Flex

Eval JavaScript in a Global Context

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:15:00 EDT

Even though it's considered bad practice, it's often handy to eval code in JavaScript. And in my case, it was simply necessary, since the JSF specification requires eval of scripts. And it's also necessary to execute those evaluated scripts in the global scope. It's not as easy as it first looks. For our first naive implementation, we'd simply used eval(src) in our first pass at the implementation.

Rich Content with a Database Server

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:00:00 EDT

Enterprises are increasingly being called upon to provide a high level of user experience with compelling and interactive content. Serving enterprise content and data securely to internet / intranet has become a very common necessity and is routinely handled by web servers. Web services technology, on the other hand, addresses the application-to-application transparent interaction over the web using industry standards. Delivery of web services can also be handled by databases which are responsive to HTTP requests. In this article a simple example of serving a static web page containing dynamic content from a SQL Anywhere 11 database server is described. The web page has examples of jQuery, DOJO, as well as an embedded ADOBE flash file.

One Approach to Enterprise Adobe Flex Development

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EDT

During the last several years our company have been involved in development of many enterprise Flex project. This article is an attempt to summarize challenges and offer solutions that we've developed, tested and successfully implemented for our customers.

Enterprise Development with Flex

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:15:00 EDT

I'm finishing writing a book for O'Reilly "Enterprise Development with Flex". It's my 6th one. Yesterday, I got an email from a person asking if I'd like to write a new book on software. Here's what came to my mind

Adobe Flex: Prefixing Fx

Sat, 16 May 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Flex framework’s current stable version is 3.x and the Flex team at Adobe is actively working on getting the version 4.x ready this year. At this time, the core SDK of Flex 4, codenamed Gumbo, is evolving through an open source process. From peeking into its initial version, it looks promising as there are serious attempts to create a clean separation of behavior and presentation in the components, apart from the tons of nifty enhancements throughout the framework. (I promise to write about some of the forthcoming features soon)

Adobe Flex: Next Stop 360 Flex Indy

Sat, 16 May 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Starting Monday May 18, 2009 fun begins at Indianapolis. No, not the car race; its 360 Flex! 360 Flex is a unique and special event for many reasons, namely: Its the one and only event dedicated completely to Flex (and AIR). Its an informal event that is run for te community, by the community. Till this edition, there wasn’t [...]

Flex Training in Boston: Discount Coupons

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:00:00 EDT

We'll be a two day training workshop "Flex for Architects" that will take place in Boston, MA on May 21-22, 2009. During registration at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/295389518, enter the discount code flex100 to get $100 of the tuitiion.

Have You Submitted Your Proposal For Max'09?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:15:00 EDT

Tomorrow is the last day for submitting papers for Adobe's main conference called Max'09. I've submitted two proposals - one's called "Practical Design Patterns in Flex", and the other one is titled "Data Synchronization.

Creating Adobe AIR Submenus for a Native Menu with Flash CS4

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:00:00 EDT

In the first part of this article dedicated on AIR menus you've learned how to create an AIR native menu (read the full Creating AIR native menu with Flash CS4 - Part 1 article). In this new article you'll learn how to create an AIR submenu item using the NativeMenuItem class with Flash CS4.

Adobe AIR: Creating Dock and System Tray Icon Menus

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:15:00 EDT

The AIR runtime allows you to manage and interact with the system tray and dock bar icons of your application. You can define context menus for them. On Microsoft Windows systems, the icons in the system tray don’t have any default context menus, so unless you have a specially prepared menu to display, it won’t provide a context menu. Mac OS X systems, on the other hand, have a default menu for dock bar icons. The menus you create will be added to the default menu provided by the operating system. You can’t modify or remove the default menus provided by the system for dock bar icons. The application you will create in the next section will run on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Adobe Flex, Flash and Loosely Coupled On Demand

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Adobe Flex and Flash are the ideal technology for Rich Internet Applications because you can build those applications with reusable components that are Loosely Coupled. In his session, learn how you can create an On-Demand Authoring Environment for creating Rich Internet Applications bound to any database or web service using Flex 2 and Flash CS4.

How To Build On-Demand Business Apps Using Force.com & Adobe Flex

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Enterprises are enthusiastically embracing the shift from traditional client/server computing to SaaS. Inspired by customers who have embraced the Web, developers are using RIA tools to create innovative new on-demand business applications. One important factor in the shift from traditional computing to SaaS has been ease of use through vendors' careful attention to the user experience utilizing RIA technologies. This jointly presented session will present how RIA technologies such as AJAX and Flex - in combination with the Force.com platform - provide all the tools necessary for developers to build an enterprise-class application - sometimes within hours!

How To Build On-Demand Business Apps Using Force.com & Flex

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:45:00 EDT

Enterprises are enthusiastically embracing the shift from traditional client/server computing to SaaS. Inspired by customers who have embraced the web, developers are using RIA tools to create innovative new on-demand business applications. One important factor in the shift from traditional computing to SaaS has been ease of use through vendors' careful attention to the user experience utilizing RIA technologies. This jointly presented session will present how RIA technologies such as AJAX and Flex - in combination with the Force.com platform - provide all the tools necessary for developers to build an enterprise-class application - sometimes within hours!

AJAX World RIA Conference: FLEX+ AIR + Mobile

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:30:00 EDT

In this session Thomas will share his experience in migrating from AJAX to Flex, the advantages/disadvantages that Flex has as the primary client for a consumer web-based SaaS product, and his vision of how Flex + AIR via any desktop + Mobile (in one or more technical forms) takes us a step towards the vision that Mark Weiser presented in his original works on ubiquitous computing.

4D Releases 4D Web 2.0 Pack v11 Release 2 (11.2)

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:15:00 EDT

4D announced the release of 4D Web 2.0 Pack v11 Release 2. The new version, a combination of two products - 4D AJAX Framework and 4D for Flex - brings a powerful set of tools, plug-ins, and components that allow 4D developers to harness the power of Web 2.0 technologies, and deliver live web and rich internet applications to browsers, desktops, and portable devices such as the iPhone.

Keys to Success When Load Testing Today's Flex Applications

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:30:00 EDT

In today's complex web application world, developers need to test applications that go beyond simple HTTP-based pages. They need to test Rich Internet Applications that incorporate complex technologies like Adobe's Flex. Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you worked with previously. With applications that deliver HTML as the user interface, the server does all of the processing. Users simply page back and forth to the server.

DreamFace Interactive Delivers Mashup Kit: DreamFace-Fx for Adobe Flex

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Following the private Beta release last month, DreamFace Interactive announced the general availability of the DreamFace-Fx Mashup Kit for Adobe Flex. As promised, DreamFace-Fx is the first Mashup Kit to reach developers in a comprehensive roadmap which will extend the DreamFace Open Source Web 2.0 Framework to include complementary technologies. Olivier Poupeney, DreamFace Interactive CEO explains the choice of Adobe Flex for the first Mashup Kit, 'There is a need today for RIA technologies in SOA applications, and Flex is getting attraction from the Java community thanks to its smooth integration with J2EE, however, using Flex usually means abandoning AJAX with the risk of being linked to a single technology. With DreamFace-Fx, developers can easily integrate Flex and AJAX, leveraging the combined technologies and resulting in functionality greater than the sum of its parts.'

AJAX and Enterprise RIA Tools - JSF, Flex, and JavaFX

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:45:00 EDT

2008 is going to be an important year for Rich Internet Applications. Most organizations are delivering or planning to deliver Rich Internet Applications; however, at the same time, most IT managers are facing a dilemma: which Rich Internet Application technology and platform to use? The number of different frameworks and libraries is too vast to even consider evaluating a fraction of them.

Flex 4: My Wish List

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:00:00 EDT

Flex 2 was released in the Summer of 2006 and it was a mini-revolution in the RIA space. Almost nobody knew about Flex 1.5, but now almost everyone has at least heard about this software. Flex 3 was released in early 2008. It has a number of useful new features, but it was not a major release. In my opinion, a more modest 2.5 would suffice. We are expecting more now. Flex 4 will come out to the world next year and while the Flex team has announced a number of very interesting syntax improvements, I'd love to see more fundamental improvements in this great RIA tool.

Responding to the "Adobe Flex Shortcomings" Java Blog

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Vectors supporting types are the part of next release - and are billed more of performance/coding help then language enhancement. Most of the Java 5 constructs are not really applicable to ActionScript 3 - for fair comparison you need to use Java 7/8 with dynamic scripting language support - and then the way you speak that language changes. Compare how enum support evolved in Java over the years - starting with patterns - and you would think of language as of evolving environment. I was coming to Java in '97 from C++ and I thought of it as a very poor language. 10 years made it almost tolerable - but I still miss ability to redefine operators - does it really matter to anyone who never did it in first place?

Adobe Puts Out AIR for Linux

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:30:00 EDT

Adobe has put an alpha pre-release of AIR for Linux up in hopes, it says, of getting feedback from the community, not to mention winning adherents. It's English-only. The company also joined the Linux Foundation to encourage the growth of RIA technologies on Linux, it said. The company says Linux developers can use HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) that deploy to desktops across operating systems.

Do We Need to Teach Designers Programming?

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:30:00 EDT

Fast-spreading rich Internet applications require new skills for development of what was known as boring-looking enterprise applications. In the past, development of the user interface was done by software developers to the best of their design abilities. A couple of buttons here, a grid there, gray background. Their users were happy because they did not see any better. This is about to change...

Flex Best Practices: DTO is the Horseshoe of your Flex Application

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:30:00 EST

If I could pass just one Flex advice that would be: Use Data Transfer Objects. Use custom Data Transfer Objects to pass data between server and Flash tiers of your Flex application. Do not use XML. Yes, I know that XML cool. Do not use raw objects.

Watching Java presentations with AJAX, Flex, AIR and JavaFX

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:00:00 EST

Parleys.com is a great Web site with lots of recoded videos of technical presentations on a wide variety of Java-related topics. While the original version of Parleys has been created in AJAX, more advanced Flex and AIR versions are now available too. I had a chance to chat with a man behind this project.

Car Manufacturers Go with Adobe Flex RIA

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:15:00 EST

OK, car manufactures go Flex. Will they lose or gain customers because of that? Car manufacturers want to have fancy consumer sites. It's a world of RIA, and having interactive Web sites should bring more people to car dealerships. But poorly performing Web site can turn into lost revenues.

Flex Is All About Event-Driven Development

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:45:00 EST

This is the first in a series of articles that will cover best practices of Flex development using the code of the soon-to-be-released open source class library theriabook. These components were developed by Flex and Java architects from Farata Systems. Over the past couple of years we've been successfully using various coding techniques and custom components that turned the application development in Flex into a RAD project.

Discovery Channel and EffectiveUI Launch Earth Live

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST

Earth Live is an application that EffectiveUI has created in collaboration with Discovery channel. The application helps people to learn the world by engaging them with a more effective UI, so complex information such as climate change can be digestible by a regular person. The application uses digital imagery so the user can interactively create a climate picture of the planet Earth. The UI offers several layers, and you can load the content of the layer (i.e. rain) onto the 3D image of the globe.

Rich Internet Applications - State of the Union

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:15:00 EST

We are entering an era of Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and many enterprise development managers are facing the dilemma - which way to go - remain with tried and true Java or .NET technologies or less known (as yet) yet AJAX, Flex, OpenLaszlo...

Flex Bugs Déjà Vu; Memories of Java's Bug Parade

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:45:00 EST

Flex is an open source product, which means that you can fix the bugs on your own. This may fork out the product, but that's another story altogether. On the other hand, developers can vote for the bugs so the Flex team can fix them. I remain cautiously optimistic that Flex team will be more responsive than their Java colleagues. Time will tell.

AMF 3 Specification Is Published

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:30:00 EST

Action Message Format (AMF) is a protocol that is used to serialize the data coming into Flash Player or going out to other programming environments that need to communicate with Flash Player. Say, if you create in Java an instance of the class MyOrder, this instance can be converted into a string of bytes, sent over the wire to Flash Player and then recreated there as an instance of the ActionScript object. The rules of how to do this are defined by a communication protocol, such as AMF.

Where To Find Senior Flex Developers?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:30:00 EST

The Adobe Flex enterprise market picks up really fast, and it's obvious that the need for Flex developers will only get bigger and bigger. The question is what kind of Flex developers are in huge demand. I'll share with you the experience of our company, but first, let's look at the diagram from the popular job aggregator.

Flex 3, AIR, BlazeDS: Less Than One Moon

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:45:00 EST

Unless your Flex 2 project has to go to production this month, switch to Flex 3. Now. Flex 3 final Beta days are almost over and it brings you lots of goodies. If you are still thinking of using AJAX or JSF for your data intensive business application, just stop it, will you! Just take care of your business with Flex 3, AIR, and BlazeDS.

Does Adobe's Promotion of Flex Put Flash Programmers at a Disadvantage?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:00:00 EST

I ran into an interesting blog written by a Flash programmer who feels that Adobe's promotion of Flex puts him and other Flash programmers at a disadvantage. And he knows how to resist!

The Business Case for Rich Internet Applications

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

Less than 10 years ago, still in its infancy, the Internet was a land of promise for businesses. Companies saw bright new ways to increase their agility, reach more customers and to deliver new, never-before-seen services. Unquestionably since then it has transformed the way consumers and businesses exchange information and has become a vital part of nearly every organization's communication and operational architecture.

How to Staff Your Adobe Flex RIA Project Team

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:15:00 EST

The main concern of any project manager is if there are enough people in the pool of Flex developers to staff the project. Yes, there is a pool of Flex developers, but let's look at the creature called 'Flex Developer' under the microscope. If you are considering adding Flex to your set of skills, it?s still early in the game and you can join the fast growing Flex community. Decide which group of the Flex developers looks most appealing to you. Set a goal and go for it. Be what you can be.

Can You Use Flex Communication Protocols for Mission-Critical Trading Applications?

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:00:00 EST

Redmond Developer News has published an interview with Dr. James Gosling, creator of the Java language, where among other things, he talks about JavaFX and competing technologies. And he made a comment I can't agree with. Here it is: 'If you look at something like Flash, when you get to the much more advanced stuff - richer interfaces, more complex network protocols, more complex APIs - it really falls short.'

Time Magazine's 50 Best Web Sites (Time Uses Flex?)

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:00:00 EST

Time Magazine has published their version of the 50 best Web sites of 2007. Check it out. You may or may not agree with their ranking, but I'm sure you'll find some interesting sites there that you did not know about. It's good to see that Time has started using Adobe Flex too.

Do We Need Third-Party Flex Frameworks?

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:45:00 EST

This started as a Skype chat room conversation between my colleague Anatole Tartakovsky and myself, and I thought that it would be a good idea to invite more Flex developers to join this discussion. Having said this, I'd like to make it clear that over my career, I've been developing frameworks myself and truly respect people who are capable of creating frameworks, and Anatole has huge experience in this area as well. Here we're just questioning the need to create frameworks not for a general-purpose language like Java, but for a domain-specific framework like Flex.

How Do You Deploy Patches in Your Rich Internet Application?

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:30:00 EST

In Java world, the solution to this issue is pretty simple. A typical Java application consists of a number of .jar files (think libraries or swc) and there is a concept of a class path. If a program needs to use a class MyGreatCreation, the Java class loader tries to find it based on the classes or jars listed in the classpath. If there is more than one version of this class in the path, the class loader will grab the first one. This greatly simplifies deploying any patches in Java production applications. Just make changes to your class and place it in the jar that is listed first in the classpath. Then deploy just this jar in production, and the loader will be happy to pick up the brand new version of MyGreatCreation.

Mouse Wheel Support in Flex

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:00:00 EST

Just two of the text fields on your Flex window have to support the mouse wheel. The user turns the wheel, the numeric field in these fields is incremented or decremented. Let's do it.