Foreword
Every ten to fifteen years there is a radical software paradigm shift. Many of us experienced the last shift as the web gained momentum and software was rebuilt for a new and game-changing deployment model. Today we are in the midst of another great software paradigm shift. User and business needs now require software to be more usable, extensible, and portable.
Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) represent a new generation of software. As the name implies, RIAs provide users with a rich and interactive experience. At the same time, they offer the ease of deployment that made early web applications so successful. RIAs are the future of software because they combine the strengths of the web deployment model with the full client capabilities of thick-client software.
Since 2004 Adobe Flex has been the most prolific toolkit for building RIAs. A primary advantage of Flex for RIA development is that it integrates easily with any back-end technology. By providing native XML, SOAP, and Data Remoting capabilities, Flex enables developers to build rich new UIs on top of existing services. For Java developers this combination is especially compelling because many Java systems have already embraced service-oriented architectures with SOAP Web Services, Spring, or one of numerous other technologies.
The union of Java on the backend and Flex on the frontend is so powerful that hundreds of thousands of developers have already embraced this new paradigm to create better software. You’ve probably picked up this book because you want to do the same thing—build better software. We all want to build software that we are proud of—software that users will love. Flex on Java will teach you how to do just that.
There are many aspects to building great software. If software looks sexy but does not perform well or is not maintainable, its value is diminished. What I love about this book is that it teaches a holistic approach to building great software with Flex and Java. As you would expect, you will learn how to create rich data visualizations. But, just as importantly, you will learn how to efficiently move data between the client and server using BlazeDS, set up unit tests, add security to an application, and more. These are the problems we have to solve in real software. Knowing how to address these fundamental issues frees us to focus on what matters most—creating software that users will love.
These are exciting times for software developers! Today we are building the next generation of software—a generation that will be remembered as the first to be usable, beautiful, and truly helpful. Flex on Java empowers you to create that future! I look forward to seeing the future that YOU build with Flex and Java.
JAMES WARD
TECHNICAL EVANGELIST FOR FLEX AT ADOBE