Flex (Flash) Camp Wall Street starts tomorrow (November 16, 2009) in New York City. If you are coming to the event, do stop by to tell us about your exciting adventures in the world of RIA. Enjoy 14 exciting sessions over two days. Meet with the experts in the field. Mingle with the community and don’t forget to hang out in the after session sessions If you haven’t registered yet, don’t wait any longer as very few seats remain. Register online now at http://www.flexcampwallstreet.com.

(This cool speaker badge was created by Adam Flater as a draft initial artifact!)

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Watch me speak on BlazeDS, Flex and Java integration. (Original Post on DZone: Meet the Author – Shashank Tiwari on BlazeDS, Flex & Java Integration).

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This weekend, I will be speaking at the No Fluff Just Stuff Northern Virginia Software Symposium in Reston, VA. The symposium, as always, has some truly brilliant speakers from the world of Java, dynamic languages and agile software development. I have 3 sessions; all on Sunday. All my topics relate to Flex and Java integration. On Sunday morning at 9.00am I  start off with a general and broad based topic: “Flex and Java Integration“. Later that afternoon, I explore the world of “Flex and Hibernate” and the promising domain of “Collaborative real-time RIA“. The session on “Collaborative real-time RIA” extends beyond Flex and Java integration and includes the larger context of collaborative applications and real-time systems.

Speaking on the NFJS 2009 Tour

If you are already at the symposium, please stop by at the sessions. If you are interested in these topics and are in the area, consider attending them. If you are nowhere close by and are interested in the topics, then do let me know, and I could perhaps plan a session in that geography, if there are enough interested.

Also, not to forget, a lot of what I speak about in these sessions, is covered in my book Professional BlazeDS (Wiley/Wrox, 2009).

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Starting Monday May 18, 2009 fun begins at Indianapolis. No, not the car race; its 360 Flex! 360 Flex is a unique and special event for many reasons, namely:

• Its the one and only event dedicated completely to Flex (and AIR).
• Its an informal event that is run for the community, by the community. Till this edition, there wasn’t much of a formal call-for-participation process either. Interested folks contacted Tom and John and if the topic was interesting and there was enough enthusiasm and originality, you presented your wondeful idea at the conference. This time the submission overwhelmed the nice mom-and-pop process and forced one to have some sense of formalism. Yet, it was still a comfortable process, full of open dialogues and community participation. No big wordy contracts and no restrictions on how you can share your material.
• Most, if not all, sessions cover advanced stuff. Hardly any 101(s) and Introductions. This is a huge plus for serious Flex developers.
• No big executive pretending his or her creation as the new wonder of the world. Aren’t we sick of the demo gods?
• A very affordable conference. Tell me how many $500 something tickets get you three days of intense sessions, lots of free meals, evening parties and more!
• Lots of opportunity to mingle and mix with all members of the community. Some of the best names in Flex (developers, authors, service providers, evangelists and the product makers themselves) gather at every 360 Flex. This is one of the best ways to get to know people who are deep into Flex.

So for all these reasons and more, I have been speaking at 360 Flex over the last few editions. This time I will be there again!

On Wednesday (May 19, 2009), I speak on “Flex in a PDF”. (You can check the schedule out for all the sessions and their timings) I am going to talk about the relationship between Flex and PDF and explain how not only Flex data but its entire rich experience can be housed inside of a PDF. PDF is a universally liked portable document format. With inclusion of Flex inside it, you have yet another access point covered; thereby getting your application closer to the universal access goal. In addition, this harmonious existence of “Flex in a PDF” opens up many newer forms of collaboration that bolster effectiveness and productivity enhancement. Stop by my talk to learn more.

I will write about the session and put up the presentation material after the show.

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Speaking on integrating Java and RIA at the Princeton Java Users Group tomorrow (March 25, 2009). The session talks about the pull and push based models for communication between a Java server and a rich web application. The remoting and messaging infrastructure within BlazeDS and both Flex and JavaScript based front-ends are considered in the discussion. This session focuses on the view through the pipes, especially through those that connect the two layers. The session is a mix of theory, code and the current practice.

Integrating Java and RIA -- a view through the pipes

If you are interested in the topic and are in New Jersey or Pennsylvania (in the areas close enough to New Jersey), then come join us at the meetup. 

The Princeton JUG is a pretty vibrant community of Java developers. It is lead and managed by a famous voice of the Java and the RIA communities — Yakov Fain.

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Last week I spoke on Flex 4 at SD West 2009. Apart from the warm California weather, I enjoyed the great conference. It had the usual impressive line-up of speakers and attendees, a good number of expo participants and the annual JOLT awards ceremony.

The flagship topic of the conference, as is at most SD conferences (SD Best Practices and SD West), was “agile” software development. Added to it was a pinch  of DSL(s), good old C++, Java, .Net, cloud computing, web2.0, security, testing and the now much less talked about data structures and such. The conference was structured around the following tracks:

• Agile Processes, People & Methods
• C++
• Cloud Computing
• Java
• Modeling & Design
• .NET
• New Horizons
• Pervasive Parallelism
• Requirements & Analysis
• Security
• Testing & Quality
• Web 2.0 and Beyond
• Web Services, REST and SOA

Considering that conferences are increasingly getting specialized, the diverse set of tracks might make you dizzy. However, things were not that confusing though. There was clearly some old love for C++ and favor for the wide spread Java and .Net and as mentioned the theme of agility pervaded through them all.

The Web 2.0 and beyond track, in which my Flex 4 presentation was categorized, was not really the central focus of this event, although the track included some well known speakers like Neal Ford and Allen Holub. So my initial feeling about number of attendees for my session (Introduction to Flex 4) was quite mixed. At one level I anticipated complete indiffernce from the masses and at another I suspected the lure of the “new new thing” pulling them to me. Finally, ended up having a room full of attendees and am very happy about it. Better still, I think I probably made a good presentation, cause hardly any one was distracted during the session or walked out in the middle. There were a ton of questions and active participation. From the questions, it was clear some knew Flex well and had possibly used it for building real life applications. However, it was also apparent that some knew just the bare essentials of Flex.

My presentation focused exclusively on the concepts and stayed away from discussing the API (considering its volatile current state). I did show some working code and a whole lot of partial code snippets, which was much appreciated. From prior experience, I am convinced the developer in us gets quite excited on seeing interesting code bits and goes off to sleep when exposed to reams of it sprayed all over the slides.  All-in-all I think many people felt happy at the end of the session having discovered part of the future now.

I can’t post the original presentation online due to the contractual obligations with the conference organizers.  You can buy the recording from them though. I plan to run a set of public presentations on Flex 4 and I promise to make them available online soon.

 Apart from speaking at the event, I was also acting as the proxy JOLT award receiver on behalf of my friends at ZeroTurnAround, who could not make it to the conference. They have a pretty cool tool called JavaRebel, which alleviates the pain of repetitive compile-deploy cycle during Java development. Wonder, if my Ruby friends who love to bad mouth Java’s shortcoming  and overhead related to compile-deploy have to say anything about it. JavaRebel won the JOLT productivity award in the utilities category this year. Congratulations folks!

It was a hurried up trip for me as usual and as it always happens on my way back to New York, I spent a good amount of time at the SFO airport and on the flight. Got back and was immediately caught up with my next set of endeavours.  Life seems perpetually so busy, but honestly it isn’t a bad thing in these recessionary times. What say?

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A lot of my readers and clients have been asking for advice and help around getting Flex application architecture right. In some cases, these capable developers are struggling to morph their initial fancy toys into robust applications.

If you have seriously dabbled with Flex, you probably can empathise with them. However, if you haven’t delved into Flex at all or have minimally glanced at its surface, you are probably stunned in amazement and possibly ridiculing the indiscipline and lack of knowledge of these developers. Interestingly though, the shortcoming isn’t of the developers alone and the problems aren’t because the framework is flaky. Its just that you can code yourself into a corner despite your proficiency in MXML and AS3 and this problem is not new. The fact that: “fluency in a language and the core framework != fluency in building an application effectively using it” is well established across multiple languages. We have all seen similar problems surface with C++, Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, JavaScript and pretty much any other widely used language.

Over the years the community of software developers have questioned, theorized and debated over the root causes of failures emerging from bad application design and inappropriate architecture.  The viewpoints and thoughts are varied (An illustration of which is beyond the scope of this post. I may write about it in a separate post in future.) and there is no consensus on the right solution yet. However, there are some points of agreement and universal appreciation. One such topic of agreement, is the notion of leveraging design patterns. 

Design patterns have existed from the time the discipline of software development was a toddler back in the 70s, when it learnt to avoid its initial mistakes. Back then though, these patterns were not cataloged or adapted for specific areas of applicability. Now as the discipline is maturing into a teenager towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century, design patterns are entering the standard vocabulary of an average developer.

So, a Flex/AIR developer today can learn a lot of the theory about essential design patterns from the Gang of Four book or browse through the useful bunch of patterns applicable to enterprise application architecture. In addition, he or she could pick up one of the two design patterns books that pertains to AS3, namely:

• Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns
• ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques

Armed with all this knowledge, a Flex/AIR developer can hypothetically apply these gainfully to a real project. However, at this last link in the chain the story often breaks. Developers are left with tons of open questions around how to exactly use all their learning in the context of the core Flex framework features.

Its not a trivial effort to wire design patterns in conjunction with the existing framework classes. Using structural patterns with existing class heirarchies is not automatic and implementing behavioural patterns on top of the default flow is not intutive. In addition, you are left guessing on what could be implemented with AS3 alone and what could also rope MXML in.

At this stage, some developers just give up and some others seek refuge under any of the existing aggregations, especially if it seems to have official endorsement (read “Cairngorm”). Now, “giving up” can lead to code spaghetti and “seeking refuge” blindly can leave you in an obfuscated labyrinth, especially when you are deep into transforming your toy into a serious business application.

What then is a solution to the problem? How can one get Flex application architecture right?

To answer these questions to an extent, I wrote a chapter titled : “Leveraging Architectural and Design Patterns” in my book — Advanced Flex 3. That chapter neither addressed all the issues not did it include details on implementing these patterns in Flex. It merely discussed the topic at a very high level. Even then, many found it immensely useful. Going by the positive feedback and the following questions from the readers, I could guess that the thirst to learn more about Flex design patterns remains unquenched.

Therefore, I am starting on 3 related yet distinct initiatives, which might help you all. These are:

• Thorough hands-on Flex architecture mentoring sessions
• Three chapters instead of one on architecture and design patterns in Advanced Flex 4 (the next version of Advanced Flex 3)
• A free book — “Flex Design Patterns” — on all aspects of architectural and design patterns in Flex. Chapters from which will be available for download right after they are written

In addition I am working actively on getting Fireclay ready for prime-time. I hope Fireclay will be a compelling and unique Flex framework when its version 1.0 is released.

If you would like to learn a lot by doing and want to gain substantial mastery in 3 days flat, then join me at the Flex Architecture BootCamp, the first of which is coming to New York between March 23 and March 25, 2009. Find out the details about this event at the Flex Design Patterns Eventbrite site. 

At the Flex Architecture BootCamp, you will – 

• Learn how to build enterprise grade Flex applications
• Learn to leverage the common design patterns in Flex and ActionScript 3 applications
• Understand what Cairngorm, PureMVC, Mate, Prana and Fireclay are all about
• Learn to preempt problems involved in building complex enterprise grade Flex applications. Build applications reliable, scalable and performant from the beginning.

More information online at the Flex Architecture BootCamp eventbrite site. In a few days I will announce the schedule for this BootCamp at other cities, which include Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle.

When you register for the bootcamp at New York, don’t forget to avail a $75 discount using shanky_org as the discount code.

In future posts, you will hear from me on when I may start writing Advanced Flex 4 (its definitely not happening till Flex 4 beta is out and that I think isn’t happening until May 2009).

Information on the free book — Flex Design Patterns — will be available soon.  I am currently trying to setup a repository and a methodology to manage the writing process. I am keen to use the docbook format and may use the GitHub to host all content and code. If you have any suggestions or recommendations on any alternative tools, then please chime in.

That it for now, but you know a lot’s coming, so stay tuned!

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Speaking on Flex 4 (Gumbo)

I am back from the Flex Camp at Chicago and onto a lot of Flex 4 stuff. Firstly I have started writing a book on Flex 4. Its a short book that will provide a head start to the early adopters. If you are one of those early Flex 4 enthusiasts, then keep watching this blog for updates on the book. I will write more about the book and its availability in a couple of weeks time when I have hopefully made substantial progress on that initiative. Secondly I am deep into the Gumbo subversion repository these days. Flex 4 is still cooking and so the only way to continue to understand its evolution is to keep peeking into the hot smoking oven. Thirdly, I am begining a 99 part quick tutorials and tips series on Flex at RIA Revolution. Fourth and finally, I will be speaking on Flex 4 at many venues starting next month. One such prominent venue is SD West 2009, which will include a lot of fantastic speakers and the JOLT awards ceremony. Hope to see some of you there.

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The recent re-emphasis by Adobe on the “Flash” brand is scary!

The world of web development involves two types of people — developers and designers. Each of these sets is distinct from the other. Very rarely are there people who truly have both the traits.

Traditionally, designers used the Flash platform to build fancy and high quality animations, interactive advertisements, vector graphics and video displays. Then came Flex. Flex was a new face of Flash that appealed to a developer. Flex had a strong clear message that overpowered the developer’s fear in the “timeline” driven idiom. To some, it was and still is, metaforically speaking, Flash forked — new brand, new declarative XML based syntax and an object oriented language (AS3) under it all, leading to a distinct new identity from the designer’s favorite timeline of animations and video. For a Flex developer, Flash was relegated to a run-time and given the status of a platform, like most other virtual machines enjoy. Flex developers realized soon after they built their first couple of applications that Flex was Flash under the hood. They knew that they had to learn bits of the player idiosyncrasies to build real world applications and they also realized that after all Flash was always a great choice for rich applications, its just that they had never bothered to dig into it! In all, though, they were and are happy “Flex developers”.

Now things are changing or are they?

Flash and Flex

To take our conversation forward from here, let’s deviate at this point. Let’s not talk about Flex or Flash anymore but instead talk about a somewhat analogous situation. In doing so we may still discuss what we set out to do.

There was once a great burger place that had some of the finest meat between its bread slices. However, the steak eaters never cared for this place. Then the owners realized the potential of attracting steak eaters and so setup a new outlet right next door. Called this new place a steak house, setup the right interiors, stacked up a rack of wine to go with the steak and got their servers to wear cowboy hats. It got a good name among steak eaters. After all, the meat was good remember! The kitchen was shared by these two outlets, the burger joint and the steak house. Most didn’t realize it though, specially when walking into this new steak place. If they did find out after eating a couple of times at this new outlet, they weren’t that affected. They were already bought in.

Therefore, both the burger joint and the steak house flourished till now, attracting people from both these worlds and the few who belonged to both.

Recently, though the onwers of these outlets have decided to break the wall that separates the two and extend the front facade and the board to cover both places. They have decided to go with their good old brand of a burger joint.

Wondering what the steak eaters are now going to do? Are they going to be unaffected? Does the company not want them anymore? Will the steak eaters’ friends walk in when they land at this address of the steak house but find a burger joint board welcoming them? Somebody explain! Its scary!

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After months of build-up, Adobe MAX 2008 (North America) managed to live up to its expectations! Its not unusual for conference organizers to over-promise — after all they want more and more folks to sign-up. However, this year’s MAX was hyped not only by its organizers but the general community ho-hum that something cool and big was coming. People knew Thermo, Flash on the iPhone and Flex 4 with its new workflow were in the oven, but there was the mystery around what the final baked product might look like and if something else was cooking that nobody had a clue of.

So with all this expectation in mind, I landed around midnight on Sunday November 16th in San Francisco. Caught on some sleep and got to the venue (the good old Moscone Center) at 8.00am the next morning. Well in time for breakfast and the opening keynote. The registration process was smooth but the breakfast was a huge disappointment. Hordes of people were gathered around a few tables. There was hardly any place to stand, let alone sit. It was difficult to find coffee in that mess. When I walked towards the rooms at the back I found plenty of coffee. The second day onwards it wasn’t so bad. Guess the bad experience of the first day breakfast had turned some people away. (See every bad problem finds its own solution!) Also, lunch was far better and well organize.

The first big thing of day 1 was the keynote. Of course day 1 wasn’t really day 1. Of late, most conferences are sold on the idea of the zero offset and end up having a pre-conference before the conference. Some believe its the warm-up day, some others believe its the revenue day (because of the paid trainings — beyond the regular conference attendance fee — on that day) and some others believe its the day to mingle with the community. Whatever the reason MAX had a day zero too and from what I heard it was fairly well attended. Ok, back to the keynote.

The keynote followed the format that has become established in almost all one company driven conference keynotes (think JavaOne, Oracle OpenWorld or MacWorld) –

• Fancy audio, video and images — the eye catchers (Sherly Crow certainly makes the slides look better). There was a funky DJ with his turntable as well.
• Big announcements — almost always expected
• Key customers on stage — these folks had the Disney CTO and the Salesforce guy
• Focus on Charity and changing the world — project RED was talked about (thank god it wasn’t someone like the JavaOne UN guy)
• Political or Social celebrities on stage — they had Maria Shriver — the California first lady

Look at a few pictures from the keynote address – http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2008/11/18/adobe-max-2008-keynote-pics/

(I found this online)

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