The Future of Flex.
At first I thought “Wow, Adobe really messed up their communication”. They could have focused on what they are adding, strong support for HTML5 and CSS4, Adobe AIR for Mobile, and not on what they are removing, the Flash Player in the Browser. But then they also announced that they opened sourced Flex via the Apache Foundation. And the main stream media, the blogosphere, and many developers I know went crazy and said Flex is dead, it’s over, time to convert all your projects to HTML5.
At a second thought I think it’s pretty smart what Adobe did. The saying goes “If you can’t beat them, join them”. In fact the Flex against HTML fight wasn’t one where Adobe had anything to win from. So they just made it loud and clear and now they are saying “We are HTML5”. In fact detaching themselves from Flex in appearance allows them to ride the new HTML5 technowave and get in the news when they upgrade their tool, bring out new HTML5 component framework or acquire hot companies like PhoneGap and TypeKit. We are HTML5!!
Adobe has already two great tools for HTML5, Muse and Edge and needs to push them way further and also needs to create or acquire a great HTML component framework such as Sencha so they call build and sell new development tools as well as design tools for the new growing crowd of HTML5 developers.
So where does that leave Flash and Flex. I use a lot Flex in the enterprise, and that’s where Adobe just did the most damage in my eyes. Go now try to convince any CTO that Flex is a good idea. Flex is a mature framework and Adobe has a great enterprise offering, but it will be hard to convince anyone that Adobe is still behind that technology after the way they managed their communication. This said I think the move of Flex to the Apache open source foundation is a great one and if managed right will give Flex a good run for years to come. Flex is still a great choice for many enterprise projects and will remain so until a solid and widely adopted HTML component framework emerges. If Adobe is smart they could provide that offering.
Flex is also a great environment to develop “native” mobile applications that can run on iOS and Android. The forthcoming Flex SDK 4.6 will show that potential and it’s a great way to create cross platform mobile and tablet applications. Adobe will not kill Adobe AIR for the mobile as it’s a too appealing growth market. But that message didn’t get through to the main stream media.
As Adobe said Flash for the desktop for games and Adobe AIR for mobile will be here for a while. But Adobe has the most to gain if they become the major player in the HTML5 field by providing tools, framework and making the web standards evolve. And they are in a good position to get there. To achieve this goal it also means that they will refocus many of their development teams and this will impact Flash and Flex. Moving the Flex SDK and some of the key developers to the Apache Foundation will allow to continue to evolve the SDK regardless of Adobe’s new focus. The move a few years ago to the Flex Sparks components and the recent addition of the new mobile components provide a great and mature framework basis for a real open source effort which I believe will have a long life even if it will become a niche environment over the long run. Note I consider Ruby on Rails a niche market, a really great one to be in. Adobe has something great with Adobe AIR for mobile and this is the one area where they could even grow their developers basis if they get their message right. For me AIR for mobile/tablets and the Flex SDK 4.6 is one solution where I can build mobile apps faster than in any other environment and this will be a great business to be in, especially for the enterprise market.
The smart enterprises will realize that Flex is stable and here to stay for the long run, even if it’s not in the spotlight. They will start HTML projects in parallel to gradually improve their developer workforce and experience in this area. They will also realize that the HTML5 frameworks and coding technics are evolving so rapidly that it will be time consuming just to keep up. Also these frameworks are not as mature and complete as in the Flex ecosystem. Finding Flex developers is difficult, but finding great HTML/Javascript developers is even harder. This said, there is no denying that pretty quickly the HTML5 tools and frameworks will catchup with what Flex offers today in ease of development for enterprise applications.
Personally I’m looking forward to see how these HTML5/Javascript tools/libraries will evolve and will play with many of them.
So where does all this leaves you, the developer. Well, it’s for sure time to jump on the new HTML/Javascript bandwagon if you haven’t yet. I cannot see many companies starting new enterprise projects with Flex. If you are into mobile or tablet development give the new Flex SDK 4.6 a try, I believe there is a great potential for Flex to become a major player in the mobile development arena…targeting “native” applications and not the browser. Yep, your heard it here first ;-)
Enjoy,
Daniel
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I agree that html5/js is inferior to flex/actionscript in terms of app development. I disagree that html5/js will catch up quickly or catch up at all. JS wasn’t meant for OO and the little OO you can get out of it feels hacky. You can’t port a complicated flex app to html5/js without dumbing it down. The only way html5 will truly be able to replace flex is if javascript is upgraded or replaced.
to an open source foundation
Agree the reason I think air is screwed is that a few projects are already jumping the gun and building their apps online. Why use an app store when you can monetise directly and the browsers now support the features that allow to to build these apps. Apple has well and truly messed this up even for their objective c coders. App stores are dead and apps that move to the browser won’t be supported by flash player. That is why this is very bad news. If they turn flex into gwt like ide, so you can code native to swf or to html 5/javascript then I can live with it. Otherwise we need to find a way to change the game again :).
Hi Daniel,
Apache? Are you sure Flex will find a home at the Apache Foundation? The Adobe Flex Team’s post Nov 12 re: “Your Questions About Flex” said: “to an open source foundation”
Have you seen subsequent messaging from either Adobe or Apache confirming that Apache is, in fact, the open source foundation who’s governance the Flex SDK will move to?
Thanks for your post.
g
Hi Greg,
You are right, I don’t think it’s decided wether the Open Spoon Foundation just created for the purpose of Flex, Apache or some other foundation.
Nate, Javascript usage has come a long way and is now really performant and ton’s of large framework have been written in it with a nice OO architecture. So it cannot be dismissed. Add an abstraction layer like Coffescript on top of it and you have a nice language. Google is also push new languages to replace JavaScript, but that’s gonna take a long while until broad acceptance. Until then JavaScript is being used to push the limit on what can be done on the web. I believe it will take a couple of years for html/javascript (with a great component set) to catch with where Flex is currently. And they are already a few libraries out there that are getting pretty close.
Hi,
I think a mashup of Sencha / Edge / Muse / Air (unified with falsh) will be the next CS suite of HTML5 era.
In the another hand I wish Javascript will evolve to more and more, equal to ActionScript, by the way I trust on DartLanguage launched by google.
FYI see watch a bit Appcelerator, it work fine but not equal to the maturity of AIR or FLEX.
Thanks for the insight, it cleared up a few things I’ve been suspecting from Adobe’s press release
If JavaScript is the only programming language for HyperText Markup Language 5, then your “HTML5 bandwagon” will only run in the dark age of web development.
It’s 2011 now, why the weak-typed POP JavaScript still the future? Jump on the JavaScript-HTML5 is not a honorable move for OO Flex/AS3 developers, as they don’t want to downgrade their skills to AS1 equivalent JavaScript.
Flex/AS3 developers can choose AIR as one of main focuses, no matter how brilliant tools the JavaScript-HTML5 developers have, as long as they try to use JS for large scale project development, they lose at the beginning, as clients won’t pay 5x development time and 10x maintenance fee to build hyped HTML5 projects.
Flex/AS3 developers can also try GWT, which is a proper way to save HTML5 from the terrible AS1 equivalent JavaScript.
@Daniel Wanja
You said “And they are already a few libraries out there that are getting pretty close.”
If they are getting close please tell me about any IOC/AOP frameworks for HTML5/Javascript. I will willingly trade them for Parsley and Swiz.
If JavaScript is the only programming language for HyperText Markup Language 5, then your “HTML5 bandwagon” will only run in the dark age of web development.
Oops, that comment lost half of it’s original message. Anyway, I think samuraiScanners is spot on. It feels like a major step back to return to the HTML/JS/CSS world and cross-browser incompatibilities. Yet I no longer believe Adobe is committed to their Flash run-time. Ditching the mobile browser flash plugin for me was a clear sign on the wall. Sure, Flash will be here for some time to come, but you better not build your future on top of it.
Fantastic overview.
There is no doubt that Flex is a compelling choice for development. But how will Adobe’s hand-off of Flex to Apache affect us? Checkout this article ? ? ?
http://www.rivellomultimediaconsulting.com/the-future-of-apache-flex/