Flex is getting a lot of attention at the moment. During their Engage event Adobe demonstrated what some companies are doing with this technology: Best Apollo Demos. Other companies are also using Flex. SAP is using Flex to create RIAs, and in a WebCenter presentation Oracle also mentioned to be working on integrating Flex solutions into their new Portal (and a lot more) software.
There seems to be some similarity with Java. Not that Flex will replace it, but Flex might become the Java for RIA’s for Companies who do not want to rely too much on Microsoft (Oracle, Sap, etc). Microsoft has .net on the server, most of these other software companies use Java on the server. Microsoft has WPF/e for RIA’s, these other companies may standardize on Flex for RIA’s.
There are also differences: I think Sun was (and still is) a lot more open with Java than Adobe with Flex. Both companies provide free runtimes and free compilers, but Sun actively engaged other parties to participate in creating standards for Java. Adobe is still the only one determining the future direction of Flex.
March 1st, 2007 at 18:06:00
[...] Original post by Andrej Koelewijn [...]
March 1st, 2007 at 18:41:23
It will get interesting if Adobe were to open-source or set up a broader participation with other vendors.
The Java camp could also be coming with alternatives, just like this one from http://www.Dekoh.com.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:12:49
Right. So companies that don’t want to rely too much on Microsoft, want to rely on Adobe? Oh, of course, Adobe is a nice company. Remember the Macromedia take-over? Flex is as evil as Microsoft. That is, if you agree to the “microsoft == evil” paradigm.
I agree with you that Sun is doing the right thing at the moment.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:45:55
Microsoft is more threatening than adobe because it wants to do everything. It’s competing with almost every existing software company. So if a company is using components from microsoft, it’s depending on a competitor, which is not a nice situation to be in.
March 2nd, 2007 at 23:26:51
Andrej, you’re not reading me correctly. I’m not comparing Microsoft and Adobe, and pointing to the most evil one. I’m saying that trust in Adobe is just as bad as trust in Microsoft. So customers going for a Flex-based RIA are still relying on a one-company driven “standard”. Tell me how that’s something a customer should be comfortable with?
If and only if Adobe opensources Flex, then there’s no vendor lock-in. But they won’t. Flash (Flex is built on it) is their reason of existence. That’s why I said “remember the Macromedia take-over”. Adobe is not a friendly company.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:16:44
I agree with you, but isn’t flex’s current situation similar to java’s situation in mid 90’s? (the first jsr was started in 98). But Adobe is a different company than Sun, so i don’t expect Flex to open up like Java did.
March 4th, 2007 at 15:02:49
see also forum thread “JDev 11 – should we start to learn Flex and ActionScript ?”
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=481689
March 4th, 2007 at 19:01:56
Interesting thread, i didn’t recognize flex in the demo, but it could be. Might just be html + javascript.
I wonder what the usefulness is of creating flex with adf faces? Technically flex is not harder to create than jsf. I think databinding in flex is even easier than with adf. I haven’t tried adobe’s flex builder yet, don’t know if it’s easier or harder to use than jdeveloper, and how it compares as a 4gl tool.
But jsf is not a good supplement to flex. I think flex in itself is not enough, you probably need some semantically correct html in addition to flex, to make it indexable, etc. It’s easier to do this with jsp than with current jsf implementations. Currently jsf doesn’t generate very indexable html.
March 4th, 2007 at 19:37:57
Flex is very nice, don’t get me wrong. It’s easy and it looks like you’ve just blingblinged your website. But it’s not open. If that’s not a problem for you or your client, I guess you can fulfill the clients wishes in less time then with JSF.
But hey, clients using the Oracle AS are locked in as well, so what am I nagging about?!
March 5th, 2007 at 02:31:28
[...] IT-eye » Flex the next Java? – There seems to be some similarity with Java. Not that Flex will replace it, but Flex might become the Java for RIA?s for Companies who do not want to rely too much on Microsoft [...]
August 2nd, 2007 at 17:32:28
[...] Even though this blog mainly focuses on Oracle related technologies, in the last few months I’ve also written about Adobe Flex. This is because i think rich graphical web user interfaces are going to become very important in the future. [...]