Adobe Flex

I take my hat off to Adobe. Adobe’s up and coming release of Adobe LiveCycle Data Services 3 has one impressive feature that I am completely sold on – because I was on one of the many conference calls 1.5 years ago that forced the feature to get accepted and pushed into the LCDS stack – Edge Server functionality. Although the current LCDS 3 beta download unfortunately doesn’t have the appropriate documentation (soon to be fixed), LCDS 3 beta does have the killer feature almost every sell-side institution requires – Edge Server Push.

Introduction to Flex

To kick start what will be a regular meeting for those interested in rich Internet application development using Flex and associated technologies, Andrew Shorten from Adobe will provide an introduction to the Flex 4 SDK and the design and development tools that can be used to build Flex applications.

This practical session will demonstrate the use of MXML, ActionScript, visual components and connecting to HTTP and Web Services to build a simple application and will set the scene for future sessions, which will extend the discussion on Flex into more advanced topics.

.NET Developer’s Journal has an article (written Lab49) on Flex.

“Conclusion:As Silverlight and WPF mature and gain mainstream acceptance, Flex and Flash will undoubtedly be forced to evolve in a direction where they can stay competitive. It’s likely that there will be further feature swapping and parallels between the two. If you do find yourself in a position where you or your team will need to work on a Flex application, don’t feel that you will be throwing away what you know and starting from scratch. Rest assured that you will be in the best possible place to pick up the new framework as well as anyone, and can continue to build on the .NET infrastructure and support that you already have”.

A few features of Adobe LC DS that you may want to consider in the world of RIA development:

• Spring Integration – check out Christophe Coenraets blog
• Adobe LiveCycle Data Services 3 – see Anil’s blog for an overview of what’s coming in version 3, and why Microsoft has to push hard with RIA Services.
• Streaming AMF and HTTP channels – essentially COMET server technology. You definitely want NIO enabled for scalability. Here’s a recent blog with provide more information on channels and endpoints