I’ve been thinking deeply about how applications are architected. Tyler and I put together a MVC framework which we’ve been reluctant to release because he’s not sure if it’s quite right or if it’s different enough from other frameworks, and because I don’t have time to put it up and document it. So we’ve been brainstorming on how it might be better.
I’ve decided that there are two main focuses when designing a Flex application, and it results in two different kinds of frameworks. There is Flex-focused applications and server-focused applications. The difference between these two applications is the location of the majority of domain logic.
In Flex-focused applications you have a full domain model with methods and properties and relationships between the models. There is a lot of logic on the Flex side that is not presentation logic.
In server-focused applications Flex takes on a view role. This is where value objects are used the most. More calls are probably made to the server because the Flex app needs to know what to do next or to display next. The Flex app contains mostly presentation logic.
Right now I think most of the popular frameworks are server-focused. Value objects are abundantly used. A ModelLocator is used because the model on the Flex side is pretty flat.
Right now I mostly do Flex-focused development. Not because I am not as comfortable on the server, but because the applications I make are things like image editors, document creators, etc. and not dashboards into server views. Right now I need a different kind of framework. Right now I need something other than Cairngorm or PureMVC.