Flex 3 goes open source. How does it affect WebORB?

If you have not heard by now, you must be on a totally disconnected island (lucky you!). Adobe announced Flex 3 will be open sourced under the Mozilla Public license. This is the right step given how the RIA battlefield is shaping up. The key to victory is not only a carefully thought-out strategy, but a massive army of countless and devoted troops. The Open Source move can certainly add many more. (I still need to read up what Sun Tzu says about it).

Clearly the news is great. There's plenty of commentary written already, so I'd rather just concentrate on what the announcement does to us:

1. WebORB can now be more like FDS (sorry, I meant to say LCDS) in a sense that your project code (MXML/AS) can be compiled on the fly. The product will monitor changes to the deployed source files and will recompile if a change is made to generate a new SWF
2. MXML/AS compiler can be integrated into our own code generator. This way you can run the generated code without bringing it into Flex Builder
3. We're exploring tighter integration with Visual Studio to make it easier for ASP.NET developers to jump onto the Flex bandwagon.
4. There are a few other things I just cannot talk about yet, but they are uber-cool :)

Technorati tags: WebORB, Flex

WebORB 3.1 is released (with new WebORB Data Management for Flex)

It took many late midnight coding hours and finally I am happy to say that WebORB for .NET 3.1 is available for download. The release went out yesterday evening. The most important feature in the new release is WebORB Data Management for Flex (WDMF). The feature lets you create dynamic data-driven applications in fraction of time. To get started with WDMF watch the training videos first, then check out the FAQ.

Additionally 3.1 introduces Vista integration. There is a detailed step-by-step installation guide if you intend to run WebORB on Vista.

The release also has a bunch of bug fixes and various improvements. Now that the release is out, I plan to spend a lot more time on writing articles, creating examples and tutorials. We're also shifting into smaller iteration and delivery cycles, so we can get the bug fixes and new features into your hands sooner.

Please download, try it out and enjoy!

Technorati tags: WebORB, WDMF, WebORB and Vista

We've been quiet, but VERY busy

I have not posted anything for a while. The primary reason is the preparation for the new WebORB 3.1 release for .NET. The release should become available next week and it looks great. There is a lot of new stuff in it. The major addition is WebORB Data Management for Flex (WDMF). I can't wait to share it with the world. Additionally, we added support for Vista and made a ton of major improvements and bug fixes in the areas of real-time messaging and streaming. We also plan to make a few announcements with regards to licensing and pricing. Stay tuned.

redesigned Flex.org is released

Flex.org, an information portal for Flex developers has been redesigned and released this morning. The new site is a significant step forward from the previous version and should be a great place to start learning Flex. What I'd recommend for the next version of the site is to let the community evolve the content by adding some sort of wiki capability.