Tutorial Overview

The Creating a LiveCycle Data Services ES2 Application tutorial guides you through the end-to-end process of developing a LiveCycle Data Services application.

The tutorial is a companion to the Engineering Support Center sample application. The tutorial steps you through the development of some areas of the sample application. You can explore the sample for more examples of Data Services feature implementations.

For more information about developing LiveCycle Data Services applications, see Using LiveCycle Data Services.

    About the sample

    The Engineering Support Center sample application is a Flash application with a LiveCycle Data Services server back end. The application is used by (the fictional company) GlobalCorp’s call center employees and customers.

    The business workflow

    Customers of GlobalCorp contact the corporate support center to log complaints about products that they have purchased. Support center agents perform the following tasks in response to the complaints:

    • Retrieve the details of the complaint and the customer’s information (for example, their name and email address). This is typically done by telephone.

    • Enter the information in an electronic form to create a case file.

    • Email the file to the engineering team to formally begin the case resolution process.

    • When the case is resolved, agents update the case file with the resolution details. They then contact the customer to provide the resolution and close the case.

    Entering data into forms is time consuming and mistakes are common. During telephone conversations, customers tend to interject information that is not important to the case, which increases the length of the call. Also, it is difficult to extract information for efficiency metrics from the case files.

    The requirements

    GlobalCorp wants to improve the efficiency of this business process. They have the following requirements for the solution:

    • Enable customers to use an online form to provide case details and contact information.

    • When the customer submits the form, the case is automatically created and assigned to an agent.

    • When the agent updates the case, the customer can automatically see the new information.

    • Call center supervisors can monitor case activity to make sure they are closed in a reasonable time.

    • All users need to log in to use the application.

    The solution

    The Engineering Support Center application uses Data Services, a back-end database, and Flash client applications to implement the solution. The customer, the call center agent, and the supervisor all use a different software client. Each client provides slightly different features because each type of user performs different tasks.

    To download the sample, go to the LiveCycle Data Services Developer Center.

      Tutorial modules

      The Creating a Data Services Application tutorial is divided into several modules. The modules are designed so that you can choose to complete all or only some of them:

      • Complete all modules in the order that they are presented to learn the end-to-end application development process.

      • Complete a subset of the modules to focus on specific application development tasks.

      • The Getting Started module is mandatory. Complete this module before continuing with any other module.

      Getting Started

      Install required software and set up your development environment. After you configure a web application and create a Flash Builder project, you are ready to continue with any other module. (See Getting Started.)

      Creating Entities and Database Tables

      Create and configure a data model to persist information required of GlobalCorp’s call center business workflow. Learn how to create entities, value expressions, and relationships. Deploy the model to create database tables. (See Create the Data Model.)

      Developing the Data-Centric Client Application

      Complete the development of the supervisor dashboard. Learn how to generate client ActionScript classes from the data model and bind data components to service operations. Customize the template for generating model-driven forms. (See Developing the Data-Centric Client Application.)

      Server-side Programming and Configuration

      Customize assembler classes and deploy them to the server. Integrate Data Services with Spring security to implement authentication and authorization. (See Server-Side Configuration and Programming.)

      Packaging and Deploying

      Compile, package, and deploy the application to the Tomcat application server. (See Packaging and Deploying the Application.)