| Flex RIA |
Rich Internet Applications. They are the Internet’s inevitable future, but what advanced technology drives this advanced paradigm? JavaScript? No thanks. But this is not the time to escape to a fallout bunker, and hide yourself until the web’s nuclear winter is over. Flex is here, come to save the day.
Don’t get me wrong: JavaScript and Flex have a lot in common. One, JavaScript and Flex run at the client (browser) level. Two, ECMAScript is the basis for both the JavaScript and ActionScript programming languages. Heck, Flex even uses a teeny tiny bit of JavaScript to establish the application’s focus at run-time. But we can’t kid ourselves. JavaScript is not a very good language. There are some major differences between web browsers, particularly between Internet Explorer and, well, every other browser. Flex is just Flex. As long as you have the right version of Flash to support the code, the application will work. JavaScript is not very robust or error-handling friendly. Flash’s builder is a godsend, with everything you’d expect in a true application IDE: syntax checking and debugging tools. JavaScript RIAs use the innovative but wonky (if nothing but the fact that it uses JavaScript) AJAX idea. Flex has built-in support for true WSDL and SOAP support, net connections, HTTP services, and the like. It even gets better with the work of AMFPHP, which is a low load, low complexity juggernaut that makes data connectivity a snap. What would RIAs be without data connectivity? That is what makes them Rich Internet Applications, and not just Rich Applications.
So I encourage all web developers to try working with Flex. Test it out. You may even like it. And perhaps, given time, we never have to hear the words JavaScript and RIA in the same sentence ever again!
