When I was asked, I jumped at the chance to do a series on Flash data
integration for the MXDJ. Here was a wonderful opportunity to share my
popular talks, presentations, and demonstrations with a large, interested
audience. In this series I have the opportunity to show you how to use Flash
MX 2004 Professional's components to rapidly develop data-driven rich
Internet applications. At the conclusion of this series we will have
constructed a one-page shopping application capable of using data from
several back ends.
I've always loved Flash. I preordered a copy of it after seeing a demo at
NAB/Multimedia World back in '97. At the time, the multimedia market was
going into a "small correction" and Macromedia was in the process of
reinventing itself as a Web company.
Macr... (more)
Flash is one of the great Internet technology stories. It began in 1995 at a
small tech startup called FutureSplash, which developed a remarkably
efficient solution for delivering rich animation over narrowband Internet
connections. Macromedia acquired FutureSplash in 1997 and established Flash
as the standard for creative and dynamic interactive web content.
Flash quickly became synonymo... (more)
What does data look like? To a stockbroker, data might appear as a stream of
company names and stock values. A database administrator probably sees data
as a series of tables. A developer working in XML might see data as a tree
like structure.
This article is all about data. We will look at data, data structures, data
transformations, and data bindings and examine their role in the Flash ... (more)
In the first article in this series (MXDJ, Vol. 2, issue 10) I made the case
for the rich Internet application (RIA) and discussed the advantages of the
Flash client. Last month we examined the construction of an XML driven RIA
built using Flash S data and UI components. This month we look at how
ColdFusion provides a simple but powerful way to make data available as both
a Web service a... (more)
This month the topic is Web services. Previous articles looked at the RIA,
component-based development, XML, and the role of ColdFusion as a data
source. In this issue we examine the role of Web services in RIA development.
What is a Web service? Two years ago I really didn't have a clue. Sure, I had
heard some of the buzzwords such as SOAP and WSDL, but back then I couldn't
have told you... (more)