Ted Patrick > { Events & Community } > Adobe Systems

It has been less than 24 hours and there are already 2 Flex Search mashups out there. Kudos to Renaun Erickson and Andrew Trice for their work mashing up the Flex Search API. Its pretty cool that mash-ups would occur so quickly but publishing an open API has made me see the benefits in a way I hadn't before.

Flex Search by Renaun Erickson
Flex Search by Andrew Trice
Flex Search by Me!

Mashups and Flex were made for one another. Taking components and distributed data sources and blending them into distributed applications takes seconds in Flex. Regardless if you are talking to REST XML, SOAP Web Services, AMF Remoting, FDS Messaging, FDS Data Management the presentation layer development is very simple to merge data across domains. This integration simplicity gives developers the freedom to experiment and explore without wasting time. My focus in the search app was the data API not the presentation tier.

So why did 2 mash-ups appear in less than 24 hours?

1. Flex is productive. Working at the component level lets you be more productive and deliver real apps in far less time. Dare I say it but Flex is Rapid Application Development, RAD.

2. Data integration is a snap. Simply call the search component like it is local and data is returned with data typing. Here is the tag that is used to talk to Flex Search:

<mx:RemoteObject
id="ds"
destination="ColdFusion"
endpoint="http://www.flex.org/flex2gateway/"
showBusyCursor="true"
source="api.search">

<mx:method name="getData" />

</mx:RemoteObject>

To call this with a Button in MXML you would do this:

<mx:Button click="ds.getData('Cairngorm')"/>

3. Clean API in AMF Remoting - AMF exchanges data in a binary format with typing information. When data returns you can use the data directly as the model for controls through the dataProvider property with binding. In my code I simply bind the DataGrid.dataprovider property to the 'lastResult' of the method called. When data arrives, the DataGrid is automatically filled.

<mx:DataGrid dataProvider="{ds.getData.lastResult}"/>

What is interesting is that an open API allows developers to scratch an itch. If a UI doesn't work for them they can change it independently and move it into any format. From the API creators perspective it is free R&D to see what users want from the application. Who knows maybe the right choice is to encourage the community to innovate atop the API. Either way it solves the problem in finding thing in the world of Flex.

I have been working on a "Flex and Mashups" white paper for a long time. Jeremy Chone jokes with me about it everyday encouraging me to finish it. He stops my desk every single day and asks: "White Paper?" (deep french accent) and when I return from travelling he repeats: "White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?""White Paper?" for every day I was gone. Ok, I will finish the White Paper soon!

Keep posting Mashups of Flex Search!

Cheers,

Ted :)