Spark | Alpha Preview

Project Page | SparkAlpha

Here are some instructions for getting running with the spark preview.

• SVN: http://svn1.cvsdude.com/osflash/spark/trunk/
• EXPORT: http://dev.codegent.com/spark_export.zip

1. checkout from svn or download zip above
2. create a mysql db called spark_example
3. edit /webapps/example/WEB-INF/spark.properties and change the db connection details
4. run start.sh (linux/mac) or start.bat (win) in the /bin/ directory.
5. the first time spark loads it will create the db, this is done by the script /webapps/exmaple/WEB-INF/services/PopulateModel.js
6. if it looks like everything is working point your browser at http://localhost:8080/example/resources/remoting-test.swf
7. now you can call the scripts in /webapps/exmaple/WEB-INF/services/

It shows how scripts work in spark, and different ways you can connect to the database using hibernate in spark. The client is pritty simple, something I built quickly to test the remoting methods.

To expose a method for remoting you use the meta object. This object is only in the context during compile.

addMethod(String methodName, String paramTypes, String returnType)
addInterface(String className)
setExtends(String className)
 
Examples:
 
// add a business interface, all these methods will be exposed to remoting clients 
meta.addInterface('some.business.package.MyBusinessObject');
 
// add a method which will be exposed to remoting clients
meta.addMethod('myRemotingFunc','String,Integer','java.util.List');
function myRemotingFunc(someStr,someNum){
  var list = new Packages.java.util.LinkedList();
  list.add(someStr);
  list.add(someNum);
  return list;
}

Why is this needed? Its used by the compiler to generate a interface used to expose the script to remoting.

This is how scripts access beans in the spring application context, access the http session, etc.

This is exposed to scripts as the spark object. Here is the api.

getCookie(req,name)
getResources(path)
getResource(file)
getMessageSource()
getApplicationContext()
getBeans()
addCookie(cookie)
createCookie(name, value)
getCookieByName(name)
getCookies()
getSession(create)
getSession()
 
/*
Note: Need to add access to all or part of http request object. DONE in SVN.
Examples:
*/
 
var isAuth = spark.session.getAttribute('user_auth');
var someService = spark.beans.getBean('serviceInSpring');

As this java api is called from js you can call get methods as properties so spark.getSession() and spark.session will both work.

Each script also has a log object. This is just a standard log4j logger. so have all the normal methods. debug(msg), isDebugEnabled() etc. For more info see log4j.

The other option is print() this prints values via System.out.println();. You should try to avoid it.

more info to follow.