Andrew Powell's Flex, Java, ColdFusion, and AJAX Blog

Aug 7 What Defines A RIA?

The other day I heard someone define iTunes as a RIA. I started to correct them because, until then, I had only thought of RIAs as being built with AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, etc; with these new RIA technologies. That comment though, got me to thinking. What does really define a RIA? Is it the technology that is used to build the application or how it leverages the power of the Internet (via SOA, etc.)?

After a bit of consideration, I have to say that an RIA is any application that leverages the power of the Internet to enhance the application. An RIA is not simply an AIR application, a Flex application, an AJAX application, or a Silverlight application. Any application that uses the internet to leverage new user experiences is a RIA.

So, that being said, iTunes is probably one of the best examples of an RIA out there. It changed the game when it came to music applications, adding the ability to subscribe to podcasts, share your library, listen to Internet Radio broadcasts, and the iTunes store itself transformed iTunes into the most ubiquitous and indispensable RIA we've seen yet. All that and it wasn't even built in Flex, AJAX, OpenLazlo, Curl, or Silverlight. It was built in Objective-C.

In the coming months and years as we see RIAs and the influence of SOA proliferate through ordinary desktop applications, we're going to have to take a long hard look at how we, as a community, define a RIA. I think we're heading towards a point where we really do define a RIA as any application, regardless of the development language, that leverages the Internet to deliver new user experiences to the end user. In the end, it would seem, we are all RIA developers.

Aug 7 Bookshelf Updated

I updated my bookshelf page the other day.  I added 10 more books which, as an RIA developer and consultant, I find very useful.  Click through and take a look, then buy from Amazon, or your favorite book store.

My Bookshelf

Aug 6 Why Jaxer Doesn't Matter

It looks as if Aptana is getting closer to rolling out Jaxer with the release of their RC "B" version. Many of you may be asking: "What the hell is Jaxer?". Well, Jaxer is billed as an AJAX server. Basically, it is a server platform that gives you the ability to write your server-side code in JavaScript. Is this really what we need, another server?

Let's see a show of hands. How many of you out there in the RIA space are only JavaScript coders and know NO server-side language? Do you really want to rely on JavaScript for your server-side code? I sure don't. We have many platforms that do the server-side really well: J2EE (I'm including ColdFusion here), .NET, Ruby On Rails, PHP, etc. Why do we want to leverage JavaScript on the server? Someone please tell me the benefit. That makes about as much sense to me as the people who want to leverage AS3 in ColdFusion. At what point do you just take the plunge into a high-level language?

We already have these great server-side solutions that do their job really well. The new middle tier's job is going to be quickly and efficiently delivering data to RIAs and less and less focused on generating HTML for the browser. It's coming. Just watch. With all the solutions we have, and where the middle tier is going, Jaxer is not going to be a viable solution. It can't handle web services well, it can't handle any sort of Flex remoting, and we still don't know how it performs under load. Jaxer is, and always will be, a way for client-side developers to get their hands into the server-side of things. I think RIA developers are looking for more. Will Jaxer be able to deliver? My guess is no.

Jul 25 Are You Updating Your Skills?

I've been getting a curious response from some of the people I've told about the latest addition to my skill set.  When I tell them that I've taken the dive into Ruby on Rails (RoR), the first question they've asked is "Why would you want to do that?".  Well the answer is quite simple.  Around the middle of the year each year, I make a concerted effort to learn a technology that I'm not familiar with yet.  Last year I got into Spring/Hibernate, Flex was the year before.  This year, I've decided to double my efforts.  This year, I'm committing myself to the dual challenges of learning RoR and Silverlight.

I have long contended that any developer, as long as they have a solid background in a structured language (Java, C++, etc) can easily pick up any other programing language once they get past the rudimentary syntactical differences.  I believe this fact (I learned in C++ back in the day) has allowed me to pick up languages quickly and add to my value as a developer and a consultant.  This foundation has helped me professionally because I have been able to increase my value to my employer, year over year.  It has also helped to keep me sharp as I often find myself switching between 3-4 different languages in a given work day. Without this challenge I'm sure I'd grow complacent and my skills would drop off at some point.

So, am I bragging?  No.  I am challenging you, the complacent developer, to take the time, take the plunge, choose something you don't know but have been wanting to learn and dive into it head on.  It can be Flex, C#, Java, Ruby, PHP, whatever.  Just choose your target and go after it with passion and a desire to make yourself better and make yourself a better developer.