This week Dzone posted a Refcard James Ward and I wrote on the new Spring BlazeDS Integration project (Download the Refcard here).  To go along with publishing the Refcard, Dzone’s James Sugrue interviewed James and I for our thoughts on Spring and Flex.  If you are interested in integrating Flex and Spring, the new Spring project makes life pretty easy, and our Refcard will help guide you through getting everything setup with a fairly straightforward example.  Let me know if you have any feedback on the Refcard or the interview.

Our podcast of Booze and Bits continues in episode 11, where we do our usual thing – geek out on software over a few beers.  In this episode, we chat with Matt Raible about GWT, open source, RIA, etc.

Check out the episode here: http://www.drunkonsoftware.com/2009/04/05/episode-11-matt-raible/

In the latest installment of Drunk On Software, James Ward and I sit down with Anthony Franco, of EffectiveUI, to chat about RIAs and the software landscape in general.  Anthony offers a number of interesting insights for those that aspire to build quality software.  It was fun chatting with Anthony.  Hopefully it is enjoyable to watch.

I’ve posted a simple component, called Chimp, for doing role based permissions in Flex through metadata.  You can check it out at: http://code.google.com/p/flexible-chimp/. The quick overview is that you provide Chimp the user’s roles on start-up and then add meta data to the components for filtering what the user can see.

Here are the setup instructions:

1) Download and add the chimp.swc to your project library
2) Add compiler argument to keep necessary metadata:

-locale en_US -keep-as3-metadata+=Protected

3) Load the Chimp in your application. The Chimp must be loaded after role data is available, but before children are added:

Chimp.load(perms);

4) Add metadata to your Flex components:

[Protected(permissions="ROLE_ADMIN",notInPermissionAction="remove",componentId="this")]
[Protected(permissions="ROLE_UPDATE",inPermissionAction="enable",componentId="updateButton")]

I read two good posts this evening with a similar theme, implementing a system is boring … at least when done well.  Stu Stern’s post discusses it from the standpoint of defining a clear architecture up front:

An architecture is sufficiently defined when we can turn a developer loose on developing some piece of functionality and he or she obeys all design constraints, there is a minimal possibility of creating software that produces any of the above problems. If you’re conceptually bothered by being constrained, preferring instead to program in wide open spaces with the wind blowing in your hair, perhaps you would prefer to think of architecture as providing the freedom from choice.

Alex Papadimoulis post, Programming Sucks! Or At Least, It Ought To, takes it more from the realities of building business systems on a day-to-day basis.  He basically concludes that developers get too enamored with all the noise in the software world and need to focus on building features for the business:

As frustrating as it can be to work with the uninspired, sloppy developer, the contrary – the inspired-yet-misguided one – is several magnitudes worse.

Alex offered a list on how to approach the profession:

1) Learn the Business.
2) Serve the Business.
3) Learn Off The Job.
4) Code mostly Business. (If the overwhelming majority of your hand-written code isn’t domain-specific and doesn’t relate to the application’s purpose, then you’re using the wrong tools.)
5) Tedium is Inescapable.
6) Find Satisfaction Elsewhere.
… and, if all else fails…
7) Get Another Job.

I do love Alex’s post and believe he basically hits the nail on the head about the attitude we need to take toward the profession. However, I believe Stu has better captured the reality of building software systems. Things do change and evolve in software in ways that are both beneficial to the developer and the business. Thus, defining an architecture up front on how the system is going to be built is an essential step to allowing developers to focus on building features that have value to the business.  If we succeed when it comes to architecture, then we can get on to the boring parts.

One could even say that if presidential elections are about the economy, then when it comes to software: It’s Architecture Stupid.

In our latest Drunk On Software video we talk with Alex Moffat, of Lombardi Software, about Google Web Toolkit (GWT).  The audio isn’t great, but there is still some good infomation for those looking for an introduction to GWT.

A new episode of Drunk on Software is online.  We talk with Bruce Eckel in this episode. Let us know what you think!

In the latest installment of Drunk On Software, we dicuss Anvil with project founder Ryan Knight.  Ryan is a colleague of mine at Gorilla Logic. Enjoy the video and let us know if you need any more information on Anvil.

In 2008, Flex reached the tipping point where it went from a technology with possibilities, to wide spread usage.  The year started with Adobe releasing Flex 3 and AIR 1.0 and finished with an updated release of AIR (1.5).  According to friends at Adobe, in mid-2008 there were about 150,000 Flex developers – a number that pushes it beyond interesting, to a viable and growing community.  Also, there were the Sun Deflextions…

In my consulting travels, it went from a technology few knew of in 2007, to one where most developers had some impression of it, or had even done some work with it in 2008.  It has been exciting to see a technology go from the fringes to the prime time.  I do hope that Adobe finds a true revenue model, and Flex doesn’t just become another Java as far as the vendor is concerned.

Personally, this really means new challenges for 2009, as I am tasked with writing RIA content for InfoQ.com and building real applications with Flex.  In late 2007 and early 2008, there was a constant stream of announcements and excitement around the platform.  As 2009 starts, I think it has already become more about the reality of building real world applications.  So, on the InfoQ side, I think my new challenge is going to be providing resources on how to best implement applications on the platform and talking more about the weaknesses of Flex and how to address them.  I guess that is the reality for any platform that becomes mainstream.

All that said, 2008 was an exciting time to be associated with Adobe Flex!

If you are new to Flex, or just curious about it, you need to check out James Ward (my Drunk On Software partner) and Bruce Eckel’s book, First Steps in Flex.