Depending on the client needs and the project specifications, Anden Solutions either uses Cairngorm or Mate frameworks for the development of rich Internet applications (RIA) using Adobe Flex.

Cairngorm

The Cairngorm Microarchitecture is defined on the Adobe Labs site as “a lightweight yet prescriptive framework for rich Internet application (RIA) development.”

Cairngorm consist of a library (swc file) and a set of patterns that organize the development work. This collection of design patterns (microarchitecture) defines how we should handle the following design challenges:

• Handling user gestures on the client
• Encapsulating business logic and server interactions
• Managing state on the client and representing this state to the user interface.

Anden Solutions reaps the benefits of the Cairngorm architecture especially when developing complex RIA applications with multiple use-cases and views, that require a team of developers. Cairngorm has been very helpful for making those applications easily extensible and manageable.

For more information about Cairngorm visit http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Cairngorm

Mate

Mate framework is defined as “a tag-based, event-driven Flex framework that focuses on giving developers maximum flexibility.”  It has been developed by asfusion and it’s picking up a lot of steam in the Flex development community. Mate is pronounced like the Argentine tea (mah -teh) that gives AndenSolutions’ developers their daily doses of caffeine (actually, mateine).

In a few words, Mate is an MXML-based Flex framework that encourages the use of the MVC architectural pattern.  It consist of a swc file available for download from the asfusion web site.  Like Cairngorm, this framework also addresses event handling, data binding, and asynchronous processing. However, Mate utilizes the built-in event-driven nature of Flex applications instead of building a framework-specific event architecture. This allows for a very lightweight and flexible architecture.

The framework is built around an Event Map. The Event Map is a MXML file(s) that consists of a collection of handlers to respond to incoming events and perform any number of appropriate actions.

Mate also uses the Event Map to support dependency injection. Instead of databinding elements from the Model to the appropriate View component, child-by-child, you let Injectors do the work for you. An Injector will insert the appropriate property into all instances of a particular component, without having to pass it through the component’s parental hierarchy (extract from insideria.com).

For more information about Mate visit http://mate.asfusion.com/

Tags: Adobe Flex, benefits, Cairngorm, Mate