Flash Business Logic

Published August 5th, 2007 in: Flash

One of the difficulties you face as a Flash Platform Developer in Norway is that there is virtually no business environment for Flash work here. Landing projects based around the Flash Platform has been almost impossible up until now, because it's simply not there. The industry is pretty much avoiding Flash.

Well, maybe it has gotten a little better recently, especially if you do Flex work. But for an Old School Flash Developer like me, the whole Flex-wave feels kind of ironic. For years I've been kicking and screaming to get people to realize just how much better their web applications really could be, if they were to use Flash to its fullest. But no, nada! Then, here comes Flex: Oh, applications... Cool... Gotta have it!

But, but... Hello?!

So for me, the recent growth in, and interest for the Flash Platform is a bittersweet one, seeing that Flex gets all the cake :(

Don't get me wrong here, I like Flex, and I'm not claiming that Norwegian Flex developers are suddenly rolling in exciting projects. Neither that there is a big difference between Flash and Flex development, which in fact are two converging disciplines these days. What I am saying, is that none of them is seen as valid technologies in this little corner of The World. As a Freelance Flash Developer you are pretty much out of work, period! As a Flex Developer in a consulting-agency, you're up against every java/.NET head in your own company. As a Flash Designer, well there is always a need for animated ads and those branded-by-cool-ad-agency flash sites that's been around since the dot.com days. But who wants to do those?!

You see, Norway is AJAX land, or worse: Standardistas land! To get with the programming In-Crowd, you'd better keep your brain cells strictly occupied with XHTML/CSS/XML/XSLT/.NET/JAVA. Most importantly: Follow the rules! Don't stand out! Don't ever do something that hasn't been done before. Don't make the wheel round when the square one we have kind of works, and so on...

For the most part, Norwegian Flash/Flex Developers are pretty much left out in the cold when it comes to enterprise application development. If you're lucky, you got a friend playing in a band that is in desperate need of an awesome Flash-based multimedia site, and well - that's about it as far as your Flash application market opportunity goes: Penniless musicians and starving artists, with bigger tech-needs than IBM.

There Is No Spoon!

Convincing business execs and tech decision makers that Flash-/Flex-based RIAs is the best option for most all front-end web applications and web sites, is challenging to say the least. But there are definite signs in the sky pointing to a potential shift of paradigms, especially regarding web applications. More and more, we see examples of major business apps falling apart, showing just how broken the whole HTML-front-end-dogma really is. At the same time we see RIAs picking up momentum day by day.

It's no secret that I always thought of AJAX as a detour, fueled by the appetite for increased functionality for end-users, but held back by the markup hell of non-compliant browsers. Further more, I'm convinced this detour will eventually either have to get back on track (towards Flash), or it'll come to a full stop. In my opinion the only good thing the AJAX-hype brought about, was the revelation among web-techs that you can create way better user experiences if you leverage more of the business logic on the front end. And with it - the concept that maybe server apps should be used to pass data only, not format it.

And this is what the Flash Platform is all about, and always has been. The client should be a natural environment for performing most user centric logic. We don't have to look further than to the success of the desktop GUI to understand this. Applications based on the Flash Player RTE have had the ability to perform all kinds of logic for at least 8-9 years now, but still the Flash Platform doesn't get the recognition it should. To me, this goes beyond any rational explanation, so I won't even try analyzing it. But times are definitely changing, and more and more people seem to 'get it' these days.

« Oslo Flash Platform User Group Flash Player gets H.264 support »

About

You are currently browsing the Øystein Wika weblog.

Blog Feed

Recent Posts