This year MAX 2005 was great. I landed in Anaheim on Sunday, registered and then went to the welcome reception where I chatted with other developers and met with vendors.
On Monday I headed into the conference with my session schedule all planned out, ready to absorb all I could about ColdFusion, its newest features, its future, more OO, and maybe some Dreamweaver tips. My first session, Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) by Mike Sundermeyer, completely changed all that. At that session I hoped to pick up a few user interface pointers for an application I'm redesigning. Instead I was introduced to Flex. I had heard of it but thought it was some new graphical thingy that programmers like me need not worry about. Well, it isn't.
I was completely floored by Flex. The next version of the builder is simply an Eclipse plugin. I am already an Eclipse user, so the session began with language that I speak. Flex doesn't require server software but there is an option for it, which adds more capabilities. Flex Builder 2 is drag-and-drop Flash, with no timeline. It has prettiness built in. There's even code behind it, MXML. This was putting the concept of "user experience" into terms that a programmer can grasp. At that point, my focus at MAX changed and I went to a number of other RIA sessions that I hadn't planned on going to; for example, on Tuesday I caught a ColdFusion and Flex integration session. I promptly bought Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex at the conference to read on the flight home (not that I made it through all 685 pages).
Developing Rich Internet Applications was a large focus of the conference and seems to be one of Macromedia's top priorities. Macromedia's CEO, Stephen Elop, stated that they were committed to the user experience, both in the applications Macromedia creates and in providing developers with tools to create rich applications. With tools like Flex, Dreamweaver, and Flash integration into ColdFusion, it's becoming much easier for people to create user friendly applications, and do it quickly.
Rich Internet Applications are not simply pretty Web sites. Yes, RIAs generally look nice, but that's only one aspect of a user's experience. Information has to be easily and painlessly obtainable from a system, meaning that users can navigate through an application and achieve their goals without difficulty (or crying out in frustration). Part of achieving a user's goals is including functionality and an interface that provides value to your application. Flair for the sake of flair detracts from the application's usability . You don't want people to loathe having to enter information into your application. Why? Because people won't enter their information and what they do won't be complete, making the application and its data useless.
Yes, I am a programmer won over by the user experience concept. Then again, I'm in the process of redesigning an application that users despise due to its interface inadequacies. I did attend a number of my planned ColdFusion sessions as well. Not only should usable applications be a development team's goal, but creating code that is easily maintainable should be a top priority as well.
Session speakers stressed topics such as frameworks, methodologies, and reusable code. The Model-View-Controller architecture model and having a consistent software development methodology like FLiP are both ways to achieve more maintainable applications, especially in a team environment. Application frameworks such as Fusebox, Mach II, Model-Glue, and onTap were discussed and compared. From a code perspective, using CFCs and Web services allow a developer to limit places where code needs to be modified in an application if the business logic changes. As programmers, we can plan and implement the database at whatever point in the design process. For some of us, that's the easy part. The application design itself needs to take priority over the database, especially in an object-oriented world. I found it interesting that OO programming wasn't paraded around as the second coming, but simply using components was the path to enlightenment. True those are closely tied together, but they don't always go hand in hand. Most people there were already using components and many were doing OO ColdFusion development.
As part of the continued focus on RIAs, I was impressed with how far CFFORM has come. The Flash interfaces that can be produced were remarkable - tabbed input screens, slush boxes (two select boxes with add/ remove capabilities), and calendars are just a glimpse as to what you can do. Yes, some of this existed previously but, as recently as the 7.0.1, new functionality has been added, such as support for ActionScript. I admit to being negative on the validation provided in CFINPUT, namely because it doesn't give you enough control of the JavaScript validation that was created. After seeing Mike Nimer's presentation, I am changing my opinion. With XML forms, you can now create a skin and customize your own validation script.
In the ColdFusion MX 7 Application Framework hands-on session, we covered implementing application events. These are predefined components, like OnSessionStart(), OnApplicationStart(), OnRequestStart(), and OnError(), which ColdFusion checks for in the application.cfc and executes each at specific times. For example, OnApplicationStart() is only processed when the application first begins, regardless of the user. This structure can trim some of the fat from application functions like logins, error checking, and cleanup. If a CFC executes only when a session begins, an if statement checking for session existence is no longer needed for all those variables we set in the application.cfm.
In this class, we were in a lab that had the latest version of Dreamweaver installed. I hadn't had a chance to dig too deep into Dreamweaver yet, but this session gave me the chance to play a little. It has a very nice interface, much cleaner and things that I frequently use are much more accessible now. I was impressed with the CSS capabilities - a dropdown appears in the code view showing which styles are available. Dreamweaver now integrates with a third-party tool from Araxis for file comparison and merging. Small things like improved code collapse and a paste special feature make the newest version of Dreamweaver really nice.
Overall MAX 2005 was another great conference. The Macromedia community is always a fun, intelligent, diverse, and generous group. As a company, Macromedia is determined to continually provide quality products that allow developers to create the best possible tools for their users. As a programmer, I sat in many sessions and could see where topics directly impacted me, from form layout to application framework strategies. It seems that it will become harder and harder for programmers to "just code"; we will have to take some of the responsibility for the usability of our applications - our customers will demand it.
