Adobe rolls out Betas

Adobe Systems announced the public beta of Adobe Flex 3, Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) formerly code-named Apollo, Adobe Builder Beta and Flash Player update. With the new Flex and AIR Abode is pushing itself up in the rich Internet applications (RIAs) competition.

Adobe Flex 3 Beta:

The new version of cross platform, free open source framework for creating RIA adds rich new UI capabilities, enhanced developer productivity, desktop deployment and enterprise testing and performance tools. The Flex 3 public beta also marks the first significant deliverable for the open source Flex project, beginning with the availability of nightly builds and a public bug database. Some of the key changes in Flex 3 from its predecessors are:

• Enhancement to designer/developer workflow.
• New Containers (mx:ConstraintRow and mx:ConstraintColumn).
• Code enhancement include: faster compilation, compiler class caching, deeper language intelligence for AS3/MXML/CSS, Code Search, Refactoring, Code Outline, Profiling, Profiling Live Memory Data, Enhanced Module support, and Multiple SDK support.
• New Widgets, Components and Classes.
• Smaller SWF file.

Ted Patrick had a week long blog entries on the new Flex version. Each of the above mentioned features is explained in detail.

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR):

Apollo Runtime becomes Adobe Integrated Runtime. The cross-operating system runtime was code-named Apollo. It allows developers to use their existing web development skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop. Now AIR is set to become a major runtime that all the desktops will have. AIR will also pay a major roll in RIA, mashup softwares and Web 2.0 and beyond.

Adobe Flex Builder 3 Public Beta:

Flex Builder 3 Public Beta is available for download in Adobe Labs. This early public prerelease version begins a new, more transparent product development process from Adobe, with frequent, regular access to early builds and greater insight provided into the feature roadmap and planning process. The Flex Builder 3 beta release will provide you with an opportunity to explore powerful new features. Some of the new major features include:

• Support for the new Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR).
• Code Refactoring.
• Memory and performance profiling.
• SWF file size reduction through persistent framework caching.

You can also view the complete detailed specs for Flex Builder 3.

Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 1:

The new Flash player is code-named "FrogStar". It adds support for caching the Flex Framework within the Flash Player. Moving forward the Flex Framework will be cached within the Flash Player dramatically reducing the size of the output SWF files. SWF files will contain only your code and Flex Preloader containing the caching/loading logic. Some of the new capabilities of Flash Player are:

• Flex Framework to be cached for use across domains.
• The Player Cache will support Flex 3.0 and future versions of the Flex Framework.
• Flex Framework now supports Runtime Shared Libraries (RSL's).

Conclusion:

So with these new features, Adobe is trying to capture the market which other Ajax libraries have. The size of SWF has been an issue for some time. I know some of the projects which opted other technologies like Openlazlo and others due to the size of SWF file.

Another important factor is with Sun’s JRE. Unless Sun reduces the size of JRE and make it more portable, its new RIA technology JavaFX will find it difficult to compete. Compared to Sun Micorsystems, Microsoft seems to be making ground with its new Ajax projects and other .Net enhancements.

Backbase Ajax 360

Backbase has been a leader in providing Ajax solution. They have released Backbase Ajax 360 is a complete enterprise Ajax solution. It includes everything needed for efficient, risk-free browser-based RIA development and life cycle management. It is solution for ensuring successful Ajax implementations in an enterprise environment.

The new product delivers a complete set of development tools designed to significantly improve developer productivity. Another major advantage is that, the company adds comprehensive services on top of the Framework. They also provide Ajax-based RIA architecture expertise, Ajax training, professional development services and enterprise premium support

Talking about Backbase Ajax 360: It’s a complete enterprise solution built on open standards. The framework includes the entire DHTML stack: (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, XMLHttpRequest, etc. It also supports XPath, XMLEvents, SMIL, XInclude, XMLSchema, and XSLTransform. In addition, Backbase also supports Java standards such as JSF, Facelets, Struts, Spring MVC, JSR 168 and JSR 286. Unlike other available products, Backbase's standards-based solutions work with existing applications and technology. It reduces risk and accelerates development cycles.

Backbase provides a rich Enterprise Ajax Framework with widget interoperability, communication, and binding control to data sources. It also takes care of all routine tasks and requirements, allowing developers to focus on the unique aspects of an application, the business logic and UI composition. The system includes more than 250 pre-built and pre-tested Ajax Widgets and functions. IDE plug-ins is also available for the Eclipse development platform and Adobe Dreamweaver. In addition, Backbase provides real time debugging functionality directly from within the Web browser.

Another major ability is Enterprise Integration. Backbase Ajax client technology is fully server agnostic as well. The software seamlessly integrates with common Web servers, application servers, and portal and SOA mashup servers. It is compatible with any server: Java EE, .NET, PHP, and ColdFusion. In addition to its client technology, Backbase provides additional pre-build connectors and/or runtimes for the Java server platform (e.g. Struts, JSF, Portal, Spring MVC).

I haven’t tested the new product yet. But it looks like Backbase has done their homework to compete with others.

Gosling talks about JavaFX

James Gosling, the co- founder of java talked with CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland about the new application platform, JavaFX. Gosling talks a bit about how JavaFX will compare to Adobe's Flash (Flex and Apollo) and Microsoft's Silverlight. Here is the video!

So, as the heat increasing in three camps (Adobe,Sun and Microsoft), what will happen to other small projects that have made their venture into this hot field. Two notable camps are Dekoh and Dojo toolkits offline web applications. Dekoh is making of the existing technologies including Adobe's Flash and is going to make use of JVM,HTML,Java script and XML for RIA development. Dojo on the other hand has come up with a caching proxy to save the web application and will use the existing scripting languages. Flex makes use of the MXML and Action script which is poplar among developer but JavaFX script is not! Developers will take time to adopt, learn and start using the new scripting language. For a developer, he will have to wait and see what the industry will accept and only time will tell! And for now... simply go about your daily work :)

Inside JavaFX !

Sun revealed its new product family: JavaFX for development on Desktop, Web , mobile and other electronic equipments like TV and Setup box. The product features a new content scripting language called JavaFX Script. For now, Sun and released JavaFX Mobile and JavaFX Script the first applications from the JavaFX family. Sun defines JavaFX as "JavaFX is a new family of Java technology-based products that will help content providers create and deploy rich Internet applications (RIA)." They also talk about its ability to create interactive content, applications and services from desktop to mobile devices to the living room.

At a glance JavaFX is going to make use of all advantages java currently provide - write-once-run-anywhere, portability, application security model, ubiquitous distribution and enterprise connectivity. JavaFX Script is going to help developers create interactive content and it will be not a procedural scripting language. At the same time JavaFX Mobile will be Sun's software system for mobile devices.

The new scripting language have the following features:

• JavaFX Script uses a declarative syntax for specifying GUI components, so a developer's code closely matches the actual layout of the GUI.
• Through declarative databinding and incremental evaluation, JavaFX Script enables developers to easily create and configure individual components by automatically synchronizing application data and GUI components.
• JavaFX Script will work with all major IDE. Plugin for Eclipse is already available!
• Unlike many other Java scripting languages, JavaFX Script is statically typed and will have most of the same code structuring, reuse, and encapsulation features that make it possible to create and maintain very large programs in Java.
• JavaFX Script is capable of supporting GUIs of any size or complexity and make use of Swing.

Sun has also started Project OpenJFX, which is a project of the OpenJFX community for sharing early versions of the JavaFX Script language and for collaborating on its development. The JavaFX Script downloads, NetBeans and Eclipse plugins are available here. You can also find demos for the script. And here is "hello world" fx script:

     import javafx.ui.*;

   Frame {
          title: "Hello World JavaFX"
          width: 200
          height: 50
          content: Label {
              text: "Hello World"
          }
          visible: true
   }

So to get started all you need is an IDE with JavaFX Script plugin and JDK 1.5 +. You can find the tutorial and language reference at https://openjfx.dev.java.net/.

JavaFX an alternative to Ajax?

Sun is all set to release a new product range during JavaOne conference. The new product is a java-based product family called JavaFX, which cover development of desktop,web and mobile. It will introduce a new scripting language called JavaFX Script.

Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president said the platform as "JavaFX is a complete software system from the metal on up" and "JavaFX Script is a scripting language focused on the content-authoring and content creation crowd. It is a means of creating visually impactful, high-performance, dramatic Web and network-facing artifacts or experiences that run all the way from the desktop running Java SE (Standard Edition) all the way down to mobile devices powered by JavaFX Mobile".

JavaFX Script will focus on user experiences on the interface and highly animated content. It will be also easier to use thus development of the application will be easy and the JavaFX is not a procedural language. The programmers will be able to make use of the existing Swing and 2D APIs. and finally JavaFX will be open source!

So, JavaFX is Sun's answer to Abode's Flex and Apollo and Microsoft's Silverlight? I would say YES! So, JavaFX will offer an alternative to AJAX and also vies with Silverlight and Adobe's Flash (Flex and Apollo) and will enter RIA competition through this. Dekoh , another RIA project based on Java will also turn out to be a competitor for JavaFX. To get more on JavaFX we will have have to wait a few hours and I will update as soon as I get more information.

Moving to Semantic Web

You must have heard this before : "Web 2.0 is dead and over" and for who haven't try this. So if you believe web 2.0 is dead,where are we heading? and if you don't believe this entry is to make you think about it. About the next web : Semantic web!

The work have already started. Radar Networks is a company pioneering the Web 3.0 or semantic web. They have stated to release their product in 2007 itself. They have also graph representing the growth of web:

Looking at the graph, we are to leave behind (may be not totally avoid it) and move into new stuff named OpenID, SPARQL, SWQL etc to reach Web 3.0 and finally the WebOS. You will see that we have already started the work on all these technology that will help us reach Web 3.0 and beyond. OpenID will help in decentralized digital identity for users and it will be on open platform. SPARQL and SWQL are going to play a important role in getting information. May be you can say RSS and Atom are the ancestor technology to collect information but SPARQL and SWQL which is rule language will bring out a better informative web to users.

Keeping aside the development of these technologies, lets see how the present technology will help to move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. So web 2.0 is not dead? I would say no! And the major reason is we still have development in Ajax,RIA technology. It not the matter of how many web 2.0 projects is undertaken or successfully completed today, but its how we built,use and evolve (modify) these new technologies that we have today to make Web 3.0 or semantic web or intelligent web or ... so Web 2.0 is not dead but evolving.

With the work on Web 3.0 no and running, and we also see new technologies screaming "cross-platform,browser-independent etc.." its all about using these new query and rule languages and develop a semantic web. And for this we will definitely see Mashups, widgets, RIA applications and advanced search mechanism playing a major role.

Adobe to open up Flex

I am bit late for this entry but here it is: Abode has announced its plan to open source Flex and its development. This press release appeared on Abobe's site on April 26th (and I was busy preparing for my final review).

According to Adobe, they are to release ActionScript components from the Flex SDK,Java code for ActionScript and the MXML compiler. The open sourced Flex SDK will be available under Mozilla Public License (MPL).The MPL will allow full and free access to the source code, allowing developers to download, extend, and contribute to the source code for the Flex compiler and framework classes. This show Adobe's commitment to open technology initiatives, including the contribution of source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine to the Mozilla Foundation under the Tamarin project. At the same time it also show how Adobe is planning to tackle its rivals like Dekoh, Dojo etc which are already open.

Now Microsoft's Silverlight is yet to see the open source light. And I am sure that's not going to happen. Another set back that Silverlight will have is that, the support for linux (Unless mono project take up the task). So... keeping the heat on RIA technology all these products are going to change our internet experience in next 2 year in a big way!

Dojo Offline - Running Web application Offline!

Ok! There is yet another beta product that you can add to the list of Apollo,Silverlight and Dekoh. This time the beta product is from Dojo an ajax library. According to Dojo team the Dojo Offline is "a free, open source toolkit that makes it easy for web applications to work offline" . Yes, this has striking similarities with Apollo, Silverlight and Dekoh (Read my previous post for comparison) as all these beta products aims at "Integrating web with desktop"! and all these products define it in their own way.

Dojo Offline have been in development from some time during Jan 2007 or even before that. It has been developed by Dojo, SitePen and Brad Neuberg, a San Francisco-based software architect and programmer. Dojo Offline claims to the small,easy and open. It consist of two parts : a javascript library (the dojo library) with web pages and a cross-platform, cross-browser runtime that will help to cache the web application interface and run. The small caching is done by polipo a caching web proxy developed by Juliusz Chroboczek. This small runtime is only 300K (compared to its competitors this is very small). It also comes with tools to build UI, helps to store data and important part - its 100% open source! and the runtime is BSD licensed.

The runtime is available for download for developers. For end users only the windows and Mac OS X. You can have a look at Hello World application here.

Microsoft launches Silverlight

At last Microsoft moves WPF/E to Silverlight! This shows Microsoft is not far from Abode's Apollo and Pramatic's Dekoh in the race of building cross-browser and cross-platform for developing rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. All these three products are in race head to head and I recommend you (web developers) keep a close look on these technology because these are going to transform the web! Even though all these (including Silverlight) are in their pre-release and is meant for developers to test they are brilliant and highly innovative work from these companies.

Now looking into Silverlight, the first change here is Microsoft gave WPF/E (the project codename) to Silverlight and display it as a development procduct rather than keeping it in MSDN. And this is the only major change I can see!!! They have given it a name, site and yah, its more publicly accessible.

Microsoft's definition of Silverlight is :"Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web". But I am still wondering will they support linux this time around and provide the runtime? Or will the mono project develop the runtime as they developed the .Net counter part for linux?

Dekoh Alpha Released!

Pramati Technologies just announced the public alpha release of their new RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform, Dekoh Desktop. Dekoh has already challenged Apollo as Desktop/Web Platform and now they are giving their Alpha to public. This is a great opportunity for web developers to test both Dekoh and Apollo at their alpha stage and find their likes and dislikes. And finally reduce the desktop - web gap!

Looking at the Dekoh architecture, it consist of there parts:

1. Dekoh Desktop: the developer platform; the core runtime engine that runs on Windows, Linux or Mac OS. This consist of a personal web server and runtime (You will be needing JDK 1.5).

2. Dekoh Applications: the initial set of applications that can make the platform sufficiently interesting for end users to install and try. They have come up with some interesting applications for the developers and users to try and have a feel. Some of these are : Thumbnail Maker , TagCloud.

3. Dekoh Network: the sharing platform for end users to create personal networks in the typical web2.0 style right on their desktop. It also ensures secured and controlled sharing of applications or content on the desktop.

Dekoh developers can find their development portal here and the wiki home is a good start for the starters. But there are still pages that say "comming soon"!!!

Apollo , WPF/E and Dekoh a comparison

Adobe has come up with a innovative cross-OS desktop platform called Apollo and definitely evey innovation is copied,cloned or imitated. That how I see Mircosoft's WPF/E and a new product called Dekoh. Now lets look how all these products are defined by their creators.

Apollo: "Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.
Apollo enables developers to create applications that combine the benefits of web applications – network and user connectivity, rich media content, ease of development, and broad reach – with the strengths of desktop applications – application interactions, local resource access, personal settings, powerful functionality, and rich interactive experiences."

WPF/E: "“WPF/E” is the Microsoft solution for delivering rich, cross-platform, interactive experiences including animation, graphics, audio, and video for the Web and beyond. Utilizing a subset of XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language)-based Windows Presentation Foundation technology, “WPF/E” will enable the creation of content and applications that run within multiple browsers and operating systems (Windows and Macintosh) using Web standards for programmability. Consistent with Web architecture, the XAML markup is programmable using JavaScript and works well with ASP.NET AJAX. Broadly available for customers in the first half of 2007, “WPF/E” experiences will require a lightweight browser plug-in made freely available by Microsoft."

Dekoh: "Dekoh Desktop is a cross-OS desktop platform that brings several key J2EE, database and web services modules together, in a compact footprint package ready for end consumer use. Dekoh as a platform enables building a new breed of applications that combine advantages of the web and the PC. Dekoh applications bring rich interface, interaction and functionality using personal media and local devices on the PC. These applications can work even when offline and provide a web 2.0 style sharing and community networking features. "

Here we have three products aiming to bring "web to desktop" or the other way around! Either way, the aim is to increase collaboration, user experience, easy of use which are all properties of Web 2.0. So Web 2.0 is moving to a better way unlike some authors who say "Web 2.0 is over and out!". Looking deeper into these products, its really worth comparing as these are definitely here to stay and change the way we interact with web.

On comparing these products you will see that both Apollo and WPF/E are from software giants, and Dekoh is a new product being born from Pramati. Looking how these software giants perform, we know Microsoft runs the largest share of PC, but at the same time Abode has 97% of penetration for its flash player which its cross-OS platform is based on. So looking at market, these two giants, already have their base built for launching their platform and there are enough developers and customers they can get hold on. In this part Dekoh fails!

We are over with one comparison and that's not enough, lets look and the developer community now. Microsoft has a vast developer community, with its Visual Studio .Net the community's size have definitely increased. Abode on the other hand have been attracting developers to its product by releasing SDKs for its different products like Acrobat to Photoshop. They also devloped ColdFusion which has also caught market share. Pramati Technologies is an end-to-end Enterprise Java platform vendor with a product suite that includes application servers, component development tools, and an extensible web based management framework. But I doesn't have it's own technology. So as such no developer community (other than their employees and closely related developers ).

But but but,.. their is a major point that changes view among these three technologies. We all know both Microsoft and Adobe are money makers! They have their SDKs free for (poor) developers and charge for the commercial versions of all their product. Here is where Dekoh shine! Dekoh is going to be open sourced and open to community( I am presently not sure under which license its going to be released ).

Now lets get technical.. All three have a different approach to the same aim. Microsoft is going to use their .Net XAML along with ASP.NET and Ajax (for sure) as their development path. In case of Apollo, Adobe has its extension of Flex and ActionScript as the main development path, but the developer can make use of HTML,flash and interact with javascript and Ajax. An important point here is both these products have their dedicated development path i.e, XAML of Flex, but Dekoh is going to make use of the existing technologies like DHTML,Ajax,Java,PHP and has support for Flash and Flex. So making use of the exisiting technology like Java and PHP which have a very large development community is one major plus for Dekoh.

Another point of difference is the runtime environments that runs these technology! Definitly Microsoft has released its WPF/E runtime environment for download, it is supported only on Windows and Mac (No Linux in sight and still they call cross-platform?) . Adobe makes use of its flash player technology and has a Apollo runtime (Alpha) ready for download. But Apollo too is only for Windows and Mac, but I am sure Linux Apollo runtime is on its way. Now looking at our new product, Dekoh makes use of Java 1.5 and higher as its runtime environment!!! We all know JRE is having a very strong hold in all sectors of the computer industry and this is going to be a major plus in case of Dekoh.

Coming back to developer community, Java has a very strong community compared to Adobe and even Microsoft (you may disagree). Developers tend to be lazy to study new language as it take time to be an expert. Taking this scenario, Dekoh has another plus to its pocket. But, just using the Java technology is not going to make is successful. Adobe as already been seen hunting java and other web developers to use Flex to overcome the complexity of using vast number of Ajax libraries.

So, with these new technology at you door steps, what are developers going to choose? Which one will rule the Web ? We are yet to find out ;) Have a good weekend!