Flex and Documentation

Here we go, yet another post about Web Development. Not really a post, so much as a rant. I hate reading rants as much as you hate reading them, so I figure I have no right to expect anyone to read past this point, but... Sometimes a rant is inevitable. And I feel this is one of those times, so I will now engage in ranting. Read on, if you dare (or agree...)

First, I must say that for an RIA platform, Adobe FLEX 2, at least in to my way of working/thinking is the best that I have found. I base this opinion on two major factors: 1. Ease of use. The Flex builder (built on Eclipse) delivers a sweet spot between a truly intuitive GUI builder and a nuts-and-bolts text editing environment. From initial prototype to delivered product, with good debugging tools, one could do worse than to adopt the Flex builder platform for true RIA development. 2. Robustitude. OK, I know that's not a word, but if it were, FLEX 2 would exhibit maximal robustitude in its class library. There are controls in FLEX that rival (and beat the living nasal mucous out of) anything else found anywhere else in the RIA community sites out there. Hands down. When I say this, I speak from the point of view of an experienced web developer. I have coded my own GUI applications using straight AJAX (with XML and JSON), using Flash (ummm, too flashy), HTML with a combination of ASP 3.0, 2.0 and .net, JavaScript, JScript, and (ACK, dare I say it...) JScript. FLEX, with its combination of mxml and actionscript 3.0 has become my development environment of choice to deliver RIA functionality via the web. I feel, in short, that it is the wave of the future.

So, what, you may ask, is my major malfunction with FLEX? Why rant at Adobe if I love FLEX so much? You think I am ranting for no apparent reason. I will now tell you, gentle and patient reader, why I have a gripe with Adobe vis. a vis. FLEX. Read on, if you dare.

My reasons are two in number. The first is purely a temporal gripe. It has to do with the impending release of FLEX 3, which might, maybe, somewhat, offer a development platform that surpasses FLEX 2 in the same way that slicing bread with a bread knife surpasses slicing bread with a razor sharp chef's knife, in other words the job can be done, but the tender bread fibers might become crushed under the chef's knife. Read on to learn more about the first reason.

My company has been considering FLEX 2 for at least 18 months while living under the limitations of a Flash 8 license. Then wind passed our way about the upcoming release of FLEX 3. Would it be better? Would it offer more? Could I resist it even less than I could (and was) resisting FLEX 2 licensing? Research said no, and so I downloaded the trial of the FLEX 3 Beta. Then, I committed project development of a major online client's need into FLEX. (While continuing development in tandem with Flash 8)

One month later, the FLEX 3 beta license expired, and I could not renew. I was forced to purchase a FLEX 2 license (at a cost of $500, well OK, $499 actually), to procure a license key to allow us to continue development in FLEX 3 beta, with, ready.... NO UPGRADE PROTECTION. In other words, I'm expected to fork out another five hundred bucks (or more...) when version 3 comes out. I did the bright thing. I said "Screw this... move the source deck into the FLEX 2 environment and downgrade anything that doesn't work in version 2 to version 2. Don't worry about the enhancements in version 3, we'll stick with version 2 in perpituity."

The second reason for my gripe is the documentation, particularly as regards sourcing data. I would expect that a web application would source data FROM THE WEB. When I look for examples of how to source data, I expect to find examples (in the help file, and via internet searches) of how to consume well - formed XML from a web source such as a PHP file, maybe ASP or ASP.net, something like that. What do I find? How to source data from a static XML object encased within the FLEX code itself. Digging (deeply) in the online help for literally hours reveals the methods needed for such access, but really, should one have to dig that deeply, when the data that one is looking for is not (for the most part) static in an applicaiton, but dynamic? More examples of sourcing data from middleware (and not from within the client side application) would be not only welcome, but necessary.

I conclude by saying that FLEX is an awsome development tool, but that the documentation is lacking in the area of data access (at least from the point of view of a real world developer), and that there should be upgrade protection when a major release is planned, particularly when full price is payed only two or three months prior to the release of a major version upgrade.