CF8, AJAX, Flex, AIR: There’s Room For Everyone
The ColdFusion community has been paying attention to IT journalism lately, for better or worse, and for good reason. Our environment is especially in a state of flux; many of us may had been concerned about the future of ColdFusion given Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, but those fears were allayed, especially now with Adobe making it so clear that they have invested respectable time and resources into improving ColdFusion with CF8. But the results of the acquisition are only just beginning to emerge. And as Adobe’s strategy becomes clearer, it is very evident that they are putting arguably more resources into other technology like Flash and Flex.
What ultimately prompted my thoughts was the article Web 2.0 Needs Adobe by Tom Yager. His discussion is very flattering for Adobe, although ColdFusion isn’t mentioned anywhere. Neither is it mentioned in Cringley’s equally flattering article An AIR of Invisibility. There’s a reason for this. They’re focusing on the user interface of apps, which is really what defines the perception of how responsive and powerful an app can be. Fretting about ColdFusion getting the back seat is like fretting that your favorite athlete wasn’t nominated for an Oscar; it wasn’t really up for consideration.
So, user interface. Now that’s something to fret about. Many of us don’t like to think about the UI, and that has to change! User interface has always been important when users form their impression of an app, and that high priority is applying more heavily to web apps as they begin to vie for user acceptance with their heavier desktop brethren.
Most ColdFusion developers are using HTML for their user interface. An industry migration will hopefully migrate that median toward AJAX-enhanced HTML or Flex interfaces for web apps, and of course AIR for desktop apps. ColdFusion won’t be going anywhere, as our internet connectivity is always going to need a server-side component.
So how are we to react to these articles’ evaluations of AJAX and Flex? In a way, they are depicting JavaScript (and thus AJAX) as a dinosaur with wings. It is powerful, it got a shot in the arm with the popularity of AJAX, and it can do amazing things. But it’s still a “dinosaur”. It is old technology trying to keep up. Enter Flash and Flex. The new kids on the block. They’re more modern–but they’ve had time to mature–and they just out-perform AJAX in what they can accomplish. Now tack on thoughts about how much AJAX functionality Adobe has put into CF8. What’s the point if AJAX is inferior to Flex? What does it all mean?
It’s a big internet out there. Various scenarios call for various solutions! Whereas it is a good idea for us as ColdFusion application developers to learn Flex and start using it when UI needs call for it, the ultimate point is that we start improving our UIs from plain HTML. Start putting more effort into the user interface. We’ve had it easy in the past when simpler, less sophisticated interfaces were accepted on the web, and that time is coming to an end as the web pushes forward as a viable application platform.
Is it urgent that we start learning Flex? I feel that AJAX and Flex will be sharing the web application space for a long time. Yes, Flex and Flash might be Adobe’s ticket for bringing web apps to the next level, but their commitment to AJAX is very clear. That is evident in the AJAX support in CF8 and AIR. Learn Flex if you can. If it’s just too much for you to handle right now, AJAX is a fine step–more palatable and familiar for HTML developers–that will let you focus on the more important point: Improving your app’s user interface.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Let’s not forget Adobe’s AJAX Framework Spry is in the works. And while it is still beta, it is also further proof that Adobe will continue to support, not only its flagship products, but those that “compete” with them and are viable technologies.
You are right there is room for all of it and as we all know, no one technology is a silver bullet, each one has its time and place, sometimes even in the same app.
February 16th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Excellent post, covers all my thoughts and concerns. ColdFusion, Ajax, Flex… is too much for somebody to learn. Well, wrong said, learning is easy, what is hard is to offer a maintenance plan to your knowledge!
I paid a lot of attention to Flex. I liked it a lot – though I feel that it will never replace ColdFusion. I haven’t completed going over my new books of Flex 2, and here’s Flex 3! Things are moving fast and I think that this will be a problem. We may see in the future better UIs but I guess that since we don’t have the chance to gain experience to newly launched platforms we will see more buggy apps in the future.
Adobe needs to stabilize their technology a bit. I know that MS is also moving fast (i.e. see silverlight) but although releasing new platforms fast sounds nice for a company like Adobe this does not mean that we, adobe developers, will be able to get the most out of all these platforms!
February 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Thanks for that comment. I agree that it is frustrating as developers having the “challenge” to respond and begin using these new technologies. I think there is good reason for every new tech they have introduced, and hopefully they will begin stabilizing, as you put it, and start focusing on maturing these technologies now.