Computerworld - Macromedia Inc.'s Flash technology has been popular with developers who create animated Web pages, but the San Francisco-based company will try to extend its reach by giving corporate programmers a new way to build rich clients for transactional Internet-based applications.
Today, Macromedia plans to release a beta version of Flex, a server software product and application framework that can be used with the tools and infrastructure corporate developers are already using.
Joshua Duhl, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said corporate developers have been reluctant to use Flash because of its different programming paradigm.
But Macromedia has created a new XML-based language, called Flex Markup Language, that a developer can use to describe the user interface of an application. The Flex application framework provides prebuilt code and runtime services for data connectivity, and the Flex server compiles the code into a file that is sent to the browser, where it's rendered by Macromedia's Flash Player.
Rod Hodgman, vice president of product management at Macromedia, said the initial Flex release will run on top of J2EE-based application servers, including his company's JRun, IBM's WebSphere, BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic and the Apache Software Foundation's open-source Tomcat. Flex is due in the first half of next year. A .Net version will follow, Hodgman added.
Macromedia also plans a tool, based on its Dreamweaver MX 2004, to provide visual layout and integrated development and debugging for Flex applications. A beta is due next month.
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