Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Flex 4 SDK and Flash Builder 4 brand-new courses published by Comtaste

Adobe has recently released Flex 4 SDK and Flash Builder 4.
Comtaste has unriched its training courses proposal with brand-new and fully updated courses on Flex 4 SDK and Flash Builder 4:

• Flex 4 Upgrade - Migrating from Flex 3 to Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4
• Flex 4 SDK e Flash Builder - Sviluppare Rich Internet Applications con le nuove Flex 4 SDK
• User interface design with Adobe Flash Catalyst (beta 2)
• Layout and User interface design with Flex 4 and Adobe AIR 2 (beta)

The first dates have been scheduled for Rome and Milan.

And here are some article to get deeper with the new features of  Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4 :

• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flashbuilder4_whatsnew.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex4sdk_whatsnew.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex3and4_differences.html
• Andrew Shorten’s FlexTeam http://blogs.adobe.com/flex/ blog post
• AdobeTV: Learn what developers like about Flash Builder http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/developers-speak-out-about-flash-builder-4/
• AdobeTV: David Wadhwani, VP and GM of Adobe’s Platform BU introduces new Flash Platform productshttp://tv.adobe.com/watch/flash-platform-in-action/introducing-new-flash-platform-tools/

Flex and mobile, a whitepaper to create Flex application for mobile devices

Adobe ha realesed the first whitepaper where it explains that:

" The mobile version of the Flex framework (code-named “Slider”) will provide structure and guidelines for creating application experiences that translate well across platforms, and make it easy to build adaptable multiscreen applications. “Slider” may be used by a broad spectrum of Adobe customers, from traditional media brands and agencies to internal IT organizations. Initial applications built with “Slider” will range from simple companion applications that complement existing web or desktop applications, to more complex contextual applications where multiscreen delivery is a core requirement from the outset.

There are several reasons why developing for non-PC devices requires a framework that is different from the Flex framework currently used to create applications for the desktop. First and foremost, the input mechanisms, screen real estate, and interaction patterns, commonly found on mobile devices differ in significant ways from the desktop. Supporting interaction patterns such as five-way navigation, soft keys, and gestures, are important factors in building mobile applications and need to be considered by any framework targeting mobile devices. Second, target devices are expected to be more constrained in terms of both memory and processor speed for the foreseeable future. In the long run, as devices become more capable, some of the key elements of “Slider” will likely be integrated with the desktop Flex framework to provide a more unified software development kit (SDK) across platforms.

Based on the Flex 4 codebase, “Slider” will include significant changes to optimize performance and user experience for more constrained device environments. The initial “Slider” framework will be optimized to run on high-end smartphones (phones with a processor speed of 400Mhz or more and 128MB of RAM), and will initially target standalone application environments such as Adobe® AIR.® This matches the category of devices targeted by Adobe Flash® Player 10 and fits with the type of device that will likely be most interesting for application developers.

While the features of Flex may be modified from their desktop counterparts, the goal will be to preserve the core capabilities of the desktop framework that make sense for mobile. The “soul of Flex” will be maintained, including the underlying Adobe Flash API, the language, and core capabilities such as binding, skinning, layout, styling, and media support. In all cases, any modifications will be balanced with the goal of getting great performance on mobile devices.

“Slider” will also include new capabilities specifically designed for mobile development, such as a construct for managing “screens” of an application, and the notion of resolution-independent sizing to deal with screen-size variations. A new set of user interface components designed for mobile form factors and input methods will be added. Finally, “Slider” will encapsulate design principles and guidelines that make it easy to create applications that fit in across a range of native platforms."

Donwload the Flex and Mobile whitepaper.

(via Scott)

Spring and Flex integration for developing Enterprise RIAs, slides published

This is the slides of the presentation I had at the Spring event titled :

Spring and Flex integration for developing Enterprise RIAs

SpringSource announced Spring BlazeDS Integration, a new open source project to provide tight integration between Spring and Adobe BlazeDS, Adobe’s open source server-based Java remoting and Web messaging technology.

This open source project will make it easy for Java and Spring developers to create enterprise-class rich Internet applications (RIAs) using Adobe Flex software, a cornerstone of the Adobe Flash Platform, and Spring, the de facto standard for enterprise Java.

Enterprise Spring and Flex applications

View more presentations from marcocasario.

Get Flex Builder 3 for free if you're an unemployed developers

Adobe has re-opened the "Adobe Flex Builder 3 for unemployed developers" program. It means that

"Adobe Flex Builder 3" software is currently available for free, while supplies last, for software developers who are affected by the current economic condition and are currently unemployed.

Read the program eligibility and don't miss this occasion:

To receive the product under this program, you must attest to the fact that you are currently unemployed and acknowledge that the software will be used only for your personal use not for any production or commercial purposes.

Read more on Adobe Flex Builder 3 for unemployed developers page.

Spring Certification Training in Rome

Comtaste, the italian Spring Training Center, is organizing and hosting a Spring Certification course in Rome.  This is a great opportunity to learn more and get certified on Spring framework that is now more integrated in BlazeDS and Livecycle DS.

In fact SpringSource and Adobe started a partnership with the goal of making easy the integration between Spring and BlazeDS. Child of this partnership is the Spring BlazeDS Integration project, which allows you to integrate BlazeDS with robust server-side Spring services.

In this 4-day bootcamp you learn how to use the Spring Framework to create well-designed, testable business applications in an agile manner.
Through our trainings, you benefit from the wide experience and architectural expertise of our team. We bring that experience to you in a 
highly interactive, intensely hands-on setting. The Core Spring course not only focuses on explaining Spring features and how to use them, 
but also on fundamental architectural issues.

Date: 16 - 19 June 2009
Time: 09:00 AM - 17:00 PM (4 days)
Location: Rome (language: English)
Price: € 1500,- (last minute offer, normal price € 1975,-)
Discount: Register 2 students (10%); Register 3 students (20%)

During the course you will learn how to:

• Work with the Spring Inversion of Control (IoC) Container
• Effectively use JDBC and Hibernate for data access
• Use JUnit, Spring, stubs and mocking frameworks to effectively implement automated unit and integration tests
• Take advantage of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) to keep code clean and maintainable
• Use Spring Security to secure web and standalone applications
• Manage live applications with ease using Spring's support for Java Management Extensions (JMX)
• Become a SpringSource Certified Spring Professional
• And much more

Adobe's New Flex Presentation Tool: Acrobat Presentation

I've just discovered (don't know how old it is) this new presentation web tool released by Adobe on Acrobat.com Labs.

Acrobat Presentation is a Flex application that adds to Adobe's online collaborative offerings (with Buzzword).

Presentation allows you to create slides using the PowerPoint metaphor with the following features:

• Add images (JPGs, PNGs and GIFs) from your computer
• Add shapes, fills, Borders & Gradients
  Resize, rotate and align your images
  
• Add effects such as borders, shadows or reflections.
• Upload movies (FLV format) into a presentation in the same way you add images
• Double-click to view in the Editor. They automatically play on the designated slide in Slideshow.
• and many more ..

I did not try yet but it looks good.

Pantaste, an open source library to create Flex/AIR-based customized start page

Comtaste has just released its second open source project named Pantaste. The library has been developed a couple of years ago, we've started working in Flex 2, but we did not find the time to make the final things, add the documentation, the ASDoc and so on.

PanTaste is an open source library to create ActionScript-based personalized start page or personal web portal much like  iGoogle, My Yahoo!, Netvibes etc.

The library gives you the ability to create multiple windows interface, with each window containing user-defined flex modules.

See an example of the library in action: http://www.comtaste.com/pantaste/PantasteExample.html

Documentation : http://www.comtaste.com/pantaste/docs/

It's time to start learning Spring to integrate Flex and BlazeDS with robust server-side services

Spring is one of my favourite frameworks. It's an open source framework that helps the developers' life. Thanks to the Inversion of Control (IoC) pattern that Spring uses, it will save a lot of time in developing.
In fact there are some factors you have to consider when you develop a Java application.Using the standard JEE approach you'll tend to write a lot of unuseful and repeatedly code or implementing J2EE design patterns that are workarounds for technology limitations rather than real solutions to a problem.
The Inversion of control - also known as IoC - is a concept, and an associated set of programming techniques, in which the control flow is inverted compared to the traditional interaction model expressed in imperative style by a series of procedure calls. Thus, instead of the programmer specifying, by the means of function calls, a series of events to happen during the lifetime of a programme, they would rather register desired responses to particular happenings, and then let some external entities take over the control over the precise order and set of events to happen (from Wikipedia).

That's why is important to have the possibility to easily integrate Spring to Flex applications.

Luckily SpringSource and Adobe started a partnership with the goal of making easy the integration between Spring and BlazeDS. Child of this partnership is the Spring BlazeDS Integration project, which allows you to integrate BlazeDS with robust server-side Spring services.

We strongly believe in this integration and that's why Comtaste has recently signed a partnership agreement with Spring Source, to support and train people and companies in Italy using the Spring framework.

These are the upcoming official courses scheduled:   

• Rich Web Applications con Spring Training (Rome 21-24 April2009)    
• Core Spring - Spring Framework Training (Milan 5-8 May 2009, Rome 16-19 June 2009)    
• Enterprise Integration con Spring Training (Rome 19-22 May2009)

We're also working on a training course dedicated to the Spring BlazeDS Integration project
where we want to introduce developers how to integrate the two frameworks.

Tour de Flex 1.2 now available with a brand-new web version

Tour de Flex is a very useful learning AIR (and now web) application that I often use during my presentation and Flex/AIR training courses to show Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR, data integration, and a variety of third-party components, effects, skins, and more.
Moreover a brand-new web version of tha application as well as an Eclipse plug-in is available that provides a search interface to the 200+ samples in Tour de Flex.

Adobe has finally released Tour de Flex 1.2.  Below are the highlights (from Greg Wilson's blog):

• New improved skin (thinner chrome)
• Splash screen has been replaced by a quick start screen that we can update frequently with news of new samples, resources, etc.
• Fixed a memory/CPU issue  (see previous post)
• Comments are now hosted in the Adobe forums.  You can post questions, subscribe to responses, etc.
• Now requires AIR 1.5 (so we can include new AIR 1.5 specific samples and Flash Player 10 specific samples)
• Localization for Japanese - the language reference tabs are now pointing to the Japanese content.  More localization is planned in the near future.  Localization was actually part of the 1.1 release that we launched in Japan.  We did not force an auto-update since most existing users would not benefit.
• The download size is now 35% smaller thanks to RSLs.
• Categories are all tree-based instead of a mix of dropdown and tree (confused a few people)
• Minor improvements to Eclipse plugin

You can download the latest version from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex.  If you already have Tour de Flex, your version will auto-update.

New Web Version!

In addition to a new desktop version, we’ve also launched a new web browser-based version of Tour de Flex.  Obviously, it doesn’t include the AIR desktop samples but most of the remaining samples are included.  Holly Schinsky did most of the “magic” to make the web version possible.  She will be blogging about the experience shortly.

Check it out at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex/web

The web version supports deep linking so the browser back/forward buttons work as expected.  You can even bookmark specific samples!

The primary purpose of the web version is to provide an easier on-ramp for those exploring Flex for the first time.  It also provides the ability to view samples from environments that don’t allow applications to be installed.

Updated my Adobe Flex Certified Instructor (ACI) to Flex 3 passing the Adobe Flex 3 with AIR exam

As an Adobe Flex Certified Instructor (ACI) I had to update my certification to the new Adobe Flex 3 with AIR Exam in order to confirm my Flex ACI.
So this morning I got and passed the Adobe Flex 3 with AIR Exam in a Vue center.

The exam has changed a bit against the previous Flex 2 version. There are questions about AIR and I did not find any questions on UML or Coldfusion Data Services.
These are the topic areas and percentage of questions delivered in each topic area:

Creating a User Interface (UI) 22%, number of question: 11
Flex system architecture and design 18%, number of question: 9
Programming Flex applications with ActionScript 24%, number of question: 12
Interacting with data sources and servers 16%, number of question: 8
Using Flex in the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) 20%, number of question: 10

I want to find the time to wirte more about the topics you have to prepare for passing the Flex 3 exam. So stay tuned on my blog :)