Insights from the Adobe Rich Internet Experience Tour

Flash & Flex April 1st, 2009 @ 18:04

Today, myself and a few co-workers spent our afternoon at the Adobe “Rich Internet Experience Tour” seminar here in Stockholm. The topics – focused on web development – were:

My main interest was the (more) in-depth demo of Flash Catalyst and Flex, which I’ve been investigating quite a lot lately (and also given some more or less harsh comments on).

Flash Catalyst strikes back!

After today, I’m more impressed with the capabilities of Flash Catalyst – at least if it’s used properly. It was nice to hear Enrique emphasize that it was intended for the View part of the application (in an MVC app). Previously, I’ve interpreted the fuzz about Flash Catalyst as a replacement for the entire MVC model (basically a replacement of regular coding), but that’s not (necessarily) the case.

If we were to use FC purely as a tool for the View Components in our applications, we could really improve our productivity massively. But to me, it stops there. I would keep away from using the different “states” in FC, i.e. to create the various views in the app. Single-view only, please! :-)

But it’s all on a pretty much theoretical level, really, as FC is still on a very early stage in its development (seems like we’re at least a year away from first real release). But it looks interesting, to say the least!

My notes from the seminar

I put down some notes on my mobile phone during the seminar. Maybe some rambling, but hHere it goes:

  • Good to use Flash Catalyst – only for isolated components? Avoid using “states” in FC?
  • What are the capabilities of FXG? What’s the syntax like?
  • Does FXG “skin classes” (and likes thereof) be in MXML? Can regular AS classes be used instead?
  • Can FXG code be imported to Flash Catalyst?
  • How can Flex and FXG be combined with regular AS classes?
  • Try putting more use to SWC files?
  • How are SWC files used with Flex? How are component files (binaries) managed in Flex in general?
  • Would Gumbo (new Flex Builder) be interesting to use?
  • Take a look at Blaze DS for data services. Using HTTP protocol. RTMF to be used when more instant feedback needed.
  • Have a look at Adobe AFCS.

All in all…

  • Flash Catalyst seemed a lot more interesting in a live demo and I look forward to seeing the public beta (without expecting too much…) :-) .
  • PixelBender was really cool (a lot more cooler than its docs :-) )!
  • The presented “case”, My Home,  was very cool, but perhaps a bit Big Brothery. Doesn’t feel too secure…
  • A good seminar; better than expected!

2 Comments »