Multi-Tier Application Development with Adobe Flex

This excerpt describes the process of creating a complete Flex-Java distributed application. Upgrading Flex applications to Java Enterprise Edition applications is done with Flex Data Services. FDS provides transparent access to POJO, EJBs, and JMS and comes with adapters for frameworks like Spring and Hibernate.

AJAX Version of ClearBI Web Reporter for Adobe Flex Will Be Unveiled at AJAX World

Farata Systems has announced the production release of ClearBI 1.0, a Web reporter and business intelligence engine for rich Internet applications. While ClearBI 1.0 is targeted for Adobe Flex and Java developers, the upcoming ClearBI 1.1 is a rich reporting component that can be used with any AJAX application.

Adobe ColdFusion links to AIR

Adobe will ship its ColdFusion 8 application development platform Monday, offering faster performance and basic linkages to Adobe's AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technology.

Introduction to Flex Using PHP

With all the hype (and money) surrounding buzzword terms like Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Applications (RIA), it's easy to wonder, "How can I integrate that into my PHP application?" Certainly, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) technologies that use JavaScript code are a good option. But you should also have a look at the Adobe Flex framework. With Flex, you can quickly build functional, attractive user interfaces in Adobe Flash that communicate to your PHP web application through XML. Read complete story

Facebook's First AJAX Play with Parakey Acquisition

Facebook recently acquired Parakey. Congrats to Joe and Blake, two of the original co-conspirators behind the skunkworks project now known as Firefox. Joe is also known for Firebug, and for his recent work on iUI, a lightweight tool for building simple iPhone apps.

SPI Dynamics Expert Researchers to Demonstrate Hacking Ajax Web Applications

S.P.I. Dynamics, Inc. , the leading provider of web application security, today announced two of the company's expert researchers will highlight the latest in hacking web applications at the upcoming Black Hat USA 2007 conference at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 1-2.

getDefinitionByName & AS3 reflection

Enrico Foschi on his as3guru.com talks about AS3 Reflection. Quite interesting thing, so i copy it it here in case if his web page will gone for some reason.

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Today i solved an AS3 reflection problem: I wanted to create dynamically a class instance, using a string as class name.

So, why have I to make my life so hard?

Obviously, for giving more elegance to RMGConnecter, the RIA we are currently developing. It is intended to be a platform that will include many services. We still don’t know most of these services: we will develop them in the early future. But now, we still don’t know their names.

So, how to build RMGConnecter for creating instances of not-yet-known services (contained in a simple Canvas component)? How to import them?

With reflection all becomes very simply:
- we insert main components of every services in a single directory (for example: RMGConnect\Service\[component name].mxml)
- we will import these component with the following code:

import RMGConnect.Services.*;

- we will use the getDefinitionByName method from package flash.utils for creating a reference to one of these classes. Considering a foo name, “RMGTest”, the code will be:

var myClass:Class = flash.utils.getDefinitionByName("RMGTest");
var myComponent:* = new myClass();
this.addChild(myComponent);

Unluckily, Flex 2 Artificial Intelligence will include in compiled files just the classes that are explicitly used in the code. So, if i will not declare any RMGTest variable, Flex Builder 2 will be sure that i will have not the need of that class and will not include it in swf files.
Executing the code, the debugger will trace a ReferenceError: Error #1065.
This feature was studied just for excluding not-used classes in compiled files (that will surely be more optimized and faster to execute) but it will also exclude from including all classes referenced dinamically through function getDefinitionByName.

Solution

We can solve the problem creating a variable for each type/classes that we want to instanziate with the following code:

var fooRMGTest:RMGTest = null;

Now, Flex Builder 2 will be sure that we will use RMGTest class and it will include it in compiled files withouth giving us any error. Unluckely, we loose our elegance :(.

Lotus Notes Goes Web 2.0

The next generation of the Lotus Notes client will integrate with the new range of Web 2.0-inspired technologies released with IBM's social software, dubbed Lotus Connections.

Tamino XML server coupled with Ruby on Rails

Software AG has developed an open source project offering interoperability between the Ruby on Rails Web development framework and the Tamino XML Server.

Tamino On Rails is an open source contribution found here on SourceForge.net. With it, Tamino users can leverage Ruby on Rails to more quickly develop new applications, according to Software AG.

GOA WinForms

François Echement from NETiKA TECH (http://www.netikatech.com/) joined me on WAML (http://www.xing.com/net/waml) and managed to surprise me with GOA Winforms they develop.

Recently NETiKA TECH released GOA WinForms 2.0. GOA WinForms is an implementation of the standard System.Windows.Form .NET library for both Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. It allows .NET developers to write standard WinForms applications that will run on these two RIA platforms. and good part of it - it is free;)

How to Choose an RIA Path: AJAX or Adobe?

When it comes to rich Internet application (RIA) technologies, application development professionals must choose between two paths: AJAX or Adobe. AJAX is the best bet for experienced Web development shops looking to incrementally evolve existing Web applications. Of course, selecting AJAX also raises the question of whether to go with a homegrown, open source, or commercial AJAX framework.

Delivering Web 2.0 User Interfaces Using AJAX

By any reckoning, the Internet and the World Wide Web have remade the way we do business. The ascendance of the Web-based enterprise has come to be seen as inevitable. But anyone who takes a hard look at the serious limitations of first-generation Web applications is likely to have a renewed sense of wonder at the spread of their adoption thus far.

Introducing Alive PDF

Almost accidentally found new ActionScript 3 lib, this time for dealing with PDFs. To be honest, had no time to check it out, but seems very promising. I was actually expecting that Adobe finally will embed FlashPaper as part of Flex 3, at least, but it never happen. Anyway this Alive PDF lib is really interesting, have a look at http://www.bytearray.org/?p=101 for more info.