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Wednesday January 14, 2004

Macromedia's Flex

I learned about Macromedia's Flex from the JavaLobby Newsletter this morning.

In essence, Flex is a presentation server that sits on top of a standard Java servlet container like Tomcat and provides the ability to use the Flash player and an updated scripting language to manage the client-side user interface of a web application. The Flex Runtime Services provide management of server-side security, connections to data sources, and so forth. The Flex Class Library provides support for a full set of server-side flash components that can be accessed via an XML markup language currently called "MXML" (which is going to change before the product release.) MXML contains the tags for the widgets in the Flex Class Library and allows you to express rich user interfaces succinctly.

I've always liked Flash, but I'm also a sucker for eye candy and cool-looking UIs. If Macromedia could make it possible to create flash files with a markup scripting language, like I do HTML/JavaScript for JSPs - I think they'll get a winner. If we're forced to use IDEs and other tools to drag and drop components - I won't bite. I'm too used to typing vs. point and clicking. I don't use Dreamweaver for HTML - why would I start now?

However, I do have a friend who is an awesome Flash Animator - it'd be cool to hook up with him someday to create rich web UIs. Only problem is - I think it'll be tough to find a client that prefers a flash interface over an HTML-based interface.

What would be awesome is if I could use a RenderKit from JSF to create a Flash UI. The ability to write standard HTML/CSS and have it generate a Flash UI that could do everything like a desktop app - mmmmm, sounds sweeeeettt.

Update: The Flex JSP Tag Library might be just what I was looking for. I also found an article on Providing a Flex Front-End to your Struts Applications. In my opinion, the one reason that Flex won't work is that it will cost money - all other J2EE View technologies are free. Cheap is good though - it might work if it's a mere 50 bucks.

Posted in Java at Jan 14 2004, 07:08:09 AM MST 5 Comments
Comments:

In the context of rich application clients you might also want to check out <acronym title="eXtended Applicatiom Markup Language Applic">XAML</acronym> and <acronym title="XML User Interface Language">XUL</acronym>. Some information can be found here, but google around!

Posted by Jaap on January 14, 2004 at 03:43 PM MST #

What happened to the comment preview! Yesterday it was still there....
In any case, XAML stands for Extensible Application Markup Language.

Posted by Jaap on January 14, 2004 at 03:47 PM MST #

Comment preview is only available when adding comments after clicking on the permalink. If you're adding comments inline (via Twisty comments), then there is no preview - sorry.

Posted by Matt Raible on January 14, 2004 at 03:51 PM MST #

Macromedia build Flash Remoting to allow Flash applications to communicate with J2EE applications. OpenAMF ( http://www.openamf.org/ ) is an open source Java Flash Remoting gateway.

Posted by Sean Sullivan on January 14, 2004 at 06:04 PM MST #

Zulu uses XUL to define Flash based interfaces, doesn't require additional components on the server, works both as a web client and a desktop client and it's free ;)

Posted by Ovi on January 14, 2004 at 10:43 PM MST #

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