Flex with Spring - is web container required ?

[alt_amit]

I am planning to use Flex client with Spring framework as backend. Must Spring jars be put in a Web container (like Tomcat) ? Seems like BlazeDS bridge between Flex and Spring is a must, and BlazeDS needs to be deployed in a Web container like Tomcat ?

To put other way, was there a way Flex could be used with Spring without Tomcat, and use Spring's remoting for synchronous remote calls from Flex client and JMS for asynchronous events delivery to Flex client ?

[mirror303]

You will need to use a webapp container such as tomcat to be able to listen for requests from your Flex client. Obviously, Flex can not speak RMI or JMS.

By the way, if you are a Java developer, consider using GWT (instead of Flex)

[alt_amit]

Thanks, I think Flex has/will get more traction, so we'll stick to Flex. The debugging within Tomcat on the server is slightly more cumbersome than plain java server, but that's OK. It does help that app can be within browser too.

[Helena]

To put other way, was there a way Flex could be used with Spring without Tomcat, and use Spring's remoting for synchronous remote calls from Flex client and JMS for asynchronous events delivery to Flex client ?

You have to deploy your lib into your app server as you would normally.
In my experience flex3 is far superior to gwt with java, making remoting incredibly simple as well as messaging across all tiers.

[sparky62]

I'm now on my third production application using the set up you're proposing. Flex on the client and Adobe Blaze DS (or LCDS) with Spring on the server.
With a few lines of bean config you can set your container up to proxy Flex's mx:RemoteObject calls directly to your POJO-based business service tier hosted in another container (using Spring's super cool RMI proxies).

http://graemeharker.blogspot.com

[Miki.Gevirtz]

Seems like BlazeDS bridge between Flex and Spring is a must

BlazeDS is more than just bridge between Flex and Spring
BlazeDS enables :
>High performance data transfer for more responsive applications
>Real-time server push over standard HTTP
>Full pub/sub messaging that extends existing messaging infrastructure

Moreover Spring and Adobe are planning to Enhanced Integration between them