SPAT 2.0 Developer Notes

SPAT is developed using AS3 and FLEX, from Adobe, and is published as a 'signed application with captive runtime' using Adobe AIR.

You will need Adobe Flash Builder and git installed to make modifications to this software.

You can find this software on ICOM's gitlab instance, here: http://gitlab.icomfiles.com/actionscript/spat_2

Note, this repo contains SPAT, module resources, and a few tools used to administer it.

How SPAT Works

SPAT is developed as a main wrapper application which loads a SQLLite database and a series of sub modules. These sub modules are developed in several ways.

1. As internal modules. Modules that require extensive access to the SQLLite DB are considered 'internal' modules. One such example is the 'Examples' module. It is developed directly within the main SPAT project.
2. As external Flex modules. Modules can be developed using Flex. Existing flex modules have been developed within the "ICOM_SPAT_Modules" project in the same repo.
3. As external Flash modules. Modules can also be developed using AS2/3 in Flash. Currently only two modules use this approach - the "Case Study" module.

Publishing SPAT

Publishing SPAT requires the use of special certificates, which can be found here:

Certificates required to publish this software can be found here: R:\TeamInteractive\_cert\!publishing\desktop_air\

Use the latest cert (2015) and the password is IcomIcomIcom1

Deploying SPAT

NOTE - VERY IMPORTANT

It is important that you do not overwrite the W drive modules or data folders when deploying a new version of SPAT. Doing so will revert the W drive contents with the simple testing data within the SPAT working folder.

Johnson 2018-05-17: DO NOT COPY OVER THE data folder!

To avoid this, follow this procedure:

1. Follow all steps from the 'Publishing SPAT' section above.
2. Backup the contents of the SPAT W\SPAT\ICOM_SPAT folder before proceeding.
3. Copy only the following files and folders from the "ICOM_SPAT" folder in the project directory that is created during publishing:
   • Adobe Air
   • META-INF
   • theme
   • ICOM_SPAT.swf
   • mimetype
   • SPAT.exe
4. Do not copy any of the other contents, unless you have made changes to the modules. If you have altered the modules in this folder, copy them selectively after performing the previous step.
5. Paste the copied files overtop of their W drive counterparts at: W\SPAT\

After pushing those files to the W drive, the "ICOM Sync Master" syncthing account will register these changes and sync them over to the other pc's that use SPAT.