Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

Apollo enables developers to create applications that combine the benefits of web applications – network and user connectivity, rich media content, ease of development, and broad reach – with the strengths of desktop applications – application interactions, local resource access, personal settings, powerful functionality, and rich interactive experiences.

CF.Objective() updated the sessions list, and let me tell you, it looks amazing! This will be the best high-level CF event of the year, so I hope to see you there.
I'll be speaking on Flex and Cairngorm Microarchitecture, a fresh new topic which should interest most CF developers.

Adobe released an update for Flex: 2.0.1. I just wrote (and lost) a review of the new changes, and it's passed 2am, so I'm not writing it again ... In summary, it now has official support for Macs, it has new JIT support for adding/removing modules in runtime, it's moving towards Apollo integration. You can see the official release notes and also check out Ted's detailed review.

This video is amazing! Mike Chambers and Christian Cantrell demo a few apps written in Apollo. Apollo for those of you who're new to it, it's going to be the bridge between desktop and internet applications; it allows running native Flash and HTML in your desktop, interactive with all native components.. and it works with PCs and Macs.

The demos show for example a chromeless Window running Google maps (html), with a left menu Flash overlay that scans your system for vCards, then if you drag and drop them into Google maps, Flex will analyze the vCard and use the API to tell Google maps to display the address of the contact, shows a photo... it's pretty impressive.

Ben Forta, Ray Camden, myself, and others have been working on a secret project for the past few months. Well, it is secret no more ... Welcome to RIAForge.

RIAForge is a place to host open source projects built with Adobe technologies - from ColdFusion applications to Photoshop plug-ins to Flex components and more. And of course the site is built using those same technologies.

RIAForge features:

• A unique project URL
  
• File hosting
• Bug tracking
• Forums
• Blogging
• Basic stats
• Subversion access
• ... and more

This is not an official Adobe project, although the site is Adobe supported. Ray Camden did the primary development work with a lot of help and support from others, including Brian Rinaldi and myself. Most of the project was written in Model-Glue, and Ray added portions of his existing projects like Lighthouse, Galleon, and blogCFC.
I wrote the SVN support and I'll post it tonight as an open source project.

Let us know what you think!

Check out the demos on this blog (this links are on the bottom).

My favorites are this drillDown charts, and the simple and icon based random walk demos. Pay attention to the fact that the back button works / bring you back one level in the random walk demos. The best part is that he included source for everything.

Gotta love Flex.

they say two weeks

Adobe Flex 2 has been out for a couple of months now, and lots of ColdFusion customers are discovering that the combination of ColdFusion and Flex allows them to deliver powerful and engaging applications easier than ever before.

One area of confusion appears to be the Adobe Flex server: Adobe Flex Data Services. What is Adobe Flex Data Services? What exactly does Flex Data Services allow you to do that you wouldn't be able to do without it? What does this mean specifically to us ColdFusion developers?

Ben Forta's new article Adobe Developer Center article entitled ColdFusion and Flex: Do you need Flex Data Services? explains.

CFUnited if nothing else embraced new discussions like Duck Typing, IoC, AOP, and TDD. You may catch up or follow up with these links...

Duck Typing:
Model-Glue:Unity gets faster!
Duck Typing Preso / Code Available
Duck Typing and Documentation
Duck Typing is not about Performance
Duck Typing for Performance
Vy a Duck?
More on Duck Typing
CF Live! presentation on duck typing
Toward a New Orthodoxy
Duck Typing Ant Script
Duck Typing: Stop the Insanity
Duck Typing Dichotomy

ColdSpring and AOP:
How ColdSpring Implements AOP using a Decorator
Implementing AOP in CF using mixins

Blue Dragon 7 Features:
BlueDragon 7's New Features: A Detailed Look

Flash Extensibility:
flashextensibility.com

Flex 2:
RAD Flex 2 Development for CF Developers

Unit Testing:
CFUnited wrap up, Unit Testing and RHH
cfcUnit to get ant builder
Unit Testing Love Affair

For those of you who don't read other ColdFusion blogs (shame on you, hehe), you should know that Flex 2 Beta 3 was released today and it is available on Labs. If you are a CF Developer and you don't know what Flex is, do yourself a favor and download it. If you were waiting for a good time to get it, now is the time ... I would expect the final release to come out sometime, more towards the end, of June.f