Tomás Lin’s Programming Brain Dump

There is an incredible wealth of amazing looking Flash components in the market today. Tools like Cooliris and the 3D Wall provide visually stunning components that can quickly make any website come alive. With Grails and the Google App Engine, we can build simple, secure and powerful content management engines for these components with very little effort.

In this post, I walk you through all the steps you need in hosting, deploying and securing a Cooliris CMS for the Google App Engine using Grails.

Tip: Flex is also XML friendly, so you can use this technique to add CMS-ed apps on Flex.

Videos

Videos are best viewed in HD and full screen.

1. XML-driven Flash Components, Content Management Systems and the App Engine
   
2. Building a simple CMS with Grails
   

3. Outputing XML from Grails
   

4. Integrating and connecting the Cooliris component into Grails and deployment to Google App Engine
   

5. Building a simple Image Proxy service for Flash Components to overcome Flash Security Exceptions
   

6. Access Control on the Google App Engine with Grails
   

Links:

• The Library Application: http://grailsgae.appspot.com
• Source Code on GitHub: http://github.com/tomaslin/Cooliris-CMS-for-AppEngine

Flash Components

• Flashloaded: Makers of 3dWall and other cool effects
• FlashDen.net: Component Marketplace
• Cooliris.com: Maker of the application we use.

Groovy and Grails

• Grails website
• Google App Engine Plugin
• SpringSource blog and screencast on GAE deployment
• Groovy Markup Builders
• Authentication Patch

Google App Engine

• Google App Engine for Java
• Security and Access Control

There is also a $2 Deluxe Version of these videos.