The PureMVC project began in November 2006 and its purpose was to deliver a simple framework that enables quick implementation of rich client applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept. I sad earlier that this framework is more complex because, originally it was implemented in ActionScript 3 for use with Adobe Flex, Flash and AIR, but in time has expanded and now allows development on a wide variety of platforms. PureMVC is being ported in several languages such as: C#, JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby.

The framework has two versions that are supported with reference implementations Standard and MultiCore. “In short, the Standard Version provides a simple methodology for separating your coding interests according to the MVC concept. Beyond that, the MultiCore Version allows multiple PureMVC applications to run within the same virtual machine, modular programming.”

PureMVC implements a different concept in contrast with the standard MVC design pattern. The Model, View and Controller are implemented as Singleton classes:

• The Model caches named references to Proxies, which expose an API for manipulating the Data Model (including data retrieved from remote services).
• The View primarily caches named references to Mediators, which adapt and steward the View Components that make up the user interface.
• The Controller maintains named mappings to Command classes, which are stateless, and only created when needed.

There is a fourth class, the Façade, that initializes and caches the Core actors (Model, View and Controller), and provides a single place to access all of their public methods. It acts as a communication bridge throughout the application. These classes are referred to as the Core Actors.

The framework has a Publish/subscribe-style Observer notification system and the communication is being done through this scheme rather than AS3 Events, which is understandable considering the whole group of languages that’s covering.

The differences between the Standard and MultiCore version, like the name underlines it is that the second one uses independent program modules each with their own independent PureMVC ‘Core’. And instead of Singleton classes there are Multitons(stores a map of instances). Each Core is referenced by an associated Multiton Key.

This project has a well developed documentation containing: source code freely available, complete API documentation, conceptual and UML Diagrams and plenty of demos show the basics and demonstrate best practices.

Conclusion

Because the amount of information about PureMVC is vast I tried to be as succinct as possible. Like most of the MVC frameworks, pureMVC has some good points and some bad ones. But the fact that it’s trying to be general and reach different platforms can be an issue. I am just saying that the generalization of this framework can make it mediocre in some way.

For a deep insight of this framework and its documentation check the PureMVC site.

A recently Beta released product, created by Romuald Quantin – an Actionscript developer, is the Soma Framework. Being at its beginning is very probable that many of you didn’t have the chance to hear or work with it. So I’ll try to highlight the important information you need to know about it, structured in two parts.

Soma, the MVC Framework

Soma is an open source MVC Framework written in AS3 and it is specially developed for Actionscript and Flash website. Its goal is to ease the work by handling the common development that’s required in building a flash site: deep-linking, loading, backgrounds, page management, content management, assets, contextual menu, transitions and so on.

It’s a light framework that doesn’t require MVC knowledge for you to use it. An important fact for developers is that it has been built upon the core of another MVC framework: Cairngorm. The author explains: I’ve made this choice because I want Soma to be “easy-accessed” and even if Cairngorm is originally a Flex framework, I believe its syntax, event-based system and “design philosophy” are closer to what a Flash user would expect.

But Soma is not only a MVC Framework .It is XML-based and uses a reference to a XML site definition almost all the time. The structure, content, assets and assets behaviors are stored in this XML site definition. It also automates tasks and it is generated. But this is for the second part of the description.

SomaUI, the source code generator

SomaUI is an AIR-Java tool and its main purpose is to generate source code, the base of a Flash site in AS3, created with Soma ready to be used for further development, for Flash Player 9 or 10 and for Flash or Flex SDK developer. SomaUI has very useful features that ease you when starting a site:

• building an XML file required in order to make Soma working
• exporting deploy files (html, css, etc)
• exporting source (actinscript, Flash file, XML, etc)
• compile with the Flex SDK

This software gives you a large-hand when you create a project, choose specific settings such as name, package, flash player version, and so on. You can write the xml definition of your site or load a template and finally, export it.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, because I recently heard about this framework I didn’t get to use it, I can say that, from what I’ve seen in the video tutorial on the home page and red about this product, Soma Framework is a real easer for you work, time-saver and I like the fact that has a specific set: Actionscript and Flash development. When you want to create a Flash site you know there is a Framework especially created to help you in your development.

For further more information about this product, its resources, software requirements, docs and the latest version released visit the Soma homepage. And as an example of a Flash site built with this framework there is Soma Protest site where you can find out more stuff about Soma.

And don’t forget about OMSF and TLF the new open-sources from Adobe. We wrote about them in an earlier post.

The first one is Open Source Media Framework (OSMF). Is part of the Strobe project which aims to establish an open standard for flash based media player. OSMF is a framework for building robust, feature-rich video players and applications based on the Adobe Flash Platform. It is designed to reduce costs associated with developing players in-house. Adobe specifies that the OSMF’s flexible architecture allows the developer to easily customize their player for the browser or the desktop, incorporating plugins for advertising, reporting, and content delivery along with standard player features such as playback controls, video navigation, buffering, and Dynamic Streaming.

The second one comes with “sophisticated typography capabilities” that will improve web applications. The Text Layout Framework (TLF), an extensible ActionScript library, built on the new text engine in Adobe® Flash® Player 10 and Adobe AIR 1.5, enables developers to create layout text on web applications with support for complex languages, bidirectional text, multi-columns and other advanced typographical features and controls. The beautiful part of an open source framework is that developers can use or extend existing components, or use the framework to create their own text components.

Adobe’s director of standards and open source, Dave McAllister asserted that “by releasing OSMF and TLF as open source, we are helping facilitate the creation and sharing of best practices for media players and rich text-based Web application development. We believe these efforts will strengthen the industry and lead to the next generation of Web applications, content and video experiences.”

You can find out more and even experience the new products through the demos on their page:
1. Open Source Media Framework (OSMF)
2. Text Layout Framework (TLF) on Adobe Labs

This let’s you create an entirely new class of web applications and games where multiple users can interact and transmit data in real-time. It can be used also for applications such as workspace collaboration and education. The only limit is your imagination.

Hemlock was developed by MintDigital to solve an annoying problem that is present in most real-time interactive web experiences. The fact is they are not real-time at all, just simulated, with the front-end site constantly polling the back-end database for changes to the data.

Hemlock’s approach is to combine the user interface and networking power of Flash with the scalability of Jabber/XMPP, the protocol that powers presence notification and real-time communication. The framework works almost like a push e-mail. A client registers with the server to receive a message and it is informed whenever a new and relevant one appears(no polls are requiered). Being a many-to-many apps it means that multiple users can interact with the same data in real-time.

This framework eases the way for web applications of a higher level, making it very handy for developers to build cool apps without having to worry about a cost-effective or unresponsive app.

For more information take a visit to http://hemlock-kills.com