Cmon folks. Flex is the bomb. Time to drink the kool-aid. Most Java developers I've come across, when they actually use it - LIKE IT AND GET IT. Within Java, there are a ton of AJAXy frameworks and tools out there, that fundamentally were designed to get around the weaknesses of the HTML paradigm. Most IT managers out there don't what the heck to use. We are stuck in a transition period, a paradigm shift of technologies. We are unsure what technologies are going to survive multi-year cycles of product development, what kind of talent will be available and what the next technology will be that we missed out on that we have to sheepishly report to the CEO. 'Sorry, this years budget will be spent on rewriting EVERYTHING.' Managers and architects don't know what direction to go in. Java folk in particular have gained tremendously from Open Source and will continue to do so, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and realize there are things out there that just provide the answer - that may not be OS. Within Java - what do you use? JSP, JSF, Tapestry, Webwork, Wicket, SpringMVC, GWT...? We had put together a framework using Tapestry, one of the best component based Java frameworks out there. Your typical Tapestry dev is not a lightfoot. Unfortunately Tapestry people are hard to find, it is not backed by a company, there are not adequate tools and it has a steep learning curve. We chose OpenLaszlo as our next generation RIA stack, but after trying Flex we're at a key decision point. For all the naysayers - just download and try it. FlexBuilder provides the ease of use of original VB with greater power and a resulting nicer UI. It is great even just for wireframing. ;) Within Flex, there is a great widget set, a good event model, e4x is very powerful for manipulating XML as objects (though at times a tad difficult to get used to). With Flex, you have a good combination of OO + scripting in one. On the backend, don't abandon your Java, just accept it's not good for presentation. Within the Open Source world you're not going to get everything for free. For the functionality it provides, I am willing to plunk down $500/seat for my developers for Flexbuilder. This is the equivalent of 1 billable day for a contract Java developer in the US. Quite honestly, HTML is still great for documents and websites. But for true applications, Flex is the way to go. The biggest hurdle was the pricing model, something that Adobe screwed up on originally that hampered people even looking at the product. I remember from the Generator 1.0 days, extra zeroes just turn everybody off. Something Adobe doesn't want to publicize too much is: YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE FLEX DATA SERVICES and this is where the expensive part comes in. This is the tough dilemna that Adobe is in with promotion. They still need to get folk on the Flex bandwagon and announce 'we've changed our licensing model' but still have to make money. They are fundamentally not a services company - they sell products. If you are doing real enterprise dev the licensing costs should not be a factor. Otherwise if you already have a Java backend, likely using Hibernate and Spring, you can expose your data in a myriad of ways. We created generation tools that expose it as RESTful services and it is so easy to wrapper via Flex. I believe you can access your Spring beans directly as well though we have yet to dive into this fully. I don't know about true usage numbers and hype (I wish they would do some more scientific analysis or surveys), but Flex has a larger community than OpenLaszlo in a shorter amount of time (please correct if wrong), it's RIA Flash competitor, which has some great stuff but is essentially losing the battle. I know there will be other sticking points down the road, but they will be surmountable. Flex + Java is good company. The kool-aid tastes good and is free of poisons. Hop aboard, come down the rabbit hole, there is a new world awaiting you.

Tags: blog, flex, opinion, review on 2008-02-10 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Within the Open Source world you're not going to get everything for free. For the functionality it provides, I am willing to plunk down $500/seat for my developers for Flexbuilder. This is the equivalent of 1 billable day for a contract Java developer in the US.

Quite honestly, HTML is still great for documents and websites. But for true applications, Flex is the way to go.

The biggest hurdle was the pricing model, something that Adobe screwed up on originally that hampered people even looking at the product. I remember from the Generator 1.0 days, extra zeroes just turn everybody off.

Something Adobe doesn't want to publicize too much is: YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE FLEX DATA SERVICES and this is where the expensive part comes in. This is the tough dilemna that Adobe is in with promotion. They still need to get folk on the Flex bandwagon and announce 'we've changed our licensing model' but still have to make money. They are fundamentally not a services company - they sell products.

If you are doing real enterprise dev the licensing costs should not be a factor. Otherwise if you already have a Java backend, likely using Hibernate and Spring, you can expose your data in a myriad of ways. We created generation tools that expose it as RESTful services and it is so easy to wrapper via Flex. I believe you can access your Spring beans directly as well though we have yet to dive into this fully.

I don't know about true usage numbers and hype (I wish they would do some more scientific analysis or surveys), but Flex has a larger community than OpenLaszlo in a shorter amount of time (please correct if wrong), it's RIA Flash competitor, which has some great stuff but is essentially losing the battle. I know there will be other sticking points down the road, but they will be surmountable.

Flex + Java is good company. The kool-aid tastes good and is free of poisons. Hop aboard, come down the rabbit hole, there is a new world awaiting you.
Cmon folks. Flex is the bomb. Time to drink the kool-aid. Most Java developers I've come across, when they actually use it - LIKE IT AND GET IT.

Within Java, there are a ton of AJAXy frameworks and tools out there, that fundamentally were designed to get around the weaknesses of the HTML paradigm.

Most IT managers out there don't what the heck to use. We are stuck in a transition period, a paradigm shift of technologies. We are unsure what technologies are going to survive multi-year cycles of product development, what kind of talent will be available and what the next technology will be that we missed out on that we have to sheepishly report to the CEO. 'Sorry, this years budget will be spent on rewriting EVERYTHING.'
Managers and architects don't know what direction to go in. Java folk in particular have gained tremendously from Open Source and will continue to do so, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and realize there are things out there that just provide the answer - that may not be OS.

Within Java - what do you use? JSP, JSF, Tapestry, Webwork, Wicket, SpringMVC, GWT...? We had put together a framework using Tapestry, one of the best component based Java frameworks out there. Your typical Tapestry dev is not a lightfoot. Unfortunately Tapestry people are hard to find, it is not backed by a company, there are not adequate tools and it has a steep learning curve. We chose OpenLaszlo as our next generation RIA stack, but after trying Flex we're at a key decision point.
For all the naysayers - just download and try it. FlexBuilder provides the ease of use of original VB with greater power and a resulting nicer UI. It is great even just for wireframing. ;) Within Flex, there is a great widget set, a good event model, e4x is very powerful for manipulating XML as objects (though at times a tad difficult to get used to). With Flex, you have a good combination of OO + scripting in one. On the backend, don't abandon your Java, just accept it's not good for presentation.

7 reasons not to consider using Adobe Flex [and how Gaia compares]

Tags: adobe, comments, flex, review on 2008-01-27 -All Annotations (0) -About

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