Flamingo Project for Flex and Java rapid development

The Exadel Flamingo Project is a tool for quickly launching a background RIA application built using Java. In the middle tier, the tool provides support for both seam and spring. At the presentation layer, Flamingo supports both Flex and JavaFX. The tool launches application development in the same way as the Appfuse project, which can be used for more traditional Java Web layer frameworks. Infoq had a conversation with Exadel's Igor Polevoy and Fima Katz to learn more about Flamingo.

Igor and Fima to share the details of Flamingo features as a prologue. Today's features can be divided into three logical groupings:

Tools

Flamingo provides the ability to quickly start a simple feature project. It's no secret that assembling a project together is a time-consuming and laborious process. In addition, there are many different ways to develop projects in the Java World. We are aware of this problem and have created flamingo tools as solutions. With the Flamingo tool, you can not only create a new project quickly, but also produce various parts of the application at any time during the development cycle.

Integrated class Library

It's like a binder between client and server code. We only use binary protocols because they are more efficient. All configurations, no matter how small, are ready when the project is created. As a result, developers simply focus on the business issues at hand.

Client components

Fiamingo has a number of non-visual components that simplify the development process by providing checksums, bundling multiple requests into a single request, and so on. One of the more interesting features of Flamingo is the dynamic persistence method. These methods enable developers to query the database in an intuitive, English-like manner, rather than using SQL (which is actually created by Flamingo at runtime). This characteristic itself can greatly promote the development efficiency.

Igor and Fima continue to discuss how it works:

We use MAVEN to organize and create projects. Our Maven Startup wizard asks a few questions about the different aspects of the project, such as server-side technology (seam/spring), client technology (FLEX/JAVAFX), database type, location, certificate, and some other questions based on the previous options. Then, a MAVEN project is created. This project contains all the components required for a small project, such as unit tests, persistence units, and the working screen (working screens). The standard MAVEN command is used here. So, within minutes, a new full configuration project was born.

Infoq Asked about the contrast between spring and seam in the context of RIA technology:

Spring/hibernate and SEAM/JPA combinations are a viable solution for RIA applications using Flamingo and Flex/javafx. Choosing which backend technology usually depends on the culture and infrastructure of a given organization and the preferences of the development team, not on certain characteristics. Typically, seam and spring are difficult to compare, even if they overlap in some ways. They are designed for different goals. Flamingo tried to remain neutral. Regardless of the background technology you choose, Flamingo is trying to give the same support. What I'm saying is that if an organization chooses the Java enterprise platform with rich support, they have the freedom to choose seam. Otherwise, the spring/hibernate combination should be taken into account.

Igor and Fima commented on who should consider using flamingo:

Target customers are enterprise and enterprise-level application developers. We've seen that RIA technologies are widely used at the enterprise level--like different styles of AJAX. Typically, Ajax technologies are well integrated with java-based backend systems. We have developed an enterprise solution--richfaces that combines JSF (JavaServer Faces) and Ajax. However, while not exploring the pros and cons of Ajax, we have clearly seen the huge demand for another set of solutions like Flex in an enterprise development organization. Flamingo makes it easy for people working in Java in the enterprise to create a new application using Flex and Java.

And, in terms of open source:

We have been working on open source for a long time and have seen the great power of this community and this approach.

Infoq asked for more details on how Flamingo supports agile development:

Integration

This is what we have today. It provides a seamless development process that combines flex or javafx with seam or spring, eliminating all the manual coding required to not use flamingo. As a result, the development process is easier, faster, and cheaper.

Agile Ria Platform includes a set of advanced tools

To meet the challenges of "agile" or "rapid" development, technical solutions such as Ruby on Rails and grails have emerged. Although these are very good frameworks, they are not good for RIA application development. This is the forte of the Flamingo Code Wizard, which produces a project and a simple work screen. The next edition of Flamingo will unveil more powerful tools. Similarly, all server and client components generated by Flamingo can be used immediately, reducing project startup time. Flamingo The third aspect of Agile is its client components, which have run-time requests that can be used to create access to the database using an extremely simple encoding pattern on the client. This ability itself saves a lot of time, and if you combine all these aspects of flamingo, it will definitely provide an agile development platform for the organization.

Developing platform for using RIA with access

This includes providing a set of pre-built components (both visual and non-visual), as well as a set of pre-built application components (for example, dversion for data access/navigation).