Summa

In a recent project the interface designer in my team asked whether we could disable the anchor tag (for expand/collapse) on the disclosure panel header and have a single button do the job, helping the user with a hint that this panel is actually expandable. I said OK, let’s see the DisclosurePanel javadoc. Suprise! All you can do is have a header and that itself is surrounded by the clickable anchor… time to extend Composite!

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It’s very tempting, given the power and ease of GWT, to jump in head-first and start building flashy new RIA applications for your customers right away. Slow down! Although I’m not generally an advocate of big design up front (BDUF), there are a few usability requirements that I think you’ll want to understand before you start coding – requirements that will fundamentally shape how you design your client-side GWT architecture, and therefore minimize re-work later.

So, toward the goal of evoking usability requirements, here are 6 important questions to ask your users or business owners:

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AJAX development requires deeper knowledge in JavaScript and there is a slightly different set of features in different browsers. There are also technologies created out there called JavaScript libraries – such as Ext JS and Yahoo User Interface – and JavaScript toolkits – such as Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and DOJO – that can help you ease the burden. Basically, the libraries’ role is to speed up development for the client side and take care of the browser compatibility holdups. Further, the toolkits offer even more infrastructure providing support for the development and deployment phases.

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Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are increasingly being seen as successful models for creating lightweight front-ends for SOAs. They not only allow developers to overcome the static natured HTML’s limitation of refreshing the entire page to load new information but also allow flashy graphics, and immersive user experiences. Adobe’s Flex is a free open source framework for building and maintaining RIAs that allows consistent deployment on all major browsers. Adobe provides a commercially available development environment (Flex builder) with free trial version for 60 days that is highly recommended for ease of development.

Besides the rich interface library, Flex provides SOA based data access components that allows server side interaction for the flex applications. This article will look at the different ways for bringing server side data into a Flex application, primarily focusing on Remote Services using BlazeDS.

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The “Selecting the Right Flex Application Framework” post provided a summary comparison of the Flex application frameworks out there, highlighting the ones I thought were the “heavyweights” a Flex developer should focus on. The purpose was primarily to help you make a quick, easy, but well-informed decision, without looking at the code.

But many of us wish to look under the covers and see a detailed comparison of the frameworks. So I took Adobe’s Flex Builder 3 Getting Started tutorial example of a simple Flickr photo search and re-implemented it in Cairngorm, PureMVC and Mate.

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The bar is continually being set higher for customer and user experience in web-based applications.  Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) offer user experience benefits that increase user satisfaction, improve ease of use, increase user productivity and promote faster adoption, while still providing the benefits of Internet-based application platforms.  In addition to the benefits to users, proper use of RIA framework technologies also greatly increases developer productivity.

Join us as we highlight the technology and business benefits of RIA, provide selection comparisons between current RIA frameworks and highlight tips that will help you start or improve your adoption of RIAs.

We will cover:

• Business Drivers and selling points for use of RIA
• Background and comparison of current RIA technologies
• Pros and cons of various open source and proprietary RIA frameworks and components
• Case studies and lessons learned from Summa’s application of RIA technology to mission-critical applications

Date:  February 19, 2009

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 EST

Register:  https://events.webdialogs.com/portal/wipevents/register.php?id=c48c0fbca4&l=en-US

The webinar is intended for:

• Technical Architects and Managers
• Development Managers
• Product Managers
• Line of Business Managers

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So you’ve decided to use Flex for your web application development. It’s easy to follow the online tutorials and prototype an application, but deciding on an application framework for your major production Flex application is more difficult. The Flex community is divided between Adobe’s Cairngorm and Cliff Hall’s PureMVC, with strong arguments from both sides. However, your answer may just lie in the “it depends” space.

This post aims to help you make that decision. It includes analysis of Cairngorm, PureMVC, and the new kid on the block, asfusion’s Mate. Other Flex application framework players are also discussed.

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