I just have to tell everyone how cool Flex really is! When I did flash work several years ago it was a real pain developing an entire site in Flash especially if you wanted to incorporate any backend to it. This is definitely not the case with Flex and I have to give Adobe its’ props on this.
However, let me state, that I do want to see Flex Builder 3 ported to Linux. I could then ditch my Windows Virtual Machine and run things natively, but that is my only complaint at this moment.
So why do I love Flex?
Flex is just easy to use, the components built it are amazing and you have the ability to build components on your own too! Much like Server Controls in .NET, .NET gives you a TON to begin with and you can create your own as well. However, this is for Flash! That is extremely important to acknowledge, as I do not have to have Macromedia Flash MX or whatever the latest version is on my PC to build a Flash application now.
Not only do I love being able to build a Flash application without Macromedia Flash, but I also love how it can work with an infinite number of backends without a lot of effort. Got a web service you want to plugin to? No problem, how about an RSS feed? Again, No problem. Well how about just a plain HTTP stream with a custom format? No Problem! I mean literally, you can plugin to any service that can send back a response. If it is a custom type of response, then you can write a routine to read your custom format. However, if you are using a Web Service, be in written in .NET and it returns an XML stream, then you literally have to do nothing! It will read it without any custom code from you, the developer. And that my friends is the “cream of the crop”.
So where do we go from here?
I am going to be doing a lot of things with Flex fromt his point on. I was just totally amazed by the simplicity and yet the complexity you can have within it. I still have a lot to test. Updating the grid’s data when it has changed, and similar events. But time will tell and so far Adobe has bought me back with this wonderful technology. Just bring it to Linux and I will move right next to your head-quarters Adobe!
Had an interesting week, as when you thought you knew what you would be doing the entire week, it is amazing what will come along and totally screw up your plans.
This week, I thought for sure I would be working diligently on the major rewrite project I am doing and have been doing for the past month or two. However, that wasn’t the case, at least not for a few of the days. This week, I had to handle requests I thought I would never be asked to do, plus a request that whose last contact I had was nearly three months ago.
The first request I got yesterday, was to restore a quote done by an agency in April. Now let me explain what makes this so difficult. First off we purge our quotes every 65 days, and April is definitely over 65 days. Second, I am not in Tech Systems, so I do not have knowledge on how long our backups are kept on site, when they are off site, and how far back we keep our SQL tables backup tapes. Finally, I didn’t really want to be the one to ask those questions to Tech Systems and cause them to scramble and cringe at my request, but I did.
The answers were great to learn. The tape was on site and we keep backups for an entire year, so I could go back to July of ‘06 and be just fine. 
Lucky for the agent, the restoration completed late this afternoon. I had tech restore the database on our development server as overwriting production with April data seemed like a bad idea. Spending about 5 minutes, I was able to find the two quotes the agent asked about and will be restoring those to production on Monday morning.
Who would have imagined that I would have to do this, this week. Who would have guessed it would have been this easy? And of course, I got to learn our backup procedure which is free knowledge, and that is always something to celebrate!
Beyond that, I also had to deal with a three month old issue. An issue I subsequently closed three months ago, because the user never contacted me back. At first this was frustrating, as if the problem was still happening, why did it take them three months to contact me? Should I take three months in responding back? Is this something that I should be accustomed to from this user? Were they on vacation for three months? Seriously, three months?
The issue is quite annoying and they are the only ones to receive such a problem. The problem is an infinite loop of an alert box in JavaScript. Quite annoying indeed, so why would it take three months to re-report this bug to me so I can attempt to make further progress on correcting it? The only way this user knew how to get rid of the infinite loop, was to restart their PC. So we are talking about a fairly non-computer-geek user here. They know how to do their daily tasks, which involves using our website repeatedly throughout the day, so why three months?
The issue is related to the onkeydown event, which if you ask me is buggy as I’ll get out in every browser and should never be used by any application! I personally hate that event, but I didn’t write the initial JavaScript causing the error, and everyone who uses it, likes the functionality the JavaScript provides. In short, it validates the user input on three text boxes to ensure only numbers are entered for a phone number. On top of that, it also auto tabs to the next field once three digits are entered, then another three, then the final four.
So why are two computers in one agency having a problem with this JavaScript? I haven’t a clue. They are using an odd browser or browser version, they are using Internet Explorer 6 for goodness sake. Any hints on where to look for answers or ideas on how to recreate such an issue would be greatly appreciated.
Finally, I want to tip everyone off to an excellent email. This is truly a work of art, and I am can fully understand the frustration of a broken build.
This show is getting ridiculous! They allowed “Boy Shikira” and the person Mark feels is the next Napoleon Dynamite, but quite frankly they are no were near the talent of some of the people they kicked off!
America’s Got Talent? When it is talent to dance like fools, or a guy dressing like Shikira and no where near the looks or the dancing capabilities! Where is the talent in that BS.
Bah! I can’t watch this show any more.