Presentation slides: here
Demo source code: here  

I recently spoke at the Webmaniacs conference in Washington DC.

I spoke about "Client/server data synchronization patterns in occasionally connected clients". I’m uploading the demo files and the ppt files here.

The first part of the talk is pretty general, and I think you can apply it to any kind of occasionally connected client - you may be building it with AIR + LCDS, Flex + LCDS or with AJAX toolkits e.g. Google Gears. The latter half of the ppt & the demo - showcase the features of LiveCycle Data Services (LCDS) that allow users using Flex/AIR to build such apps. It talks about conflict resolution, transactions, batch updates (TODO).

An occasionally connected clients is a software that functions in the same manner while disconnected from the network, as while connected - only with certain restrictions on transactional functionality - the idea is that the user should be least discomforted by disconnections to the network.

I just wanted to get this demo out, it is not polished and some things are not working really but I will keep updating the demo and commenting the source code to make it easier to understand. I’m not using any MVC patterns to avoid adding any complexity to the code. So it is pretty bare bones.

Steps to compile the application:

1. The application uses LCDS 2.6 beta (available from Adobe Labs)
2. The application is compiled as a Flex project using Flex Builder 3. (You dont need the project to be a LCDS project, a simple Flex project will do. I create all connections to LCDS server on the fly.)
3. If you want you can extend it to be an AIR application as well.
4. The application will run as a simple drop-in to LCDS.

Steps to run the application:

1. You can see various usecases by running the application.
2. You will need to run at least two clients at the same time.
3. The clients start disconnected from the server.
4. Click on connect, and then fetch data to get the data in the clients.
5. You can then start playing around with various controls to see how things change.

TODO: I need to put a video demo to show the various functionality.

I will write a more thorough discussion on the topic in a couple of weeks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 India License.

A new pricing was announced for Flex Builder 2 which becomes effective 1st November. Flex Builder 2 without charting currently costs $499.99 at Amazon, its new price starting 1st November 2007 will be $249.99 (that is gonna be a saving of $250!!! ) yoo hoo!
Flex Builder 2 with Charting will become $100 cheaper to $699, rather than the $799 sold now.

Besides if you buy a support plan for Flex 2 - which costs $99. Then you will get a free upgrade for Flex Builder 3, whenever it comes out.

Flex Builder 3 will be sold in two versions - Standard ($250) and Professional ($700). The Professional version will contain Charting, Advanced Data Grid and other advanced visualization stuff.

Update on upgrade pricing:

* Flex Builder 2 to Flex Builder 3 Standard Upgrade - $99 US
* Flex Builder 2 with Charting to Flex Builder 3 Professional Upgrade - $299 US
* Trade-up from FB Standard to FB Professional - $499 US

Today (Day 2 of Adobe MAX 2007) FlexBuilder for Linux was announced! Woot! Woot! You can download it from: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/

Though its an Alpha version, it is still a great news for a Linux lover like-me! too cool!

It is a stripped down version of FlexBuilder for Windows and Mac. But it will get there I guess.
This release of Flex Builder Linux requires Sun JRE 1.5.x and Eclipse 3.3 and supports the following distributions:

* SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (x86 32-bit version)
* RedHat Enterprise Linux WS 4 (x86 32-bit version)
* Ubuntu 7.0.4 (Feisty) (x86 32-bit version)

I’m trying to write out my max blogging but I’m just too sleepy right now, and then I have to TA a session in the morning. … I just dozed off on the keyboard! I guess I will finish of the max blogging tomorrow! Sorry!

I’m sorry for the delay in getting the snaps out today for the day. It was meeting up with new people all day long at MAX, and so …. anyways here goes. The morning began with a sumptuous breakfast, here are the snaps:

4000+ at your breakfast table

Yo! That’s me and Rupesh

That’s my breakfast!

The pretty ladies are Sumi Lim (Developer Relations, EMEA) and Michele Turner (VP, Marketing). And the person in the middle is a Product Manager in the AIR team - I don’t remember his name.

Craig Goodman (Devnet now ADC!), John Koch and Sanjeev Kumar (Developer, Coldfusion team).

John Koch (Asia Developer Relations manager), Me (Evangelist Asia Pacific) and Mrinal Wadhwa (SAP India, one of the key member of flex-india group).

That is pretty much the entire Adobe Consulting team. (You can see Matt Voerman, Peter Martin right in the back and middle).

I guess my blog yesterday is getting people to the Developer lab for goodies.

Early morning selling at MAX store.