Rich Internet Applications - Adobe Flex, Apollo and more

Developing a Rich Internet Google App Engine Application using Adobe Flex

2009-04-26T17:18:00Z

Google App Engine (GAE) is a Cloud Computing platform where a developer can build a cloud application and host it on Google servers. GAE at this point of writing supports Python and Java programming models and offers a set of services.The Getting Started documentation of GAE provides several examples to build a GAE application. However these applications are HTML based and do not provide details of building a Adobe Flex based Rich Internet Application client. Hence my intent in this series of posts is to discuss the details of building a GAE application with Flex as the client application providing a number of examples. In this post let us examine the key concepts behind building a Flex based RIA for Google App Engine.

I will discuss the examples using Python as the backend programming language and will assume Windows XP or Vista client machine.

Let us consider a simple problem as below:

1. In the server side logic we will authenticate a user with Google Accounts
2. Depending on success or failure of authentication we will display a suitable message in the Flex application

To implement the solution to this problem, we will:

1. Develop the server code in Python that performs some function using the Services offered by GAE SDK
2. Develop the client code in MXML using Adobe Flex Builder 3.0
3. Test the application using the localhost server, bundled with GAE SDK
4. On successful local testing, deploy the application (both client side and server side) on GAE
5. Test the final deployed application

As a first step, set up the development environment as below:

1. Obtain a GAE application ID by signing up - see http://code.google.com/appengine/
2. Download the GAE SDK for Python
3. Make sure you already have Python 2.5. If not download from http://python.org/ Since GAE supports Python 2.5, it is better to download the same version though higher versions may be available from http://python.org site
4. Make sure you have the Flex Biulder 3.0 installed in your system. If you do not have one, you can download a trial version from Adobe web site. For students Flex Biulder is free.

Before we begin, it is useful to review how Flex connects to a server application.

The earlier generations of Web applications were server centric. The business logic (in this example, "Authentication") executed on server and in addition to this, the presentation content was also generated in the server. You may review the examples provided under Getting Started section of GAE where this point becomes very obvious.

We may note that the sample code in Google Getting Started documentation has a get method that emits the necessary HTTP headers and also the HTML content for the display. This is in line with typical HTML based applications that often have a page based metaphor than an application metaphor.

Since the Flex applications run on the client and are responsible for handling the presentation, they do not require HTML to be generated from the server. Instead, Flex applications just need the data from the server and they can render the data and manage them on the client. Flex applications interact with the server through well defined, standard SOA model. Broadly, three major protocols are supported:

1. SOAP/WSDL based web services
2. REST based services
3. Remote Object protocol that uses Adobe's AMF binary format

In my next post, I will show how to build the client and server applications for Flex/GAE.

Does Cloud Computing and SaaS complicate an ISV world?

2009-01-10T15:17:00Z

I was one of the panel speakers in a Panel Discussion organized by Headstart as a part of a Cloud Computing conference at Bangalore during Jan 9th and 10th. The conference agenda is at headstart.in/Agenda/

The panel met on an interesting topic: "Software-as-a-Service delivered from Clouds". I spoke on how the cloud computing paradigm changes the ISV world. The cloud paradigm has caught the attention over the last 1 year with several major ISVs making their offering and some of the businesses that leverage this paradigm reporting major growth.

The value proposition of cloud to businesses is strong - the need for any capital investment is minimal or zero and the cloud infrastructure allows scaling and is elastic as the needs grow. However, to make a product as a cloud offering, one encounters the following challenges at a broad level:

1. Architecting the application for the Cloud: Delivery considerations
2. Developing rich internet access models that access the cloud applications: Cloud Client development considerations
3. Business Models: What challenges the traditional ISV's need to address to make revenue out of cloud?
4. Development methodologies: How does a developer build cloud applications? What options exist? What are the considerations?

I am planning to write a series of posts to share my thoughts with the first post (this one) describing the intersection of Rich Internet Applications and Cloud computing.

Before we go deep in to RIA and cloud, let me describe the cloud computing through an architectural model. At a broad level, we may categorize the cloud application environment in to the following layers:

1. Infrastructure

This layer represents the utility computing or on-demand computing model that are typically offered by hardware system vendors, such as HP, IBM, EMC. The compute servers and storage servers are made available through data center hosting as a virtual environment. The user of this layer will be able to run his applications on the compute servers or store data in the storage servers receiving these services as a utility. Amazon is a good example of an ISV who operates in this layer with its offerings such as Amazon EZ2 elastic cloud.

2. Software

The Software layer typically hosts cloud scalable databases, application servers, frameworks and other standard software typically used in web application environment. For example, Oracle partners with Amazon to make available its database products as a hosted application.

3. Services

There are many providers who make utility services available on the cloud. These services typically web services based and are invoked through the client program. Often a client application may invoke one or more services from different providers and combine these to offer unique benefits. These are mash up applications. Examples of services are map based services, image and video services etc.

4. Application

Many hosted applications are emerging. These include office applications like word processing applications (for example, Adobe Buzzword), Customer Relationship Management applications (such as those from Salesforce.com) etc.

It is possible for someone to write an application (application layer) that mashes up services from different service providers (service layer), use the databases (from Software layer) and be hosted on the compute and storage servers (Infrastructure layer). In a generic sense, it is possible that the vendors who provide each of the services listed above can be different - that is, an application may be executed on a compute server hosted by Amazon, the data stored in a EMC server and application services may come from servers that may be owned by some other vendors.

For us to understand the role of RIA in Cloud computing environment, let us think through what happens if we are required to use our popular word processing application that we run in our desktop from the web?

As a user, we might face the following issues:

a) Since the data and application are served from the web that we typically invoke these through the browser, the user experience may be poorer. This may happen due to:
- Poor network bandwidth
- The choice of client technology. For example, if the presentation content is a HTML page in the Web 1.0 style (Synchronous communication with the server with page refreshes), the user experience may not be all that great.
- The application architecture and design

b) There may be reliability issues if the providers of the services/utility do not guarentee certain Quality Of Service. Hence, potentially one may expect situations where the server may be down or services may be unavailable online.

c) Trust and Security concerns that arise due to the fact that the hosting infrastructure is not owned by the user.

d) Typically, pay as you go mode of payment as against upfront purchase of a software product

The RIAs help to address the issue (a) as above. Since we are looking at an example where we are using our popular desktop software as a web hosted application, it is fair to have an expectation that the user experience over web remains the same, if not better, than the desktop experience. Here is where RIA's with their ability to deliver desktop experience on web play a key role. Adobe's premier RIA platforms: Flash, Flex and AIR provide a great user experience to the web applications. Adobe Flex, with its comprehensive repertoire of user interface controls, provide a web experience that comes close to the desktop experience. Since the RIA's leverage the computing power in the client, the load on the server can be reduced, thus enabling a faster response from the server.

Often it is necessary to access the cloud applications from non PC clients such as cell phones. Adobe Flash technologies support such application models.

Some cloud applications may be peer to peer based. In such situations there is a need for data synchronization between different clients that are peer devices. Often, one may also need to support different access protocols such as Publish/Subscribe besides the traditional Request/Response protocols. In such situations, the Adobe Livecycle Data Services (LCDS) or the open source BlazeDS technologies would be very handy.

Thus, the Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR technologies for the client side and the Livecycle technologies for the server side make Adobe products a very compelling product suite for the development of cloud applications.

I intend to write more on this topic and so will stop here for now

Synergies in SOA and Web 2.0 Trends

2009-01-04T12:21:00Z

I delivered an invited key note speech at the Service Oriented Engineering and Optimization (SENOPT 08) workshop which was conducted as a part of High Performance Computing (HiPC) conference in Bangalore, India. This talk asserts that over the last 7 years, 2 key trends have emerged: SOA on the services front and Web 2.0 that greatly influences the client side. These two trends are not independent of each other and in fact support one another's adoption. The presentation brings out the synergies and enumerates several Adobe case studies that support this theme. I enjoyed doing this presentation to the research community and am immensely thankful to my colleague, Duane Nickull. He is the senior evangelist at Adobe and also the chair for the OASIS Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model Technical Committee (SOA-RM TC).

Here are the abridged version of slides

Adobe Flex and AIR training material

2008-12-06T06:04:00Z

Duane Nickull, Adobe Senior Evangelist has made available excellent material that provide insights in to Adobe RIA technologies, Flex and AIR and how to connect different backends with RIA clients. The training material has 8 hours worth of content ranging from Hello World to more advanced topics of using remoting and WSDL introspection. This is a free download, have a look at:

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/12/building-service-clients-with-flex-and.html

Academic Conference - Web 2.0, AIR and Flex presentation by Ananth

2008-08-16T14:51:00Z

Adobe Systems India conducted a workshop for academia on 12 Aug 2008 at Hyderabad. I gave an overview of Web 2.0 and the Adobe products Flex/AIR that help build Rich Internet Applications in the context of Web 2.0 - presentation in PDF

If you want to add this as a widget in your page (iGoogle, etc) you can grab this

Flex Builder Linux Alpha2

2007-12-19T05:50:00Z

In continuation of its commitment for Linux, Adobe released the Alpha 2 version of Flex Builder for Linux. It is available from Adobe labs site at: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/

This Alpha2 release incorporates bug fixes, installer enhancements to provide better messaging for 64 bit, jseclipse support, Fedora 8 support, Data visualization and automation trials, integration with Moviestar etc.

Web Innovation 2007 Conference

2007-12-19T04:30:00Z

The Web Innovation 2007 Conference started in Bangalore on 18 Dec 2007 with a panel discussion chaired by an elite panel. The panelists were: Naresh Gupta, Managing Director - Adobe, Mohit Hira, Director - Times Internet, Krishnakumar Natarajan, President & CEO - MindTree, Jaspreet Bindra, Country Manager MSN India - Microsoft, Dr. T.R. Madan Mohan, Director – Consulting, Information Communication & Technology Practice - Frost & Sullivan.

Naresh said that Web 2.0 is the realization of the potential of traditional web through the right business models, right applications etc and in that sense, web 2.0 is an evolution rather than something substantially a new paradigm. This view was echoed by other panelists. Mohit, with an anology of Bangalore roads, explained Web 2.0 as a two way street as compared to the traditional web, which is more of a one way street. The panelists also felt that one has to go beyond community activities in order to succeed with Web 2.0.

Are people making money in Web 2.0? Naresh said that "yes" - As an example, many companies that use the advertising model make substantial revenues and their valued at multi billion $ by the market. The story with respect to India is abysmal though.

What are the top 3 inhibitors to Web 2.0 adoption and success in India? Most panelists felt it is broadband, broadband, broadband! In addtion panelists also pointed out that it is not natural in India to form professional communities or communicate through blogs. It was mentioned that the bloggers from India is a miniscule compared to the potential.

Isn't it easy to switch loyalties in the world of Web 2.0? How would a business create and sustain its advantage? Jaspreet pointed out that it is not easy to switch from one IM to other or one social networking to other because, it requires the entire community to switch. It is not a matter of an individual switiching.

Overall, it was a great panel discussion followed by absorbing key note speeches.

RIA Leadership Summit

2007-10-29T03:56:00Z

Adobe India conducted "RIA Leadership Summit" on 25th Oct 2007. This is a major event well attended by over 120 technologists and decision makers from major corporate in India. The session started with a welcome address by Naresh Gupta, the Managing Director and head of Adobe India. The major highlight of the event is the key note by Shantanu Narayen, President and COO of Adobe Systems. Shantanu articulated the importance of "Engagement as a business imperative", different forms and modes of engagement and introduced the Rich Internet Applications as a major means of engagement. It was very exciting to hear the major advances in RIA technology, in particular, the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR formerly called Apollo). There were both on stage as well as stall demos which were very absorbing. In particular, the data visualization demos, mash up builder and the mobile demos attracted everyone. In all, it was a very absorbing evening that had many takeaways for the participants with diverse background.

Sivaji - Adobe Flex based Mash up application

2007-07-06T09:57:00Z

Here is your single window to all about Sivaji the Boss! Click here to view all information on Sivaji, the Tamil film blockbuster from Super star Rajini...

How did we build this cool application? The magic is due to Adobe Flex!

If you want to create similar cool Rich Internet sites download and try Flex 3 beta from: labs.adobe.com

P.N. Anantharaman

Adobe to open source Flex

2007-04-26T05:44:00Z

Adobe has announced open sourcing of Flex, the framework for building Rich Internet Applications. It is licensed under Mozilla Public License that will allow full and free access to the source code to not only Flex SDK but also MXML and Actionscript compilers. This is a great news for developers who can't wait to build powerful platforms for developing RIA's. With the Actionscript virtual machine already open sourced (Tamarin project), the Flex open sourcing constitutes a very significant step.

You can see the announcement from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com

Flex workshop at Adobe, Bangalore

2007-04-13T04:54:00Z

We (The Flex team from Adobe Bangalore) did a 1 day Flex in-depth workshop to key customers. The presentations covered several core topics like Flex Overview, Flex Datagrid, Drag and drop, Item renderers, Event Model, Data management, MVC/Caingorm etc. Apart from formal presentation, the workshop included demos and explained code snippets.

I made a presentation on Event Model of Flex and basics of Data providers in Flex. I enjoyed speaking to a knowledgeable audience and we had an enjoyable interactive session.
Click here to download the slides on Flex Event model and Data Providers

RIA Presentation Slides

2007-03-26T04:53:00Z

The SJCE college at Mysore, India organized an IEEE sponsored student event called Cyberia. I made a presentation on Rich Internet Applications to the student community. There is a great interest among the student community in India to learn Web 2.0 in general and Rich Internet platforms like Flex in particular. Here are the presentation slides on Rich Internet Applications.

Adobe Developer Olympiad - How to make your application interesting?

2006-12-06T09:57:00Z

Adobe India has announced the Adobe Developer Olympiad contest for students. Please check out: www.adobeindia.com and click on Adobe Developer Olympiad. This contest is intended to encourage the students from recognized Indian universities to build compeeling Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and components based on Adobe Flex and ColdFusion technologies.

What are the key steps to building a compelling RIA application or a component? Here are some tips:

1. Choose the right application that can benefit from being an RIA. and being visually rich. An application that serves its intended purpose effectively with a simple text interface may not benefit much if we make it jazzy. It may even make the user experience worse. On the other hand, applications that are inherently complex requiring multiple controls can benefit significantly from enhanced user experience through RIA technology. Flex provides a variety of components that can be used to build very rich interfaces in quick time
2. Choose a real world application. Higher the business value of the application, better it is. One strategy is to select some of the popular existing web sites that are not RIA based and redesign them using RIA. A good example is to redesign crickinfo.com where the existing design can be improved significantly using flex
3. Focus on innovative design. Identify which component would be suitable for what purpose eg, should we use tabs or accordian or ...
4. Think through both client side and server side design. ColdFusion is an excellent server side product that makes it very easy to build complex server side logic
5. Focus more on innovation. It is not necessary to build a product grade quality to the application for the purpose of this contest.
6. Contact ado@adobe.com for any help.