Waldo Smeets .com

I’ve posted the Breeze version of todays presentation at JavaPolis 2005 in Antwerp at http://macromedia-v5.emea.breezecentral.com/javapolis2005/. The presentation covers the need for a Service Oriented Client and how Flex 2 will address challenges that are related to building such clients.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to add a voice over to the Breezo. Below is the excerpt for the presentation, for archive purposes:

Session description
This session covers how the recently announced Macromedia Flex 2 product line, alpha versions are available at labs.macromedia.com, enables developers and architects to build enterprise Web 2.0 applications by leveraging existing J2EE backend infrastructures and development metaphors.

Flex 2 includes a new high performance client runtime based on the Macromedia Flash Virtual Machine, a unified development framework based on the latest ECMAScript specifications, an all-new Eclipse-based IDE, and server-side Flex Enterprise Services for integration with middle-tier data through remote objects (like Hibernate), messaging features (like JMS) and RPC-style connections (like web services).

In traditional Rich Internet Applications, the way the data flows between the tiers of the application essentially is a client pull model: if you need data, you have to ask the server, and if you are not sure there is data waiting for you, you have to ask the server anyway& just in case. This model can negatively impact the quality of the overall experience because the fluidity of the user experience is constrained by the fluidity and the availability of data.

One problem is that the browser is not good at listening for events initiated by server processes or by other clients. The browser lacks support for messaging. As we will see in this session, the Flex Enterprise Services provide a complete publish/subscribe messaging infrastructure allowing messages to be exchanged, in real time, between thin Macromedia Flex clients and J2EE enterprise applications.

Another hurdle in traditional Rich Internet Applications is that the persistence process (in other words the process of synchronizing data) between the client-tier and the middle-tier is tedious and error prone. The Flex Enterprise Services address that issue as well with a new data service that represents an evolution towards data orientation.

Flex Enterprise Services is an integral part of the Flex 2 Product Line which, in addition to the Data Services and the Flex Framework 2, includes support for automated testing, an extensible charting and graphing architecture including a full set of charting and graphing components, a dynamic web tier compiler and full integration with your Java session and security management features.

In a nutshell, in this session you’ll learn how the Flex Enterprise Services enable developers to build “Data-Rich” Internet Applications; applications that are not only rich in terms of the user interface, but also in terms of how the data flows between tiers.

About Waldo Smeets
Waldo Smeets is Technical Sales Manager at Macromedia Europe, now part of Adobe. In his role he advices Europe-based enterprises in the telecom and finance industry, as well as their system integrators, on implementing Rich Internet Applications using the Macromedia Flex Platform. Prior to joining Macromedia he worked for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and studied Technology Management at the Technical University in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Waldo has an infrequently updated Weblog on his work at www.WaldoSmeets.com.