James Ward - RIA Cowboy

Flex and JSF have both been widely adopted by the Java Community. In many instances developers must choose between the two technologies. Today Exadel announced a new product called Fiji which alleviates this decision by providing a simple and seamless way to integrate Flex and JSF.

This is very exciting news for Java developers. For more information read the press release, check out the product page, or see the live demos.

Last year at JavaPolis Bruce Eckel, Christoph Rooms, and I did a keynote about Flex. That talk has been posted on Parleys.com (which btw is an awesome Flex app!). You can watch it there, in their Adobe AIR application, or right here using the new Parleys.com Share (beta) widget. If you have any problems watching it here please let me know or file a bug. Thanks!

BTW: You can click on the video to swap the video and slides.

Listen to the Flex Show interview with Bruce Eckel and me. Then let me know what you think.

In a few weeks I’ll be stopping by the Atlanta Java User Group and the Chicago Flex and AIR Developers Group:

Atlanta - August 19, 2008 - Rich Internet Applications with Flex and Java

Chicago - August 20, 2008 - The Future of Flex, Flash Player, and AIR

Hope to see you there!

Here is the recording of a presentation I gave at the NLJUG a few weeks ago on Flex and Java. I hope you find this useful. Let me know what you think.

This week I’m in Europe speaking at various Java User Groups about integrating Flex and Java. I tend to move quickly through code demos so many people have asked me how they can continue learning. Here are a few resources to get you started:

InfoQ Article: Building Web and Desktop Applications with BlazeDS and AMF

Adobe TV Video: Flex Messaging Service

Adobe TV Video: The Data Management Service in LiveCycle Data Services

Email List: JavaFlexCoders Yahoo! Group

BlazeDS

LiveCycle Data Services 2.6 Beta

Hopefully that is enough to get you started. Have fun and let me know how it goes!

It’s hard to believe that Adobe MAX 2008 in the US is only 4 months away! It’s going to be another great MAX and I really hope that you can make it. This year I have one session:

Working with Data in Flex
Explore various methods for accessing data in applications built with Flex 3. We’ll discuss how to connect with back ends such as ColdFusion, PHP, .NET, and Java using REST and XML, Web Services, Remoting, Messaging, and the LiveCycle Data Management Service. We’ll also discuss underlying formats such as XML and how to manipulate it using E4X, AMF3, and JSON.

The session list is now online. So check it out and go register today!

The last few weeks my wife and I have been tromping around the Alps (and we climbed Mont Blanc!) Now it’s time to get back to work. This week I’m visiting a few Java User Groups to talk about the usual topics: Adobe AIR and Flex

Here is the schedule:
July 7 - Zurich Java User Group
July 8 - Paris Java User Group
July 9 - Amsterdam NLJUG
July 10 - Warsaw JUG
July 11 - London Java Meetup Group

Also on July 11 I will be at the Adobe RedMonk SAP Enterprisey Nanoconference with James Governor of RedMonk.

Hope to see you somewhere along the way!

The Thinking in Flex keynote which Bruce Eckel, Christoph Rooms, and I did at JavaPolis 2007 has been posted! Check it out!

Let me know what you think.

BTW: Don’t you love that Parleys.com is a Flex app?!? And they also have an Adobe AIR version of their app which works pretty well on Linux. (To install the Parleys AIR app on Linux install Adobe AIR for Linux and then get the Parleys .air file.)