Flex and large real world b2b applications

Question

Hi all.
I am new to Flex. I am acting in an architect capacity to
review the potential in Flex to become the client presentation
layer for a classic ASP?SQL application. I am seeking a
cross-browser, cross-platform, zero-installation,
just-in-time-delivery, rich user experience web application client.
I think I'm in the right place.
My aim in creating this post is to solicit feedback on
approaches and techniques on how to plan and execute a major-system
re-write into Flex, what is in-scope and what is not, etc. With the
Flex team putting the final touches into release 1.0, this might be
considered a bit too soon to ask these questions, but worthy of
response if Flex is to be take as anything more than
‘something to do with that flash games thing that my kids
play on’.
One of the key issues for my client company, which I believe
will be typical for many in the same situation, is to retain
current investment in the system by re-use of the business logic
and DB access layers. Basically the back-end is not broken and is
well prepared for generation of XML instead of HTML. What is
considered weak, by nature of the web browsers poor user interface
abilities, is the client side of the system.
The company has a small, loyal and technically able workforce
who are very familiar with the current system, which is written
using classic ASP and SQL Server , HTML and JavaScript. The company
is risk and runaway cost averse. It has held back from jumping into
.Net for fear of getting into a costly 5 year revision cycle as
.Net matures. The AJAX approach is another potentially fruitful
client-only route but is likely to be a painful way forward as
there is no major technology vendor leading the charge on
standards. A Java approach would meet the user interface
improvement needs but would require replacing or retraining the
current workforce and a paradigm shift in the technology losing all
of the middle-tier database logic.
The ideal is a stable zero-installation web-client that can
communicate with a server back-end consisting of the same, or
slightly modified or wrapped business logic and db configuration as
the current system and that could then run side-by-side during
switchover.
If this is possible then risk adverse organisations have a
way forward.
The problem is, that from several docs and articles on
Adobe's web site, there seems to be some careful but vague
positioning of the capability of Flex in terms of application
complexity and depth. Also, the demo's that are available seem to
be quite lightweight compared to real-world needs. These apps
‘seem’ to work in a mode where the entire application
is downloaded in one-hit at user initiation. The assumption is that
the user will be prepared to pay some wait time for a better UX,
but there must be a limit.
Question:: How does one go about crafting in Flex what would
have been a 300-page website when produced in HTML? Is this
practical? To create a download containing the drawing instructions
and page-logic for 300 pages would probably cause such a delay at
user-initiation that it would not be practical.
There are many further questions that span from here, but
lets see what we get back from the post so far.
Looking forward to reading responses.
J.

Answer 1

You're absolutely in the right place (IMO)...
Cynergy Systems can help you get started. We are a Flex
Alliance partner,
and have developed some extremely complex RIAs with Flex.
Contact our VP of Consulting - Dave Wolf for more info:
[email protected]
Paul Horan
Cynergy Systems, Inc.
Macromedia Flex Alliance Partner
http://www.cynergysystems.com
Office: 866-CYNERGY
"TKJames" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi all.
>
> I am new to Flex. I am acting in an architect capacity
to review the
> potential
> in Flex to become the client presentation layer for a
classic ASP?SQL
> application. I am seeking a cross-browser,
cross-platform,
> zero-installation,
> just-in-time-delivery, rich user experience web
application client. I
> think I'm
> in the right place.
>
> My aim in creating this post is to solicit feedback on
approaches and
> techniques on how to plan and execute a major-system
re-write into Flex,
> what
> is in-scope and what is not, etc. With the Flex team
putting the final
> touches
> into release 1.0, this might be considered a bit too
soon to ask these
> questions, but worthy of response if Flex is to be take
as anything more
> than
> ?something to do with that flash games thing that my
kids play on?.
>
> One of the key issues for my client company, which I
believe will be
> typical
> for many in the same situation, is to retain current
investment in the
> system
> by re-use of the business logic and DB access layers.
Basically the
> back-end is
> not broken and is well prepared for generation of XML
instead of HTML.
> What is
> considered weak, by nature of the web browsers poor user
interface
> abilities,
> is the client side of the system.
>
> The company has a small, loyal and technically able
workforce who are very
> familiar with the current system, which is written using
classic ASP and
> SQL
> Server , HTML and JavaScript. The company is risk and
runaway cost
> averse. It
> has held back from jumping into .Net for fear of getting
into a costly 5
> year
> revision cycle as .Net matures. The AJAX approach is
another potentially
> fruitful client-only route but is likely to be a painful
way forward as
> there
> is no major technology vendor leading the charge on
standards. A Java
> approach
> would meet the user interface improvement needs but
would require
> replacing or
> retraining the current workforce and a paradigm shift in
the technology
> losing
> all of the middle-tier database logic.
>
> The ideal is a stable zero-installation web-client that
can communicate
> with a
> server back-end consisting of the same, or slightly
modified or wrapped
> business logic and db configuration as the current
system and that could
> then
> run side-by-side during switchover.
>
> If this is possible then risk adverse organisations have
a way forward.
>
> The problem is, that from several docs and articles on
Adobe's web site,
> there
> seems to be some careful but vague positioning of the
capability of Flex
> in
> terms of application complexity and depth. Also, the
demo's that are
> available
> seem to be quite lightweight compared to real-world
needs. These apps
> ?seem? to
> work in a mode where the entire application is
downloaded in one-hit at
> user
> initiation. The assumption is that the user will be
prepared to pay some
> wait
> time for a better UX, but there must be a limit.
>
>
Question:: How does one go about crafting in Flex what would
have
> been
> a 300-page website when produced in HTML? Is this
practical? To create a
> download containing the drawing instructions and
page-logic for 300 pages
> would
> probably cause such a delay at user-initiation that it
would not be
> practical.
>
> There are many further questions that span from here,
but lets see what we
> get
> back from the post so far.
>
> Looking forward to reading responses.
>
> J.
>
>