Java Developers Finding a Home at Adobe Flex

fact sheet Vendor: Adobe Systems Incorporated (www.adobe.com/) Vendor's Information: About Adobe Flex About Adobe vendor resources Download the Open Source Flex 3 SDK The Adobe Flex 3.4 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes the Flex framework (component class library) and Flex compiler. Download it today and learn how you can freely develop and deploy Flex applications using an IDE of your choice. Free Online Flex Training Learn to get the most out of Flex in five days by completing this video training course—broken down into 26 separate exercises for your convenience. Topics range from using pre-built Flex controls to localization using resource bundles, and everything in between. Download the Tour de Flex Application and Explore Flex Tour de Flex is a desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources. It includes more than 200 running samples, each with source code, links to documentation, and other details. Topics include the Flex core components, Flex data access, AIR desktop capabilities, cloud APIs, data visualization, mapping, and a growing collection of custom components, effects, and skins. The Flash Platform at a Glance Adobe Flash Platform is an integrated set of technologies surrounded by an established ecosystem of support programs, business partners, and enthusiastic user communities. Explore how the Adobe Flash Platform can provide everything needed to create and deliver the most compelling applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience. (PDF)

It's never been terribly difficult for Java developers to use Flex, Adobe's open source framework for building and maintaining rich Internet applications (RIAs). The ActionScript scripting language looks a lot like Java, said James Ward, a Technical Evangelist for Adobe, and the language syntax is pretty similar.

One of the advantages of using Flex, Ward said, is that Flex can solve the client-side dilemma that faces many Java applications. Many developers make use of Java on the server end of enterprise applications, but pass over Java on the client side, relying instead on AJAX or HTML when it comes to displaying information for the end user.

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The problem, of course, is that developers and designers can't create really good user interfaces when relying on HTML. The sub-par user interface, and the sub-par user experience, means that many Java applications don't have the full capabilities you expect to see in an enterprise application.

Flex can give developers the best of both worlds, Ward said. "They want Web deployment and they want ease of deployment."

Flex itself is user interface technology. It can run an application's user interface on the browser for Web applications using Adobe Flash Player, or on the desktop using Adobe AIR.

There are a number of ways that Java developers can integrate Flex with the backend of their enterprise applications, including Action Message Format (AMF), an open protocol that makes communication more efficient. AMF can be used to exchange data between a Flash application and a database.

Adobe BlazeDS is the server-based Java remoting and Web messaging technology that enables developers to easily connect to back-end distributed data and push data in real-time to Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR applications. It uses remoting, which simplifies the reuse of existing server logic by automatically marshalling calls between the Flash client and the Java methods on the server. BlazeDS also uses the AMF binary data transfer format, which increases performance and allows applications to load data up to 10 times faster than with text-based formats such as XML or SOAP.

Adobe BlazeDS is a good choice for Java developers who need to easily integrate with existing Java code, need high-performance data delivery and transfer, or need to use publish/subscribe or push messaging over standard HTTP. The technologies included in BlazeDS, along with the AMF protocol specification, are being contributed to open source under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL v3).

For Java developers using the Spring Framework, the Spring BlazeDS Integration is an open source solution for building Spring-powered RIAs with Adobe Flex.

The Spring BlazeDS Integration makes it easy for a substantial portion of the Java community to take advantage of Adobe BlazeDS.

"When I talk to Java developers, 75 to 80 percent are using Spring," said Adobe's Ward.

Spring BlazeDS Integration provides reduced configuration and ease of use on top of Adobe BlazeDS. It's been around for almost a year and has seen a number of improvements and updates, including the addition of messaging and security.

Java developers who are using Flex and the Eclipse integrated development environment will find that Adobe's Flex development tools are based on Eclipse and can plug right in.

The availability of tools to ease Flex development with Java is important for enterprises that are starting to think about what they're going to do for next-generation software, Ward said. Many enterprise applications are built on Java, and improving them to include a Flex-based front end is now easier then ever.

To further educate developers, Adobe created a showcase of Adobe Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR, data integration, and a variety of third-party components, effects, and skins called the Tour de Flex. The Tour de Flex is available as a desktop application or an online resource.

As software end users become accustomed to rich interfaces on the Web and in consumer applications, they will begin to expect similar functionality in the enterprise. And as designers become more involved in software application development, Adobe's strong perception among designers should pay off and help convince developers that Flex is the way to go.

"This is the best direction," Ward said. "Flex is the clear leader."

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