesting is that today’s Flash developers are some- what different from those in other communities. Some came to Flash from a creative background, without prior software experience, and got into programming Flash in order to enhance their work. Others came to Flash from a programming back- ground, but were also interested in the aesthetic aspects of software. Whichever way
Foreword | xvii they got there, however, they all had a mix of the creative and technical skills that is not typical. I do believe that Flex will change this somewhat, because you no longer have to have great design skills to create something in Flash that looks fantastic. Flex applications look great out of the box. One of the things I have been delighted with is that Flex has been enthusiastically received by Flash developers. One might have thought that they wouldn’t care because they had already mastered the skills needed to use Flash, but they do care and they like it. In fact, I recently spoke at some conferences, and the other Flex pre- senters were almost all Flash developers who had gotten hooked on Flex. In talking to them, I learned that they like that they can be more productive when they’re building something that fits within the Flex paradigm. They find that the architecture is well done and solves comprehensively what they used to address in an ad hoc way. They love the fact that Flex Builder has a great coding environment. And of course, they love that Flex and Flash can work together, so they can use each where appropriate. Flex is not the right solution for everything they might want to build, but when it is the right solution, they love it as much as anyone. Programming Flex 2 One of the things that makes frameworks such as Flex so great is that they provide a rich architecture and lots of prebuilt software components that enable you to build software much more quickly than if you had to write it yourself. And the best frame- works, of which Flex is one, allow you to deeply customize and extend the provided functionality so that you are not limited in your creations. With all of this, however, comes a degree of complexity. We put a ton of effort into making sure that things are as consistent as possible, that the right design patterns are used, and that there is the right balance of ease of use and flexibility, all in an effort to make things as simple to learn and use as possible. With that said, there’s nothing like a good book to take you through the concepts so that you can really understand what’s going on. What I really like about Programming Flex 2 is that not only does it take you through the breadth of what Flex provides, but it also takes you deep into how it works. It explains the high-level concepts as well as points out the finer details of what’s really happening. I also like that Programming Flex 2 takes a practical approach, explaining common techniques of how ActionScript programs typically work in ways that go beyond sim- ply explaining the classes that Flex provides. Both Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott are ideal people to present this information. Both are long-time Flash developers, are well known in the Flash community, and are
xviii | Foreword among the elite of the Flash development world. Each of them has been using Flex for a long time. I think that the depth of their Flash experience is part of what makes Programming Flex 2 so special. Their mastery of the Flash Player API combined with their exten- sive knowledge of Flex enable them to not just tell you how to leverage the features Flex provides, but to do so with a thorough understanding of the entire system. Looking Ahead When we shipped Flex 2 June 27, 2006, it was just a few days shy of 18 months since we had started developing it. It was a great accomplishment, because we built a new tool from scratch, rewrote the framework in ActionScript 3, which was still being developed, and shipped on schedule. It was an amazing time, and a lot of fun. Of course, for us, probably the biggest thing that happened was that Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems. Although some Macromedia fans expressed concern that Adobe might not really support Flex, they couldn’t have been more wrong. It was amazing to experience how excited Adobe employees were about Flex and all of the technology being created by the former Macromedia teams. And over the past year since the acquisition, this has been confirmed by what we’ve been able to accomplish. January 4, 2007, just six months after shipping Flex 2, we released Flex 2.0.1. Although it sounds like a tiny update, it actually has a number of new features and improvements. One of the key things that we were able to deliver was Flex Builder 2 for the Mac, running on both PowerPC and Intel. We followed this up January 16 with Flash Player 9 for Linux. What makes this so important is that it means you can now run Flex 2 applications that behave identi- cally across Windows, the Mac, and Linux. One of the most important extensions of what Flex can do is a project that was begun immediately after Adobe and Macromedia combined. Apollo is a technology that will allow developers to build desktop applications that run outside of the browser using the web technologies they use today, including Flex/Flash, HTML/ AJAX, and PDF. This means you can develop a Flex application and install it on either Windows or the Mac (Linux will come a little later) and it will behave like any other application on your system. On Windows, it can appear in the Start menu and in the taskbar, and on the Mac, it will appear in the Doc. Apollo will have additional APIs that enable you to interact with the system in ways you can’t from within the browser. For example, you can open multiple windows, support drag and drop, and more directly access the filesystem.
Foreword | xix What’s more, you will be able to integrate full HTML into a Flex application. That is, you’ll essentially be able to have the full HTML engine that powers the Mac Safari browser embedded within your Flex app. So, I think we are doing a number of exciting things to move Flex forward. How- ever, I’m most looking forward to being inspired by the incredible apps that you cre- ate with Flex 2. Good luck and happy coding! —Mark Anders Senior Principal Scientist, Adobe Systems Incorporated
xxi Preface2 This book is a long time in the making. We first started talking about this book sev- eral years ago, when Flex 1.0 first hit the market. We recognized that Flex was some- thing important, yet we knew the product hadn’t matured enough at that point. However, we shortly thereafter heard the whispers of Flex 2, a new and improved Flex. After working with Flex 2, we were certain that this was going to revolutionize how we build applications. Running on a new virtual machine using new, stream- lined metaphors, Flex 2 was light years ahead of anything we’d been working with to develop rich Internet applications. It was at that point that we got serious about writing this book. You’ll learn shortly (starting in Chapter 1) what Flex 2 is and what you can do with it. However, briefly, Flex 2 is a framework and a set of tools (e.g., compilers) for building rich Internet applications. The framework is built on Flash Player technol- ogy, and it leverages a new (and lightning-fast) virtual machine built into Flash Player 9. This means Flex 2 applications can utilize all the functionality of Flash Player, such as animation, audio, video, request/response network data communication, real-time data communication, and much more. Furthermore, the Flex 2 framework vastly simplifies the creation of Flash Platform applications over previous options (Flash authoring, Flex 1.5, etc.). Flex 2 is huge. Although the learning curve is not steep (it’s actually very easy to get started building Flex 2 applications), it is a long learning curve simply because of the massive amount of features packed into the framework. The official Flex documenta- tion is quite good at telling you how to do something once you know what you’re looking for. Therefore, we made it our goal to present to you a book that fills in the gaps and helps you to get comfortable enough with Flex that you start to quickly know what you’re looking for. It is our intention in this book to provide you with practical advice from our own experiences learning Flex and drawing from our longer-term experiences building rich Internet applications using Flash Platform technologies.
xxii | Preface We really feel that Flex 2 is a fantastic product and a great way to build applications. Although this is a technical book, we have poured our enthusiasm into our writing, and we’d like to think you will share our enthusiasm as you read this book. We feel that Flex 2 is a far better way to build rich Internet applications than any alternative currently on the market, and we feel that as you read this book and learn how to work with Flex, you’ll agree. With Flex, you have few (if any) problems involving cross-browser compatibility, network data communication is a snap, and the frame- work is built with solid object-oriented principals and standards in mind. In short, we feel it’s the fastest way to build the coolest, most stable applications. Who This Book Is For This book is intended for anyone looking to learn more about Flex 2. We recognize that the audience for this book represents a very diverse group of people with many different backgrounds. Some readers may have years of experience working with Flash Platform technologies, and others may be completely new to creating content that runs in Flash Player. Some readers may have computer science degrees or have worked in the software industry for years. Yet other readers may be self-taught. We have done our best to write a book that will cater to this diverse group. However, be aware that in order to get the most from this book, it is best that you have a solid understanding of object-oriented principles, and that you are comfort- able with understanding concepts such as runtime environments, byte code, and compilers. Furthermore, you will get the most from this book if you already know ActionScript, Java, C, C#, or another language that uses similar syntax. Although we do have a chapter dedicated to the basics of ActionScript (the programming lan- guage utilized by Flex applications), we don’t discuss any of the core APIs in detail. If you are interested in learning more about the ActionScript language, we encourage you to find a good ActionScript 3.0 book. How This Book Is Organized We spent a lot of time organizing and reorganizing the content of this book. Although there is likely no one way to present the content that will seem perfect to all readers, we’ve done our best to present it in an order that we feel will make sense. Chapter 1, Introducing Flex What is Flex? What are rich Internet applications (RIAs)? This chapter answers these questions, providing a context for the rest of the book. Chapter 2, Building Applications with the Flex Framework In this chapter, we discuss the various elements and steps involved in building a Flex application. Topics include using the compilers, building scripts, Flash Player security, deploying applications, and more.
Preface | xxiii Chapter 3, MXML MXML is the declarative language used by Flex. In this chapter, you’ll learn the basics of MXML. Chapter 4, ActionScript ActionScript is the object-oriented programming language used by Flex. In this chapter, you’ll learn the basics of ActionScript 3.0. Chapter 5, Framework Fundamentals Flex vastly simplifies many aspects of building applications. Although you don’t often have to look under the hood, understanding the fundamentals of how the framework works is useful. In this chapter, you’ll learn about Flex application life cycles, bootstrapping, and more. Chapter 6, Managing Layout Flex provides many layout containers that allow you to quickly and easily create all sorts of layouts within your applications. This chapter explains how to work with those containers. Chapter 7, Working with UI Components In this chapter, you’ll learn about the user interface components (buttons, lists, menus, etc.) that are part of the Flex framework. Chapter 8, Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts Once you’ve learned the basics of working with components, you’ll likely want to know how to expand on that knowledge. In this chapter, you’ll learn about such topics as tool tips, customizing lists, pop-up windows, and more. Chapter 9, Working with Media Flex allows you to include all sorts of assets and media in your applications, from images to animations to video and audio. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to work with these elements. Chapter 10, Managing State Flex applications and components within those applications can change from one view to another. Flex refers to these changes as states. This is sometimes as simple as adding a new component to a form, and it sometimes involves chang- ing the entire contents of the screen. How to manage states is the subject of this chapter. Chapter 11, Using Effects and Transitions For animated changes between states or in response to user events or system events, Flex includes features called transitions and effects. You can learn about transitions and effects in this chapter. Chapter 12, Working with Data In this chapter, you’ll learn how to model data in Flex applications as well as how to link components so that they automatically update when data values change.
xxiv | Preface Chapter 13, Validating and Formatting Data In this chapter, you’ll learn how to validate user input and how to format data such as numbers, phone numbers, and so on. Chapter 14, Customizing Application Appearance Customizing the appearance of Flex applications is important because it allows you to create applications that adhere to a corporate style guide or to a creative vision. This chapter explains how to change the appearance of Flex applications. Chapter 15, Client Data Communication Client data communication is any transfer of data into or out of Flash Player where the data remains on the client computer. Examples of this are communi- cation between two or more Flex applications running on the same computer and storing persistent data on the computer. These topics are discussed in this chapter. Chapter 16, Remote Data Communication In this chapter, you’ll learn how to communicate from a Flex application run- ning on a client computer to a remote data service. You’ll learn how to use XML, SOAP, AMF, and more. Chapter 17, Application Debugging Debugging applications is just as important as writing them. It’s unusual to build an application that has no errors, and therefore it’s crucial that you can track down those errors efficiently. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to work with the debugging features of Flex. Chapter 18, Application Components To make Flex application development manageable it’s important to know how to break up the application into discrete parts. This chapter discusses strategies for this. Chapter 19, Building Custom Components Custom components are an important part of Flex applications because they allow you to create elements that can be used, customized, and distributed. This chapter discusses the steps necessary to create custom components using the Flex framework. What You Need to Use This Book In order to use this book, you should have the Flex SDK and a text editor. Our inten- tion with this book is that anyone with the (free) SDK can follow along. However, we recommend using Flex Builder for anyone serious about developing Flex applica- tions. If you’re just starting with Flex, you might want to use the free trial version of Flex Builder initially to have the optimal experience building Flex applications.
Preface | xxv Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, file extensions, path- names, directories, and Unix utilities. Constant width Indicates commands, options, switches, variables, attributes, keys, functions, types, classes, namespaces, methods, modules, properties, parameters, values, objects, events, event handlers, XML tags, HTML tags, macros, the contents of files, or the output from commands. Constant width bold Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user. Constant width italic Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values. This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note. Using Code Examples This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission. We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Programming Flex 2, by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott. Copyright 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc., 978-0-596-52689-4.” If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com. Comments and Questions Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
xxvi | Preface 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 (800) 998-9938 (in the United States or Canada) (707) 829-0515 (international or local) (707) 829-0104 (fax) We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any addi- tional information. You can access this page at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/059652689X/ To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to: bookquestions@oreilly.com For more information about our books, conferences, Resource Centers, and the O’Reilly Network, see our web site at: http://www.oreilly.com Acknowledgments This book, perhaps more than most, represents the efforts and contributions of many people. We’d like to acknowledge the following people. Many thanks are due to the many people at O’Reilly who made this book possible. Special thanks to Steve Weiss and Audrey Doyle for their continued hard work and patience throughout the writing and editing of this book. They have each continu- ously gone above and beyond the call of duty, and we very much appreciate their efforts. We’d also like to thank the many people at Adobe for not only working to create such a fantastic product as Flex 2, but also for answering our questions and helping us to see what things we might have missed. We’d especially like to thank a few select people: Matt Chotin, Alex Harui, Andrew Spaulding, and Manish Jethani, who not only answered our questions, but also took the time to review our chapters and provide valuable comments. We’re also very grateful to Mark Anders from Adobe for graciously accepting our invitation to write the Foreword to this book. We’re also thankful for the help of Mike Chambers throughout the planning and writing of this book. The technical quality of this book is not just the work of the authors. The technical reviewers for this book are a fantastic group of people who have dedicated hours and hours of time to tell us when we’re wrong so that we can correct it before you can read it. The technical reviewers are the reason the code in this book works. The tech- nical reviewers for this book (in addition to the Adobe folks mentioned in the pre- ceding paragraph) include: Darron Schall, Keith Peters, Marc Leuchner, Sam Roach, Steven Schelter, Daniel Williams, Ben Stucki, Sam Neff, Eric Cancil, Larry David- son, and Veronique Brossier.
Preface | xxvii From Chafic I would like to thank Joey Lott for being an excellent coauthor. His experience in both the technical realm and the publishing industry helped me get through the long process of writing this book. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and the team at Atellis for their support through this experience; I made it! Finally, I would like to thank the O’Reilly team for believing in a first-time author, and in this book. From Joey I would also like to thank a few people. This is Chafic’s book, and I am grateful that he has trusted me enough to ask me to participate. Chafic has also pushed me to ensure that I do my very best. I’d also like to thank Robert Reinhardt for his show of faith in me all those years ago, giving me my first break in the writing business. Thanks go to all my colleagues at Schematic for their willingness to help with reviews and for asking all the right questions. Certainly I am grateful to my family and loved ones for their support and generosity of spirit.
1 Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Flex1 Flex is a collection of technologies that enables you to rapidly build applications deployed to Flash Player, a runtime environment for delivering sophisticated user interfaces and interactivity. Flex leverages existing, matured technologies and stan- dards such as XML, web services, HTTP, Flash Player, and ActionScript. Even though Flex allows you to create complete rich Internet applications, it does so in a relatively simple and intuitive manner. While Flex does allow you to get under the hood for more granular control over all the elements, it significantly lowers the learn- ing curve in that it allows you to compose applications rapidly by assembling off-the- shelf components, including UI controls, layout containers, data models, and data communication components. In this chapter, we’ll introduce Flex and Flex technologies in more detail so that you can better understand what Flex is and how you can best get started working with it. You’ll learn what elements a Flex application uses and how they work together. We’ll also compare and contrast Flex with other technologies for creating both stan- dard and rich Internet applications. Understanding Flex Application Technologies If you’re new to Flex, you may not yet have a clear understanding of what a Flex application is, how it works, and what benefits it has over alternative technologies and platforms. You build Flex applications utilizing the Flex framework, and you deploy them using Flash Player. In the following sections, you’ll learn more about Flash Player, the Flex framework, and additional technologies that may be part of a Flex application. Flash Player Flex is part of the Adobe Flash Platform, which is a set of technologies with Flash Player at the core. Flex applications are intended to be deployed to Flash Player,
2 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex meaning Flash Player runs all Flex applications. With nearly every computer con- nected to the Internet having some version of Flash Player installed, and an increas- ing number of mobile devices being Flash-enabled, Flash Player is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of software anywhere. Adobe estimates that each new version of Flash Player has adoption rates reaching 80% in less than 12 months (Flash Player 8 reached 86% within 9 months). The reasons for such quick adoption rates are debat- able, but there are a few factors that are almost certainly causative: • Flash Player content is potentially more compelling and engaging than static HTML content. • Flash Player is capable of providing integrated solutions that utilize data ser- vices, interactive UI design, media elements such as audio and video, and even real-time communications. • Well-made Flash Player content can provide a refreshing user experience that utilizes metaphors from desktop computing, such as drag-and-drop and double- click. Flash Player frees the UI design from scrolling pages of text and images. • Flash Player is a relatively small (one-time) download. Even with the multitude of new features added with every release, the Flash Player download is less than 1 MB. And with built-in features such as Express Install, upgrading Flash Player versions is very simple. • Stability and security are important considerations. Flash Player is a stable pro- gram that has been around for nearly a decade. Adobe is very careful with Flash Player security as well. Flash Player has very little access to the client’s local sys- tem. It cannot save arbitrary files to the local system, and it cannot access Inter- net resources unless they meet very strict requirements. • Flash Player is cross-platform (and cross-browser) compatible. Flash Player runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux, and on all major browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. Flex 2 content relies on features of Flash Player 9, meaning that users must be run- ning Flash Player 9 or higher to correctly view Flex 2 content. You can read more about deploying Flex applications and detecting player versions in Chapter 2. Using the Flex framework you can build and compile to the .swf format. The com- piled .swf file is an intermediate bytecode format that Flash Player can read. Flash Player 9 introduces a new virtual machine called AVM2. AVM2 is written from the ground up, and it functions in a fundamentally different way than previous ver- sions of Flash Player. With AVM2, .swf content is no longer interpreted. Rather, it is compiled (the equivalent of just-in-time compilation) and run such that it can take advantage of lower-level computing power. This is very similar to how Java and .NET applications work. AVM2 brings the best of both worlds. Since .swf content is compiled to bytecode that the ActionScript virtual machine can understand, the .swf format is platform- independent. That also means that Flash Player ultimately dictates the functionality
Understanding Flex Application Technologies | 3 allowed by a Flex application. As mentioned previously, that means that Flash Player can guarantee certain security safeguards so that you can deploy applications that users can trust. Yet at the same time, AVM2 compiles the content so that it runs sig- nificantly faster and more efficiently than previous versions of Flash Player. The Flex Framework The Flex framework is synonymous with the Flex class library and is a collection of ActionScript classes used by Flex applications. The Flex framework is written entirely in ActionScript classes, and defines controls, containers, and managers designed to simplify building rich Internet applications. The Flex class library is the subject of much of this book. It consists of the following categories: Form controls Form controls are standard controls such as buttons, text inputs, text areas, lists, radio buttons, checkboxes, and combo boxes. In addition to the standard form controls familiar to most HTML developers, the Flex class library also includes controls such as a rich text editor, a color selector, a date selector, and more. Menu controls Flex provides a set of menu controls such as pop-up menus and menu bars. Media components One of the hallmarks of Flex applications is rich media support. The Flex class library provides a set of components for working with media such as images, audio, and video. Layout containers Flex applications enable highly configurable screen layout. You can use the lay- out containers to place contents within a screen and determine how they will change over time or when the user changes the dimensions of Flash Player. With a diverse set of container components you can create sophisticated layouts using grids, forms, boxes, canvases, and more. You can place elements with absolute or relative coordinates so that they can adjust correctly to different dimensions within Flash Player. Data components and data binding Flex applications are generally distributed applications that make remote proce- dure calls to data services residing on servers. The data components consist of connectors that simplify the procedure calls, data models to hold the data that is returned, and data binding functionality to automatically associate form control data with data models.
4 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Formatters and validators Data that is returned from remote procedure calls often needs to be formatted before getting displayed to the user. The Flex class library includes a robust set of formatting features (format a date in a variety of string representations, for- mat a number with specific precision, format a number as a phone number string, etc.) to accomplish that task. Likewise, when sending data to a data ser- vice from user input, you’ll frequently need to validate the data beforehand to ensure it is in the correct form. The Flex class library includes a set of validators for just that purpose. Cursor management Unlike traditional web applications, Flex applications are stateful, and they don’t have to do a complete screen refresh each time data is sent or requested from a data service. However, since remote procedure calls often incur network and system latency, it’s important to notify the user when the client is waiting on a response from the data service. Cursor management enables Flex applications to change the cursor appearance in order to notify the user of such changes. State management A Flex application will frequently require many state changes. For example, standard operations such as registering for a new account or making a purchase usually require several screens. The Flex class library provides classes for manag- ing those changes in state. State management works not only at the macro level for screen changes, but also at the micro level for state changes within individ- ual components. For example, a product display component could have several states: a base state displaying just an image and a name, and a details state that adds a description, price, and shipping availability. Furthermore, Flex provides the ability to easily apply transitions so that state changes are animated. Effects Flex applications aren’t limited by the constraints of traditional web applica- tions. Since Flex applications run within Flash Player, they can utilize the anima- tion features of Flash. As such, the Flex class library enables an assortment of effects such as fades, zooms, blurs, and glows. History management As states change within a Flex application, the history management features of the Flex class library enable you to navigate from state to state using the back and forward buttons of the web browser. Drag and drop management The Flex class library simplifies adding drag and drop functionality to compo- nents with built-in drag and drop functionality on select components and a man- ager class that allows you to quickly add drag and drop behaviors to components.
Understanding Flex Application Technologies | 5 Tool tips Use this feature of the Flex class library to add tool tips to elements as the user moves the mouse over them. Style management The Flex class library enables a great deal of control over how nearly every aspect of a Flex application is styled. You can apply style changes such as color and font settings to most controls and containers directly to the objects or via CSS. Flex Builder 2 Flex Builder 2 is the official Adobe IDE for building and debugging Flex applica- tions. Built on the popular Eclipse IDE, Flex Builder has built-in tools for writing, debugging, and building applications using Flex technologies such as MXML and ActionScript. The Flex framework ships as part of Flex Builder. However, Flex Builder and the Flex framework are not synonymous. You do not have to use Flex Builder to use the Flex framework. Instead, you can opt to install the free Flex SDK, which includes the compiler and the Flex framework. You can then integrate the Flex framework with a different IDE, or you can use any text editor to edit the MXML and ActionScript files, and you can run the compiler from the command line. Flex Builder is a commercial product. See http://www.adobe.com/go/ flexbuilder for more information. Integrating with Data Services Data services are an important aspect of most Flex applications. They are the way in which the Flex application can load and send data originating from a data tier such as a database (we discuss the concept of tiers in the section “Understanding the Dif- ferences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications” later in this chapter). Flash Player supports any text data, XML, a binary messaging format called AMF, and persistent socket connections, allowing for real-time data pushed from the server to the client. Each data format Flex supports may or may not require special server resources. For example, a Flex application can request XML data from a static resource or from a dynamic resource such as a PHP page. AMF is a binary messaging format that Flash Player understands natively, but for a server to interact with Flash Player via AMF, it requires an AMF translator on the server, such as the remote object services that are part of Flex Data Services.
6 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Flex simplifies working with data services by way of classes and components that are part of the framework. Working with data services is discussed in more detail in Chapter 14. Integrating with Media Servers Since Flex applications are deployed using Flash Player, they can leverage the media support for Flash video and audio. Although Flash Player can play back Flash video and MP3 audio as progressive downloads, you can benefit from true streaming media by way of a technology such as Flash Media Server. Additional Flex Libraries and Components At the time of this writing there is just one official add-on Flex library, the Flex Charting Components. As time goes on, it is expected that many additional Flex libraries will become available. Additional Flex libraries such as the Flex Charting Components are not part of the standard component sets that ship with the Flex framework. Rather, you must acquire the software and licenses, and add them to the Flex classpath. Add-on libraries enable more rapid application development because they provide prebuilt functionality. For example, with the addition of the charting component set, you can quickly and simply add robust charting and graphing fea- tures to Flex applications. You can find many extensions, such as Flex libraries and components, at the Adobe Exchange (http://www.adobe.com/exchange). Using Flex Elements The Flex framework includes a core set of languages and libraries that are the basis of any Flex application. Using MXML, ActionScript, and the Flex class library you can construct and compile .swf content that you can then deploy to Flash Player. MXML MXML is an XML-based markup language that primarily describes screen layout. In that respect it is much like HTML. Using MXML tags, you can add components such as form controls and media playback components to layout containers such as grids. In addition to screen layout, you can use MXML to describe effects, transitions, data models, and data binding. MXML is robust enough that it is possible to build many applications entirely with MXML. Flex Builder enables you to construct MXML with a WYSIWYG approach, which allows you to build basic Flex applications without writing any code.
Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) | 7 While the WYSIWYG approach is helpful for basic prototypes and simple applica- tions, writing MXML code is still necessary for more complex tasks. Additionally, sophisticated Flex applications generally require both MXML and ActionScript. MXML is a declarative way to create Flex content, but the simplicity should not fool you into thinking that MXML is not powerful. MXML provides a fast and powerful way to create layout and UI content. However, MXML documents get compiled in several steps, the first of which converts the MXML to an ActionScript class. This means that MXML documents provide you with all the power of object-oriented design, but with the convenience of a markup language. Furthermore, MXML docu- ments are treated as ActionScript classes at runtime. ActionScript ActionScript is the programming language understood by Flash Player and is the fun- damental engine of all Flex applications. MXML simplifies screen layout and many basic tasks, but all of what MXML does is made possible by ActionScript, and ActionScript can do many things that MXML cannot do. For example, you need ActionScript to respond to events such as mouse clicks. Although it is possible to build an application entirely with MXML or entirely with ActionScript, it is more common and more sensible to build applications with the appropriate balance of both MXML and ActionScript. Each offers benefits, and they work well together. MXML is best suited for screen layout and basic data features. ActionScript is best suited for user interaction, complex data functionality, and any custom functionality not included in the Flex class library. ActionScript is supported natively by Flash Player, and does not require any addi- tional libraries to run. All the native ActionScript classes are packaged in the flash package or in the top-level package. In contrast, the Flex framework is written in ActionScript, but those classes are included in a .swf file at compile time. All the Flex framework classes are in the mx package. Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) Flex applications are generally distributed applications. That means that several computers work in conjunction to create one system. For example, all Flex applica- tions have a client tier (discussed shortly) that runs on the user’s computer in the form of a .swf running in Flash Player. In most cases, the client tier communicates with a server or servers in order to send and retrieve data. The servers provide what are called data services, which are essentially programs that have public interfaces (APIs) whereby a client can make a request to a method of that program. When a cli- ent makes such a request, it is called a remote procedure call, or RPC. There are many types of data services. In its simplest form a data service could con- sist of a static text file or XML document served from a web server. A slightly more
8 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex sophisticated data service might be a dynamic XML document generated via a server- side script or program, such as a PHP or ASPX page. Many data services require greater sophistication. One of the most common types of such a sophisticated data service is the web service. Web services use XML (generally in the form of SOAP) as a messaging format, and they enable RPCs using the HTTP protocol for requests and responses. Although a SOAP web service is an example of a standards-based data service, many types of data services don’t necessarily conform to a particular stan- dard set by the W3C. Many programs on the Web, for example, expose primitive data services that use arbitrary messaging formats and protocols. One such program is used by MapQuest, a popular mapping web site. For instance, you would use the following URL to view a MapQuest page with a map of Los Angeles: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA Notice that the query string uses arbitrary parameters to determine what to map. Therefore, if you wanted to display a map of New York, you would change the city and state parameter values in the URL as follows: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&city=New+York&state=NY Flash Player is capable of making RPCs to many types of data services. For example, Flash Player can make requests to any web resource using HTTP, which means it can make requests to many primitive data services such as a static or a dynamic XML document, or the MapQuest example mentioned previously. That also means it can make requests to web services. Moreover, the Flex class library simplifies requests to most data services. In addition to the types of data services previously mentioned, Flex applications can also make calls to methods of classes on the server, using a technology called Flash Remoting. Flash Remoting uses the AMF binary messaging format, which is sup- ported natively by Flash Player. AMF has all the benefits of SOAP, but since it is binary, the bandwidth overhead is greatly reduced. And since AMF is natively sup- ported by Flash Player, no special coding is necessary to use Flash Remoting data ser- vices from the client tier. However, for a Flash Remoting data service to be available to the client tier, it must be made accessible via a piece of software that resides on the server, and can read and write AMF packets and delegate the requests to the correct services. Flex Data Services provides an implementation of Flash Remoting that inte- grates easily with components in the Flex framework. That means that if you use Flex Data Services, you can quickly configure applications to utilize Flash Remoting without writing ActionScript. However, you’re not locked into using Flex Data Ser- vices in order to use Flash Remoting. There are many Flash Remoting server prod- ucts, including open source options such as OpenAMF (http://www.openamf.org) and AMFPHP (http://www.amfphp.org).
Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications | 9 Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications Many applications deployed on the Web use an HTML user interface. Flex applica- tions are similar in many respects, but they have distinct differences. If you’re used to building applications that use an HTML UI, it’s important to take a few moments to shift how you approach building applications when you start working with Flex. What works for HTML-based applications may or may not work for Flex applications. Both traditional and Flex applications are generally n-tiered. The exact number and types of tiers an application has depend on many factors. Most traditional applica- tions have, at a minimum, a data tier, a business tier, and a presentation tier. Flex applications have a data tier and a business tier; however, as noted earlier, they also introduce a client tier, which is what strongly differentiates them from traditional web applications. The client tier of Flex applications enables clients to offload com- putation from the server, freeing up network latency and making for responsive and highly interactive user interfaces. Data tiers generally consist of databases or similar resources. Business tiers consist of the core application business logic. As an example, a business tier may accept requests from a client or presentation tier, query the data tier, and return the requested data. In traditional applications the presentation tier consists of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, ASP, PHP, or similar documents. Typically a request is made from the user’s web browser for a specific presentation tier resource, and the web server runs any necessary interpreters to convert the resource to HTML and JavaScript, which is then returned to the web browser running on the client computer. Technically the HTML rendered in the browser is a client tier in a traditional web application. However, since the client tier of a traditional web application is stateless and fairly nonrespon- sive, it is generally not considered a full-fledged tier. (The exception to that generali- zation is the case of Ajax applications, which use client-side JavaScript and XML to build responsive and sophisticated client tiers.) Flex applications generally reside embedded within the presentation tier. In addi- tion, Flex applications can integrate with the presentation tier to create tightly cou- pled client-side systems. Flex applications use Flash Player to run sophisticated client-tier portions of the application. The Flex application client is stateful, which means that it can make changes to the view without having to make a request to the server. Furthermore, the Flex application client is responsive. For example, Flash Player can respond to user interaction such as mouse movement, mouse clicks, and keyboard presses, and it can respond to events such as notifications from the busi- ness tier when data is returned or pushed to the client. Flash Player also can respond to timer events. Since Flash Player is a smart client, it is capable of saving on network
10 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex overhead and bandwidth usage by managing client-side logic without having to con- sult the business tier. For example, Flex applications can walk the user through a step-based or wizard-like interface, collect and validate data, and allow the user to update and edit previous steps, all without having to make requests to the business tier until the user wants to submit the data. All this makes Flex clients potentially far more compelling, responsive, and engaging than traditional web applications. Because the Flex application client tier is so much more sophisticated than the pre- sentation tier of a traditional web application, the Flex client tier requires signifi- cantly more time and resources to build successfully. A common mistake is to assume that Flex client tiers require the same time and resources as a traditional web application presentation tier. Successful Flex client tiers often require the same time and resources during design, implementation, and testing phases as the business tier. Understanding How Flex Applications Work Flex applications deployed on the Web work differently than HTML-based applica- tions. It’s important to understand how Flex applications work in order to build them most effectively. When you understand how Flex applications work, you can know what elements are necessary for an application and how to build the applica- tion for the best user experience. Figure 1-1 summarizes the basic concepts dis- cussed in this section. Every Flex application deployed on the Web utilizes Flash Player as the deployment platform. That means that a fundamental understanding of Flash Player is essential to understanding Flex. Additionally, all Flex applications use the Flex framework at a minimum to compile the application. As such, it’s important to understand the rela- tionship between the source code files, the compiler, and Flash Player. All Flex applications require at least one MXML file or ActionScript class file, and most Flex applications utilize both MXML and ActionScript files. The MXML and ActionScript class files comprise the source code files for the application. Flash Figure 1-1. Understanding Flex application source-compile-deploy workflow Source Code Gen Flash Player ActionScript3 MXML Assets (PNG,Gif,etc.) AVM2 Bytecode + Assets ActionScript + Generated ActionScript Assets (PNG,Gif,etc.)
Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring | 11 Player does not know how to interpret MXML or uncompiled ActionScript class files. Instead, it is necessary to compile the source code files to the .swf format, which Flash Player can interpret. A typical Flex application compiles to just one .swf file. You then deploy that one .swf to the server, and when requested, it plays back in Flash Player. That means that unlike HTML-based applications, the source code files remain on the development machine, and you do not deploy them to the production server. Asset files such as MP3s, CSS documents, and PNGs can be embedded within a .swf, or they can be loaded at runtime. When an asset is embedded within a .swf, it is not necessary to deploy the file to the production server, because it is compiled within the .swf file. However, since embedding assets within the .swf often makes for a less streamlined downloading experience and a less dynamic application, it is far more common to load such assets at runtime. That means that the asset files are not com- piled into the .swf, and much like an HTML page, the assets are loaded into Flash Player when requested by the .swf at runtime. In that case, the asset files must be deployed to a valid URL when the .swf is deployed. Data services are requested at runtime. That means that the services must be avail- able at a valid URL when requested at runtime. For example, if a Flex application utilizes a web service, that web service must be accessible from the client when requested. Media servers and Flex Enterprise Services must also be accessible when used by Flex applications. Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring Many developers first learning about Flex 2 may still be unclear as to the relation- ship between Flex and Flash authoring, the traditional tool for creating content for Flash Player. First, you do not have to understand Flash authoring in order to work with Flex. In fact, you can get started with Flex without any prior knowledge of or experience in Flash authoring. Flash authoring is a product that was first created in 1996 as a vector animation tool primarily aimed at creating animation content for the Web. In the many versions since that time, both Flash authoring and Flash Player (the deployment platform for Flash authoring content) have enabled greater and greater capabilities, and develop- ers began to create rich Internet applications with the tools. However, while Flash authoring is a fantastic tool for creating animations, it is not the ideal tool for creat- ing applications. The metaphors that Flash authoring uses at its core (such as time- lines) are simply not applicable to application development. Flex 2 is a product aimed primarily at creating applications. The framework includes a rich set of layout and user interface components, and the technology uses meta- phors such as states and transitions that are appropriate to application development.
12 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Both Flex and Flash authoring allow you to create .swf content that runs in Flash Player. In theory you can achieve the same things using both products. However, Flash is a tool that allows you to create timeline-based animations and to use draw- ing tools best suited for expressiveness, while Flex allows you to much more rapidly assemble screens of content with transitions and data communication behaviors. As with any craft, it is advisable to use the best tool for the job. Up until now, Flash authoring was one of the only tools for creating .swf content. But with Flex 2, we now have a tool with a more specific focus. Although many people may initially try to frame the Flex and Flash authoring debate as a winner-takes-all scenario, it is rather naive to think of them as competing tech- nologies. Rather, they are two complementary technologies that allow all Flash plat- form developers to utilize specialized tools when creating rich Internet content. In fact, Flex and Flash authoring can work very well together. As you’ll see in this book, Flex can import content created in Flash authoring, allowing you to create rich Inter- net applications that use timeline-based content. Understanding Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 If you are familiar with earlier versions of Flex (Flex 1 and Flex 1.5), you may be interested in the relationship between Flex 2 and those earlier versions. While Flex 2 continues to utilize MXML and ActionScript (both supported in earlier versions of Flex), it is vastly different from Flex 1 and Flex 1.5 in other respects. Flex 2 allows you to compile and deploy independent .swf files without any sort of expen- sive server-side services as was required by Flex 1 and 1.5 (though the ability to compile .swf files on the server at request time is still available in Flex Data Ser- vices). Flex 2 requires Flash Player 9, which allows for (and requires) the use of ActionScript 3. This latest ActionScript version introduces significant changes to the Flash Player API that offers a much improved way to add and remove display objects (including components) to the view. Summary In this chapter, we introduced the basics of what Flex is and what technologies and products are used to create Flex applications. You learned that Flex 2 consists of a framework (a class library) and a compiler that allow you to rapidly create Flex appli- cations. These applications are .swf files, which you can then run in Flash Player 9.
13 Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2 Building Applications with the Flex Framework2 The majority of this book is dedicated to programming Flex applications, with detailed discussions of working with MXML and ActionScript. However, in order to meaningfully use most of what we discuss in the chapters that follow, you’ll need to know how to create a Flex project, how to compile the project, and how to deploy that project so that you can view it. In this chapter we’ll discuss important topics such as the tools required for creating Flex applications and how to create new projects for Flex applications. We’ll look at the elements comprising a Flex project and discuss compiling and deploying Flex applications. Using Flex Tool Sets In order to work with Flex and build Flex applications, you’ll need tools. At a mini- mum you must have a compiler capable of converting all your source files and assets into the formats necessary to deploy the application. That means you need to be able to compile MXML and ActionScript files into a .swf file. There are two primary tools you can use that include the necessary compilers: • The Flex SDK (Software Development Kit) • Flex Builder 2 The Flex SDK is a free product that includes the entire Flex framework as well as the mxmlc and compc compilers (see the section “Building Applications” later in this chap- ter, for more details on the compilers). You can download the SDK at http://www. adobe.com/products/flex/sdk. Flex Builder 2 is a commercial product designed to work with Flex, and it too includes the mxmlx and compc compilers. You can download a trial version of Flex Builder 2 or purchase a license at http://www.adobe.com/go/flexbuilder.
14 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Flex Builder includes the entire SDK. You can work with Flex Builder 2 in two ways: standalone and as a plug-in for Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org). The standalone version of Flex Builder 2 is built on Eclipse, so it and the plug-in version are essentially equivalent. The primary differences are: • Flex Builder 2 standalone does not require that you already have Eclipse installed, making it an optimal solution for those who have no other use for Eclipse. On the other hand, if you already use Eclipse, or if you intend to use Eclipse for other purposes, the standalone version would essentially require you to have two installations of Eclipse—one running Flex Builder and one standard installation. If you use or plan to use Eclipse for other reasons you should defi- nitely install the plug-in version of Flex Builder 2. • The standalone version disables Java Development Tools (JDT), a plug-in used by some standard Eclipse features such as Ant (http://ant.apache.org). If you want to use JDT, you should install the plug-in version of Flex Builder 2. Since Flex Builder is built on Eclipse, you can use any third-party Eclipse plug-ins with the standalone version of Flex Builder. Many factors might drive your decision as to whether to use the Flex SDK or Flex Builder 2. The following is a list of just a few to consider: Price The Flex SDK is a free product. It includes the entire Flex framework. Flex Builder 2, on the other hand, is a commercial product. There is no difference in the price between the standalone and plug-in versions of Flex Builder 2. Commitment to an existing IDE If you already have a considerable investment in an IDE in terms of time and resources, and if that IDE works very well for you, you may want to integrate the Flex SDK with your existing IDE. On the other hand, if you’re already using Eclipse, consider that you can install the Flex Builder 2 plug-in for an existing installation of Eclipse.
Creating Projects | 15 Debugging capabilities The Flex SDK includes a command-line debugger. However, Flex Builder 2 includes an integrated debugger that allows you to set breakpoints and step through code, all from within your IDE. Efficiency Unless and until other IDEs have increased support for Flex (ActionScript and MXML), Flex Builder is the fastest way to build Flex applications. With its built- in code hinting, code completion, error detection, and debugging capabilities, Flex Builder is far superior to the SDK for serious Flex application developers. The majority of the content of this book is not dependent on any one tool. Much of our focus is on working with the Flex framework and ActionScript 3.0 and will require only the Flex SDK. When there are specific topics that do have dependencies on a particular tool, we make that clear. For example, in this chapter we discuss the differences between configuring a Flex Builder project versus a Flex SDK project. Creating Projects A Flex application consists of potentially many files. Although it’s possible that a Flex project could consist of as little as one source file, most use tens if not hundreds of files. A typical Flex project might utilize the following: MXML files These files contain the majority of the application view—the layout and UI com- ponents. You can read an introduction to MXML in Chapter 3. You can also learn about application and MXML components (both written in MXML) in Chapter 18. ActionScript classes These files contain the source code for all the custom components, data models, client-side business logic, and server proxies. You’ll find an introduction to ActionScript in Chapter 4. XML files Although XML is frequently loaded from a server as a dynamic response to an HTTP request from Flash Player, many applications also utilize static XML files as configuration parameters. Image files Flex applications can embed image files or load them at runtime. Working with images is covered in Chapter 9. Audio and video files Flex applications can load audio and video content for playback within the application. Audio and video are almost always loaded at runtime. Audio and video are also discussed in Chapter 9.
16 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Runtime shared libraries Runtime shared libraries are .swf files that contain code libraries that are shared between two or more Flex applications deployed on the same domain. In order to utilize a runtime shared library, you need two files: a .swf and a .swc. The .swf file contains the libraries, and the .swc file is used by the compiler to determine which libraries to exclude from the application .swf. Runtime shared libraries are discussed in more detail later in this chapter, in the section titled “Using Runtime Shared Libraries.” HTML wrapper file Flex applications are typically deployed on the Web. The published application is a .swf file. The most common way to playback a .swf on the Web is to embed it in an HTML page. The HTML wrapper file is the file that embeds the .swf. Setting Up a New Project How you configure a new Flex project depends in large part on what tool set you are using. If you’re using the Flex SDK, that tool set generally requires the most work in order to configure a new project. Creating an SDK project Presumably if you are using the Flex SDK, you are integrating it with an IDE such as Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), PrimalScript (http://www.sapien.com), or FlashDe- velop (http://www.osflash.org/flashdevelop). If you are indeed using an IDE, you most likely want to start a new project (or workspace or whatever particular terminology your IDE uses). If you are not using an IDE (you like to edit code using a plain-text editor), you will want to create a new directory for the project. You’ll place all the project files in the project directory, likely organizing them into subdirectories. Which subdirectory structure you use is ultimately up to you. You’ll need to know where and how you’re organizing all the source code and assets so that you can configure the appropriate compiler options when building the application. (Compiler options are discussed in the next section, “Building Applications.”) Files typically are organized into the following directories: src A directory containing all the source MXML and ActionScript class files. The files are then generally organized into packages. You can organize both MXML and ActionScript files into packages in a Flex project. Packages are discussed in more detail in Chapters 3 and 4. bin A directory to which you save the compiled version of the application. html A directory in which you keep the HTML wrapper file(s).
Creating Projects | 17 assets A directory in which you save all the asset files used by the application either at compile time or at runtime. build A directory in which you can place build scripts if using Apache Ant. Creating a Flex Builder 2 project Using Flex Builder 2, you can create a new project with a few clicks on the mouse. From the Flex Builder 2 menus you can select File ➝ New ➝ Flex Project. This opens the Flex Project dialog which walks you through a short wizard comprising the following steps: 1. The first step asks you to select how the application will access data. Unless we specify otherwise, all the examples we provide in this book will work via the Basic option. See Figure 2-1. 2. The second step asks you to name the project. You can also specify a nondefault location for the new project directory. See Figure 2-2. 3. At the completion of step 2, you can click Finish. If you click Next, you’ll see a third step asking you to customize the source path and library path. These set- Figure 2-1. Specifying how the application will access data
18 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework tings specify classes and libraries that you want to use but that reside outside of the project directory or in a nonstandard location within the project directory. Unless stated otherwise, no examples in this book require you to customize the source path or library path. See Figure 2-3. Normally Flex Builder assumes that the main source directory is syn- onymous with the project directory. However, when you create a project that points to an existing directory, you may occasionally want to point to a directory that is a parent of the directory containing the main source files. In such cases you should be sure to set the Main source folder option in step 3 of the new project wizard, as shown in Figure 2-3. When you create a Flex Builder project, you’ll see that the new directory has a bin directory to which Flex Builder saves the compiled application by default, as well as an html-template directory which stores the templates used by Flex Builder to gener- ate the HTML wrapper file. You’ll also see that new Flex Builder Flex projects auto- matically create an MXML document with the same name as the project. Figure 2-2. Naming the project and specifying a location for the new project directory
Building Applications | 19 Building Applications Once you’ve created a project and written some code, you’ll want to build the project, which means compiling it and deploying it. How you accomplish these tasks depends, in part, on what tools you’re using. The following subsections discuss how to compile using the mxmlc compiler. If you’re using Flex Builder 2, you may want to skip directly to the section “Compiling Using Flex Builder” later in this chapter. Figure 2-3. Setting the build paths for the new Flex project
20 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Compiling Using mxmlc The mxmlc compiler is used to compile Flex applications (versus compc, which is used to compile components and libraries). When you use Flex Builder to compile, it automatically calls mxmlc (Flex Builder includes the SDK). There are several ways you can use mxmlc, including from the command line, from a .bat or shell script, from an IDE, and from Apache Ant. Initially we’ll look at using mxmlc from the command line since it’s the most basic way to use the compiler (though we’ll also look at using the compiler via Apache Ant later in this chapter). All the compiler flags we’ll look at from the command line also apply to any other use of the compiler. When you want to work with mxmlc from the command line, it’s generally a good idea to make sure you add it to your system path. If you’re running Windows and you’re uncertain how to edit your system path, follow these steps: 1. Right-click on My Computer from the desktop or from the Start menu, and select Properties. 2. Click on the Advanced tab, and then click the Environment Variables button. 3. In the System Variables list in the bottom part of the dialog, scroll until you see a variable called Path. Then edit the variable either by double-clicking on it or by selecting it and then clicking the Edit button. 4. At the end of the existing value, add the path to the Flex SDK’s bin directory. If you’re using Flex Builder, the default location is C:Program FilesAdobeFlex Builder 2Flex SDK 2bin. If you’re using the SDK and you installed the SDK in C:FlexSDK, the location is C:FlexSDKbin. Windows uses a semicolon (;) as a delimiter. If necessary, add a semicolon between the existing value and the new addition. 5. Click OK on each open dialog. For OS X and Linux you’ll want to set the PATH environment variable in your shell. If you are using .bash or any shell that supports .profile files, you will want to add a .profile file in your user directory (or edit the file if it already exists). You can edit the file with any text editor that you want. If you are familiar with vi, for example, you can simply open a Terminal and type vi ~/.profile. The .profile should con- tain a line such as the following: export PATH=$PATH:/Users/username/FlexSDK/bin The preceding assumes that you have installed the SDK in your user directory (you’ll need to change username to your actual username). If you’ve installed the SDK else- where you should modify the path correspondingly. Also note that the preceding assumes that you don’t want to add additional directories to your path. If you have an existing .profile file that already contains an export PATH line, you should simply append the Flex bin path to that line using a colon (:) as a delimiter. For example: export PATH=$PATH:/existing/directories:/Users/username/FlexSDK/bin
Building Applications | 21 Once you’ve edited the .profile you’ll need to run the following command from any existing Terminal windows or command prompts: source ~/.profile To use the compiler from the command line you simply specify the compiler name followed by the options. The only required option is called file-specs, and it allows you to specify the entry point to the application you want to compile, i.e., the main MXML document (or ActionScript class): mxmlc -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Notice that file-specs is preceded by a hyphen. All options are preceded by a hyphen. You can get help for the compiler by running mxmlc with the help option: mxmlc -help The file-specs option is the default option for mxmlc. That means a value that is not preceded by an option flag will be interpreted as the value for file-specs. The fol- lowing example is equivalent to the preceding example: mxmlc SampleApplication.mxml Each of the following examples attempts to compile SampleApplication.mxml to SampleApplication.swf. Specifying an output location By default, mxmlc compiles the application to a .swf with the same name as the input file (i.e., SampleApplication.mxml compiles to SampleApplication.swf ) in the same directory as the input file. However, you can specify an output path using the output option. The following compiles SampleApplication.mxml to bin/main.swf: mxmlc SampleApplication.mxml -output bin/main.swf Specifying source paths The source path is the path in which the compiler looks for required MXML and ActionScript files. By default, the compiler looks in the same directory as the com- pile target (the file specified by file-specs). This means it will also look in subdirec- tories for documents and classes that are in packages. However, any files located outside the same directory structure will not be found using the default source path compiler settings. You can use the source-path option to specify one or more directories in which the compiler should look for the MXML and ActionScript files. You can specify a list of
22 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework directories by using spaces between directories. The following example looks for files in the current directory as well as in C:FlexApplicationCommonLibraries: mxmlc -source-path . C:FlexApplicationCommonLibraries -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Customizing application background color The default background color is the blue color you see for most Flex applications. You can use the default-background-color option to customize the background value. You can specify the value using 0x-prefixed hexadecimal representation in the form of RRGGBB. The following sets the default background color of SampleApplication to white: mxmlc -default-background-color=0xFFFFFF SampleApplication.mxml Note that the background color in this case is the background color of Flash Player. Flex components including Application (the main con- tainer of a Flex application) have backgrounds as well. Therefore, you have to set the styles of a Flex application’s components in most cases. Changing script execution settings Flash Player automatically places restrictions on script execution in an attempt to pre- vent applications from crashing client systems. This means that if too many levels of recursion occur, or if a script takes too long to execute, Flash Player will halt the script. The default-script-limits option allows you to customize each of these settings. The option requires two values: one for the maximum level of recursion and one for the maximum script execution time. The default maximum level of recursion is 1000, and the default maximum script execution time is 60 seconds (you cannot specify a value larger than 60 for this parameter): mxmlc -default-script-limits 200 15 -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml While it’s important to know about the existence of default-script- limits, it’s also important to know that it should rarely be used. If you have to increase the default-script-limits setting for an application to avoid an error, frequently it’s because there is a problem in the code or in the application logic. Setting metadata The .swf format allows you to encode metadata in the application file. The allowable metadata includes the following: title, description, creator, publisher, language, and date. You can set these values using options with the same names as the meta- data elements: mxmlc -title "Sample Application" -description "A Flex Sample Application" -file- specs SampleApplication.mxml
Building Applications | 23 Using incremental builds By default, when you compile from the command line, mxmlc compiles a clean build every time. That means that it recompiles every source file, even if it hasn’t changed since you last compiled. That is because by default, mxmlc doesn’t have a way of knowing what has changed and what hasn’t. There are times when a clean build is exactly the behavior you want from mxmlc. However, in most cases you’ll find that it’s faster to use incremental builds. An incre- mental build is one in which the compiler recompiles only those elements that have changed since you last compiled. For all other elements it uses the previously com- piled versions. Assuming not much has changed since the previous compile, an incre- mental build can be much faster than a clean build. If you want to use incremental builds, you need a way to determine what things have changed between builds. When you set the -incremental option to true, mxmlc writes to a file in the same directory as the target file you are compiling, and it shares the same name. The name of the cache file is TargetFile_#.cache, in which the # is a num- ber generated by the compiler. For example, the following might write to a file called SampleApplication_302345.cache (where the number is determined by the compiler): mxmlc -incremental=true -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Storing compiler settings in configuration files Although it is undoubtedly great fun to specify compiler options on the command line, you can also store settings in configuration files. You can then specify the con- figuration file as a single option from the command line. The load-config option lets you specify the file you want to load to use as the configuration file: mxmlc -load-config=configuration.xml SampleApplication.mxml By default, mxmlc uses a configuration file called flex-config.xml located in the frameworks directory of the SDK or Flex Builder installation. If you specify a value for the load-config option, that can override the flex-config.xml. Many, though not all, of the settings in flex-config.xml are required. That means that it’s important that you do one of the following: • Copy and modify the content of flex-config.xml for use in your custom configu- ration file. When you do so, you will likely have to modify several values in the file so that they point to absolute paths rather than relative paths. Specifically, you have to modify: — The <external-library-path> setting from the relative libs/playerglobal.swc to a valid path pointing to the actual .swc file — The <library-path> settings from libs and locale/{locale} to the valid paths pointing to those resources (you can keep the {locale} variable)
24 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework • Load your custom file in addition to the default. When you use the = operator to assign a value to the load-config option you load the file in place of the default. When you use the += operator, you load the file in addition to the default. Any values specified in the custom configuration file override the same settings in the default file: mxmlc -load-config+=configuration.xml SampleApplication.mxml Configuration files must have exactly one root node, and that root node must be a <flex-config> tag. The <flex-config> tag should define a namespace as in the fol- lowing example: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> </flex-config> Within the root node you can nest nodes corresponding to compiler options. You can configure any and every compiler option from a configuration file. However, the option nodes must appear in the correct hierarchy. For example, some option nodes must appear within a <compiler> tag, and others must appear within a <metadata> tag. You can determine the correct hierarchy from the compiler help. The following is a list of the options returned by mxmlc -help list: -benchmark -compiler.accessible -compiler.actionscript-file-encoding <string> -compiler.context-root <context-path> -compiler.debug -compiler.external-library-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.fonts.max-glyphs-per-face <string> -compiler.include-libraries [library] [...] -compiler.incremental -compiler.library-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.locale <string> -compiler.namespaces.namespace <uri> <manifest> -compiler.optimize -compiler.profile -compiler.services <filename> -compiler.show-actionscript-warnings -compiler.show-binding-warnings -compiler.show-deprecation-warnings -compiler.source-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.strict -compiler.theme [filename] [...] -compiler.use-resource-bundle-metadata -file-specs [path-element] [...] -help [keyword] [...] -licenses.license <product> <serial-number> -load-config <filename> -metadata.contributor <name> -metadata.creator <name> -metadata.date <text> -metadata.description <text> -metadata.language <code>
Building Applications | 25 -metadata.localized-description <text> <lang> -metadata.localized-title <title> <lang> -metadata.publisher <name> -metadata.title <text> -output <filename> -runtime-shared-libraries [url] [...] -use-network -version -warnings You’ll notice that some options you already know, such as incremental and title, are prefixed (e.g., compiler.incremental and metadata.title). These prefixed com- mands are the full commands. The compiler defines aliases that you can use from the command line. That way, the compiler knows that when you type incremental, you really mean compiler.incremental. However, when you use a configuration file, you must use the full option names. Prefixes translate to parent nodes. For example, the following sets the incremental option to true and the title option to Example: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <compiler> <incremental>true</incremental> </compiler> <metadata> <title>Example</title> </metadata> </flex-config> In the options list you’ll notice that some options are followed by a value enclosed in <>. For example, the title option is followed by <text>. These values indicate that the option value should be a string. For example, as you can see in the preceding sample code, the <title> tag has a nested string value of Example. If an option is fol- lowed by two or more <value> values, the option node should contain child tags with the specified names. For example, the localized-title option is followed by <text> <lang>. Therefore, the following is an example of a configuration file that correctly describes the localized-title option: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <metadata> <localized-title> <text>Example</text> <lang>en_US</lang> </localized-title> </metadata> </flex-config> If an option is followed by [value] [...], it means the option node must contain one or more tags with the name specified. For example, file-specs is followed by [path- element] [...]. This means that the following is a valid configuration file specifying a file-specs value: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <file-specs>
26 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework <path-element>Example.mxml</path-element> </file-specs> </flex-config> The following is also a valid configuration file. This time it defines several target files to compile: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <file-specs> <path-element>Example.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example2.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example3.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example4.mxml</path-element> </file-specs> </flex-config> When an option is not followed by anything, it indicates that the value should be Boolean. For example, incremental is not followed by anything in the list. If you want a complete list of all compiler options you can use this command: mxmlc -help advanced Using Ant Using the compiler from the command line is not the best way to build applications, for the following reasons: • It’s inconvenient because you have to open a command line and type the com- mand each time. • Because you have to type the command each time, there’s a greater chance of introducing errors. • Not only is opening a command line and typing a command inconvenient, but it’s also slow. • Compiling from the command line doesn’t allow you much in the way of fea- tures, such as copying and deploying files, testing for dependencies, and so on. A standard tool used by application developers for scripting application builds is a program called Apache Ant. Ant (http://ant.apache.org) is an open source tool that runs on Java to automate the build process. This includes testing for dependencies (e.g., existence of directories), compiling, moving and copying files, and launching applications. Although you can use .bat files or shell scripts to achieve many of Ant’s basic tasks, Ant is extremely feature-rich (it offers support for compressing and uncompressing archives, email support, and FTP support, to name just a few) and can better handle potential errors than .bat or shell scripts. If you’re not familiar with Ant, the first thing you should do is to download and install Ant from http://ant.apache.org. Once you’ve installed Ant, you should add a new environment variable, called ANT_HOME, as well as the Ant bin directory to the
Building Applications | 27 system path. The ANT_HOME environment variable should point to the root directory of the Ant installation on the computer. For example, if Ant is installed at C:Ant on a Windows system, the ANT_HOME environment variable should point to C:Ant. Addi- tionally, you should add the Ant bin directory to the system path. For example, if Ant is installed at C:Ant, add C:Antbin to the system path. Ant uses XML files named build.xml. The build.xml file for a project contains all the instructions that tell Ant how to compile and deploy all the necessary files (e.g., the application). The build.xml file consists of a <project> root node that contains nested target nodes. The project node allows you to define three attributes: name The name of the project default The name of the target to run when no other target is specified basedir The directory to use for all relative directory calculations For our sample build.xml, the <project> node looks like this to start: <project name="FlexTest" default="compile" basedir="./"> </project> This says that the base directory is the directory in which the file is stored, and the default target is called compile. Within the <project> node is one or more <target> nodes. Each target node repre- sents a named collection of tasks. Ant tasks could involve compiling an applica- tion, moving files, creating directories, launching applications, creating ZIP archives, using FTP commands, and so on. You can read all about the types of tasks available within Ant at http://ant.apache.org/manual/tasksoverview.html. In our dis- cussion of using Ant with Flex applications we’ll focus primarily on just a few of the core Ant tasks, such as exec and move. The following defines the compile target for our sample build.xml file: <project name="FlexTest" default="compile" basedir="./"> <target name="compile"> <exec executable="C:FlexSDKbinmxmlc.exe"> <arg line="-file-specs FlexTest.mxml" /> </exec> </target> </project> This compile target runs by default because it is set as the default for the project. When you run the Ant build, the compile target runs the exec task with an execut- able of C:FlexSDKbinmxmlc.exe (you’ll need to change the value to point to mxmlc. exe on your system as necessary). Nested within the <exec> tag you can place one or
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silence on the part of M. Xavier, this disdain for my person, irritated me to the last degree. What should I have done, if that which I expected had happened? I did not ask myself. I simply wanted it to happen. M. Xavier was really a very pretty boy, even prettier than his photograph. A light blonde moustache—two little arcs of gold—set off his lips better than in his portrait, their red and fleshy pulp inviting a kiss. His light blue eyes, dusted with yellow, were strangely fascinating, and his movements were characterized by the indolence, the weary and cruel grace, of a girl or young deer. He was tall, slender, very supple, ultra-modern in his elegance, and wonderfully seductive through his evident cynicism and corruption. In addition to the fact that he had pleased me from the first, his resistance, or, rather, his indifference, caused my desire to quickly ripen into love. One morning I found M. Xavier awake, and sitting on the edge of the bed. I remember that he wore a white silk shirt with blue dots. I modestly started to withdraw, but he called me back: "Oh! what is the matter? Come in. You are not afraid of me, are you?" With his two hands clasped over his leg, and his body swaying to and fro, he surveyed me for a long time with the utmost effrontery, while I, with slow and graceful movements, and blushing a little, placed a tray on the little table near the mantel. And, as if he then really saw me for the first time, he said: "Why, you are a very stylish girl. How long, then, have you been here?" "Three weeks, Monsieur." "Well, that's astonishing!" "What is astonishing, Monsieur?" "That I have never noticed that you were so beautiful. Come here!" said he.
I approached, trembling a little. Without a word he took me by the waist, and forced me to sit down beside him. "Oh! Monsieur Xavier," I sighed, struggling, but not very vigorously. "Stop, I beg of you. If your parents were to see you?" But he began to laugh: "My parents! Oh! my parents, you know,—I have supped on them." This was a phrase that he was continually using. When one asked him anything, he answered: "I have supped on that." And he had supped on everything. To gain a little time I asked him: "There is one thing that puzzles me, Monsieur Xavier. How does it happen that one never sees you at Madame's dinners?" "You certainly don't expect me, my dear ... oh! no, you know, Madame's dinners tire me too much." "And how is it," I insisted, "that your room is the only one in the house in which there is not a picture of the pope?" This observation flattered him. He answered: "Why, my little baby, I am an Anarchist, I am. Religion, the Jesuits, the priests,—oh! no, I have enough of them. I have supped on them. A society made up of people like papa and mamma? Oh! you know ... none of that in mine, thank you!" Now I felt at ease with M. Xavier, in whom I found, together with the same vices, the drawling accent of the Paris toughs. It seemed to me that I had known him for years and years. In his turn he asked me: "Tell me, are you intimate with papa?" "Your father!" I cried, pretending to be scandalized. "Oh! Monsieur Xavier! Such a holy man!" His laugh redoubled, and rang out loudly:
"Papa! Oh! papa! Why, he is intimate with all the servants here. Then you are not yet intimate with papa? You astonish me." "Oh! no," I replied, laughing also. "Only he brings me the 'Fin de Siècle,' the 'Rigolo,' the 'Petites Femmes de Paris'." That set him off in a delirium of joy, and, shaking more than ever with laughter, he cried: "Papa! Oh! he is astonishing!" And, being now well started, he continued in a comical tone: "He is like mamma. Yesterday she made me another scene. I am disgracing her,—her and papa. Would you believe it? And religion, and society, and everything! It is twisting. Then I declared to her: 'My dear little mother, it is agreed; I will settle down to a regular life on the day when you shall have given up your lovers.' That was a hot one, eh? That shut her up. Oh! no, you know, they make me very tired, these authors of my being. I have supped on their lectures. By the way, you know Fumeau, don't you?" "No, Monsieur Xavier." "Why, yes ... why, yes ... Anthime Fumeau?" "I assure you that I do not." "A fat fellow, very young, very red-faced, ultra-stylish, the finest teams in Paris. Fumeau ... an income of three millions. Tartlet the Kid? Why, yes, you know him." "But I tell you that I do not know him." "You astonish me! Why, everybody knows him. Don't you know the Fumeau biscuit? The young fellow who had a judicial adviser appointed for him two months ago? Don't you remember?" "Not at all, I swear to you, Monsieur Xavier." "Never mind, little turkey. Well, I played a good one on Fumeau last year,—a very good one. Guess what? You do not guess?" "How do you expect me to guess, since I do not know him?"
"Well, it was this, my little baby. I introduced Fumeau to my mother. Upon my word! What do you think of that for a discovery? And the funniest part of it is that in two months mamma succeeded in blackmailing Fumeau to the tune of three hundred thousand bones. What a godsend that, for papa's works! Oh! they know a thing or two; they are up to snuff! But for that, the house would have gone up. We were over head and ears in debt. The priests themselves were refusing to have anything to do with us. What do you say to that, eh?" "I say, Monsieur Xavier, that you have a queer way of treating the family." "What do you expect, my dear? I am an Anarchist, I am. I have supped on the family." That morning Madame was even nicer than usual with me. "I am well satisfied with your service," she said to me. "Mary, I raise your wages ten francs." "If she raises me ten francs every time," thought I to myself, "that will not be bad. It is more suitable." Oh! when I think of all that! I, too, have supped on it. M. Xavier's fancy did not last long; he had quickly "supped on me." Not for a moment, moreover, was I able to keep him in the house. Several times, on entering his room in the morning, I found the bed undisturbed and empty. M. Xavier had been out all night. The cook knew him well, and she had told the truth when she said: "He prefers to roam elsewhere." He pursued his old habits, and went in search of his customary pleasures, as before. On those mornings I felt a sudden pain in my heart, and all day long I was sad, sad! The unfortunate part of it all is that M. Xavier had no feeling. He was not poetical, like M. Georges. He did not vouchsafe me the slightest
attention. Never did he say to me a kind and touching word, as lovers do in books and plays. Moreover, he liked nothing that I liked; he did not like flowers, with the exception of the big carnations with which he adorned the buttonhole of his coat. Yet it is so good to whisper to each other things that caress the heart, to exchange disinterested kisses, to gaze for eternities into one another's eyes. But men are such coarse creatures; they do not feel these joys,— these joys so pure and blue. And it is a great pity. M. Xavier knew nothing but vice, found pleasure only in debauchery. In love all that was not vice and debauchery bored him. "Oh! no, you know, that makes me very tired. I have supped on poetry. The little blue flower ... we must leave that to papa." To him I was always an impersonal creature, the domestic to whom he gave orders and whom he maltreated in the exercise of his authority as master, and with his boyish cynical jests. And he often said to me, with a laugh in the corner of his mouth,—a frightful laugh that wounded and humiliated me: "And papa? Really, you are not yet intimate with papa? You astonish me." Once I had not the power to keep back my tears; they were choking me. M. Xavier became angry at once: "Oh! no, you know, that is the most tiresome thing of all. Tears, scenes? You must stop that, my dear; or else, good evening! I have supped on all that nonsense." For my part I feel an immense and imperative need of that pure embrace, of that chaste kiss, which is no longer the savage bite of the flesh, but the ideal caress of the soul. I need to rise from the hell of love to the paradise of ecstasy, to the fullness, the delicious and candid silence, of ecstasy. But M. Xavier had supped on ecstasy. Nothing pained me so much as to see that I had not left the slightest trace of affection, not the smallest tenderness, in his heart. Yet I believe that I could have loved the little scoundrel,—that I could have devoted myself to him, in spite of everything, like a
beast. Even to-day I think regretfully of his impudent, cruel, and pretty phiz, and of his perfumed skin. And I have often on my lips, from which, since then, so many lips ought to have effaced it, the acid taste, the burning sensation of his kiss. Oh! Monsieur Xavier! Monsieur Xavier! One evening, before dinner, when he had returned to dress,—my! but how nice he looked in evening dress!—and as I was carefully arranging his affairs in the dressing-room, he asked me, without embarrassment or hesitation, and almost in a tone of command, precisely as he would have asked me for hot water: "Have you five louis? I am in absolute need of five louis to-night. I will return them to you to-morrow." That very morning Madame had paid me my wages. Did he know it? "I have only ninety francs," I answered, a little ashamed,—ashamed of his question, perhaps, but more ashamed, I think, at not having the entire sum that he asked. "That makes no difference," said he; "go and get me the ninety francs. I will return them to you to-morrow." He took the money, and, by way of thanks, said in a dry, curt tone that froze my heart: "That's good!" Then, putting out his foot with a brutal movement, he commanded insolently: "Tie my shoes. And be quick about it; I am in a hurry." I looked at him sadly, imploringly: "Then you are not to dine here this evening, Monsieur Xavier?" "No, I dine in town. Make haste." As I tied his shoes, I moaned:
"And you will not return to-night? I shall cry all night long. It is not nice of you, Monsieur Xavier." His voice became hard and thoroughly wicked. "If you lent me your ninety francs that you might say that, you can take them back. Here, take them!" "No, no," I sighed. "You know very well that it was not for that." "Well, then, don't bother me." He had quickly finished dressing, and he started off without kissing me and without saying a word. The next day nothing was said about returning the money; and I did not wish to claim it. It gave me pleasure to think that he had something of me. And now I understand the women who kill themselves with toil, the women who sell themselves to passers-by, at night, on the sidewalks, the women who steal, and the women who kill, in order to get a little money with which to procure indulgences for the little man whom they love. That is what has happened to me, in fact. Or has it really happened to me in the degree that I say? Alas! I do not know. There are moments when, in presence of a man, I feel so soft, so soft, without will, without courage, so yielding ... yes, so yielding! Madame was not slow in changing her manner toward me. Instead of treating me nicely, as she had done before, she became severe, exacting, fault-finding. I was only a blockhead; I never did anything right; I was awkward, unclean, ill-bred, forgetful, dishonest. And her voice, which at first had been so sweet, so much like the voice of a comrade, now became as sour as vinegar. She gave me orders in a blunt and humiliating tone. No more gifts of underwear, no more cold cream and powder, no more of the secret counsels and private confidences that had so embarrassed me at first. No more of that
suspicious comradeship which at bottom I felt not to be kindness, and which caused me to lose my respect for this mistress who raised me to the level of her own vice. I snapped at her sharply, strong in my knowledge of all the open or hidden infamies of the house. We got to quarreling like fish-wives, hurling our week's notice at each other's heads, like dirty rags. "What, then, do you take my house for?" she cried. "Do you think you are working for a fast woman?" Think of her cheek! I answered: "Oh! your house is a clean one, indeed! You can boast of it. And you? Let us talk about it; yes, let us talk about it! You are clean, too! And what about Monsieur? Oh! la! la! And do you think they don't know you in the neighborhood, and in Paris? Why, you are notorious, everywhere. Your house? A brothel. And, in fact, there are brothels which are not as dirty as your house." And so these quarrels went on; we exchanged the worst insults and the lowest threats; we descended to the vocabulary of the street- walkers and the prisons. And then, suddenly, everything quieted down. M. Xavier had only to show signs of a reviving interest in me, —fleeting, alas!—when straightway began again the suspicious familiarity, the shameful complicities, the gifts of garments, the promises of doubled wages, the washing with Simon cream,—it is more suitable,—and the initiations into the mysteries of refined perfumes. M. Xavier's conduct toward me was the thermometer by which Madame regulated her own. The latter's kindness immediately followed the former's caresses. Abandonment by the son was accompanied by insults from the mother. I was the victim, continually tossed back and forth, of the enervating fluctuations to which the intermittent love of this capricious and heartless boy was subject. One would have thought that Madame must have played the spy with us, must have listened at the door, must have kept tabs for herself on the different phases of our relations. But no. She simply had the instinct of vice, that's all. She scented it through
walls and souls, as a dog inhales in the breeze the far-away odor of game. As for Monsieur, he continued to dance about among all these events, among all the hidden dramas of this house, alert, busy, cynical, and comical. In the morning he disappeared, with his face of a little pink and shaven faun, with his documents, with his bag stuffed with pious pamphlets and obscene newspapers. In the evening he reappeared, cravated with respectability, armored with Christian Socialism, his gait a little slower, his gestures a little more oily, his back slightly bent, doubtless under the weight of the good works done during the day. Regularly every Friday he gave me the week's issues of indecent journals, awaiting just the right occasion for making his declaration, and contenting himself with smiling at me with the air of an accomplice, caressing my chin, and saying to me, as he passed his tongue over his lips: "Ho, ho, she is a very queer little one, indeed!" As it amused me to watch Monsieur's game, I did not discourage him, but I promised myself to seize the first exceptionally favorable opportunity to sharply put him where he belonged. One afternoon I was greatly surprised to see him enter the linen- room, where I sat alone, musing sadly over my work. In the morning I had had a painful scene with M. Xavier, and was still under the influence of the impression it had left on me. Monsieur closed the door softly, placed his bag on the large table near a pile of cloth, and, coming to me, took my hands and patted them. Under his blinking eyelid his eye turned, like that of an old hen dazzled by the sunlight. It was enough to make one die of laughter. "Célestine," said he, "for my part, I prefer to call you Célestine. That does not offend you, does it?" I could hardly keep from bursting.
"Why, no, Monsieur," I answered, holding myself on the defensive. "Well, Célestine, I think you charming! There!" "Really, Monsieur?" "Adorable, in fact; adorable, adorable!" "Oh! Monsieur!" His fingers had left my hand, and were caressing my neck and chin with fat and soft little touches. "Adorable, adorable!" he whispered. He tried to embrace me. I drew back a little, to avoid his kiss. "Stay, Célestine, I beg of you. I do not annoy you, do I?" "No, Monsieur; you astonish me." "I astonish you, you little rogue. I astonish you? Oh! you don't know me." His voice was no longer dry. A fine froth moistened his lips. "Listen to me, Célestine. Next week I am going to Lourdes; yes, I conduct a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Do you wish to come to Lourdes? I have a way of taking you to Lourdes. Will you come? Nobody will notice anything. You will stay at the hotel; you will take walks, or do what you like. And I will meet you in the evening." What stupefied me was not the proposition in itself,—for I had been expecting it a long time,—but the unforeseen form which Monsieur gave it. Yet I preserved all my self-possession. And, desirous of humiliating this old rake, of showing him that I had not been the dupe of Madame's dirty calculations and his own, I lashed him squarely in the face with these words: "And M. Xavier? Say, it seems to me that you are forgetting M. Xavier? What is he to do while we are amusing ourselves in Lourdes, at the expense of Christianity?"
An indirect and troubled gleam, the look of a surprised deer, lighted in the darkness of his eyes. He stammered: "M. Xavier?" "Why, yes!" "Why do you speak to me of M. Xavier? There is no question of M. Xavier? M. Xavier has nothing to do with this." I redoubled my insolence. "On your word? Oh! don't pretend to be ignorant. Am I hired, yes or no, to be company for M. Xavier? Yes, am I not? Well, I am company for him. But you? Oh! no, that is not in the bargain. And then, you know, my little father, you are not my style." And I burst out laughing in his face. He turned purple; his eyes flamed with anger. But he did not think it prudent to enter into a discussion, for which I was terribly armed. He hastily picked up his bag, and slunk away, pursued by my laughter. The next day, apropos of nothing, Monsieur made some gross remark to me. I flew into a passion. Madame happened along. I became mad with anger. The scene that ensued between us three was so frightful, so low, that I cannot undertake to describe it. In unspeakable terms I reproached them with all their filth and with all their infamy. I demanded the return of the money that I had lent M. Xavier. They foamed at the mouth. I seized a cushion, and hurled it violently at Monsieur's head. "Go away! Get out of here, at once, at once!" screamed Madame, threatening to tear my face with her nails. "I erase your name from the membership of my society; you no longer belong to my society, lost creature, prostitute!" vociferated Monsieur, stuffing his bag with thrusts of his fists. Finally Madame withheld my week's wages, refused to pay the ninety francs that I had lent M. Xavier, and obliged me to return all
the rags that she had given me. "You are all thieves," I cried; "you are all pimps!" And I went away, threatening them with the commissary of police and the justice of the peace. "Oh! you are looking for trouble? Yes, well, you shall have it, scoundrels that you are!" Alas! the commissary of police pretended that the affair did not concern him. The justice of the peace advised me to let it drop. He explained: "In the first place, Mademoiselle, you will not be believed. And that is as it should be. What would become of society if a servant could be right against a master? There would be no more society, Mademoiselle. That would be anarchy." I consulted a lawyer; he demanded two hundred francs. I wrote to M. Xavier; he did not answer me. Then I counted up my resources. I had three francs fifty left—and the street pavement. XIII November 13. And I see myself again at Neuilly, with the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows, a sort of house of refuge, and also an employment-bureau for housemaids. My! but it is a fine establishment, with a white front, and at the rear of a large garden. In the garden, which is ornamented, at intervals of fifty steps, with statues of the Virgin, there is a little chapel, very new and sumptuous, built from the proceeds of the collections. Large trees surround it. And every hour one hears the tolling of the bells. It is so nice to hear the bells toll. It stirs in one's heart memories of things so old and long forgotten. When the bells toll, I close my eyes and
listen, and I see again landscapes which perhaps I never saw before, and which I recognize all the same,—very peaceful landscapes, imbued with all the transformed recollections of childhood and youth,... and bagpipes,... and, on the moor bordering on the beaches, the slowly-moving panorama of holiday crowds. Ding ... dinn ... dong! It is not very gay; it is not the same thing as gaiety; it is even sad at bottom,—sad, like love. But I like it. In Paris one never hears anything but the fountaineer's horn, and the deafening trumpet of the tramway. In the establishment of the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows, you sleep in attic dormitories; you are fed meagrely on scraps of meat and spoiled vegetables, and you pay twenty-five sous a day to the institution. That is to say, the sisters withhold twenty-five sous from your wages, when they have secured a place for you. They call that getting you a place for nothing. Further, you have to work from six o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening, like the inmates of prisons. You are not allowed to go out. Meals and religious exercises take the place of recreation. Ah! the good sisters do not bore themselves, as M. Xavier would say; and their charity is a famous trap. They rope you in finely! But there it is,—I shall be stupid all my life. The stern lessons of experience, the succession of misfortunes, never teach me anything, are of no use to me. I am always crying out and raising a row, but in the end I am always victimized by everybody. Several times comrades had spoken to me of the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows. "Yes, my dear, it seems that only very swell people come to the box,... countesses,... marchionesses. One may chance on astonishing places." I believed it. And then, in my distress, I remembered with some feeling, booby that I am, the happy years that I spent with the little sisters of Pont-Croix. Moreover, I had to go somewhere. Beggars cannot be choosers.
When I arrived, there were forty housemaids there. Many came from a great distance,—from Brittany, from Alsace, from the south, girls who had never yet had a place,—awkward, clumsy, with livid complexions, sly airs, and singular eyes that looked over the walls of the convent at the mirage of Paris lying beyond. Others, not as green, were just out of a place, like myself. The sisters asked me whence I came, what I knew how to do, whether I had good references, and whether I had any money left. I told them all sorts of things, and without further inquiry they welcomed me, saying: "This dear child! We will find her a good place." We all were their "dear children." While waiting for the promised good place, each of these dear children was put at some work, according to her faculties. Some did cooking and housework; others worked in the garden, digging in the soil, like navvies. I was promptly put at sewing, having, said Sister Boniface, supple fingers and a distinguished air. I began by mending the chaplain's pantaloons and the drawers of a sort of monk who was just then preaching a retreat in the chapel. Oh! those pantaloons! Oh! those drawers! Surely they did not resemble M. Xavier's. Then they intrusted to me tasks less ecclesiastical,—quite profane, in fact,—the making of fine and delicate linen garments, among which I again found myself in my element. I participated in the making of elegant bridal trousseaux, of rich baby-linen, ordered of the good sisters by charitable and wealthy ladies who were interested in the establishment. At first, after so many shocks, in spite of the bad food, the chaplain's pantaloons, the lack of liberty, in spite of all the fierce exploitation that I could plainly see, I felt a sense of real relief amid this calm and silence. I did not reason much; I felt rather a need of prayer. Remorse over my past conduct, or, rather, the weariness resulting from it, prompted me to fervent repentance. Several times in succession I confessed to the chaplain. He was a queer man, this chaplain, very round and red, a little rude in manner and in speech,
and afflicted with a disagreeable body-smell. He asked me strange questions, and insisted on knowing my favorite authors. "Armand Silvestre? Yes. To be sure, he is dirty. I would not give you his works instead of the 'Imitation.' No, not that; yet he is not dangerous. But you must not read impious books, books against religion,—Voltaire, for instance. No, never; never read Voltaire,—that is a mortal sin,—or Renan, or Anatole France. They are dangerous." "And Paul Bourget, Father?" "Paul Bourget! He is entering on the right path; that I do not deny. But his Catholicism is not sincere,—not yet; at least, it is much mixed. Your Paul Bourget makes upon me the impression of a wash- basin,—yes, that is it,—of a wash-basin, in which no matter what has been washed, and in which olives from Calvary are swimming amid hair and soapsuds. You should wait a little before reading him! Huysmans! Well, he is a little stiff in his expressions,—yes, indeed, very stiff,—but he is orthodox." And he said to me further: "Yes ... Ah! you do mad things with your body! That is not good. No, indeed, that is always bad. But, sin for sin, it is better to sin with your masters, when they are pious persons, than with people of your own condition. It is less serious, less irritating to the good God. And perhaps these people have dispensations. Many have dispensations." As I named M. Xavier and his father, he cried: "No names. I do not ask you for names. Never tell me names. I do not belong to the police. Besides, those are rich and respectable people whom you have just named,—extremely religious people. Consequently you are wrong; you are rebellious against morality and against society." These ridiculous conversations considerably cooled my religious zeal, my ardor for repentance. The work, too, annoyed me. It made me homesick for my own calling. I felt impatient desires to escape from this prison, to return to the privacies of dressing-rooms. I sighed for
the closets full of sweet-smelling linen, the wardrobes stuffed with silks, satins, and velvets, so smooth to the touch, and the bath- rooms where white flesh is lathered with oily soaps. And the stories of the servants' hall, and the unforeseen adventures, and the evenings on the stairs and in the chambers! It is really curious; when I have a place, these things disgust me, but, when I am out of a place, I miss them. I was tired also, excessively tired, sickened in fact, from having eaten for a week nothing but preserves made out of spoiled currants, of which the good sisters had purchased a large quantity in the Levallois market. Anything that the holy women could rescue from the refuse-heap was good enough for us. What completed my irritation was the evident, the persistent effrontery with which we were exploited. Their game was a very simple one, and they took little pains to conceal it. They found places only for those girls of whom they could make no use themselves. Those from whom they could reap any profit whatever they held as prisoners, taking advantage of their talents, of their strength, and of their simplicity. As the height of Christian charity, they had found a way of having servants who paid for the privilege of working, and whom they stripped, without remorse and with inconceivable cynicism, of their modest resources and their little savings, after making a profit out of their labor. And the costs kept running on. I complained, at first feebly, and then more forcibly, that they had not once summoned me into the reception-room, but to all my complaints the hypocrites answered: "A little patience, my dear child! We are planning to get you an excellent place, my dear child; for you we desire an exceptional place. We know what sort of a place you should have. As yet not one has offered itself such as we wish for you, and such as you deserve." Days and weeks passed. The places were never good enough, never exceptional enough for me. And the costs kept running on.
Although there was a watcher in the dormitory, the things that went on every night were enough to make one shudder. As soon as the watcher had finished her round, and every one seemed to be asleep, you could see white forms arise and glide about among the beds. The good sisters, holy women, closed their eyes that they might see nothing, stopped up their ears that they might hear nothing. Wishing to avoid scandal, they tolerated horrors of which they feigned ignorance. And the costs kept running on. Fortunately, when I was at the very depth of my ennui, I was delighted by the entrance into the establishment of a little friend, Clémence, whom I called Cléclé, and whom I had known in a place where I had worked in the Rue de l'Université. Cléclé was a charming pink blonde, extremely gay and lively, and very fly. She laughed at everything, accepted everything, and was contented everywhere. Devoted and faithful, she knew but one pleasure,—that of being useful to others. Vicious to the marrow of her bones, her vice had nothing repugnant about it, it was so gay, artless, and natural. She bore vice as a plant bears flowers, as a cherry-tree bears cherries. Her pretty, bird-like chatter sometimes made me forget my feeling of weariness, and put to sleep my tendency to rebel. Our two beds were next to each other; and one night she told me, in a funny sort of whisper, that she had just had a place in the house of a magistrate at Versailles. "Fancy, there were nothing but animals in the den,—cats, three parrots, a monkey, and two dogs. And they all had to be taken care of. Nothing was good enough for them. We were fed on old scraps, the same as in this box here. But they had what was left over of the poultry; they had cream, and cakes, and mineral water, my dear! Yes, the dirty beasts drank nothing but Evian water, because of an epidemic of typhoid fever that was raging at Versailles. In the winter Madame had the cheek to take the stove out of my chamber, and put it in the room where the monkey and the cats slept. Would you believe it? I detested them, especially one of the dogs, a horrible old pug, that was always sniffing at my skirts, in spite of the kicks that I
gave it. The other morning Madame caught me whipping it. You can imagine the scene. She showed me the door in double-quick time." Oh! this Cléclé! how agreeable and amusing she was! People have no idea of all the annoyances to which domestics are subjected, or of the fierce and eternal exploitation under which they suffer. Now the masters, now the keepers of employment-bureaus, now the charitable institutions, to say nothing of the comrades, some of whom are capable of terrible meanness. And nobody takes any interest in anybody else. Each one lives, grows fat, and is entertained by the misery of some one poorer than himself. Scenes change, settings are shifted, you traverse social surroundings that are different and even hostile, but everywhere you find the same appetites and passions. In the cramped apartments of the bourgeois and in the elegant mansion of the banker you meet the same filth, and come in contact with the inexorable. The result of it all, for a girl like me, is that she is conquered in advance, wherever she may go and whatever she may do. The poor are the human manure in which grow the harvests of life, the harvests of joy which the rich reap, and which they misuse so cruelly against us. They pretend that there is no more slavery. Oh! what nonsense? And what are domestics, then, if not slaves? Slaves in fact, with all that slavery involves of moral vileness, inevitable corruption, and hate-engendering rebellion. Servants learn vice in the houses of their masters. Entering upon their duties pure and innocent,—some of them,—they are quickly made rotten by contact with habits of depravity. They see nothing but vice, they breathe nothing but vice, they touch nothing but vice. Consequently, from day to day, from minute to minute, they get more and more used to it, being defenceless against it, being obliged, on the contrary, to serve it, to care for it, to respect it. And their revolt arises from the fact that they are powerless to satisfy it, and to break down all the obstacles in the way of its natural expansion. Oh! it is extraordinary. They demand of us all the
virtues, complete resignation, all the sacrifices, all the heroisms, and only those vices that flatter the vanity of the masters, and which yield them a profit. And all this in return for contempt and wages ranging from thirty-five to ninety francs a month. No, it is too much! Add that we live in perpetual distress of mind, in a perpetual struggle between the ephemeral semi-luxury of the places that we fill, and the anguish which the loss of these places causes us. Add that we are continually conscious of the wounding suspicions that follow us everywhere,—bolting doors, padlocking drawers, marking bottles, numbering cakes and prunes, and continually putting us to shame by invasive examination of our hands, our pockets, and our trunks. For there is not a door, not a closet, not a drawer, not a bottle, not an article, that does not cry out to us: "Thief! thief! thief!" And also the continuous vexation caused by that terrible inequality, that frightful disproportion in our destinies, which, in spite of familiarities, smiles, and presents, places between our mistresses and ourselves an impassable abyss, a whole world of sullen hatreds, suppressed desires, and future vengeances,—a disproportion which is rendered every minute more perceptible, more humiliating, more disgracing, by the caprices, and even by the kindnesses, of those beings that know no justice and feel no love,—the rich. Did you ever think for a moment of the mortal and legitimate hatred, of the murderous—yes, murderous—desires with which we must be filled when we hear one of our masters, in trying to describe something base and ignoble, cry out in our presence, with a disgust that casts us so violently outside the pale of humanity: "He has the soul of a domestic; that is the sentiment of a domestic." Then what do you expect us to become in these hells? Do these mistresses really imagine that I should not like to wear fine dresses, ride in fine carriages, have a gay time with lovers, and have servants of my own? They talk to us of devotion, of honesty, of fidelity. Why; but it would choke you to death, my little chippies!
Once, in the Rue Cambon ... how many of these places I have had!... the masters were marrying their daughter. They gave a grand reception in the evening, at which the wedding-presents were exhibited,—enough of them to fill a furniture-van. By way of jest I asked Baptiste, the valet de chambre: "Well, Baptiste, and you? What is your present?" "My present?" exclaimed Baptiste, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yes, tell me, what is it?" "A can of petroleum lighted under their bed. That is my present." It was a smart answer. Moreover, this Baptiste was an astonishing man in politics. "And yours, Célestine?" he asked, in his turn. "Mine?" I contracted my two hands into the shape of talons, and, pretending to claw a face ferociously, I answered: "My nails, in their eyes!" The butler, without being asked, remarked quietly, while arranging flowers and fruits in a glass dish with his fastidious fingers: "I would be satisfied to sprinkle their faces in church with a bottle of good vitriol." And he stuck a rose between two pears. Oh! yes, how we love them! The extraordinary thing is that these revenges are not taken more frequently. When I think that a cook, for instance, holds her masters' lives in her hands every day; a pinch of arsenic instead of salt, a little dash of strychnine instead of vinegar, and the thing is done. Well, no, it must be that we have servitude in our very blood! I have no education, and I write what I think and what I have seen. Well, I say that all this is not beautiful. I say that from the moment when any one installs another under his roof, though he were the
last of poor devils, or the lowest of disreputable girls, he owes them protection, he owes them happiness. I say also that, if the master does not give it to us, we have a right to take it, even from his strong-box, even from his blood. But enough of this! I do wrong to think of things that make my head ache and turn my stomach. I come back to my little stories. I had much difficulty in leaving the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows. In spite of Cléclé's companionship, I was growing old in the box, and beginning to be hungry for liberty. When they understood that I had made up my mind to go, then the worthy sisters offered me places and places. There were places only for me. But I am not always a fool, and I have a keen eye for rascalities. All these places I refused. In all of them I found something that did not suit me. You should have seen the heads of these holy women. It was laughable. They had calculated on finding me a place in the house of some old bigot, where they could get back out of my wages the cost of my board with usury, and I enjoyed playing them a trick in my turn. One day I notified Sister Boniface that it was my intention to go that very evening. She had the cheek to answer me, raising her arms to heaven: "But, my dear child, it is impossible." "How so? Why is it impossible?" "Why, my dear child, you cannot leave the house like that. You owe us more than seventy francs. You will have to pay us first these seventy francs." "And with what?" I replied. "I have not a sou; you can search me." Sister Boniface gave me a hateful look, and, then declared, with severe dignity: "But, Mademoiselle, do you know that this is a
robbery? And to rob poor women like us is worse than robbery; it is a sacrilege, for which the good God will punish you. Reflect." Then anger got the better of me, and I cried: "Say, then, who is it that steals here,—you or I? No, but you are astonishing, my little mothers." "Mademoiselle, I forbid you to speak in this way." "Oh! don't talk to me. What? One does your work, one toils like a beast for you from morning to night, one earns enormous money for you, you give us food which dogs would refuse, and then we must pay you into the bargain! Indeed, you have no cheek!" Sister Boniface had turned very pale. I felt that coarse, filthy, furious words were on her lips, and ready to leave them; but, not daring to let them go, she stammered: "Silence! You are a girl without shame, without religion. God will punish you. Go, if you will; but we keep your trunk." I planted myself squarely before her, in an attitude of defiance, and, looking her full in the face, I said: "Well, I should like to see you try it. Just try to keep my trunk, and you will have a visit from the commissary of police in short order. And, if religion consists in patching the dirty pantaloons of your chaplains, in stealing bread from poor girls, in speculating on the horrors that go on every night in the dormitory...." The good sister was fairly white. She tried to cover my voice with her own. "Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle!" "Oh! don't pretend ignorance of the dirty things that go on every night in the dormitory! Do you dare to tell me, in my face, your eyes looking into mine, that you are ignorant of them? You encourage them because they are profitable to you,—yes, because they are profitable to you."
And trembling, panting, with dry throat, I completed my accusation. "If religion is all that; if it is religious to keep a prison and a brothel, —well, then, I have enough of religion. My trunk, do you hear? I wish my trunk. You will give me my trunk at once." Sister Boniface was frightened. "I do not wish to discuss with a lost creature," said she, in a voice of dignity. "All right; you shall go." "With my trunk?" "With your trunk." "Very well; but it takes tall talk to get one's rights here. It is worse than at the custom-house." I went, in fact, that very evening. Cléclé, who was very nice, and who had saved something, lent me twenty francs. I went to engage a room in a lodging-house in the Rue de la Sourdière, and I bought a seat among the gallery-gods at the Porte-Saint-Martin. The play was "The Two Orphans." How true it is! Almost my own story. I passed there a delightful evening, weeping, weeping, weeping. XIV November 18. Rose is dead. Decidedly, misfortune hangs over the captain's house. Poor captain! His ferret dead ... Bourbaki dead ... and now it is Rose's turn! After a sickness of some days, she was carried off day before yesterday, in the evening, by a sudden attack of congestion of the lungs. She was buried this morning. From the windows of the linen-room I saw the procession pass in the road. The heavy coffin, borne by six men, was covered with crowns and with bunches of white flowers, like that of a young virgin. A considerable crowd, in
long, dark, babbling files,—all Mesnil-Roy—followed Captain Mauger, who, wearing a tightly-fitting black frock-coat, and holding himself very stiffly, led the mourners, in thoroughly military fashion. And the church bells, tolling in the distance, responded to the sound of the rattle waved by the beadle. Madame had warned me that I was not to go to the funeral. However, I had no desire to go. I did not like this fat and wicked woman; her death leaves me very calm and indifferent. Yet perhaps I shall miss Rose; perhaps I shall miss my occasional conversations with her in the road. But what a source of gossip this event must be at the grocer's! I was curious to know what impression this sudden death had made upon the captain. And, as my masters were visiting, I took a walk in the afternoon along the hedge. The captain's garden is sad and deserted. A spade stuck in the ground indicates abandoned work. "The captain will not come into the garden," said I to myself; "he is undoubtedly weeping in his chamber, among the souvenirs." And suddenly I perceive him. He has taken off his fine frock-coat, and put on his working-clothes again, and, with his old foraging-cap on his head, he is engaged in manuring his lawns. I even hear him humming a march in a low voice. He leaves his wheelbarrow, and comes toward me, carrying his fork on his shoulder. "I am glad to see you, Mademoiselle Célestine." I should like to offer him consolation or pity. I search for words, for phrases. But how can one find a touching word in presence of such a droll face? I content myself with repeating: "A great misfortune, captain, a great misfortune for you! Poor Rose!" "Yes, yes," he says, tamely. His face is devoid of expression. His movements are uncertain. He adds, jabbing his fork into a soft spot in the ground near the hedge: "Especially as I cannot get along without anybody." I insist upon Rose's domestic virtues. "You will not easily replace her, Captain."
Decidedly, he is not touched at all. One would say even, from looking at his eyes that have suddenly become brighter and from watching his movements, now more alert, that he has been relieved from a great weight. "Bah!" says he, after a short silence, "everything can be replaced." This resignation astonishes me, and even scandalizes me a little. To amuse myself, I try to make him understand all he has lost in losing Rose. "She knew so well your habits, your tastes, your manias! She was so devoted to you!" "Well, if she had not been, that would have been the last straw," he growled. And, making a gesture by which he seems to put aside all sorts of objections, he goes on: "Besides, was she so devoted to me? Oh! I may as well tell you the truth. I had had enough of Rose. Yes, indeed! After we took a little boy to help us, she attended to nothing in the house, and everything went badly, very badly. I could not even have an egg boiled to my taste. And the scenes that went on, from morning to night, apropos of nothing. If I spent ten sous, there were cries and reproaches. And, when I talked with you, as I am doing now,—well, there was a row, indeed; for she was jealous, jealous. Oh! no. She went for you; you should have heard her. In short, I was no longer at home in my own house." He breathes deeply, noisily, and, with the new and deep joy that a traveler feels on returning from a long journey, he contemplates the sky, the bare grass-plots in the garden, the violet interlacings of the branches of the trees against the light, and his little house. This joy, so offensive to Rose's memory, now seems to me very comical. I stimulate the captain to further confidences. And I say to him, in a tone of reproach: "Captain, I think you are not just to Rose."
"Egad!" he rejoins, quickly. "You do not know; you don't know anything about it. She did not go to tell you of all the scenes that she made, her tyranny, her jealousy, her egoism. Nothing belonged to me here any longer. Everything in my house was hers. For instance, you would not believe it, my Voltaire arm-chair was never at my disposition. She had it all the time. She had everything, for that matter. To think that I could no longer eat asparagus with oil, because she did not like it! Oh! she did well to die. It was the best thing that could happen to her, for, in some way or other, I should have gotten rid of her. Yes, yes, I should have gotten rid of her. She was becoming too much for me. I had had enough. And let me tell you; if I had died before her, Rose would have been prettily trapped. I had a bitter pill in store for her. My word for it!" His lip curls in a smile that ends in an atrocious grimace. He continues, chopping each of his words with moist little puffs of laughter: "You know that I made a will, in which I gave her everything,— house, money, dividends, everything. She must have told you; she told everybody. Yes, but what she did not tell you, because she did not know it, is that, two months later, I made a second will, cancelling the first, in which I did not leave her anything,—not a sou." Unable to contain himself longer, he bursts out laughing, a strident laugh that scatters through the garden like a flight of scolding sparrows. And he cries: "Ah! that's an idea, hey? Oh! her head,—you can see it from here,— on learning that I had left my little fortune to the French Academy. For, my little Célestine, it is true; I had left my fortune to the French Academy. Ah! that's an idea!" I allow his laughter to become quieter, and then I gravely ask him: "And now, Captain, what are you going to do?" The captain gives me a long, sly, amorous look, and says:
"Well, that depends on you." "On me?" "Yes, on you; on you alone." "And how is that?" A moment of silence follows, during which, straightening up and twisting his pointed beard, he seeks to envelop me in a seductive fluid. "Come," he says, suddenly, "let us go straight to the point. Let us speak squarely,—soldier-fashion. Do you wish to take Rose's place?" I was expecting the attack. I had seen it coming from the depth of his eyes. It does not surprise me. I receive it with a serious and unmoved expression. "And the wills, Captain?" "Oh! I tear them up." I object: "But I do not know how to cook." "Oh! I will do the cooking; I will make my bed; I will do everything." He becomes gallant, sprightly; his eye sparkles. He leans towards the hedge, stretching out his neck. His eyes become bloodshot. And in a lower voice he says: "If you came to me, Célestine,—well...." "Well, what?" "Well, the Lanlaires would die of rage. Ah! that's an idea!" I lapse into silence, and pretend to be profoundly dreaming. The captain becomes impatient. He digs the heels of his shoes into the sandy path. "See, Célestine, thirty-five francs a month; the master's table; the master's room; a will; does that suit you? Answer me."
"We will see later. But, while waiting, take another." And I run away that I may not blow into his face the tempest of laughter that is roaring in my throat. I have, then, only the embarrassment of choice. The captain or Joseph? To live as a servant-mistress, with all the contingencies that such a position involves,—that is, to remain still at the mercy of a stupid, coarse, changeable man, and dependent upon a thousand disagreeable circumstances and a thousand prejudices; or else to marry, and thus acquire a sort of regular and respected liberty, in a situation free from the control of others, and liberated from the caprice of events? Here at last a portion of my dream promises to be realized. It is very evident that I should have liked a realization on a grander scale. But, when I think how few chances present themselves, in general, in the existence of a woman like me, I must congratulate myself that something is coming to me at last other than this eternal and monotonous tossing back and forth from one house to another, from one bed to another, from one face to another face. Of course, I put aside at once the captain's plan. Moreover, I had no need of this last conversation with him to know the sort of grotesque and sinister mountebank, the type of odd humanity, that he represents. Beyond the fact that his physical ugliness is complete,— for there is nothing to relieve and correct it,—he gives one no hold on his soul. Rose believed firmly in her assured domination over this man, and this man tricked her. One cannot dominate nothing; one can have no influence over emptiness. I cannot, without choking with laughter, think of myself for an instant in the arms of this ridiculous personage and caressing him. Yet, in spite of this, I am content, and I feel something akin to pride. However low the source from which it comes, it is none the less an homage, and this homage strengthens my confidence in myself and in my beauty.
Quite different are my feelings toward Joseph. Joseph has taken possession of my mind. He retains it, he holds it captive, he obsesses it. He disturbs me, bewitches me, and frightens me, by turns. Certainly, he is ugly, brutally, horribly ugly; but, when you analyze this ugliness, you find something formidable in it, something that is almost beauty, that is more than beauty, that is above beauty, —something elemental. I do not conceal from myself the difficulty, the danger, of living, whether married or not, with such a man, of whom I am warranted in suspecting everything, and of whom, in reality, I know nothing. And it is this that draws me to him with a dizzy violence. At least he is capable of many things in crime, perhaps, and perhaps also in the direction of good. I do not know. What does he want of me? What will he do with me? Should I be the unscrupulous instrument of plans that I knew nothing of, the plaything of his ferocious passions? Does he even love me? And why does he love me? For my beauty; for my vices; for my intelligence; for my hatred of prejudices,—he who makes parade of all the prejudices? I do not know. In addition to this attraction which the unknown and mysterious has for me, he exercises over me the bitter, powerful charm of force. And this charm, yes, this charm acts more and more on my nerves, conquers my passive and submissive flesh. It is something which I cannot define exactly, something that takes me wholly, by my mind and by my sex, revealing in me instincts of which I was unaware, instincts that slept within me without my knowledge, and that no love, no thrill of voluptuousness had before awakened. And I tremble from head to foot when I remember the words of Joseph, saying to me: "You are like me, Célestine. Oh! not in features, of course. But our two souls are alike; our two souls resemble each other." Our two souls! Is that possible? These sensations that I feel are so new, so imperious, so strongly tenacious, that they do not leave me a minute's rest, and that I remain always under the influence of their stupefying fascination. In vain do I seek to occupy my mind with other thoughts. I try to read
and walk in the garden, when my masters are away, and, when they are at home, to work furiously at my mending in the linen-room. Impossible! Joseph has complete possession of my thought. And not only does he possess it in the present, but he possesses it also in the past. Joseph so interposes himself between my entire past and myself that I see, so to speak, nothing but him, and that this past, with all its ugly or charming faces, draws farther and farther from me, fades away, disappears. Cléophas Biscouille; M. Jean; M. Xavier; William, of whom I have not yet spoken; M. Georges, himself, by whom I believed my soul to have been branded forever, as the shoulder of the convict is branded by the red iron; and all those to whom, voluntarily, joyously, passionately, I have given a little or much of myself, of my vibrant flesh and of my sorrowful heart,—all of them shadows already! Uncertain and ludicrous shadows that fade away until they are hardly recollections, and then become confused dreams ... intangible, forgotten realities ... vapors ... nothing. Sometimes, in the kitchen, after dinner, when looking at Joseph and his criminal mouth, and his criminal eyes, and his heavy cheek-bones, and his low, knotty, humpy forehead, upon which the lamplight accumulates hard shadows, I say to myself: "No, no, it is not possible. I am under the influence of a fit of madness; I will not, I cannot, love this man. No, no, it is not possible." And yet it is possible, and it is true. And I must at last confess it to myself, cry out to myself: "I love Joseph!" Ah! now I understand why one should never make sport of love; why there are women who rush, with all the consciencelessness of murder, with all the invincible force of nature, to the kisses of brutes and to the embraces of monsters, and who voluptuously sound the death-rattle in the sneering faces of demons and bucks.
Joseph has obtained from Madame six days' leave of absence, and to-morrow he is to start for Cherbourg, pretending to be called by family matters. It is decided; he will buy the little café. But for some months he will not run it himself. He has some one there, a trusted friend, who is to take charge of it. "Do you understand?" he says to me. "It must first be repainted, and made to look like new; it must be very fine, with its new sign, in gilt letters: 'To the French Army!' And besides, I cannot leave my place yet. That I cannot do." "Why not, Joseph?" "Because I cannot now." "But when will you go, for good?" Joseph scratches his neck, gives me a sly glance, and says: "As to that I do not know. Perhaps not for six months yet; perhaps sooner; perhaps even later. I cannot tell. It depends." I feel that he does not wish to speak. Nevertheless I insist: "It depends on what?" He hesitates to answer; then, in a mysterious and, at the same time, somewhat excited tone, he says: "On a certain matter; on a very important matter." "But what matter?" "Oh! on a certain matter, that's all." This is uttered in a brusque voice,—a voice not of anger exactly, but of impatience. He refuses to explain further. He says nothing to me of myself. This astonishes me, and causes me a painful disappointment. Can he have changed his mind? Has my curiosity, my hesitation, wearied him? Yet it is very natural that I should be interested in an event in the success or failure of which I am to share. Can the suspicion that I have not been able to hide, my suspicion of the outrage committed by him upon the little Claire,
have caused Joseph to reflect further, and brought about a rupture between us? But I feel from the tremor of my heart that my resolution, deferred out of coquetry, out of a disposition to tease, was well taken. To be free, to be enthroned behind a bar, to command others, to know that one is looked at, desired, adored by so many men! And that is not to be? And this dream is to escape me, as all the others have? I do not wish to seem to be throwing myself at Joseph's head, but I wish to know what he has in his mind. I put on a sad face, and I sigh: "When you have gone, Joseph, the house will no longer be endurable to me. I have become so accustomed to you now, to our conversations." "Oh! indeed!" "I too shall go away." Joseph says nothing. He walks up and down the harness-room, with anxious brow and preoccupied mind, his hands nervously twirling a pair of garden- shears in the pocket of his blue apron. The expression of his face is unpleasant. I repeat, as I watch him go back and forth: "Yes, I shall go away; I shall return to Paris." He utters not a word of protest, not a cry; not even an imploring glance does he turn upon me. He puts a stick of wood in the stove, as the fire is low, and then begins again his silent promenade up and down the room. Why is he like this? Does he, then, accept this separation? Does he want it? Has he, then, lost his confidence in me, the love that he had for me? Or does he simply fear my imprudence, my eternal questions? Trembling a little, I ask him: "Will it cause you no pain, Joseph, if we do not see each other again?"
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  • 5. Programming Flex ™ 2 Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
  • 6. Programming Flex 2™ by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Editor: Steve Weiss Developmental Editor: Audrey Doyle Production Editor: Philip Dangler Indexer: Reg Aubry Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Interior Designer: David Futato Illustrators: Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read Printing History: April 2007: First Edition. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Programming Flex 2, the image of a Krait Snake, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. This book uses RepKover™ , a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. ISBN-10: 0-596-52689-X ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52689-4 [M]
  • 7. v Table of Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi 1. Introducing Flex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Understanding Flex Application Technologies 1 Using Flex Elements 6 Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) 7 Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications 9 Understanding How Flex Applications Work 10 Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring 11 Understanding Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 12 Summary 12 2. Building Applications with the Flex Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Using Flex Tool Sets 13 Creating Projects 15 Building Applications 19 Deploying Applications 31 Flash Player Security 31 Understanding HTML Wrappers 33 Using SWFObject 34 Using Runtime Shared Libraries 35 Summary 42
  • 8. vi | Table of Contents 3. MXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Understanding MXML Syntax and Structure 43 Making MXML Interactive 50 Summary 52 4. ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Using ActionScript 54 MXML and ActionScript Correlations 57 Understanding ActionScript Syntax 58 Variables and Properties 61 Inheritance 72 Interfaces 73 Handling Events 74 Error Handling 76 Using XML 78 Reflection 82 Summary 85 5. Framework Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Understanding the Flex Application Life Cycle 86 Differentiating Between Flash Player and Framework 88 Bootstrapping Flex Applications 89 Understanding Application Domains 92 Understanding the Preloader 94 Summary 95 6. Managing Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Flex Layout Overview 96 Making Fluid Interfaces 116 Putting It All Together 117 Summary 120 7. Working with UI Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Understanding UI Components 122 Buttons 128 Value Selectors 129 Text Components 130 List-Based Controls 131 Pop-Up Controls 140
  • 9. Table of Contents | vii Navigators 143 Control Bars 147 Summary 149 8. Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Tool Tips 150 Pop-Ups 156 Cursor Management 162 Drag and Drop 164 Customizing List-Based Controls 172 Focus Management and Keyboard Control 183 Summary 188 9. Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Overview 189 Adding Media 191 Working with the Different Media Types 197 Summary 210 10. Managing State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Creating States 211 Applying States 212 Defining States Based on Existing States 213 Adding and Removing Components 214 Setting Properties 216 Setting Styles 217 Setting Event Handlers 218 Using ActionScript to Define States 218 Managing Object Creation Policies (Preloading Objects) 228 Handling State Events 230 When to Use States 231 Summary 231 11. Using Effects and Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Using Effects 232 Creating Custom Effects 244 Using Transitions 251 Creating Custom Transitions 256 Summary 257
  • 10. viii | Table of Contents 12. Working with Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Using Data Models 258 Data Binding 268 Enabling Data Binding for Custom Classes 277 Data Binding Examples 280 Building Data Binding Proxies 284 Summary 287 13. Validating and Formatting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Validating User Input 288 Formatting Data 308 Summary 314 14. Customizing Application Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Using Styles 316 Skinning Components 333 Customizing the Preloader 344 Themes 348 Runtime CSS 351 Summary 354 15. Client Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Local Connections 356 Persistent Data 360 Communicating with the Host Application 374 Summary 379 16. Remote Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 Understanding Strategies for Data Communication 381 Working with Request/Response Data Communication 382 Web Services 395 Real-Time/Socket Connection 406 File Upload/Download 407 Summary 408 17. Application Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 The Flash Debug Player 409 Using FDB 413 Debugging with Flex Builder 2 414
  • 11. Table of Contents | ix Remote Debugging 418 Logging Using trace( ) Within an Application 419 The Logging Framework 421 Debugging Remote Data 425 Summary 426 18. Application Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 The Importance of Application Components 428 MXML Component Basics 429 Component Styles 440 Summary 443 19. Building Custom Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Component Framework Overview 444 Component Life Cycle 446 Component Implementation 449 Adding Custom Properties and Events 457 Adding Styling Support 460 Summary 462 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
  • 12. xi Foreword1 Whenever I talk to people about Flex 2, the most common questions they ask are the basic ones: what is it, who is it for, and why did we build it? It turns out that although these questions are basic, they really get to the heart of what Flex 2 is all about. Flex 2 is a new technology for building rich web applications and experiences that run on Flash Player, so they look great, are responsive, and are highly interactive. It was designed specifically to be comfortable and productive for those coming from a web or application development background, though it is suitable for anyone. Why did we build it? Well that’s a longer story. This Shouldn’t Be Too Hard The genesis of my involvement with Flex 2 really started with a seed of inspiration. Like everyone who surfs the Web, I would occasionally come across an application that just blew me away. It would be responsive, look incredible, and have an almost cinematic quality to it. Being curious, I would poke around to figure out how it was built. What I discovered was that it was almost always built with Flash. Because my back- ground is in software development and I like to build things, this made me want to try Flash, so I did. The result was shocking and humbling. I failed miserably, and I came away unable to fathom how anybody built anything with Flash, never mind how they built the amazing creations that had inspired me. Part of my problem was with the Flash authoring tool. Not only didn’t it feel like the developer tools I’d used before, but also it didn’t really seem to have been designed for what I was trying to do. For example, the Timeline is one of the most notable fea- tures of Flash. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how I would use it to build an application. Although developer tools often provide a toolbox of components, such as buttons and lists that you can drag onto the design surface, the Flash toolbox was
  • 13. xii | Foreword different. Here the components were things such as a line, rectangle, pen, pencil, ink bottle, and paint bucket. How do I build an application with a pencil? The other problem I had was with the terminology used to describe the concepts pre- sented by Flash Player. In Flash, small reusable UI elements are called Movie Clips. The main display area is called the Stage. The output of compiling the project is a Movie. I can’t tell you how weird it was to try to track down a problem by running the Debug Movie command. Maybe We Need a Different Approach From my experiment, I concluded that Flash simply was not designed for building applications, or for developers like me. However, rather than see this as a problem, I saw it as an opportunity. How many more great Flash applications would there be if it was easier for developers to build them? I focused on this question, instead of just trying harder to use Flash, because my main interest in software is not so much in writing applications, but in improving the process of doing so. That is, I’ve been most concerned with what the code actually looks like. As a result, I’ve spent most of my career working on application frame- works and tools that simplify development. My first framework was called zApp, and I began writing it in 1989. I had been developing for Windows for three years, starting with version 1.03, and had grown frustrated by how difficult it was. zApp not only made Windows development much easier, but also solved another key problem for developers. It allowed you to move your application to other platforms, such as OS/2 or Unix, simply by recompiling. zApp was released in 1991 and it became a popular cross-platform application framework. During the mid-’90s, while working at Microsoft, I became more involved with web applications and was amazed at how hard it was to write them. So, in 1997, a col- league and I developed a prototype web development framework that we called XSP. Based on the prototype’s success, I led a team to build a production version that we shipped in 2002 as ASP.NET. So, as I thought about Flash, I felt the same level of excitement that I had in those previous projects, and I wanted to do something about it. Doing so would enable me to simultaneously explore two areas that I loved: web application development and rich, cross-platform UIs. Therefore, in mid-2004, I joined Macromedia to help make Flash a great platform for developers.
  • 14. Foreword | xiii My First Meeting with Flex At Macromedia, my first task was to learn about all of the projects underway that were related to Flash, and it was then that I first heard about Flex. Version 1.0 had been released a few months earlier, and it was described to me as a presentation server for experienced Java developers building enterprise applications. When I heard this and learned the price, which was very high, I realized why I had not previ- ously noticed it. A high-priced enterprise server did not jump out at me as an easier way to build Flash applications. However, as I learned the details of how Flex actually worked, I began to become more interested in it. The key thing Flex provided was a powerful, easy-to-use, devel- oper-friendly framework for developing Flash applications. It also had a nice XML- based language for defining the UI structure that ironically felt very similar to pro- gramming in ASP.NET. The server component of Flex provided two things. The first was the compiler that translated all of the code into a SWF file for the Flash Player to run. The compile-on- demand model was also very similar to how one built applications in ASP.NET. However, unlike ASP.NET, the code you wrote ran on the client, not on the server. So, the main question I had at this point was why is Flex a server? You don’t need a server to compile, and it seemed to me that that would be much more easily done on a developer’s machine. There was one other server component of Flex, which was a gateway that enabled Flash to talk to the server using an optimized binary protocol and integrated with backend Java code. This was the one component of Flex that really needed to be a server. However, it was used for only certain scenarios, and it really was optional. It also was not addressing the fundamental problem I was looking to solve: namely, making it easier and more intuitive for developers to build Flash applications. Flex, Take 2 So, the biggest problem that I saw with Flex 1.0 was not with the technology per se, but with the packaging and positioning. Selling Flex as an expensive enterprise server made it irrelevant to developers who just wanted to build cool stuff in Flash. I just could not imagine anyone who went through what I did with Flash saying, “Hmmm, this isn’t really for me, maybe I’ll check out that multithousand-dollar enterprise pre- sentation server.” As a result, an opportunity was missed, because I had become con- vinced that if developers tried Flex, they would love it. After I finished looking around, I made some recommendations as to what I thought should be done. The first was that the part of Flex used to build Flash applications (i. e., the Flex framework and compiler) should be offered separate from the server. I had no problem with the server, as it had a lot of value, but it should not be required.
  • 15. xiv | Foreword I also recommended that we build a real developer-style tool for Flex that enabled a more traditional client development model. Flex 1.0 did have a development tool, called Flex Builder, but it was built as an extension to Dreamweaver and it lacked many features one expected in a real developer IDE. What I wanted was something that felt more like a tool such as Visual Studio or Eclipse. The Flex 2 Framework Fortunately, there was broad agreement, and my recommendations were reflected in what we actually did to create Flex 2. So, what is it? The core of Flex 2 is the Flex framework, a library of ActionScript objects that pro- vide a great foundation for building rich Internet applications that run on Flash. It is a developer-centric framework that provides a strong architecture and uses design patterns that will be familiar to developers coming from a .NET, Java, or web devel- opment background. Flex 2 has a rich component model, similar to the ones found in Visual Basic, .NET, and Java. Components expose properties to enable configuration, provide methods to enable invoking their functionality, and fire events when their state changes. Flex 2 provides standard mechanisms for providing data to components, for customizing their look and feel, and for managing their layout. But Flex doesn’t just provide architecture. It also provides a wealth of useful compo- nents so that developers don’t have to build everything from scratch. These include buttons, lists, menus, sliders, tabs, accordions, data grids, and more. Of course, it is easy to build your own components from scratch or customize the ones provided. The primary way one programs with Flex is via a mix of ActionScript and an XML- based language called MXML. Each tag in MXML maps to a component, so unlike HTML, you don’t have a fixed set of tags. If you write new components, you have new tags to use. Properties on a component become the tag’s attributes. MXML also supports script blocks where you can put ActionScript event-handling code and util- ity functions. One exciting decision we made was to provide the Flex Framework SDK, which includes the Flex framework with complete source, compilers, and other utilities, for free. We did this to encourage adoption and enable it to be freely used with non- Adobe tools. You can download it by going to the official Flex web site, http://www. flex.org. Flex Builder 2 Flex Builder 2 is an IDE that makes using the Flex framework more productive. It provides a great code-editing environment for both ActionScript and MXML, a
  • 16. Foreword | xv WYSIWYG design view to allow you to build your UI visually, a powerful debugger, and a project system that automates compiling your application. The source editors are especially valuable because they help you to write correct code more easily and they streamline learning the framework object model. We put a lot of work into code completion to make it always up-to-date, whether it’s providing suggestions for built-in classes or for ones that you create. One of the challenges in doing this was that because MXML and ActionScript are essentially two languages defining and using the same objects, what you do in one affects the other. For example, you can define a class in ActionScript and use it from MXML, and as you make changes to the class definition, they will be reflected in the hints you are offered when editing MXML code. Because we wanted to make Flex Builder a tool that developers would really like, we built it on the Eclipse framework as a set of plug-ins. Eclipse is a widely adopted, open source tools framework originally developed by IBM. It has a huge extension- building community, and many of its extensions are free and open source and can easily be integrated into Flex Builder 2. You can install Flex Builder as a standalone tool, or as a set of plug-ins to an existing installation of Eclipse. ActionScript 3 One of the most important aspects of Flex 2 is that it is written entirely in Action- Script 3, which was introduced as part of Flash Player 9. Both products shipped simultaneously. ActionScript 3 is an incredibly important new language for a num- ber of reasons. First, ActionScript has always been based on EcmaScript, which is the standard that JavaScript is based on, but in the past was not implemented 100% to specification. To better support the standard and help it move forward, Macromedia played an active role on the EcmaScript planning committee and made ActionScript 100% compatible with the next major revision of the standard. One thing you’ll find is that this is not the JavaScript you have in today’s browsers, but rather is a much more modern and robust language. In fact, I find it to be much more like C# or Java and think it will really appeal to developers coming from either of those languages. A key feature that I really like is the option of strong typing. This results in much more useful error messages and enables you to produce much more correct and reliable code. To provide a more robust execution environment for ActionScript 3, the Flash Player team developed a new virtual machine (VM), called ActionScript Virtual Machine 2, or AVM2 for short. It was created from the ground up to be fast and scalable, and it features a just-in-time (JIT) compiler that turns the ActionScript 3 bytecode into native code. In that respect, it is much more like a Java VM or the .NET CLR than the script engines in today’s browsers. The result is that it is 10 times faster than the
  • 17. xvi | Foreword previous VM and it uses much less memory. Note that the previous version of the VM, now called AVM1, continues to be included within Flash Player to ensure back- ward compatibility. We recently made AVM2 open source by donating it to the Mozilla Foundation for incorporation into Firefox. We believe this will speed adoption of the new standard, and help ensure compatibility with future implementations of JavaScript. Flex Data Services The final component of Flex 2 is Flex Data Services (FDS), which represents the evo- lution of the original Flex server. FDS has added an incredible array of features to enable richer, more responsive applications, including client server messaging, JMS integration, a rich data model and data synchronization framework, data paging, and proxy services. One of the most intriguing features is that FDS supports bidirectional messaging between the client and the server. This allows the server to actually push data to the client without the client having to poll for updates. This solves one of the key prob- lems in building rich web applications for real-time data display, such as for finan- cial services. Although FDS is not always required when building a Flex application, it is extremely valuable when it is required. To encourage easy adoption of FDS, we cre- ated a free Express edition that allows free, nonexpiring commercial use. The only limitation is that the applications can’t be clustered or run across multiple CPUs. Taking Another Look at Flash After joining Macromedia, I was able to take another look at Flash and spend more time programming with it. This was important so that I could get a better under- standing of how Flash developers work today. Over time, I was able to break through some of the barriers I had initially encountered and began to understand how Flash abstractions relate to those I was used to. As such, I gradually got the hang of the fact that a Movie Clip is just another type of component. I also had the opportunity to meet a number of the world’s top Flash developers, which was really great, because they were the ones who inspired me to learn about Flash in the first place. This was when I first met Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott, the authors of the book you hold in your hands. One of the things that I found interesting is that today’s Flash developers are some- what different from those in other communities. Some came to Flash from a creative background, without prior software experience, and got into programming Flash in order to enhance their work. Others came to Flash from a programming back- ground, but were also interested in the aesthetic aspects of software. Whichever way
  • 18. Foreword | xvii they got there, however, they all had a mix of the creative and technical skills that is not typical. I do believe that Flex will change this somewhat, because you no longer have to have great design skills to create something in Flash that looks fantastic. Flex applications look great out of the box. One of the things I have been delighted with is that Flex has been enthusiastically received by Flash developers. One might have thought that they wouldn’t care because they had already mastered the skills needed to use Flash, but they do care and they like it. In fact, I recently spoke at some conferences, and the other Flex pre- senters were almost all Flash developers who had gotten hooked on Flex. In talking to them, I learned that they like that they can be more productive when they’re building something that fits within the Flex paradigm. They find that the architecture is well done and solves comprehensively what they used to address in an ad hoc way. They love the fact that Flex Builder has a great coding environment. And of course, they love that Flex and Flash can work together, so they can use each where appropriate. Flex is not the right solution for everything they might want to build, but when it is the right solution, they love it as much as anyone. Programming Flex 2 One of the things that makes frameworks such as Flex so great is that they provide a rich architecture and lots of prebuilt software components that enable you to build software much more quickly than if you had to write it yourself. And the best frame- works, of which Flex is one, allow you to deeply customize and extend the provided functionality so that you are not limited in your creations. With all of this, however, comes a degree of complexity. We put a ton of effort into making sure that things are as consistent as possible, that the right design patterns are used, and that there is the right balance of ease of use and flexibility, all in an effort to make things as simple to learn and use as possible. With that said, there’s nothing like a good book to take you through the concepts so that you can really understand what’s going on. What I really like about Programming Flex 2 is that not only does it take you through the breadth of what Flex provides, but it also takes you deep into how it works. It explains the high-level concepts as well as points out the finer details of what’s really happening. I also like that Programming Flex 2 takes a practical approach, explaining common techniques of how ActionScript programs typically work in ways that go beyond sim- ply explaining the classes that Flex provides. Both Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott are ideal people to present this information. Both are long-time Flash developers, are well known in the Flash community, and are
  • 19. xviii | Foreword among the elite of the Flash development world. Each of them has been using Flex for a long time. I think that the depth of their Flash experience is part of what makes Programming Flex 2 so special. Their mastery of the Flash Player API combined with their exten- sive knowledge of Flex enable them to not just tell you how to leverage the features Flex provides, but to do so with a thorough understanding of the entire system. Looking Ahead When we shipped Flex 2 June 27, 2006, it was just a few days shy of 18 months since we had started developing it. It was a great accomplishment, because we built a new tool from scratch, rewrote the framework in ActionScript 3, which was still being developed, and shipped on schedule. It was an amazing time, and a lot of fun. Of course, for us, probably the biggest thing that happened was that Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems. Although some Macromedia fans expressed concern that Adobe might not really support Flex, they couldn’t have been more wrong. It was amazing to experience how excited Adobe employees were about Flex and all of the technology being created by the former Macromedia teams. And over the past year since the acquisition, this has been confirmed by what we’ve been able to accomplish. January 4, 2007, just six months after shipping Flex 2, we released Flex 2.0.1. Although it sounds like a tiny update, it actually has a number of new features and improvements. One of the key things that we were able to deliver was Flex Builder 2 for the Mac, running on both PowerPC and Intel. We followed this up January 16 with Flash Player 9 for Linux. What makes this so important is that it means you can now run Flex 2 applications that behave identi- cally across Windows, the Mac, and Linux. One of the most important extensions of what Flex can do is a project that was begun immediately after Adobe and Macromedia combined. Apollo is a technology that will allow developers to build desktop applications that run outside of the browser using the web technologies they use today, including Flex/Flash, HTML/ AJAX, and PDF. This means you can develop a Flex application and install it on either Windows or the Mac (Linux will come a little later) and it will behave like any other application on your system. On Windows, it can appear in the Start menu and in the taskbar, and on the Mac, it will appear in the Doc. Apollo will have additional APIs that enable you to interact with the system in ways you can’t from within the browser. For example, you can open multiple windows, support drag and drop, and more directly access the filesystem.
  • 20. Foreword | xix What’s more, you will be able to integrate full HTML into a Flex application. That is, you’ll essentially be able to have the full HTML engine that powers the Mac Safari browser embedded within your Flex app. So, I think we are doing a number of exciting things to move Flex forward. How- ever, I’m most looking forward to being inspired by the incredible apps that you cre- ate with Flex 2. Good luck and happy coding! —Mark Anders Senior Principal Scientist, Adobe Systems Incorporated
  • 21. xxi Preface2 This book is a long time in the making. We first started talking about this book sev- eral years ago, when Flex 1.0 first hit the market. We recognized that Flex was some- thing important, yet we knew the product hadn’t matured enough at that point. However, we shortly thereafter heard the whispers of Flex 2, a new and improved Flex. After working with Flex 2, we were certain that this was going to revolutionize how we build applications. Running on a new virtual machine using new, stream- lined metaphors, Flex 2 was light years ahead of anything we’d been working with to develop rich Internet applications. It was at that point that we got serious about writing this book. You’ll learn shortly (starting in Chapter 1) what Flex 2 is and what you can do with it. However, briefly, Flex 2 is a framework and a set of tools (e.g., compilers) for building rich Internet applications. The framework is built on Flash Player technol- ogy, and it leverages a new (and lightning-fast) virtual machine built into Flash Player 9. This means Flex 2 applications can utilize all the functionality of Flash Player, such as animation, audio, video, request/response network data communication, real-time data communication, and much more. Furthermore, the Flex 2 framework vastly simplifies the creation of Flash Platform applications over previous options (Flash authoring, Flex 1.5, etc.). Flex 2 is huge. Although the learning curve is not steep (it’s actually very easy to get started building Flex 2 applications), it is a long learning curve simply because of the massive amount of features packed into the framework. The official Flex documenta- tion is quite good at telling you how to do something once you know what you’re looking for. Therefore, we made it our goal to present to you a book that fills in the gaps and helps you to get comfortable enough with Flex that you start to quickly know what you’re looking for. It is our intention in this book to provide you with practical advice from our own experiences learning Flex and drawing from our longer-term experiences building rich Internet applications using Flash Platform technologies.
  • 22. xxii | Preface We really feel that Flex 2 is a fantastic product and a great way to build applications. Although this is a technical book, we have poured our enthusiasm into our writing, and we’d like to think you will share our enthusiasm as you read this book. We feel that Flex 2 is a far better way to build rich Internet applications than any alternative currently on the market, and we feel that as you read this book and learn how to work with Flex, you’ll agree. With Flex, you have few (if any) problems involving cross-browser compatibility, network data communication is a snap, and the frame- work is built with solid object-oriented principals and standards in mind. In short, we feel it’s the fastest way to build the coolest, most stable applications. Who This Book Is For This book is intended for anyone looking to learn more about Flex 2. We recognize that the audience for this book represents a very diverse group of people with many different backgrounds. Some readers may have years of experience working with Flash Platform technologies, and others may be completely new to creating content that runs in Flash Player. Some readers may have computer science degrees or have worked in the software industry for years. Yet other readers may be self-taught. We have done our best to write a book that will cater to this diverse group. However, be aware that in order to get the most from this book, it is best that you have a solid understanding of object-oriented principles, and that you are comfort- able with understanding concepts such as runtime environments, byte code, and compilers. Furthermore, you will get the most from this book if you already know ActionScript, Java, C, C#, or another language that uses similar syntax. Although we do have a chapter dedicated to the basics of ActionScript (the programming lan- guage utilized by Flex applications), we don’t discuss any of the core APIs in detail. If you are interested in learning more about the ActionScript language, we encourage you to find a good ActionScript 3.0 book. How This Book Is Organized We spent a lot of time organizing and reorganizing the content of this book. Although there is likely no one way to present the content that will seem perfect to all readers, we’ve done our best to present it in an order that we feel will make sense. Chapter 1, Introducing Flex What is Flex? What are rich Internet applications (RIAs)? This chapter answers these questions, providing a context for the rest of the book. Chapter 2, Building Applications with the Flex Framework In this chapter, we discuss the various elements and steps involved in building a Flex application. Topics include using the compilers, building scripts, Flash Player security, deploying applications, and more.
  • 23. Preface | xxiii Chapter 3, MXML MXML is the declarative language used by Flex. In this chapter, you’ll learn the basics of MXML. Chapter 4, ActionScript ActionScript is the object-oriented programming language used by Flex. In this chapter, you’ll learn the basics of ActionScript 3.0. Chapter 5, Framework Fundamentals Flex vastly simplifies many aspects of building applications. Although you don’t often have to look under the hood, understanding the fundamentals of how the framework works is useful. In this chapter, you’ll learn about Flex application life cycles, bootstrapping, and more. Chapter 6, Managing Layout Flex provides many layout containers that allow you to quickly and easily create all sorts of layouts within your applications. This chapter explains how to work with those containers. Chapter 7, Working with UI Components In this chapter, you’ll learn about the user interface components (buttons, lists, menus, etc.) that are part of the Flex framework. Chapter 8, Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts Once you’ve learned the basics of working with components, you’ll likely want to know how to expand on that knowledge. In this chapter, you’ll learn about such topics as tool tips, customizing lists, pop-up windows, and more. Chapter 9, Working with Media Flex allows you to include all sorts of assets and media in your applications, from images to animations to video and audio. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to work with these elements. Chapter 10, Managing State Flex applications and components within those applications can change from one view to another. Flex refers to these changes as states. This is sometimes as simple as adding a new component to a form, and it sometimes involves chang- ing the entire contents of the screen. How to manage states is the subject of this chapter. Chapter 11, Using Effects and Transitions For animated changes between states or in response to user events or system events, Flex includes features called transitions and effects. You can learn about transitions and effects in this chapter. Chapter 12, Working with Data In this chapter, you’ll learn how to model data in Flex applications as well as how to link components so that they automatically update when data values change.
  • 24. xxiv | Preface Chapter 13, Validating and Formatting Data In this chapter, you’ll learn how to validate user input and how to format data such as numbers, phone numbers, and so on. Chapter 14, Customizing Application Appearance Customizing the appearance of Flex applications is important because it allows you to create applications that adhere to a corporate style guide or to a creative vision. This chapter explains how to change the appearance of Flex applications. Chapter 15, Client Data Communication Client data communication is any transfer of data into or out of Flash Player where the data remains on the client computer. Examples of this are communi- cation between two or more Flex applications running on the same computer and storing persistent data on the computer. These topics are discussed in this chapter. Chapter 16, Remote Data Communication In this chapter, you’ll learn how to communicate from a Flex application run- ning on a client computer to a remote data service. You’ll learn how to use XML, SOAP, AMF, and more. Chapter 17, Application Debugging Debugging applications is just as important as writing them. It’s unusual to build an application that has no errors, and therefore it’s crucial that you can track down those errors efficiently. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to work with the debugging features of Flex. Chapter 18, Application Components To make Flex application development manageable it’s important to know how to break up the application into discrete parts. This chapter discusses strategies for this. Chapter 19, Building Custom Components Custom components are an important part of Flex applications because they allow you to create elements that can be used, customized, and distributed. This chapter discusses the steps necessary to create custom components using the Flex framework. What You Need to Use This Book In order to use this book, you should have the Flex SDK and a text editor. Our inten- tion with this book is that anyone with the (free) SDK can follow along. However, we recommend using Flex Builder for anyone serious about developing Flex applica- tions. If you’re just starting with Flex, you might want to use the free trial version of Flex Builder initially to have the optimal experience building Flex applications.
  • 25. Preface | xxv Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, file extensions, path- names, directories, and Unix utilities. Constant width Indicates commands, options, switches, variables, attributes, keys, functions, types, classes, namespaces, methods, modules, properties, parameters, values, objects, events, event handlers, XML tags, HTML tags, macros, the contents of files, or the output from commands. Constant width bold Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user. Constant width italic Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values. This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note. Using Code Examples This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission. We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Programming Flex 2, by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott. Copyright 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc., 978-0-596-52689-4.” If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com. Comments and Questions Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
  • 26. xxvi | Preface 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 (800) 998-9938 (in the United States or Canada) (707) 829-0515 (international or local) (707) 829-0104 (fax) We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any addi- tional information. You can access this page at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/059652689X/ To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to: bookquestions@oreilly.com For more information about our books, conferences, Resource Centers, and the O’Reilly Network, see our web site at: http://www.oreilly.com Acknowledgments This book, perhaps more than most, represents the efforts and contributions of many people. We’d like to acknowledge the following people. Many thanks are due to the many people at O’Reilly who made this book possible. Special thanks to Steve Weiss and Audrey Doyle for their continued hard work and patience throughout the writing and editing of this book. They have each continu- ously gone above and beyond the call of duty, and we very much appreciate their efforts. We’d also like to thank the many people at Adobe for not only working to create such a fantastic product as Flex 2, but also for answering our questions and helping us to see what things we might have missed. We’d especially like to thank a few select people: Matt Chotin, Alex Harui, Andrew Spaulding, and Manish Jethani, who not only answered our questions, but also took the time to review our chapters and provide valuable comments. We’re also very grateful to Mark Anders from Adobe for graciously accepting our invitation to write the Foreword to this book. We’re also thankful for the help of Mike Chambers throughout the planning and writing of this book. The technical quality of this book is not just the work of the authors. The technical reviewers for this book are a fantastic group of people who have dedicated hours and hours of time to tell us when we’re wrong so that we can correct it before you can read it. The technical reviewers are the reason the code in this book works. The tech- nical reviewers for this book (in addition to the Adobe folks mentioned in the pre- ceding paragraph) include: Darron Schall, Keith Peters, Marc Leuchner, Sam Roach, Steven Schelter, Daniel Williams, Ben Stucki, Sam Neff, Eric Cancil, Larry David- son, and Veronique Brossier.
  • 27. Preface | xxvii From Chafic I would like to thank Joey Lott for being an excellent coauthor. His experience in both the technical realm and the publishing industry helped me get through the long process of writing this book. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and the team at Atellis for their support through this experience; I made it! Finally, I would like to thank the O’Reilly team for believing in a first-time author, and in this book. From Joey I would also like to thank a few people. This is Chafic’s book, and I am grateful that he has trusted me enough to ask me to participate. Chafic has also pushed me to ensure that I do my very best. I’d also like to thank Robert Reinhardt for his show of faith in me all those years ago, giving me my first break in the writing business. Thanks go to all my colleagues at Schematic for their willingness to help with reviews and for asking all the right questions. Certainly I am grateful to my family and loved ones for their support and generosity of spirit.
  • 28. 1 Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Flex1 Flex is a collection of technologies that enables you to rapidly build applications deployed to Flash Player, a runtime environment for delivering sophisticated user interfaces and interactivity. Flex leverages existing, matured technologies and stan- dards such as XML, web services, HTTP, Flash Player, and ActionScript. Even though Flex allows you to create complete rich Internet applications, it does so in a relatively simple and intuitive manner. While Flex does allow you to get under the hood for more granular control over all the elements, it significantly lowers the learn- ing curve in that it allows you to compose applications rapidly by assembling off-the- shelf components, including UI controls, layout containers, data models, and data communication components. In this chapter, we’ll introduce Flex and Flex technologies in more detail so that you can better understand what Flex is and how you can best get started working with it. You’ll learn what elements a Flex application uses and how they work together. We’ll also compare and contrast Flex with other technologies for creating both stan- dard and rich Internet applications. Understanding Flex Application Technologies If you’re new to Flex, you may not yet have a clear understanding of what a Flex application is, how it works, and what benefits it has over alternative technologies and platforms. You build Flex applications utilizing the Flex framework, and you deploy them using Flash Player. In the following sections, you’ll learn more about Flash Player, the Flex framework, and additional technologies that may be part of a Flex application. Flash Player Flex is part of the Adobe Flash Platform, which is a set of technologies with Flash Player at the core. Flex applications are intended to be deployed to Flash Player,
  • 29. 2 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex meaning Flash Player runs all Flex applications. With nearly every computer con- nected to the Internet having some version of Flash Player installed, and an increas- ing number of mobile devices being Flash-enabled, Flash Player is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of software anywhere. Adobe estimates that each new version of Flash Player has adoption rates reaching 80% in less than 12 months (Flash Player 8 reached 86% within 9 months). The reasons for such quick adoption rates are debat- able, but there are a few factors that are almost certainly causative: • Flash Player content is potentially more compelling and engaging than static HTML content. • Flash Player is capable of providing integrated solutions that utilize data ser- vices, interactive UI design, media elements such as audio and video, and even real-time communications. • Well-made Flash Player content can provide a refreshing user experience that utilizes metaphors from desktop computing, such as drag-and-drop and double- click. Flash Player frees the UI design from scrolling pages of text and images. • Flash Player is a relatively small (one-time) download. Even with the multitude of new features added with every release, the Flash Player download is less than 1 MB. And with built-in features such as Express Install, upgrading Flash Player versions is very simple. • Stability and security are important considerations. Flash Player is a stable pro- gram that has been around for nearly a decade. Adobe is very careful with Flash Player security as well. Flash Player has very little access to the client’s local sys- tem. It cannot save arbitrary files to the local system, and it cannot access Inter- net resources unless they meet very strict requirements. • Flash Player is cross-platform (and cross-browser) compatible. Flash Player runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux, and on all major browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. Flex 2 content relies on features of Flash Player 9, meaning that users must be run- ning Flash Player 9 or higher to correctly view Flex 2 content. You can read more about deploying Flex applications and detecting player versions in Chapter 2. Using the Flex framework you can build and compile to the .swf format. The com- piled .swf file is an intermediate bytecode format that Flash Player can read. Flash Player 9 introduces a new virtual machine called AVM2. AVM2 is written from the ground up, and it functions in a fundamentally different way than previous ver- sions of Flash Player. With AVM2, .swf content is no longer interpreted. Rather, it is compiled (the equivalent of just-in-time compilation) and run such that it can take advantage of lower-level computing power. This is very similar to how Java and .NET applications work. AVM2 brings the best of both worlds. Since .swf content is compiled to bytecode that the ActionScript virtual machine can understand, the .swf format is platform- independent. That also means that Flash Player ultimately dictates the functionality
  • 30. Understanding Flex Application Technologies | 3 allowed by a Flex application. As mentioned previously, that means that Flash Player can guarantee certain security safeguards so that you can deploy applications that users can trust. Yet at the same time, AVM2 compiles the content so that it runs sig- nificantly faster and more efficiently than previous versions of Flash Player. The Flex Framework The Flex framework is synonymous with the Flex class library and is a collection of ActionScript classes used by Flex applications. The Flex framework is written entirely in ActionScript classes, and defines controls, containers, and managers designed to simplify building rich Internet applications. The Flex class library is the subject of much of this book. It consists of the following categories: Form controls Form controls are standard controls such as buttons, text inputs, text areas, lists, radio buttons, checkboxes, and combo boxes. In addition to the standard form controls familiar to most HTML developers, the Flex class library also includes controls such as a rich text editor, a color selector, a date selector, and more. Menu controls Flex provides a set of menu controls such as pop-up menus and menu bars. Media components One of the hallmarks of Flex applications is rich media support. The Flex class library provides a set of components for working with media such as images, audio, and video. Layout containers Flex applications enable highly configurable screen layout. You can use the lay- out containers to place contents within a screen and determine how they will change over time or when the user changes the dimensions of Flash Player. With a diverse set of container components you can create sophisticated layouts using grids, forms, boxes, canvases, and more. You can place elements with absolute or relative coordinates so that they can adjust correctly to different dimensions within Flash Player. Data components and data binding Flex applications are generally distributed applications that make remote proce- dure calls to data services residing on servers. The data components consist of connectors that simplify the procedure calls, data models to hold the data that is returned, and data binding functionality to automatically associate form control data with data models.
  • 31. 4 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Formatters and validators Data that is returned from remote procedure calls often needs to be formatted before getting displayed to the user. The Flex class library includes a robust set of formatting features (format a date in a variety of string representations, for- mat a number with specific precision, format a number as a phone number string, etc.) to accomplish that task. Likewise, when sending data to a data ser- vice from user input, you’ll frequently need to validate the data beforehand to ensure it is in the correct form. The Flex class library includes a set of validators for just that purpose. Cursor management Unlike traditional web applications, Flex applications are stateful, and they don’t have to do a complete screen refresh each time data is sent or requested from a data service. However, since remote procedure calls often incur network and system latency, it’s important to notify the user when the client is waiting on a response from the data service. Cursor management enables Flex applications to change the cursor appearance in order to notify the user of such changes. State management A Flex application will frequently require many state changes. For example, standard operations such as registering for a new account or making a purchase usually require several screens. The Flex class library provides classes for manag- ing those changes in state. State management works not only at the macro level for screen changes, but also at the micro level for state changes within individ- ual components. For example, a product display component could have several states: a base state displaying just an image and a name, and a details state that adds a description, price, and shipping availability. Furthermore, Flex provides the ability to easily apply transitions so that state changes are animated. Effects Flex applications aren’t limited by the constraints of traditional web applica- tions. Since Flex applications run within Flash Player, they can utilize the anima- tion features of Flash. As such, the Flex class library enables an assortment of effects such as fades, zooms, blurs, and glows. History management As states change within a Flex application, the history management features of the Flex class library enable you to navigate from state to state using the back and forward buttons of the web browser. Drag and drop management The Flex class library simplifies adding drag and drop functionality to compo- nents with built-in drag and drop functionality on select components and a man- ager class that allows you to quickly add drag and drop behaviors to components.
  • 32. Understanding Flex Application Technologies | 5 Tool tips Use this feature of the Flex class library to add tool tips to elements as the user moves the mouse over them. Style management The Flex class library enables a great deal of control over how nearly every aspect of a Flex application is styled. You can apply style changes such as color and font settings to most controls and containers directly to the objects or via CSS. Flex Builder 2 Flex Builder 2 is the official Adobe IDE for building and debugging Flex applica- tions. Built on the popular Eclipse IDE, Flex Builder has built-in tools for writing, debugging, and building applications using Flex technologies such as MXML and ActionScript. The Flex framework ships as part of Flex Builder. However, Flex Builder and the Flex framework are not synonymous. You do not have to use Flex Builder to use the Flex framework. Instead, you can opt to install the free Flex SDK, which includes the compiler and the Flex framework. You can then integrate the Flex framework with a different IDE, or you can use any text editor to edit the MXML and ActionScript files, and you can run the compiler from the command line. Flex Builder is a commercial product. See http://www.adobe.com/go/ flexbuilder for more information. Integrating with Data Services Data services are an important aspect of most Flex applications. They are the way in which the Flex application can load and send data originating from a data tier such as a database (we discuss the concept of tiers in the section “Understanding the Dif- ferences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications” later in this chapter). Flash Player supports any text data, XML, a binary messaging format called AMF, and persistent socket connections, allowing for real-time data pushed from the server to the client. Each data format Flex supports may or may not require special server resources. For example, a Flex application can request XML data from a static resource or from a dynamic resource such as a PHP page. AMF is a binary messaging format that Flash Player understands natively, but for a server to interact with Flash Player via AMF, it requires an AMF translator on the server, such as the remote object services that are part of Flex Data Services.
  • 33. 6 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Flex simplifies working with data services by way of classes and components that are part of the framework. Working with data services is discussed in more detail in Chapter 14. Integrating with Media Servers Since Flex applications are deployed using Flash Player, they can leverage the media support for Flash video and audio. Although Flash Player can play back Flash video and MP3 audio as progressive downloads, you can benefit from true streaming media by way of a technology such as Flash Media Server. Additional Flex Libraries and Components At the time of this writing there is just one official add-on Flex library, the Flex Charting Components. As time goes on, it is expected that many additional Flex libraries will become available. Additional Flex libraries such as the Flex Charting Components are not part of the standard component sets that ship with the Flex framework. Rather, you must acquire the software and licenses, and add them to the Flex classpath. Add-on libraries enable more rapid application development because they provide prebuilt functionality. For example, with the addition of the charting component set, you can quickly and simply add robust charting and graphing fea- tures to Flex applications. You can find many extensions, such as Flex libraries and components, at the Adobe Exchange (http://www.adobe.com/exchange). Using Flex Elements The Flex framework includes a core set of languages and libraries that are the basis of any Flex application. Using MXML, ActionScript, and the Flex class library you can construct and compile .swf content that you can then deploy to Flash Player. MXML MXML is an XML-based markup language that primarily describes screen layout. In that respect it is much like HTML. Using MXML tags, you can add components such as form controls and media playback components to layout containers such as grids. In addition to screen layout, you can use MXML to describe effects, transitions, data models, and data binding. MXML is robust enough that it is possible to build many applications entirely with MXML. Flex Builder enables you to construct MXML with a WYSIWYG approach, which allows you to build basic Flex applications without writing any code.
  • 34. Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) | 7 While the WYSIWYG approach is helpful for basic prototypes and simple applica- tions, writing MXML code is still necessary for more complex tasks. Additionally, sophisticated Flex applications generally require both MXML and ActionScript. MXML is a declarative way to create Flex content, but the simplicity should not fool you into thinking that MXML is not powerful. MXML provides a fast and powerful way to create layout and UI content. However, MXML documents get compiled in several steps, the first of which converts the MXML to an ActionScript class. This means that MXML documents provide you with all the power of object-oriented design, but with the convenience of a markup language. Furthermore, MXML docu- ments are treated as ActionScript classes at runtime. ActionScript ActionScript is the programming language understood by Flash Player and is the fun- damental engine of all Flex applications. MXML simplifies screen layout and many basic tasks, but all of what MXML does is made possible by ActionScript, and ActionScript can do many things that MXML cannot do. For example, you need ActionScript to respond to events such as mouse clicks. Although it is possible to build an application entirely with MXML or entirely with ActionScript, it is more common and more sensible to build applications with the appropriate balance of both MXML and ActionScript. Each offers benefits, and they work well together. MXML is best suited for screen layout and basic data features. ActionScript is best suited for user interaction, complex data functionality, and any custom functionality not included in the Flex class library. ActionScript is supported natively by Flash Player, and does not require any addi- tional libraries to run. All the native ActionScript classes are packaged in the flash package or in the top-level package. In contrast, the Flex framework is written in ActionScript, but those classes are included in a .swf file at compile time. All the Flex framework classes are in the mx package. Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) Flex applications are generally distributed applications. That means that several computers work in conjunction to create one system. For example, all Flex applica- tions have a client tier (discussed shortly) that runs on the user’s computer in the form of a .swf running in Flash Player. In most cases, the client tier communicates with a server or servers in order to send and retrieve data. The servers provide what are called data services, which are essentially programs that have public interfaces (APIs) whereby a client can make a request to a method of that program. When a cli- ent makes such a request, it is called a remote procedure call, or RPC. There are many types of data services. In its simplest form a data service could con- sist of a static text file or XML document served from a web server. A slightly more
  • 35. 8 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex sophisticated data service might be a dynamic XML document generated via a server- side script or program, such as a PHP or ASPX page. Many data services require greater sophistication. One of the most common types of such a sophisticated data service is the web service. Web services use XML (generally in the form of SOAP) as a messaging format, and they enable RPCs using the HTTP protocol for requests and responses. Although a SOAP web service is an example of a standards-based data service, many types of data services don’t necessarily conform to a particular stan- dard set by the W3C. Many programs on the Web, for example, expose primitive data services that use arbitrary messaging formats and protocols. One such program is used by MapQuest, a popular mapping web site. For instance, you would use the following URL to view a MapQuest page with a map of Los Angeles: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA Notice that the query string uses arbitrary parameters to determine what to map. Therefore, if you wanted to display a map of New York, you would change the city and state parameter values in the URL as follows: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&city=New+York&state=NY Flash Player is capable of making RPCs to many types of data services. For example, Flash Player can make requests to any web resource using HTTP, which means it can make requests to many primitive data services such as a static or a dynamic XML document, or the MapQuest example mentioned previously. That also means it can make requests to web services. Moreover, the Flex class library simplifies requests to most data services. In addition to the types of data services previously mentioned, Flex applications can also make calls to methods of classes on the server, using a technology called Flash Remoting. Flash Remoting uses the AMF binary messaging format, which is sup- ported natively by Flash Player. AMF has all the benefits of SOAP, but since it is binary, the bandwidth overhead is greatly reduced. And since AMF is natively sup- ported by Flash Player, no special coding is necessary to use Flash Remoting data ser- vices from the client tier. However, for a Flash Remoting data service to be available to the client tier, it must be made accessible via a piece of software that resides on the server, and can read and write AMF packets and delegate the requests to the correct services. Flex Data Services provides an implementation of Flash Remoting that inte- grates easily with components in the Flex framework. That means that if you use Flex Data Services, you can quickly configure applications to utilize Flash Remoting without writing ActionScript. However, you’re not locked into using Flex Data Ser- vices in order to use Flash Remoting. There are many Flash Remoting server prod- ucts, including open source options such as OpenAMF (http://www.openamf.org) and AMFPHP (http://www.amfphp.org).
  • 36. Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications | 9 Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML) and Flex Web Applications Many applications deployed on the Web use an HTML user interface. Flex applica- tions are similar in many respects, but they have distinct differences. If you’re used to building applications that use an HTML UI, it’s important to take a few moments to shift how you approach building applications when you start working with Flex. What works for HTML-based applications may or may not work for Flex applications. Both traditional and Flex applications are generally n-tiered. The exact number and types of tiers an application has depend on many factors. Most traditional applica- tions have, at a minimum, a data tier, a business tier, and a presentation tier. Flex applications have a data tier and a business tier; however, as noted earlier, they also introduce a client tier, which is what strongly differentiates them from traditional web applications. The client tier of Flex applications enables clients to offload com- putation from the server, freeing up network latency and making for responsive and highly interactive user interfaces. Data tiers generally consist of databases or similar resources. Business tiers consist of the core application business logic. As an example, a business tier may accept requests from a client or presentation tier, query the data tier, and return the requested data. In traditional applications the presentation tier consists of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, ASP, PHP, or similar documents. Typically a request is made from the user’s web browser for a specific presentation tier resource, and the web server runs any necessary interpreters to convert the resource to HTML and JavaScript, which is then returned to the web browser running on the client computer. Technically the HTML rendered in the browser is a client tier in a traditional web application. However, since the client tier of a traditional web application is stateless and fairly nonrespon- sive, it is generally not considered a full-fledged tier. (The exception to that generali- zation is the case of Ajax applications, which use client-side JavaScript and XML to build responsive and sophisticated client tiers.) Flex applications generally reside embedded within the presentation tier. In addi- tion, Flex applications can integrate with the presentation tier to create tightly cou- pled client-side systems. Flex applications use Flash Player to run sophisticated client-tier portions of the application. The Flex application client is stateful, which means that it can make changes to the view without having to make a request to the server. Furthermore, the Flex application client is responsive. For example, Flash Player can respond to user interaction such as mouse movement, mouse clicks, and keyboard presses, and it can respond to events such as notifications from the busi- ness tier when data is returned or pushed to the client. Flash Player also can respond to timer events. Since Flash Player is a smart client, it is capable of saving on network
  • 37. 10 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex overhead and bandwidth usage by managing client-side logic without having to con- sult the business tier. For example, Flex applications can walk the user through a step-based or wizard-like interface, collect and validate data, and allow the user to update and edit previous steps, all without having to make requests to the business tier until the user wants to submit the data. All this makes Flex clients potentially far more compelling, responsive, and engaging than traditional web applications. Because the Flex application client tier is so much more sophisticated than the pre- sentation tier of a traditional web application, the Flex client tier requires signifi- cantly more time and resources to build successfully. A common mistake is to assume that Flex client tiers require the same time and resources as a traditional web application presentation tier. Successful Flex client tiers often require the same time and resources during design, implementation, and testing phases as the business tier. Understanding How Flex Applications Work Flex applications deployed on the Web work differently than HTML-based applica- tions. It’s important to understand how Flex applications work in order to build them most effectively. When you understand how Flex applications work, you can know what elements are necessary for an application and how to build the applica- tion for the best user experience. Figure 1-1 summarizes the basic concepts dis- cussed in this section. Every Flex application deployed on the Web utilizes Flash Player as the deployment platform. That means that a fundamental understanding of Flash Player is essential to understanding Flex. Additionally, all Flex applications use the Flex framework at a minimum to compile the application. As such, it’s important to understand the rela- tionship between the source code files, the compiler, and Flash Player. All Flex applications require at least one MXML file or ActionScript class file, and most Flex applications utilize both MXML and ActionScript files. The MXML and ActionScript class files comprise the source code files for the application. Flash Figure 1-1. Understanding Flex application source-compile-deploy workflow Source Code Gen Flash Player ActionScript3 MXML Assets (PNG,Gif,etc.) AVM2 Bytecode + Assets ActionScript + Generated ActionScript Assets (PNG,Gif,etc.)
  • 38. Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring | 11 Player does not know how to interpret MXML or uncompiled ActionScript class files. Instead, it is necessary to compile the source code files to the .swf format, which Flash Player can interpret. A typical Flex application compiles to just one .swf file. You then deploy that one .swf to the server, and when requested, it plays back in Flash Player. That means that unlike HTML-based applications, the source code files remain on the development machine, and you do not deploy them to the production server. Asset files such as MP3s, CSS documents, and PNGs can be embedded within a .swf, or they can be loaded at runtime. When an asset is embedded within a .swf, it is not necessary to deploy the file to the production server, because it is compiled within the .swf file. However, since embedding assets within the .swf often makes for a less streamlined downloading experience and a less dynamic application, it is far more common to load such assets at runtime. That means that the asset files are not com- piled into the .swf, and much like an HTML page, the assets are loaded into Flash Player when requested by the .swf at runtime. In that case, the asset files must be deployed to a valid URL when the .swf is deployed. Data services are requested at runtime. That means that the services must be avail- able at a valid URL when requested at runtime. For example, if a Flex application utilizes a web service, that web service must be accessible from the client when requested. Media servers and Flex Enterprise Services must also be accessible when used by Flex applications. Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring Many developers first learning about Flex 2 may still be unclear as to the relation- ship between Flex and Flash authoring, the traditional tool for creating content for Flash Player. First, you do not have to understand Flash authoring in order to work with Flex. In fact, you can get started with Flex without any prior knowledge of or experience in Flash authoring. Flash authoring is a product that was first created in 1996 as a vector animation tool primarily aimed at creating animation content for the Web. In the many versions since that time, both Flash authoring and Flash Player (the deployment platform for Flash authoring content) have enabled greater and greater capabilities, and develop- ers began to create rich Internet applications with the tools. However, while Flash authoring is a fantastic tool for creating animations, it is not the ideal tool for creat- ing applications. The metaphors that Flash authoring uses at its core (such as time- lines) are simply not applicable to application development. Flex 2 is a product aimed primarily at creating applications. The framework includes a rich set of layout and user interface components, and the technology uses meta- phors such as states and transitions that are appropriate to application development.
  • 39. 12 | Chapter 1: Introducing Flex Both Flex and Flash authoring allow you to create .swf content that runs in Flash Player. In theory you can achieve the same things using both products. However, Flash is a tool that allows you to create timeline-based animations and to use draw- ing tools best suited for expressiveness, while Flex allows you to much more rapidly assemble screens of content with transitions and data communication behaviors. As with any craft, it is advisable to use the best tool for the job. Up until now, Flash authoring was one of the only tools for creating .swf content. But with Flex 2, we now have a tool with a more specific focus. Although many people may initially try to frame the Flex and Flash authoring debate as a winner-takes-all scenario, it is rather naive to think of them as competing tech- nologies. Rather, they are two complementary technologies that allow all Flash plat- form developers to utilize specialized tools when creating rich Internet content. In fact, Flex and Flash authoring can work very well together. As you’ll see in this book, Flex can import content created in Flash authoring, allowing you to create rich Inter- net applications that use timeline-based content. Understanding Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 If you are familiar with earlier versions of Flex (Flex 1 and Flex 1.5), you may be interested in the relationship between Flex 2 and those earlier versions. While Flex 2 continues to utilize MXML and ActionScript (both supported in earlier versions of Flex), it is vastly different from Flex 1 and Flex 1.5 in other respects. Flex 2 allows you to compile and deploy independent .swf files without any sort of expen- sive server-side services as was required by Flex 1 and 1.5 (though the ability to compile .swf files on the server at request time is still available in Flex Data Ser- vices). Flex 2 requires Flash Player 9, which allows for (and requires) the use of ActionScript 3. This latest ActionScript version introduces significant changes to the Flash Player API that offers a much improved way to add and remove display objects (including components) to the view. Summary In this chapter, we introduced the basics of what Flex is and what technologies and products are used to create Flex applications. You learned that Flex 2 consists of a framework (a class library) and a compiler that allow you to rapidly create Flex appli- cations. These applications are .swf files, which you can then run in Flash Player 9.
  • 40. 13 Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2 Building Applications with the Flex Framework2 The majority of this book is dedicated to programming Flex applications, with detailed discussions of working with MXML and ActionScript. However, in order to meaningfully use most of what we discuss in the chapters that follow, you’ll need to know how to create a Flex project, how to compile the project, and how to deploy that project so that you can view it. In this chapter we’ll discuss important topics such as the tools required for creating Flex applications and how to create new projects for Flex applications. We’ll look at the elements comprising a Flex project and discuss compiling and deploying Flex applications. Using Flex Tool Sets In order to work with Flex and build Flex applications, you’ll need tools. At a mini- mum you must have a compiler capable of converting all your source files and assets into the formats necessary to deploy the application. That means you need to be able to compile MXML and ActionScript files into a .swf file. There are two primary tools you can use that include the necessary compilers: • The Flex SDK (Software Development Kit) • Flex Builder 2 The Flex SDK is a free product that includes the entire Flex framework as well as the mxmlc and compc compilers (see the section “Building Applications” later in this chap- ter, for more details on the compilers). You can download the SDK at http://www. adobe.com/products/flex/sdk. Flex Builder 2 is a commercial product designed to work with Flex, and it too includes the mxmlx and compc compilers. You can download a trial version of Flex Builder 2 or purchase a license at http://www.adobe.com/go/flexbuilder.
  • 41. 14 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Flex Builder includes the entire SDK. You can work with Flex Builder 2 in two ways: standalone and as a plug-in for Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org). The standalone version of Flex Builder 2 is built on Eclipse, so it and the plug-in version are essentially equivalent. The primary differences are: • Flex Builder 2 standalone does not require that you already have Eclipse installed, making it an optimal solution for those who have no other use for Eclipse. On the other hand, if you already use Eclipse, or if you intend to use Eclipse for other purposes, the standalone version would essentially require you to have two installations of Eclipse—one running Flex Builder and one standard installation. If you use or plan to use Eclipse for other reasons you should defi- nitely install the plug-in version of Flex Builder 2. • The standalone version disables Java Development Tools (JDT), a plug-in used by some standard Eclipse features such as Ant (http://ant.apache.org). If you want to use JDT, you should install the plug-in version of Flex Builder 2. Since Flex Builder is built on Eclipse, you can use any third-party Eclipse plug-ins with the standalone version of Flex Builder. Many factors might drive your decision as to whether to use the Flex SDK or Flex Builder 2. The following is a list of just a few to consider: Price The Flex SDK is a free product. It includes the entire Flex framework. Flex Builder 2, on the other hand, is a commercial product. There is no difference in the price between the standalone and plug-in versions of Flex Builder 2. Commitment to an existing IDE If you already have a considerable investment in an IDE in terms of time and resources, and if that IDE works very well for you, you may want to integrate the Flex SDK with your existing IDE. On the other hand, if you’re already using Eclipse, consider that you can install the Flex Builder 2 plug-in for an existing installation of Eclipse.
  • 42. Creating Projects | 15 Debugging capabilities The Flex SDK includes a command-line debugger. However, Flex Builder 2 includes an integrated debugger that allows you to set breakpoints and step through code, all from within your IDE. Efficiency Unless and until other IDEs have increased support for Flex (ActionScript and MXML), Flex Builder is the fastest way to build Flex applications. With its built- in code hinting, code completion, error detection, and debugging capabilities, Flex Builder is far superior to the SDK for serious Flex application developers. The majority of the content of this book is not dependent on any one tool. Much of our focus is on working with the Flex framework and ActionScript 3.0 and will require only the Flex SDK. When there are specific topics that do have dependencies on a particular tool, we make that clear. For example, in this chapter we discuss the differences between configuring a Flex Builder project versus a Flex SDK project. Creating Projects A Flex application consists of potentially many files. Although it’s possible that a Flex project could consist of as little as one source file, most use tens if not hundreds of files. A typical Flex project might utilize the following: MXML files These files contain the majority of the application view—the layout and UI com- ponents. You can read an introduction to MXML in Chapter 3. You can also learn about application and MXML components (both written in MXML) in Chapter 18. ActionScript classes These files contain the source code for all the custom components, data models, client-side business logic, and server proxies. You’ll find an introduction to ActionScript in Chapter 4. XML files Although XML is frequently loaded from a server as a dynamic response to an HTTP request from Flash Player, many applications also utilize static XML files as configuration parameters. Image files Flex applications can embed image files or load them at runtime. Working with images is covered in Chapter 9. Audio and video files Flex applications can load audio and video content for playback within the application. Audio and video are almost always loaded at runtime. Audio and video are also discussed in Chapter 9.
  • 43. 16 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Runtime shared libraries Runtime shared libraries are .swf files that contain code libraries that are shared between two or more Flex applications deployed on the same domain. In order to utilize a runtime shared library, you need two files: a .swf and a .swc. The .swf file contains the libraries, and the .swc file is used by the compiler to determine which libraries to exclude from the application .swf. Runtime shared libraries are discussed in more detail later in this chapter, in the section titled “Using Runtime Shared Libraries.” HTML wrapper file Flex applications are typically deployed on the Web. The published application is a .swf file. The most common way to playback a .swf on the Web is to embed it in an HTML page. The HTML wrapper file is the file that embeds the .swf. Setting Up a New Project How you configure a new Flex project depends in large part on what tool set you are using. If you’re using the Flex SDK, that tool set generally requires the most work in order to configure a new project. Creating an SDK project Presumably if you are using the Flex SDK, you are integrating it with an IDE such as Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), PrimalScript (http://www.sapien.com), or FlashDe- velop (http://www.osflash.org/flashdevelop). If you are indeed using an IDE, you most likely want to start a new project (or workspace or whatever particular terminology your IDE uses). If you are not using an IDE (you like to edit code using a plain-text editor), you will want to create a new directory for the project. You’ll place all the project files in the project directory, likely organizing them into subdirectories. Which subdirectory structure you use is ultimately up to you. You’ll need to know where and how you’re organizing all the source code and assets so that you can configure the appropriate compiler options when building the application. (Compiler options are discussed in the next section, “Building Applications.”) Files typically are organized into the following directories: src A directory containing all the source MXML and ActionScript class files. The files are then generally organized into packages. You can organize both MXML and ActionScript files into packages in a Flex project. Packages are discussed in more detail in Chapters 3 and 4. bin A directory to which you save the compiled version of the application. html A directory in which you keep the HTML wrapper file(s).
  • 44. Creating Projects | 17 assets A directory in which you save all the asset files used by the application either at compile time or at runtime. build A directory in which you can place build scripts if using Apache Ant. Creating a Flex Builder 2 project Using Flex Builder 2, you can create a new project with a few clicks on the mouse. From the Flex Builder 2 menus you can select File ➝ New ➝ Flex Project. This opens the Flex Project dialog which walks you through a short wizard comprising the following steps: 1. The first step asks you to select how the application will access data. Unless we specify otherwise, all the examples we provide in this book will work via the Basic option. See Figure 2-1. 2. The second step asks you to name the project. You can also specify a nondefault location for the new project directory. See Figure 2-2. 3. At the completion of step 2, you can click Finish. If you click Next, you’ll see a third step asking you to customize the source path and library path. These set- Figure 2-1. Specifying how the application will access data
  • 45. 18 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework tings specify classes and libraries that you want to use but that reside outside of the project directory or in a nonstandard location within the project directory. Unless stated otherwise, no examples in this book require you to customize the source path or library path. See Figure 2-3. Normally Flex Builder assumes that the main source directory is syn- onymous with the project directory. However, when you create a project that points to an existing directory, you may occasionally want to point to a directory that is a parent of the directory containing the main source files. In such cases you should be sure to set the Main source folder option in step 3 of the new project wizard, as shown in Figure 2-3. When you create a Flex Builder project, you’ll see that the new directory has a bin directory to which Flex Builder saves the compiled application by default, as well as an html-template directory which stores the templates used by Flex Builder to gener- ate the HTML wrapper file. You’ll also see that new Flex Builder Flex projects auto- matically create an MXML document with the same name as the project. Figure 2-2. Naming the project and specifying a location for the new project directory
  • 46. Building Applications | 19 Building Applications Once you’ve created a project and written some code, you’ll want to build the project, which means compiling it and deploying it. How you accomplish these tasks depends, in part, on what tools you’re using. The following subsections discuss how to compile using the mxmlc compiler. If you’re using Flex Builder 2, you may want to skip directly to the section “Compiling Using Flex Builder” later in this chapter. Figure 2-3. Setting the build paths for the new Flex project
  • 47. 20 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework Compiling Using mxmlc The mxmlc compiler is used to compile Flex applications (versus compc, which is used to compile components and libraries). When you use Flex Builder to compile, it automatically calls mxmlc (Flex Builder includes the SDK). There are several ways you can use mxmlc, including from the command line, from a .bat or shell script, from an IDE, and from Apache Ant. Initially we’ll look at using mxmlc from the command line since it’s the most basic way to use the compiler (though we’ll also look at using the compiler via Apache Ant later in this chapter). All the compiler flags we’ll look at from the command line also apply to any other use of the compiler. When you want to work with mxmlc from the command line, it’s generally a good idea to make sure you add it to your system path. If you’re running Windows and you’re uncertain how to edit your system path, follow these steps: 1. Right-click on My Computer from the desktop or from the Start menu, and select Properties. 2. Click on the Advanced tab, and then click the Environment Variables button. 3. In the System Variables list in the bottom part of the dialog, scroll until you see a variable called Path. Then edit the variable either by double-clicking on it or by selecting it and then clicking the Edit button. 4. At the end of the existing value, add the path to the Flex SDK’s bin directory. If you’re using Flex Builder, the default location is C:Program FilesAdobeFlex Builder 2Flex SDK 2bin. If you’re using the SDK and you installed the SDK in C:FlexSDK, the location is C:FlexSDKbin. Windows uses a semicolon (;) as a delimiter. If necessary, add a semicolon between the existing value and the new addition. 5. Click OK on each open dialog. For OS X and Linux you’ll want to set the PATH environment variable in your shell. If you are using .bash or any shell that supports .profile files, you will want to add a .profile file in your user directory (or edit the file if it already exists). You can edit the file with any text editor that you want. If you are familiar with vi, for example, you can simply open a Terminal and type vi ~/.profile. The .profile should con- tain a line such as the following: export PATH=$PATH:/Users/username/FlexSDK/bin The preceding assumes that you have installed the SDK in your user directory (you’ll need to change username to your actual username). If you’ve installed the SDK else- where you should modify the path correspondingly. Also note that the preceding assumes that you don’t want to add additional directories to your path. If you have an existing .profile file that already contains an export PATH line, you should simply append the Flex bin path to that line using a colon (:) as a delimiter. For example: export PATH=$PATH:/existing/directories:/Users/username/FlexSDK/bin
  • 48. Building Applications | 21 Once you’ve edited the .profile you’ll need to run the following command from any existing Terminal windows or command prompts: source ~/.profile To use the compiler from the command line you simply specify the compiler name followed by the options. The only required option is called file-specs, and it allows you to specify the entry point to the application you want to compile, i.e., the main MXML document (or ActionScript class): mxmlc -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Notice that file-specs is preceded by a hyphen. All options are preceded by a hyphen. You can get help for the compiler by running mxmlc with the help option: mxmlc -help The file-specs option is the default option for mxmlc. That means a value that is not preceded by an option flag will be interpreted as the value for file-specs. The fol- lowing example is equivalent to the preceding example: mxmlc SampleApplication.mxml Each of the following examples attempts to compile SampleApplication.mxml to SampleApplication.swf. Specifying an output location By default, mxmlc compiles the application to a .swf with the same name as the input file (i.e., SampleApplication.mxml compiles to SampleApplication.swf ) in the same directory as the input file. However, you can specify an output path using the output option. The following compiles SampleApplication.mxml to bin/main.swf: mxmlc SampleApplication.mxml -output bin/main.swf Specifying source paths The source path is the path in which the compiler looks for required MXML and ActionScript files. By default, the compiler looks in the same directory as the com- pile target (the file specified by file-specs). This means it will also look in subdirec- tories for documents and classes that are in packages. However, any files located outside the same directory structure will not be found using the default source path compiler settings. You can use the source-path option to specify one or more directories in which the compiler should look for the MXML and ActionScript files. You can specify a list of
  • 49. 22 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework directories by using spaces between directories. The following example looks for files in the current directory as well as in C:FlexApplicationCommonLibraries: mxmlc -source-path . C:FlexApplicationCommonLibraries -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Customizing application background color The default background color is the blue color you see for most Flex applications. You can use the default-background-color option to customize the background value. You can specify the value using 0x-prefixed hexadecimal representation in the form of RRGGBB. The following sets the default background color of SampleApplication to white: mxmlc -default-background-color=0xFFFFFF SampleApplication.mxml Note that the background color in this case is the background color of Flash Player. Flex components including Application (the main con- tainer of a Flex application) have backgrounds as well. Therefore, you have to set the styles of a Flex application’s components in most cases. Changing script execution settings Flash Player automatically places restrictions on script execution in an attempt to pre- vent applications from crashing client systems. This means that if too many levels of recursion occur, or if a script takes too long to execute, Flash Player will halt the script. The default-script-limits option allows you to customize each of these settings. The option requires two values: one for the maximum level of recursion and one for the maximum script execution time. The default maximum level of recursion is 1000, and the default maximum script execution time is 60 seconds (you cannot specify a value larger than 60 for this parameter): mxmlc -default-script-limits 200 15 -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml While it’s important to know about the existence of default-script- limits, it’s also important to know that it should rarely be used. If you have to increase the default-script-limits setting for an application to avoid an error, frequently it’s because there is a problem in the code or in the application logic. Setting metadata The .swf format allows you to encode metadata in the application file. The allowable metadata includes the following: title, description, creator, publisher, language, and date. You can set these values using options with the same names as the meta- data elements: mxmlc -title "Sample Application" -description "A Flex Sample Application" -file- specs SampleApplication.mxml
  • 50. Building Applications | 23 Using incremental builds By default, when you compile from the command line, mxmlc compiles a clean build every time. That means that it recompiles every source file, even if it hasn’t changed since you last compiled. That is because by default, mxmlc doesn’t have a way of knowing what has changed and what hasn’t. There are times when a clean build is exactly the behavior you want from mxmlc. However, in most cases you’ll find that it’s faster to use incremental builds. An incre- mental build is one in which the compiler recompiles only those elements that have changed since you last compiled. For all other elements it uses the previously com- piled versions. Assuming not much has changed since the previous compile, an incre- mental build can be much faster than a clean build. If you want to use incremental builds, you need a way to determine what things have changed between builds. When you set the -incremental option to true, mxmlc writes to a file in the same directory as the target file you are compiling, and it shares the same name. The name of the cache file is TargetFile_#.cache, in which the # is a num- ber generated by the compiler. For example, the following might write to a file called SampleApplication_302345.cache (where the number is determined by the compiler): mxmlc -incremental=true -file-specs SampleApplication.mxml Storing compiler settings in configuration files Although it is undoubtedly great fun to specify compiler options on the command line, you can also store settings in configuration files. You can then specify the con- figuration file as a single option from the command line. The load-config option lets you specify the file you want to load to use as the configuration file: mxmlc -load-config=configuration.xml SampleApplication.mxml By default, mxmlc uses a configuration file called flex-config.xml located in the frameworks directory of the SDK or Flex Builder installation. If you specify a value for the load-config option, that can override the flex-config.xml. Many, though not all, of the settings in flex-config.xml are required. That means that it’s important that you do one of the following: • Copy and modify the content of flex-config.xml for use in your custom configu- ration file. When you do so, you will likely have to modify several values in the file so that they point to absolute paths rather than relative paths. Specifically, you have to modify: — The <external-library-path> setting from the relative libs/playerglobal.swc to a valid path pointing to the actual .swc file — The <library-path> settings from libs and locale/{locale} to the valid paths pointing to those resources (you can keep the {locale} variable)
  • 51. 24 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework • Load your custom file in addition to the default. When you use the = operator to assign a value to the load-config option you load the file in place of the default. When you use the += operator, you load the file in addition to the default. Any values specified in the custom configuration file override the same settings in the default file: mxmlc -load-config+=configuration.xml SampleApplication.mxml Configuration files must have exactly one root node, and that root node must be a <flex-config> tag. The <flex-config> tag should define a namespace as in the fol- lowing example: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> </flex-config> Within the root node you can nest nodes corresponding to compiler options. You can configure any and every compiler option from a configuration file. However, the option nodes must appear in the correct hierarchy. For example, some option nodes must appear within a <compiler> tag, and others must appear within a <metadata> tag. You can determine the correct hierarchy from the compiler help. The following is a list of the options returned by mxmlc -help list: -benchmark -compiler.accessible -compiler.actionscript-file-encoding <string> -compiler.context-root <context-path> -compiler.debug -compiler.external-library-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.fonts.max-glyphs-per-face <string> -compiler.include-libraries [library] [...] -compiler.incremental -compiler.library-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.locale <string> -compiler.namespaces.namespace <uri> <manifest> -compiler.optimize -compiler.profile -compiler.services <filename> -compiler.show-actionscript-warnings -compiler.show-binding-warnings -compiler.show-deprecation-warnings -compiler.source-path [path-element] [...] -compiler.strict -compiler.theme [filename] [...] -compiler.use-resource-bundle-metadata -file-specs [path-element] [...] -help [keyword] [...] -licenses.license <product> <serial-number> -load-config <filename> -metadata.contributor <name> -metadata.creator <name> -metadata.date <text> -metadata.description <text> -metadata.language <code>
  • 52. Building Applications | 25 -metadata.localized-description <text> <lang> -metadata.localized-title <title> <lang> -metadata.publisher <name> -metadata.title <text> -output <filename> -runtime-shared-libraries [url] [...] -use-network -version -warnings You’ll notice that some options you already know, such as incremental and title, are prefixed (e.g., compiler.incremental and metadata.title). These prefixed com- mands are the full commands. The compiler defines aliases that you can use from the command line. That way, the compiler knows that when you type incremental, you really mean compiler.incremental. However, when you use a configuration file, you must use the full option names. Prefixes translate to parent nodes. For example, the following sets the incremental option to true and the title option to Example: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <compiler> <incremental>true</incremental> </compiler> <metadata> <title>Example</title> </metadata> </flex-config> In the options list you’ll notice that some options are followed by a value enclosed in <>. For example, the title option is followed by <text>. These values indicate that the option value should be a string. For example, as you can see in the preceding sample code, the <title> tag has a nested string value of Example. If an option is fol- lowed by two or more <value> values, the option node should contain child tags with the specified names. For example, the localized-title option is followed by <text> <lang>. Therefore, the following is an example of a configuration file that correctly describes the localized-title option: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <metadata> <localized-title> <text>Example</text> <lang>en_US</lang> </localized-title> </metadata> </flex-config> If an option is followed by [value] [...], it means the option node must contain one or more tags with the name specified. For example, file-specs is followed by [path- element] [...]. This means that the following is a valid configuration file specifying a file-specs value: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <file-specs>
  • 53. 26 | Chapter 2: Building Applications with the Flex Framework <path-element>Example.mxml</path-element> </file-specs> </flex-config> The following is also a valid configuration file. This time it defines several target files to compile: <flex-config xmlns="http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex-config"> <file-specs> <path-element>Example.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example2.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example3.mxml</path-element> <path-element>Example4.mxml</path-element> </file-specs> </flex-config> When an option is not followed by anything, it indicates that the value should be Boolean. For example, incremental is not followed by anything in the list. If you want a complete list of all compiler options you can use this command: mxmlc -help advanced Using Ant Using the compiler from the command line is not the best way to build applications, for the following reasons: • It’s inconvenient because you have to open a command line and type the com- mand each time. • Because you have to type the command each time, there’s a greater chance of introducing errors. • Not only is opening a command line and typing a command inconvenient, but it’s also slow. • Compiling from the command line doesn’t allow you much in the way of fea- tures, such as copying and deploying files, testing for dependencies, and so on. A standard tool used by application developers for scripting application builds is a program called Apache Ant. Ant (http://ant.apache.org) is an open source tool that runs on Java to automate the build process. This includes testing for dependencies (e.g., existence of directories), compiling, moving and copying files, and launching applications. Although you can use .bat files or shell scripts to achieve many of Ant’s basic tasks, Ant is extremely feature-rich (it offers support for compressing and uncompressing archives, email support, and FTP support, to name just a few) and can better handle potential errors than .bat or shell scripts. If you’re not familiar with Ant, the first thing you should do is to download and install Ant from http://ant.apache.org. Once you’ve installed Ant, you should add a new environment variable, called ANT_HOME, as well as the Ant bin directory to the
  • 54. Building Applications | 27 system path. The ANT_HOME environment variable should point to the root directory of the Ant installation on the computer. For example, if Ant is installed at C:Ant on a Windows system, the ANT_HOME environment variable should point to C:Ant. Addi- tionally, you should add the Ant bin directory to the system path. For example, if Ant is installed at C:Ant, add C:Antbin to the system path. Ant uses XML files named build.xml. The build.xml file for a project contains all the instructions that tell Ant how to compile and deploy all the necessary files (e.g., the application). The build.xml file consists of a <project> root node that contains nested target nodes. The project node allows you to define three attributes: name The name of the project default The name of the target to run when no other target is specified basedir The directory to use for all relative directory calculations For our sample build.xml, the <project> node looks like this to start: <project name="FlexTest" default="compile" basedir="./"> </project> This says that the base directory is the directory in which the file is stored, and the default target is called compile. Within the <project> node is one or more <target> nodes. Each target node repre- sents a named collection of tasks. Ant tasks could involve compiling an applica- tion, moving files, creating directories, launching applications, creating ZIP archives, using FTP commands, and so on. You can read all about the types of tasks available within Ant at http://ant.apache.org/manual/tasksoverview.html. In our dis- cussion of using Ant with Flex applications we’ll focus primarily on just a few of the core Ant tasks, such as exec and move. The following defines the compile target for our sample build.xml file: <project name="FlexTest" default="compile" basedir="./"> <target name="compile"> <exec executable="C:FlexSDKbinmxmlc.exe"> <arg line="-file-specs FlexTest.mxml" /> </exec> </target> </project> This compile target runs by default because it is set as the default for the project. When you run the Ant build, the compile target runs the exec task with an execut- able of C:FlexSDKbinmxmlc.exe (you’ll need to change the value to point to mxmlc. exe on your system as necessary). Nested within the <exec> tag you can place one or
  • 55. Another Random Scribd Document with Unrelated Content
  • 56. silence on the part of M. Xavier, this disdain for my person, irritated me to the last degree. What should I have done, if that which I expected had happened? I did not ask myself. I simply wanted it to happen. M. Xavier was really a very pretty boy, even prettier than his photograph. A light blonde moustache—two little arcs of gold—set off his lips better than in his portrait, their red and fleshy pulp inviting a kiss. His light blue eyes, dusted with yellow, were strangely fascinating, and his movements were characterized by the indolence, the weary and cruel grace, of a girl or young deer. He was tall, slender, very supple, ultra-modern in his elegance, and wonderfully seductive through his evident cynicism and corruption. In addition to the fact that he had pleased me from the first, his resistance, or, rather, his indifference, caused my desire to quickly ripen into love. One morning I found M. Xavier awake, and sitting on the edge of the bed. I remember that he wore a white silk shirt with blue dots. I modestly started to withdraw, but he called me back: "Oh! what is the matter? Come in. You are not afraid of me, are you?" With his two hands clasped over his leg, and his body swaying to and fro, he surveyed me for a long time with the utmost effrontery, while I, with slow and graceful movements, and blushing a little, placed a tray on the little table near the mantel. And, as if he then really saw me for the first time, he said: "Why, you are a very stylish girl. How long, then, have you been here?" "Three weeks, Monsieur." "Well, that's astonishing!" "What is astonishing, Monsieur?" "That I have never noticed that you were so beautiful. Come here!" said he.
  • 57. I approached, trembling a little. Without a word he took me by the waist, and forced me to sit down beside him. "Oh! Monsieur Xavier," I sighed, struggling, but not very vigorously. "Stop, I beg of you. If your parents were to see you?" But he began to laugh: "My parents! Oh! my parents, you know,—I have supped on them." This was a phrase that he was continually using. When one asked him anything, he answered: "I have supped on that." And he had supped on everything. To gain a little time I asked him: "There is one thing that puzzles me, Monsieur Xavier. How does it happen that one never sees you at Madame's dinners?" "You certainly don't expect me, my dear ... oh! no, you know, Madame's dinners tire me too much." "And how is it," I insisted, "that your room is the only one in the house in which there is not a picture of the pope?" This observation flattered him. He answered: "Why, my little baby, I am an Anarchist, I am. Religion, the Jesuits, the priests,—oh! no, I have enough of them. I have supped on them. A society made up of people like papa and mamma? Oh! you know ... none of that in mine, thank you!" Now I felt at ease with M. Xavier, in whom I found, together with the same vices, the drawling accent of the Paris toughs. It seemed to me that I had known him for years and years. In his turn he asked me: "Tell me, are you intimate with papa?" "Your father!" I cried, pretending to be scandalized. "Oh! Monsieur Xavier! Such a holy man!" His laugh redoubled, and rang out loudly:
  • 58. "Papa! Oh! papa! Why, he is intimate with all the servants here. Then you are not yet intimate with papa? You astonish me." "Oh! no," I replied, laughing also. "Only he brings me the 'Fin de Siècle,' the 'Rigolo,' the 'Petites Femmes de Paris'." That set him off in a delirium of joy, and, shaking more than ever with laughter, he cried: "Papa! Oh! he is astonishing!" And, being now well started, he continued in a comical tone: "He is like mamma. Yesterday she made me another scene. I am disgracing her,—her and papa. Would you believe it? And religion, and society, and everything! It is twisting. Then I declared to her: 'My dear little mother, it is agreed; I will settle down to a regular life on the day when you shall have given up your lovers.' That was a hot one, eh? That shut her up. Oh! no, you know, they make me very tired, these authors of my being. I have supped on their lectures. By the way, you know Fumeau, don't you?" "No, Monsieur Xavier." "Why, yes ... why, yes ... Anthime Fumeau?" "I assure you that I do not." "A fat fellow, very young, very red-faced, ultra-stylish, the finest teams in Paris. Fumeau ... an income of three millions. Tartlet the Kid? Why, yes, you know him." "But I tell you that I do not know him." "You astonish me! Why, everybody knows him. Don't you know the Fumeau biscuit? The young fellow who had a judicial adviser appointed for him two months ago? Don't you remember?" "Not at all, I swear to you, Monsieur Xavier." "Never mind, little turkey. Well, I played a good one on Fumeau last year,—a very good one. Guess what? You do not guess?" "How do you expect me to guess, since I do not know him?"
  • 59. "Well, it was this, my little baby. I introduced Fumeau to my mother. Upon my word! What do you think of that for a discovery? And the funniest part of it is that in two months mamma succeeded in blackmailing Fumeau to the tune of three hundred thousand bones. What a godsend that, for papa's works! Oh! they know a thing or two; they are up to snuff! But for that, the house would have gone up. We were over head and ears in debt. The priests themselves were refusing to have anything to do with us. What do you say to that, eh?" "I say, Monsieur Xavier, that you have a queer way of treating the family." "What do you expect, my dear? I am an Anarchist, I am. I have supped on the family." That morning Madame was even nicer than usual with me. "I am well satisfied with your service," she said to me. "Mary, I raise your wages ten francs." "If she raises me ten francs every time," thought I to myself, "that will not be bad. It is more suitable." Oh! when I think of all that! I, too, have supped on it. M. Xavier's fancy did not last long; he had quickly "supped on me." Not for a moment, moreover, was I able to keep him in the house. Several times, on entering his room in the morning, I found the bed undisturbed and empty. M. Xavier had been out all night. The cook knew him well, and she had told the truth when she said: "He prefers to roam elsewhere." He pursued his old habits, and went in search of his customary pleasures, as before. On those mornings I felt a sudden pain in my heart, and all day long I was sad, sad! The unfortunate part of it all is that M. Xavier had no feeling. He was not poetical, like M. Georges. He did not vouchsafe me the slightest
  • 60. attention. Never did he say to me a kind and touching word, as lovers do in books and plays. Moreover, he liked nothing that I liked; he did not like flowers, with the exception of the big carnations with which he adorned the buttonhole of his coat. Yet it is so good to whisper to each other things that caress the heart, to exchange disinterested kisses, to gaze for eternities into one another's eyes. But men are such coarse creatures; they do not feel these joys,— these joys so pure and blue. And it is a great pity. M. Xavier knew nothing but vice, found pleasure only in debauchery. In love all that was not vice and debauchery bored him. "Oh! no, you know, that makes me very tired. I have supped on poetry. The little blue flower ... we must leave that to papa." To him I was always an impersonal creature, the domestic to whom he gave orders and whom he maltreated in the exercise of his authority as master, and with his boyish cynical jests. And he often said to me, with a laugh in the corner of his mouth,—a frightful laugh that wounded and humiliated me: "And papa? Really, you are not yet intimate with papa? You astonish me." Once I had not the power to keep back my tears; they were choking me. M. Xavier became angry at once: "Oh! no, you know, that is the most tiresome thing of all. Tears, scenes? You must stop that, my dear; or else, good evening! I have supped on all that nonsense." For my part I feel an immense and imperative need of that pure embrace, of that chaste kiss, which is no longer the savage bite of the flesh, but the ideal caress of the soul. I need to rise from the hell of love to the paradise of ecstasy, to the fullness, the delicious and candid silence, of ecstasy. But M. Xavier had supped on ecstasy. Nothing pained me so much as to see that I had not left the slightest trace of affection, not the smallest tenderness, in his heart. Yet I believe that I could have loved the little scoundrel,—that I could have devoted myself to him, in spite of everything, like a
  • 61. beast. Even to-day I think regretfully of his impudent, cruel, and pretty phiz, and of his perfumed skin. And I have often on my lips, from which, since then, so many lips ought to have effaced it, the acid taste, the burning sensation of his kiss. Oh! Monsieur Xavier! Monsieur Xavier! One evening, before dinner, when he had returned to dress,—my! but how nice he looked in evening dress!—and as I was carefully arranging his affairs in the dressing-room, he asked me, without embarrassment or hesitation, and almost in a tone of command, precisely as he would have asked me for hot water: "Have you five louis? I am in absolute need of five louis to-night. I will return them to you to-morrow." That very morning Madame had paid me my wages. Did he know it? "I have only ninety francs," I answered, a little ashamed,—ashamed of his question, perhaps, but more ashamed, I think, at not having the entire sum that he asked. "That makes no difference," said he; "go and get me the ninety francs. I will return them to you to-morrow." He took the money, and, by way of thanks, said in a dry, curt tone that froze my heart: "That's good!" Then, putting out his foot with a brutal movement, he commanded insolently: "Tie my shoes. And be quick about it; I am in a hurry." I looked at him sadly, imploringly: "Then you are not to dine here this evening, Monsieur Xavier?" "No, I dine in town. Make haste." As I tied his shoes, I moaned:
  • 62. "And you will not return to-night? I shall cry all night long. It is not nice of you, Monsieur Xavier." His voice became hard and thoroughly wicked. "If you lent me your ninety francs that you might say that, you can take them back. Here, take them!" "No, no," I sighed. "You know very well that it was not for that." "Well, then, don't bother me." He had quickly finished dressing, and he started off without kissing me and without saying a word. The next day nothing was said about returning the money; and I did not wish to claim it. It gave me pleasure to think that he had something of me. And now I understand the women who kill themselves with toil, the women who sell themselves to passers-by, at night, on the sidewalks, the women who steal, and the women who kill, in order to get a little money with which to procure indulgences for the little man whom they love. That is what has happened to me, in fact. Or has it really happened to me in the degree that I say? Alas! I do not know. There are moments when, in presence of a man, I feel so soft, so soft, without will, without courage, so yielding ... yes, so yielding! Madame was not slow in changing her manner toward me. Instead of treating me nicely, as she had done before, she became severe, exacting, fault-finding. I was only a blockhead; I never did anything right; I was awkward, unclean, ill-bred, forgetful, dishonest. And her voice, which at first had been so sweet, so much like the voice of a comrade, now became as sour as vinegar. She gave me orders in a blunt and humiliating tone. No more gifts of underwear, no more cold cream and powder, no more of the secret counsels and private confidences that had so embarrassed me at first. No more of that
  • 63. suspicious comradeship which at bottom I felt not to be kindness, and which caused me to lose my respect for this mistress who raised me to the level of her own vice. I snapped at her sharply, strong in my knowledge of all the open or hidden infamies of the house. We got to quarreling like fish-wives, hurling our week's notice at each other's heads, like dirty rags. "What, then, do you take my house for?" she cried. "Do you think you are working for a fast woman?" Think of her cheek! I answered: "Oh! your house is a clean one, indeed! You can boast of it. And you? Let us talk about it; yes, let us talk about it! You are clean, too! And what about Monsieur? Oh! la! la! And do you think they don't know you in the neighborhood, and in Paris? Why, you are notorious, everywhere. Your house? A brothel. And, in fact, there are brothels which are not as dirty as your house." And so these quarrels went on; we exchanged the worst insults and the lowest threats; we descended to the vocabulary of the street- walkers and the prisons. And then, suddenly, everything quieted down. M. Xavier had only to show signs of a reviving interest in me, —fleeting, alas!—when straightway began again the suspicious familiarity, the shameful complicities, the gifts of garments, the promises of doubled wages, the washing with Simon cream,—it is more suitable,—and the initiations into the mysteries of refined perfumes. M. Xavier's conduct toward me was the thermometer by which Madame regulated her own. The latter's kindness immediately followed the former's caresses. Abandonment by the son was accompanied by insults from the mother. I was the victim, continually tossed back and forth, of the enervating fluctuations to which the intermittent love of this capricious and heartless boy was subject. One would have thought that Madame must have played the spy with us, must have listened at the door, must have kept tabs for herself on the different phases of our relations. But no. She simply had the instinct of vice, that's all. She scented it through
  • 64. walls and souls, as a dog inhales in the breeze the far-away odor of game. As for Monsieur, he continued to dance about among all these events, among all the hidden dramas of this house, alert, busy, cynical, and comical. In the morning he disappeared, with his face of a little pink and shaven faun, with his documents, with his bag stuffed with pious pamphlets and obscene newspapers. In the evening he reappeared, cravated with respectability, armored with Christian Socialism, his gait a little slower, his gestures a little more oily, his back slightly bent, doubtless under the weight of the good works done during the day. Regularly every Friday he gave me the week's issues of indecent journals, awaiting just the right occasion for making his declaration, and contenting himself with smiling at me with the air of an accomplice, caressing my chin, and saying to me, as he passed his tongue over his lips: "Ho, ho, she is a very queer little one, indeed!" As it amused me to watch Monsieur's game, I did not discourage him, but I promised myself to seize the first exceptionally favorable opportunity to sharply put him where he belonged. One afternoon I was greatly surprised to see him enter the linen- room, where I sat alone, musing sadly over my work. In the morning I had had a painful scene with M. Xavier, and was still under the influence of the impression it had left on me. Monsieur closed the door softly, placed his bag on the large table near a pile of cloth, and, coming to me, took my hands and patted them. Under his blinking eyelid his eye turned, like that of an old hen dazzled by the sunlight. It was enough to make one die of laughter. "Célestine," said he, "for my part, I prefer to call you Célestine. That does not offend you, does it?" I could hardly keep from bursting.
  • 65. "Why, no, Monsieur," I answered, holding myself on the defensive. "Well, Célestine, I think you charming! There!" "Really, Monsieur?" "Adorable, in fact; adorable, adorable!" "Oh! Monsieur!" His fingers had left my hand, and were caressing my neck and chin with fat and soft little touches. "Adorable, adorable!" he whispered. He tried to embrace me. I drew back a little, to avoid his kiss. "Stay, Célestine, I beg of you. I do not annoy you, do I?" "No, Monsieur; you astonish me." "I astonish you, you little rogue. I astonish you? Oh! you don't know me." His voice was no longer dry. A fine froth moistened his lips. "Listen to me, Célestine. Next week I am going to Lourdes; yes, I conduct a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Do you wish to come to Lourdes? I have a way of taking you to Lourdes. Will you come? Nobody will notice anything. You will stay at the hotel; you will take walks, or do what you like. And I will meet you in the evening." What stupefied me was not the proposition in itself,—for I had been expecting it a long time,—but the unforeseen form which Monsieur gave it. Yet I preserved all my self-possession. And, desirous of humiliating this old rake, of showing him that I had not been the dupe of Madame's dirty calculations and his own, I lashed him squarely in the face with these words: "And M. Xavier? Say, it seems to me that you are forgetting M. Xavier? What is he to do while we are amusing ourselves in Lourdes, at the expense of Christianity?"
  • 66. An indirect and troubled gleam, the look of a surprised deer, lighted in the darkness of his eyes. He stammered: "M. Xavier?" "Why, yes!" "Why do you speak to me of M. Xavier? There is no question of M. Xavier? M. Xavier has nothing to do with this." I redoubled my insolence. "On your word? Oh! don't pretend to be ignorant. Am I hired, yes or no, to be company for M. Xavier? Yes, am I not? Well, I am company for him. But you? Oh! no, that is not in the bargain. And then, you know, my little father, you are not my style." And I burst out laughing in his face. He turned purple; his eyes flamed with anger. But he did not think it prudent to enter into a discussion, for which I was terribly armed. He hastily picked up his bag, and slunk away, pursued by my laughter. The next day, apropos of nothing, Monsieur made some gross remark to me. I flew into a passion. Madame happened along. I became mad with anger. The scene that ensued between us three was so frightful, so low, that I cannot undertake to describe it. In unspeakable terms I reproached them with all their filth and with all their infamy. I demanded the return of the money that I had lent M. Xavier. They foamed at the mouth. I seized a cushion, and hurled it violently at Monsieur's head. "Go away! Get out of here, at once, at once!" screamed Madame, threatening to tear my face with her nails. "I erase your name from the membership of my society; you no longer belong to my society, lost creature, prostitute!" vociferated Monsieur, stuffing his bag with thrusts of his fists. Finally Madame withheld my week's wages, refused to pay the ninety francs that I had lent M. Xavier, and obliged me to return all
  • 67. the rags that she had given me. "You are all thieves," I cried; "you are all pimps!" And I went away, threatening them with the commissary of police and the justice of the peace. "Oh! you are looking for trouble? Yes, well, you shall have it, scoundrels that you are!" Alas! the commissary of police pretended that the affair did not concern him. The justice of the peace advised me to let it drop. He explained: "In the first place, Mademoiselle, you will not be believed. And that is as it should be. What would become of society if a servant could be right against a master? There would be no more society, Mademoiselle. That would be anarchy." I consulted a lawyer; he demanded two hundred francs. I wrote to M. Xavier; he did not answer me. Then I counted up my resources. I had three francs fifty left—and the street pavement. XIII November 13. And I see myself again at Neuilly, with the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows, a sort of house of refuge, and also an employment-bureau for housemaids. My! but it is a fine establishment, with a white front, and at the rear of a large garden. In the garden, which is ornamented, at intervals of fifty steps, with statues of the Virgin, there is a little chapel, very new and sumptuous, built from the proceeds of the collections. Large trees surround it. And every hour one hears the tolling of the bells. It is so nice to hear the bells toll. It stirs in one's heart memories of things so old and long forgotten. When the bells toll, I close my eyes and
  • 68. listen, and I see again landscapes which perhaps I never saw before, and which I recognize all the same,—very peaceful landscapes, imbued with all the transformed recollections of childhood and youth,... and bagpipes,... and, on the moor bordering on the beaches, the slowly-moving panorama of holiday crowds. Ding ... dinn ... dong! It is not very gay; it is not the same thing as gaiety; it is even sad at bottom,—sad, like love. But I like it. In Paris one never hears anything but the fountaineer's horn, and the deafening trumpet of the tramway. In the establishment of the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows, you sleep in attic dormitories; you are fed meagrely on scraps of meat and spoiled vegetables, and you pay twenty-five sous a day to the institution. That is to say, the sisters withhold twenty-five sous from your wages, when they have secured a place for you. They call that getting you a place for nothing. Further, you have to work from six o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening, like the inmates of prisons. You are not allowed to go out. Meals and religious exercises take the place of recreation. Ah! the good sisters do not bore themselves, as M. Xavier would say; and their charity is a famous trap. They rope you in finely! But there it is,—I shall be stupid all my life. The stern lessons of experience, the succession of misfortunes, never teach me anything, are of no use to me. I am always crying out and raising a row, but in the end I am always victimized by everybody. Several times comrades had spoken to me of the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows. "Yes, my dear, it seems that only very swell people come to the box,... countesses,... marchionesses. One may chance on astonishing places." I believed it. And then, in my distress, I remembered with some feeling, booby that I am, the happy years that I spent with the little sisters of Pont-Croix. Moreover, I had to go somewhere. Beggars cannot be choosers.
  • 69. When I arrived, there were forty housemaids there. Many came from a great distance,—from Brittany, from Alsace, from the south, girls who had never yet had a place,—awkward, clumsy, with livid complexions, sly airs, and singular eyes that looked over the walls of the convent at the mirage of Paris lying beyond. Others, not as green, were just out of a place, like myself. The sisters asked me whence I came, what I knew how to do, whether I had good references, and whether I had any money left. I told them all sorts of things, and without further inquiry they welcomed me, saying: "This dear child! We will find her a good place." We all were their "dear children." While waiting for the promised good place, each of these dear children was put at some work, according to her faculties. Some did cooking and housework; others worked in the garden, digging in the soil, like navvies. I was promptly put at sewing, having, said Sister Boniface, supple fingers and a distinguished air. I began by mending the chaplain's pantaloons and the drawers of a sort of monk who was just then preaching a retreat in the chapel. Oh! those pantaloons! Oh! those drawers! Surely they did not resemble M. Xavier's. Then they intrusted to me tasks less ecclesiastical,—quite profane, in fact,—the making of fine and delicate linen garments, among which I again found myself in my element. I participated in the making of elegant bridal trousseaux, of rich baby-linen, ordered of the good sisters by charitable and wealthy ladies who were interested in the establishment. At first, after so many shocks, in spite of the bad food, the chaplain's pantaloons, the lack of liberty, in spite of all the fierce exploitation that I could plainly see, I felt a sense of real relief amid this calm and silence. I did not reason much; I felt rather a need of prayer. Remorse over my past conduct, or, rather, the weariness resulting from it, prompted me to fervent repentance. Several times in succession I confessed to the chaplain. He was a queer man, this chaplain, very round and red, a little rude in manner and in speech,
  • 70. and afflicted with a disagreeable body-smell. He asked me strange questions, and insisted on knowing my favorite authors. "Armand Silvestre? Yes. To be sure, he is dirty. I would not give you his works instead of the 'Imitation.' No, not that; yet he is not dangerous. But you must not read impious books, books against religion,—Voltaire, for instance. No, never; never read Voltaire,—that is a mortal sin,—or Renan, or Anatole France. They are dangerous." "And Paul Bourget, Father?" "Paul Bourget! He is entering on the right path; that I do not deny. But his Catholicism is not sincere,—not yet; at least, it is much mixed. Your Paul Bourget makes upon me the impression of a wash- basin,—yes, that is it,—of a wash-basin, in which no matter what has been washed, and in which olives from Calvary are swimming amid hair and soapsuds. You should wait a little before reading him! Huysmans! Well, he is a little stiff in his expressions,—yes, indeed, very stiff,—but he is orthodox." And he said to me further: "Yes ... Ah! you do mad things with your body! That is not good. No, indeed, that is always bad. But, sin for sin, it is better to sin with your masters, when they are pious persons, than with people of your own condition. It is less serious, less irritating to the good God. And perhaps these people have dispensations. Many have dispensations." As I named M. Xavier and his father, he cried: "No names. I do not ask you for names. Never tell me names. I do not belong to the police. Besides, those are rich and respectable people whom you have just named,—extremely religious people. Consequently you are wrong; you are rebellious against morality and against society." These ridiculous conversations considerably cooled my religious zeal, my ardor for repentance. The work, too, annoyed me. It made me homesick for my own calling. I felt impatient desires to escape from this prison, to return to the privacies of dressing-rooms. I sighed for
  • 71. the closets full of sweet-smelling linen, the wardrobes stuffed with silks, satins, and velvets, so smooth to the touch, and the bath- rooms where white flesh is lathered with oily soaps. And the stories of the servants' hall, and the unforeseen adventures, and the evenings on the stairs and in the chambers! It is really curious; when I have a place, these things disgust me, but, when I am out of a place, I miss them. I was tired also, excessively tired, sickened in fact, from having eaten for a week nothing but preserves made out of spoiled currants, of which the good sisters had purchased a large quantity in the Levallois market. Anything that the holy women could rescue from the refuse-heap was good enough for us. What completed my irritation was the evident, the persistent effrontery with which we were exploited. Their game was a very simple one, and they took little pains to conceal it. They found places only for those girls of whom they could make no use themselves. Those from whom they could reap any profit whatever they held as prisoners, taking advantage of their talents, of their strength, and of their simplicity. As the height of Christian charity, they had found a way of having servants who paid for the privilege of working, and whom they stripped, without remorse and with inconceivable cynicism, of their modest resources and their little savings, after making a profit out of their labor. And the costs kept running on. I complained, at first feebly, and then more forcibly, that they had not once summoned me into the reception-room, but to all my complaints the hypocrites answered: "A little patience, my dear child! We are planning to get you an excellent place, my dear child; for you we desire an exceptional place. We know what sort of a place you should have. As yet not one has offered itself such as we wish for you, and such as you deserve." Days and weeks passed. The places were never good enough, never exceptional enough for me. And the costs kept running on.
  • 72. Although there was a watcher in the dormitory, the things that went on every night were enough to make one shudder. As soon as the watcher had finished her round, and every one seemed to be asleep, you could see white forms arise and glide about among the beds. The good sisters, holy women, closed their eyes that they might see nothing, stopped up their ears that they might hear nothing. Wishing to avoid scandal, they tolerated horrors of which they feigned ignorance. And the costs kept running on. Fortunately, when I was at the very depth of my ennui, I was delighted by the entrance into the establishment of a little friend, Clémence, whom I called Cléclé, and whom I had known in a place where I had worked in the Rue de l'Université. Cléclé was a charming pink blonde, extremely gay and lively, and very fly. She laughed at everything, accepted everything, and was contented everywhere. Devoted and faithful, she knew but one pleasure,—that of being useful to others. Vicious to the marrow of her bones, her vice had nothing repugnant about it, it was so gay, artless, and natural. She bore vice as a plant bears flowers, as a cherry-tree bears cherries. Her pretty, bird-like chatter sometimes made me forget my feeling of weariness, and put to sleep my tendency to rebel. Our two beds were next to each other; and one night she told me, in a funny sort of whisper, that she had just had a place in the house of a magistrate at Versailles. "Fancy, there were nothing but animals in the den,—cats, three parrots, a monkey, and two dogs. And they all had to be taken care of. Nothing was good enough for them. We were fed on old scraps, the same as in this box here. But they had what was left over of the poultry; they had cream, and cakes, and mineral water, my dear! Yes, the dirty beasts drank nothing but Evian water, because of an epidemic of typhoid fever that was raging at Versailles. In the winter Madame had the cheek to take the stove out of my chamber, and put it in the room where the monkey and the cats slept. Would you believe it? I detested them, especially one of the dogs, a horrible old pug, that was always sniffing at my skirts, in spite of the kicks that I
  • 73. gave it. The other morning Madame caught me whipping it. You can imagine the scene. She showed me the door in double-quick time." Oh! this Cléclé! how agreeable and amusing she was! People have no idea of all the annoyances to which domestics are subjected, or of the fierce and eternal exploitation under which they suffer. Now the masters, now the keepers of employment-bureaus, now the charitable institutions, to say nothing of the comrades, some of whom are capable of terrible meanness. And nobody takes any interest in anybody else. Each one lives, grows fat, and is entertained by the misery of some one poorer than himself. Scenes change, settings are shifted, you traverse social surroundings that are different and even hostile, but everywhere you find the same appetites and passions. In the cramped apartments of the bourgeois and in the elegant mansion of the banker you meet the same filth, and come in contact with the inexorable. The result of it all, for a girl like me, is that she is conquered in advance, wherever she may go and whatever she may do. The poor are the human manure in which grow the harvests of life, the harvests of joy which the rich reap, and which they misuse so cruelly against us. They pretend that there is no more slavery. Oh! what nonsense? And what are domestics, then, if not slaves? Slaves in fact, with all that slavery involves of moral vileness, inevitable corruption, and hate-engendering rebellion. Servants learn vice in the houses of their masters. Entering upon their duties pure and innocent,—some of them,—they are quickly made rotten by contact with habits of depravity. They see nothing but vice, they breathe nothing but vice, they touch nothing but vice. Consequently, from day to day, from minute to minute, they get more and more used to it, being defenceless against it, being obliged, on the contrary, to serve it, to care for it, to respect it. And their revolt arises from the fact that they are powerless to satisfy it, and to break down all the obstacles in the way of its natural expansion. Oh! it is extraordinary. They demand of us all the
  • 74. virtues, complete resignation, all the sacrifices, all the heroisms, and only those vices that flatter the vanity of the masters, and which yield them a profit. And all this in return for contempt and wages ranging from thirty-five to ninety francs a month. No, it is too much! Add that we live in perpetual distress of mind, in a perpetual struggle between the ephemeral semi-luxury of the places that we fill, and the anguish which the loss of these places causes us. Add that we are continually conscious of the wounding suspicions that follow us everywhere,—bolting doors, padlocking drawers, marking bottles, numbering cakes and prunes, and continually putting us to shame by invasive examination of our hands, our pockets, and our trunks. For there is not a door, not a closet, not a drawer, not a bottle, not an article, that does not cry out to us: "Thief! thief! thief!" And also the continuous vexation caused by that terrible inequality, that frightful disproportion in our destinies, which, in spite of familiarities, smiles, and presents, places between our mistresses and ourselves an impassable abyss, a whole world of sullen hatreds, suppressed desires, and future vengeances,—a disproportion which is rendered every minute more perceptible, more humiliating, more disgracing, by the caprices, and even by the kindnesses, of those beings that know no justice and feel no love,—the rich. Did you ever think for a moment of the mortal and legitimate hatred, of the murderous—yes, murderous—desires with which we must be filled when we hear one of our masters, in trying to describe something base and ignoble, cry out in our presence, with a disgust that casts us so violently outside the pale of humanity: "He has the soul of a domestic; that is the sentiment of a domestic." Then what do you expect us to become in these hells? Do these mistresses really imagine that I should not like to wear fine dresses, ride in fine carriages, have a gay time with lovers, and have servants of my own? They talk to us of devotion, of honesty, of fidelity. Why; but it would choke you to death, my little chippies!
  • 75. Once, in the Rue Cambon ... how many of these places I have had!... the masters were marrying their daughter. They gave a grand reception in the evening, at which the wedding-presents were exhibited,—enough of them to fill a furniture-van. By way of jest I asked Baptiste, the valet de chambre: "Well, Baptiste, and you? What is your present?" "My present?" exclaimed Baptiste, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yes, tell me, what is it?" "A can of petroleum lighted under their bed. That is my present." It was a smart answer. Moreover, this Baptiste was an astonishing man in politics. "And yours, Célestine?" he asked, in his turn. "Mine?" I contracted my two hands into the shape of talons, and, pretending to claw a face ferociously, I answered: "My nails, in their eyes!" The butler, without being asked, remarked quietly, while arranging flowers and fruits in a glass dish with his fastidious fingers: "I would be satisfied to sprinkle their faces in church with a bottle of good vitriol." And he stuck a rose between two pears. Oh! yes, how we love them! The extraordinary thing is that these revenges are not taken more frequently. When I think that a cook, for instance, holds her masters' lives in her hands every day; a pinch of arsenic instead of salt, a little dash of strychnine instead of vinegar, and the thing is done. Well, no, it must be that we have servitude in our very blood! I have no education, and I write what I think and what I have seen. Well, I say that all this is not beautiful. I say that from the moment when any one installs another under his roof, though he were the
  • 76. last of poor devils, or the lowest of disreputable girls, he owes them protection, he owes them happiness. I say also that, if the master does not give it to us, we have a right to take it, even from his strong-box, even from his blood. But enough of this! I do wrong to think of things that make my head ache and turn my stomach. I come back to my little stories. I had much difficulty in leaving the sisters of Our Lady of Thirty-Six Sorrows. In spite of Cléclé's companionship, I was growing old in the box, and beginning to be hungry for liberty. When they understood that I had made up my mind to go, then the worthy sisters offered me places and places. There were places only for me. But I am not always a fool, and I have a keen eye for rascalities. All these places I refused. In all of them I found something that did not suit me. You should have seen the heads of these holy women. It was laughable. They had calculated on finding me a place in the house of some old bigot, where they could get back out of my wages the cost of my board with usury, and I enjoyed playing them a trick in my turn. One day I notified Sister Boniface that it was my intention to go that very evening. She had the cheek to answer me, raising her arms to heaven: "But, my dear child, it is impossible." "How so? Why is it impossible?" "Why, my dear child, you cannot leave the house like that. You owe us more than seventy francs. You will have to pay us first these seventy francs." "And with what?" I replied. "I have not a sou; you can search me." Sister Boniface gave me a hateful look, and, then declared, with severe dignity: "But, Mademoiselle, do you know that this is a
  • 77. robbery? And to rob poor women like us is worse than robbery; it is a sacrilege, for which the good God will punish you. Reflect." Then anger got the better of me, and I cried: "Say, then, who is it that steals here,—you or I? No, but you are astonishing, my little mothers." "Mademoiselle, I forbid you to speak in this way." "Oh! don't talk to me. What? One does your work, one toils like a beast for you from morning to night, one earns enormous money for you, you give us food which dogs would refuse, and then we must pay you into the bargain! Indeed, you have no cheek!" Sister Boniface had turned very pale. I felt that coarse, filthy, furious words were on her lips, and ready to leave them; but, not daring to let them go, she stammered: "Silence! You are a girl without shame, without religion. God will punish you. Go, if you will; but we keep your trunk." I planted myself squarely before her, in an attitude of defiance, and, looking her full in the face, I said: "Well, I should like to see you try it. Just try to keep my trunk, and you will have a visit from the commissary of police in short order. And, if religion consists in patching the dirty pantaloons of your chaplains, in stealing bread from poor girls, in speculating on the horrors that go on every night in the dormitory...." The good sister was fairly white. She tried to cover my voice with her own. "Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle!" "Oh! don't pretend ignorance of the dirty things that go on every night in the dormitory! Do you dare to tell me, in my face, your eyes looking into mine, that you are ignorant of them? You encourage them because they are profitable to you,—yes, because they are profitable to you."
  • 78. And trembling, panting, with dry throat, I completed my accusation. "If religion is all that; if it is religious to keep a prison and a brothel, —well, then, I have enough of religion. My trunk, do you hear? I wish my trunk. You will give me my trunk at once." Sister Boniface was frightened. "I do not wish to discuss with a lost creature," said she, in a voice of dignity. "All right; you shall go." "With my trunk?" "With your trunk." "Very well; but it takes tall talk to get one's rights here. It is worse than at the custom-house." I went, in fact, that very evening. Cléclé, who was very nice, and who had saved something, lent me twenty francs. I went to engage a room in a lodging-house in the Rue de la Sourdière, and I bought a seat among the gallery-gods at the Porte-Saint-Martin. The play was "The Two Orphans." How true it is! Almost my own story. I passed there a delightful evening, weeping, weeping, weeping. XIV November 18. Rose is dead. Decidedly, misfortune hangs over the captain's house. Poor captain! His ferret dead ... Bourbaki dead ... and now it is Rose's turn! After a sickness of some days, she was carried off day before yesterday, in the evening, by a sudden attack of congestion of the lungs. She was buried this morning. From the windows of the linen-room I saw the procession pass in the road. The heavy coffin, borne by six men, was covered with crowns and with bunches of white flowers, like that of a young virgin. A considerable crowd, in
  • 79. long, dark, babbling files,—all Mesnil-Roy—followed Captain Mauger, who, wearing a tightly-fitting black frock-coat, and holding himself very stiffly, led the mourners, in thoroughly military fashion. And the church bells, tolling in the distance, responded to the sound of the rattle waved by the beadle. Madame had warned me that I was not to go to the funeral. However, I had no desire to go. I did not like this fat and wicked woman; her death leaves me very calm and indifferent. Yet perhaps I shall miss Rose; perhaps I shall miss my occasional conversations with her in the road. But what a source of gossip this event must be at the grocer's! I was curious to know what impression this sudden death had made upon the captain. And, as my masters were visiting, I took a walk in the afternoon along the hedge. The captain's garden is sad and deserted. A spade stuck in the ground indicates abandoned work. "The captain will not come into the garden," said I to myself; "he is undoubtedly weeping in his chamber, among the souvenirs." And suddenly I perceive him. He has taken off his fine frock-coat, and put on his working-clothes again, and, with his old foraging-cap on his head, he is engaged in manuring his lawns. I even hear him humming a march in a low voice. He leaves his wheelbarrow, and comes toward me, carrying his fork on his shoulder. "I am glad to see you, Mademoiselle Célestine." I should like to offer him consolation or pity. I search for words, for phrases. But how can one find a touching word in presence of such a droll face? I content myself with repeating: "A great misfortune, captain, a great misfortune for you! Poor Rose!" "Yes, yes," he says, tamely. His face is devoid of expression. His movements are uncertain. He adds, jabbing his fork into a soft spot in the ground near the hedge: "Especially as I cannot get along without anybody." I insist upon Rose's domestic virtues. "You will not easily replace her, Captain."
  • 80. Decidedly, he is not touched at all. One would say even, from looking at his eyes that have suddenly become brighter and from watching his movements, now more alert, that he has been relieved from a great weight. "Bah!" says he, after a short silence, "everything can be replaced." This resignation astonishes me, and even scandalizes me a little. To amuse myself, I try to make him understand all he has lost in losing Rose. "She knew so well your habits, your tastes, your manias! She was so devoted to you!" "Well, if she had not been, that would have been the last straw," he growled. And, making a gesture by which he seems to put aside all sorts of objections, he goes on: "Besides, was she so devoted to me? Oh! I may as well tell you the truth. I had had enough of Rose. Yes, indeed! After we took a little boy to help us, she attended to nothing in the house, and everything went badly, very badly. I could not even have an egg boiled to my taste. And the scenes that went on, from morning to night, apropos of nothing. If I spent ten sous, there were cries and reproaches. And, when I talked with you, as I am doing now,—well, there was a row, indeed; for she was jealous, jealous. Oh! no. She went for you; you should have heard her. In short, I was no longer at home in my own house." He breathes deeply, noisily, and, with the new and deep joy that a traveler feels on returning from a long journey, he contemplates the sky, the bare grass-plots in the garden, the violet interlacings of the branches of the trees against the light, and his little house. This joy, so offensive to Rose's memory, now seems to me very comical. I stimulate the captain to further confidences. And I say to him, in a tone of reproach: "Captain, I think you are not just to Rose."
  • 81. "Egad!" he rejoins, quickly. "You do not know; you don't know anything about it. She did not go to tell you of all the scenes that she made, her tyranny, her jealousy, her egoism. Nothing belonged to me here any longer. Everything in my house was hers. For instance, you would not believe it, my Voltaire arm-chair was never at my disposition. She had it all the time. She had everything, for that matter. To think that I could no longer eat asparagus with oil, because she did not like it! Oh! she did well to die. It was the best thing that could happen to her, for, in some way or other, I should have gotten rid of her. Yes, yes, I should have gotten rid of her. She was becoming too much for me. I had had enough. And let me tell you; if I had died before her, Rose would have been prettily trapped. I had a bitter pill in store for her. My word for it!" His lip curls in a smile that ends in an atrocious grimace. He continues, chopping each of his words with moist little puffs of laughter: "You know that I made a will, in which I gave her everything,— house, money, dividends, everything. She must have told you; she told everybody. Yes, but what she did not tell you, because she did not know it, is that, two months later, I made a second will, cancelling the first, in which I did not leave her anything,—not a sou." Unable to contain himself longer, he bursts out laughing, a strident laugh that scatters through the garden like a flight of scolding sparrows. And he cries: "Ah! that's an idea, hey? Oh! her head,—you can see it from here,— on learning that I had left my little fortune to the French Academy. For, my little Célestine, it is true; I had left my fortune to the French Academy. Ah! that's an idea!" I allow his laughter to become quieter, and then I gravely ask him: "And now, Captain, what are you going to do?" The captain gives me a long, sly, amorous look, and says:
  • 82. "Well, that depends on you." "On me?" "Yes, on you; on you alone." "And how is that?" A moment of silence follows, during which, straightening up and twisting his pointed beard, he seeks to envelop me in a seductive fluid. "Come," he says, suddenly, "let us go straight to the point. Let us speak squarely,—soldier-fashion. Do you wish to take Rose's place?" I was expecting the attack. I had seen it coming from the depth of his eyes. It does not surprise me. I receive it with a serious and unmoved expression. "And the wills, Captain?" "Oh! I tear them up." I object: "But I do not know how to cook." "Oh! I will do the cooking; I will make my bed; I will do everything." He becomes gallant, sprightly; his eye sparkles. He leans towards the hedge, stretching out his neck. His eyes become bloodshot. And in a lower voice he says: "If you came to me, Célestine,—well...." "Well, what?" "Well, the Lanlaires would die of rage. Ah! that's an idea!" I lapse into silence, and pretend to be profoundly dreaming. The captain becomes impatient. He digs the heels of his shoes into the sandy path. "See, Célestine, thirty-five francs a month; the master's table; the master's room; a will; does that suit you? Answer me."
  • 83. "We will see later. But, while waiting, take another." And I run away that I may not blow into his face the tempest of laughter that is roaring in my throat. I have, then, only the embarrassment of choice. The captain or Joseph? To live as a servant-mistress, with all the contingencies that such a position involves,—that is, to remain still at the mercy of a stupid, coarse, changeable man, and dependent upon a thousand disagreeable circumstances and a thousand prejudices; or else to marry, and thus acquire a sort of regular and respected liberty, in a situation free from the control of others, and liberated from the caprice of events? Here at last a portion of my dream promises to be realized. It is very evident that I should have liked a realization on a grander scale. But, when I think how few chances present themselves, in general, in the existence of a woman like me, I must congratulate myself that something is coming to me at last other than this eternal and monotonous tossing back and forth from one house to another, from one bed to another, from one face to another face. Of course, I put aside at once the captain's plan. Moreover, I had no need of this last conversation with him to know the sort of grotesque and sinister mountebank, the type of odd humanity, that he represents. Beyond the fact that his physical ugliness is complete,— for there is nothing to relieve and correct it,—he gives one no hold on his soul. Rose believed firmly in her assured domination over this man, and this man tricked her. One cannot dominate nothing; one can have no influence over emptiness. I cannot, without choking with laughter, think of myself for an instant in the arms of this ridiculous personage and caressing him. Yet, in spite of this, I am content, and I feel something akin to pride. However low the source from which it comes, it is none the less an homage, and this homage strengthens my confidence in myself and in my beauty.
  • 84. Quite different are my feelings toward Joseph. Joseph has taken possession of my mind. He retains it, he holds it captive, he obsesses it. He disturbs me, bewitches me, and frightens me, by turns. Certainly, he is ugly, brutally, horribly ugly; but, when you analyze this ugliness, you find something formidable in it, something that is almost beauty, that is more than beauty, that is above beauty, —something elemental. I do not conceal from myself the difficulty, the danger, of living, whether married or not, with such a man, of whom I am warranted in suspecting everything, and of whom, in reality, I know nothing. And it is this that draws me to him with a dizzy violence. At least he is capable of many things in crime, perhaps, and perhaps also in the direction of good. I do not know. What does he want of me? What will he do with me? Should I be the unscrupulous instrument of plans that I knew nothing of, the plaything of his ferocious passions? Does he even love me? And why does he love me? For my beauty; for my vices; for my intelligence; for my hatred of prejudices,—he who makes parade of all the prejudices? I do not know. In addition to this attraction which the unknown and mysterious has for me, he exercises over me the bitter, powerful charm of force. And this charm, yes, this charm acts more and more on my nerves, conquers my passive and submissive flesh. It is something which I cannot define exactly, something that takes me wholly, by my mind and by my sex, revealing in me instincts of which I was unaware, instincts that slept within me without my knowledge, and that no love, no thrill of voluptuousness had before awakened. And I tremble from head to foot when I remember the words of Joseph, saying to me: "You are like me, Célestine. Oh! not in features, of course. But our two souls are alike; our two souls resemble each other." Our two souls! Is that possible? These sensations that I feel are so new, so imperious, so strongly tenacious, that they do not leave me a minute's rest, and that I remain always under the influence of their stupefying fascination. In vain do I seek to occupy my mind with other thoughts. I try to read
  • 85. and walk in the garden, when my masters are away, and, when they are at home, to work furiously at my mending in the linen-room. Impossible! Joseph has complete possession of my thought. And not only does he possess it in the present, but he possesses it also in the past. Joseph so interposes himself between my entire past and myself that I see, so to speak, nothing but him, and that this past, with all its ugly or charming faces, draws farther and farther from me, fades away, disappears. Cléophas Biscouille; M. Jean; M. Xavier; William, of whom I have not yet spoken; M. Georges, himself, by whom I believed my soul to have been branded forever, as the shoulder of the convict is branded by the red iron; and all those to whom, voluntarily, joyously, passionately, I have given a little or much of myself, of my vibrant flesh and of my sorrowful heart,—all of them shadows already! Uncertain and ludicrous shadows that fade away until they are hardly recollections, and then become confused dreams ... intangible, forgotten realities ... vapors ... nothing. Sometimes, in the kitchen, after dinner, when looking at Joseph and his criminal mouth, and his criminal eyes, and his heavy cheek-bones, and his low, knotty, humpy forehead, upon which the lamplight accumulates hard shadows, I say to myself: "No, no, it is not possible. I am under the influence of a fit of madness; I will not, I cannot, love this man. No, no, it is not possible." And yet it is possible, and it is true. And I must at last confess it to myself, cry out to myself: "I love Joseph!" Ah! now I understand why one should never make sport of love; why there are women who rush, with all the consciencelessness of murder, with all the invincible force of nature, to the kisses of brutes and to the embraces of monsters, and who voluptuously sound the death-rattle in the sneering faces of demons and bucks.
  • 86. Joseph has obtained from Madame six days' leave of absence, and to-morrow he is to start for Cherbourg, pretending to be called by family matters. It is decided; he will buy the little café. But for some months he will not run it himself. He has some one there, a trusted friend, who is to take charge of it. "Do you understand?" he says to me. "It must first be repainted, and made to look like new; it must be very fine, with its new sign, in gilt letters: 'To the French Army!' And besides, I cannot leave my place yet. That I cannot do." "Why not, Joseph?" "Because I cannot now." "But when will you go, for good?" Joseph scratches his neck, gives me a sly glance, and says: "As to that I do not know. Perhaps not for six months yet; perhaps sooner; perhaps even later. I cannot tell. It depends." I feel that he does not wish to speak. Nevertheless I insist: "It depends on what?" He hesitates to answer; then, in a mysterious and, at the same time, somewhat excited tone, he says: "On a certain matter; on a very important matter." "But what matter?" "Oh! on a certain matter, that's all." This is uttered in a brusque voice,—a voice not of anger exactly, but of impatience. He refuses to explain further. He says nothing to me of myself. This astonishes me, and causes me a painful disappointment. Can he have changed his mind? Has my curiosity, my hesitation, wearied him? Yet it is very natural that I should be interested in an event in the success or failure of which I am to share. Can the suspicion that I have not been able to hide, my suspicion of the outrage committed by him upon the little Claire,
  • 87. have caused Joseph to reflect further, and brought about a rupture between us? But I feel from the tremor of my heart that my resolution, deferred out of coquetry, out of a disposition to tease, was well taken. To be free, to be enthroned behind a bar, to command others, to know that one is looked at, desired, adored by so many men! And that is not to be? And this dream is to escape me, as all the others have? I do not wish to seem to be throwing myself at Joseph's head, but I wish to know what he has in his mind. I put on a sad face, and I sigh: "When you have gone, Joseph, the house will no longer be endurable to me. I have become so accustomed to you now, to our conversations." "Oh! indeed!" "I too shall go away." Joseph says nothing. He walks up and down the harness-room, with anxious brow and preoccupied mind, his hands nervously twirling a pair of garden- shears in the pocket of his blue apron. The expression of his face is unpleasant. I repeat, as I watch him go back and forth: "Yes, I shall go away; I shall return to Paris." He utters not a word of protest, not a cry; not even an imploring glance does he turn upon me. He puts a stick of wood in the stove, as the fire is low, and then begins again his silent promenade up and down the room. Why is he like this? Does he, then, accept this separation? Does he want it? Has he, then, lost his confidence in me, the love that he had for me? Or does he simply fear my imprudence, my eternal questions? Trembling a little, I ask him: "Will it cause you no pain, Joseph, if we do not see each other again?"
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