Flex 2 was released in the Summer of 2006 and it was a mini-revolution in the RIA space. Almost nobody knew about Flex 1.5, but now almost everyone has at least heard about this software. Flex 3 was released in early 2008. It has a number of useful new features, but it was not a major release. In my opinion, a more modest 2.5 would suffice. We are expecting more now. Flex 4 will come out to the world next year and while the Flex team has announced a number of very interesting syntax improvements, I'd love to see more fundamental improvements in this great RIA tool.

This pattern is a hybrid of plug-in and event driven architecture to integrate individual plug-ins together with one another to come up with Plug-in Integrator pattern. This pattern leverages the benefits of both these well-known architectures to provide a optimal solution to build enterprise ready rapid application development infrastructure preferably in Flex but might also be implemented in other programming languages like Java, C#, etc.

Eighteen months ago Flex 2 was released, which literally changed the way people think of rich Internet applications. Since then lots of things have happened in the Flex community. In 2007 Adobe announced that Flex will go open source, and now it has happened. All ActionScript 3 and Java code including Flex compilers and debugger (FDB) are going open source. And let?s not forget about the number of other open source products released by Adobe during the same period of time.

This is the first in a series of articles that will cover best practices of Flex development using the code of the soon-to-be-released open source class library theriabook. These components were developed by Flex and Java architects from Farata Systems. Over the past couple of years we've been successfully using various coding techniques and custom components that turned the application development in Flex into a RAD project.

Based on the calls I'm getting, it seems that people are confused by the word certified in the name of this program. So I'll try to provide some clarification here. But let me start by explaining what the title Adobe Certified Flex Instructor means. I'll start with my own story.

I assume that you are already sold on using Adobe Flex for developing the front end of your next rich Internet application. As of the end of 2007, it's the best choice you can make, really. But after spending almost two years working on real-world projects that involve Flex, I can see a number of roadblocks that prevent Adobe Flex from being the only solution for RIA.

On August 16, 2007 SYS-CON Media has launched Flex Developers Journal, an online technical publication for developers that are using or considering Adobe Flex as a technology for creating rich front ends for Web applications. While in the past SYS-CON was publishing Flex-related articles here and there, now we've got the critical mass of interest required to have an independent publication covering this solid platform for creating Rich Internet Applications (a.k.a. RIA). You can have lots and lots of people screaming and shouting 'Flex is cool', but publishers of technical magazines are very pragmatic people, and they would not start a new publication unless the software has already some serious following and good growth potential from the business perspective. Today, Adobe Flex has both.

Development and Design are two sides of the same coin in the digital age, and it is very nice to consider in any case how well these two formerly separate worlds have come together over the past two decades. Adobe was at the forefront from the beginning, with its Postscript Fonts. Based on earlier work by Adobe co-founder John Warnock at Xerox PARC and Evans and Sutherland, Postscript was integral to the Apple LaserWriter, hooked to an Apple Macintosh, all announced in 1984.

One of the 'inflexion points' of the development of the Web, when commentators and analysts draw breath for long enough to chronicle its history, is certain to be the day that Google, through first Gmail and then Google Maps, opened the eyes of millions to the fact that the Web can be smarter, more responsive, and interactive...above all, that it doesn't have to involve 'click, wait, and refresh.'

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go! Ok, let me give you a chance to restore your heart rhythms. Each year I see a recurring situation. Software Company 'A' releases a major upgrade to their package. Everyone is excited about the new features. Then, usually within a month, you start seeing postings about what should be put into the next update. Are we ever happy?

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go!

As many of you know, I do Macromedia seminars around the world. A fair number of participants are independent contractors. The number one question I get asked isn't about the latest programming techniques in Flash or how to develop dynamic pages in Dreamweaver. The number one question is: How do I market and charge for my services?

Business guru Tom Peters once wrote 'we need to embrace change; to welcome it; to transplant ourselves periodically.' Through change, we grow and avoid complacency or staleness. With change, we start on the proverbial Spring cleaning and make way for the new and exciting.

When I took over this publication last September, I stated that I wanted to eventually change the tone of the publication so that the articles did not seem like 'textbook' exercises. Instead, I wanted to take on a more pragmatic approach by showing how many businesses are using the Macromedia MX packages. This month is the fulfillment of that wish.

As we go to print, we are finally seeing the realization of what must have been the worst kept secret beta in history: 'Blackstone.' As a matter of fact, at the New Orleans conference in November, Macromedia finally threw in the towel and gave everyone a beta copy of it.

It is the New Year, a time when we make resolutions and change (alright, I promise I won't talk about diets). It is also a time when we look back on the previous year. Publishing this journal is certainly no different.

I am writing this editorial the day after returning from the MAX 2004 Macromedia Conference in New Orleans, LA. As a veteran (or survivor) of many conferences, I can honestly say that this was one of the finest events I have ever attended.

In the October issue of this journal, we had a small error; John Bland's fine article entitled 'A Little OOP, CF Style' ended up with the classification of Flash ActionScript. Unfortunately it was not caught until the edition was in print. However, when I reviewed the article, I was struck by the fact that many of the OOP concepts John discussed, while putting them in a ColdFusion context, were equally applicable to ActionScript. As a matter of fact, John makes allusions to that very point.

As a Web developer, trainer, and conference speaker, the question I am asked most frequently is, 'Where is this industry going?' My answer is one simple word: Flash!!!

I've been involved in the Web standards community almost as long as I've been working on the Web, and I've long felt that designing to W3C recommendations is the right thing to do. It's easy to evangelize standards like XHTML and CSS, but when it came time to put my money where my mouth is for the redesign of my company's Web site, adaptivepath.com, my partners and I had a very frank discussion about whether the effort - and it would be a lot of effort - was really going to be worth it.

Since the launch of Dreamweaver MX 2004, I've had numerous opportunities to demonstrate its new features and power to both new and existing Dreamweaver users. As with any product demonstration, it doesn't take long before I'm singing the praises of Dreamweaver MX 2004's abilities to design and render CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets.

When Macromedia first announced last year that it would be joining the old UCon and DevCon together, combining the best of the two events into 'Macromedia MAX 2003' - subsequently held in Salt Lake City in November - there were the inevitable rumblings in the user/developer community.

Macromedia and its developer community have a unique bond based on a mutual fascination with what the Internet could be, a desire to create great experiences, and a need to keep pushing the limits. The active dialogue that takes place between Macromedia and its customers pushes both sides forward.

For many of us who comment regularly on the swirling, whirling Internet technologies space, 'Web publishing' has never been a particularly satisfactory term. If the metaphor of 'publishing' was the correct one for the business of making things public on the Web, then how about the rest of the lexicon of publishing, such as 'author,''editor,''jacket designer,' and so on? It was almost as if half the elements of the publishing ecosystem were missing.