Flexgenie

Unless you have been living under a rock in the Flex world lately, you are by now well aware of the issues surrounding Adobe’s release of Flex to Apache.
Being someone who has worked as a consultant in Flex development since the beginning, it took me awhile to gather my thoughts on the subject as you can imagine.
I went through the stages of shock, denial, anger, and finally determined to address the subject directly as some of my colleagues have.
So here are some of my thoughts…

First off, we are all aware that Adobe did not handle this transition in the best way possible.
Within the first few days of the announcement, I received no less than 10 emails or calls from former clients that I either did work for or built and ran their Flex Teams.
Of course all were in a panic as they had invested large amounts of capital and time in developing their Flex applications and were concerned for their companies and employees.

First thing I reminded them is that Flex has been around in various version since 2004 and that it was now a mature RIA environment and very stable.
Secondly I advised them to remain calm that Flex will certainly be around for a long time to come and that their application was indeed going to be OK.
What speaking with my clients reminded me of was that Perception is EVERYTHING.
No one said that Flex was going away, no one said that it would not longer be supported or continued SDK development or IDEs would just end.
However, a few of them immediately began talking about using HTML5 as expected.

Now I do believe that HTML5 is something to consider but as I began my Flex career in version 1.5 and now work in 4.5, I have seen the growing pains that all technologies go through and have no reason to believe that HTML5 will have the same issues to deal with.
In the beginning we were just finding our way through things, Best Practices were in their infancy and we made a lot of mistakes and learned from them.
Documentation and tutorials were scarce to say the least and we pretty much had baptism by fire during those times.
The version of Flex out now is a polished and robust environment to work in, take from someone who has been in those trenches for the last 8 yrs. thing have come A LONG WAY!

I suspect that HTML5 will probably go the same route but do believe that any Flex developer who has more than a few RIA applications under the “belts” will make the transition into a new language well.

Anyone out here that considered himself a Programmer first and specialist in Flex second would welcome the chance to learn a new technology, so let’s put our considerable experience in developing Flex applications to a good cause and help our clients migrate to HTML5 if they choose to go that route.

But remember, Flex has been here for 8 years and I personally do not see it going away anytime soon so, keep up the good fight and continue to be as passionate as possible about this great technology…. Flex.

Thanks for stopping by.
Kenny

“I bet someone was saying, Now why don’t he write” (sorry for the cheap Dances With Wolves reference).

Mostly because I have been up to my eyeballs in projects, applications and well life in general.
A few weeks ago I began my quest for my next project and let me tell you this time was a bit different.
I waded through the numerous calls and emails from recruiters, some good, some not so good and some just completely off the mark.
So this prompted me to see what I can do to help out some fellow Flex Consultants out there looking for work, sorting through the mess and plucking out that one perfect project to sign on to.
Although some items covered in this post will be helpful in any technology job search.

Those of you that don’t know me (and maybe some that do) might not be aware of the fact that for the last 10 years I have been pretty blessed and successful in keeping myself busy (sometimes more than I want to be) with minimal gaps in projects.
As a matter of fact even had a few overlap unexpectedly which is out of scope on how to handle that for this post.

To survive getting that next project or contract you have to consider some important points:
Project Points to Consider

• Location- partially remote or on-site
• Contract type – Corp to Corp, 10-99, W2
• Client stability – Do they pay, is this a solid company or something else
• Team Dynamics – Is this a team of experts who respect your expertise or are you going to be battling your point at every meeting
• Recruiting Agency – Are you a warm body to fill a desk chair or are they interested in a professional relationship with you
• Rate of Pay – Do they get your value to the Team
• Duration of Contract or Project – is this a quick get in and knock it out or a long term commitment
• Your role on the Team – Are you the Flex Architect, Team Mentor, Subject Matter Expert, Lead Flex Dev, or just another in-line developer

Now of course there are NUMEROUS other considerations and believe me in the beginning of my Flex Consulting career, I was not aware of them and sometimes it was a disaster.
There are a few recruiting agencies, companies, etc that I would chose to not work with again.
That being said, most of the Agencies and Clients I have worked with over the last decade were professional and a joy to work with.

What we will break down over the rest of this post is…

• Successful Resumes – Is Less More ?
• The Hunt – Are you the Hunter or the Hunted
• Recruiting Agency Relationships – The right questions to ask
• Client Teams and Technology – Are you going to have to constantly defend your technology or do they “GET” it
• First Contact – Both Agency and Client
• Interview Process – Just how many people am I going to have to talk to before they decide
• The DREADED Tech Screen – “To Screen or Not to Screen” – The client that is, you don’t have a choice
• Negotiating – Everyone does it
• Project Logistics – On-site and Remote
• Closing the Deal – It ain’t a project till the ink is dry

Read more »

To all you folks in Flexgenie Land, once again for the 3rd year in a row, I will be speaking at Dallas Techfest on “Working with AIR and SQLite” (logo link above).

My session will focus on utilizing the built in SQLite DB in an AIR/Flex application for content management.

If you get the chance come on out and hang around for not only my session but several others that will be filled with good information on not only Flex but other technologies as well.
Hope to see you there and PLEASE come up after my session and introduce yourself.

Again, thanks for stopping by and hope to see ya there!
Kenny

While working on projects recently I noticed a trend when the “IT” is hitting the fan in the development and delivery cycle of an Application project.
The tendancy to code with “blinders” on.

What I mean by this is that when you are working on either new functionality, regression issues or just BUGS in general, most developers, although very talented in their own right, maintain focus on just getting the thing done.

This tunnel visioned focus creates more work down the road.
In a presentation given at MAX 2008, Michael Labriola spoke on Testing a Flex Application, which you can find on Adobe TV here.
In this presentation he shocked most of us by quoting the unbelievable amount of money and time spent on fixing defects in existing code.

Now I can tell you from first hand experience that although that situation has been mine and well as other Senior Flex Developers that have been around for awhile’s Bread and Butter, it’s still the LEAST favorite thing for us to deal with.

When developing a Flex Application, keep in mind the entire Architecture as well as the overall functional processes when you are working. Make it easy on the next guy or gal who will be following in your footsteps to enhance or maintain the application moving forward.

Some quick thoughts and good rules to follow:

• Know your architecture – don’t code in a vacum
• Know the application’s requirments – INSIDE AND OUT!!
• Be aware of how your work will impact other’s
• UNIT TEST, UNIT TEST, UNIT TEST
• Integration test

And by all means….make sure your code works in YOUR environment BEFORE you commit to the repository, whatever that might be.
Don’t be the guy or gal who breaks the Build and causes others to be blocked, especially if you do it at the end of your day.

That’s all my thoughts for now on the subject, but as most of us can rant on forever on this, you probably will be hearing about this again.
And don’t forget to check out Mike’s presentation, great speaker, FANTASTIC coder and all around Good Guy.

As always, thanks for stopping by,
Kenny

Flexgeniers,

I have been scarce for some time now, getting back into the groove of being back in Texas and working with new clients.
But heading back to Atlanta again for the week for Adobe.

Working with Flash Builder 4 recently and working on a new Post related to that.
Also been looking into Mate and Swiz Micro-Architectures.
Expect articles on both soon.

Sorry for the long absence but back after again.

Thanks for stopping by…….Stay Tuned!!
Kenny

I will be attending Flash Camp Atlanta this Friday the 28th.

Yes I am still here in Atlanta for now and Andrew Powell over at Universal Mind forwarded my “prize” I won at the ATL Flex User’s Group meeting back in July which was a free pass to Flash Camp!
I am looking forward to meeting some colleagues and networking with some great Flash and Flex folks.

If any Flexgeniers are in attendance, make sure to Twitter me and we can get together.

Thanks for stopping by!
Kenny

Flexgeniers,

I have added a new plugin to my blog that allows a much more friendly viewing of the Code.
It now gives you the ability to view the code in a Pop Up, Save to Clipboard and Print.

I hope you enjoy!

I know I promised everyone my final installment in the Data/Advanced Grid Series, and I have not forgotten about you!
I will be working on that this weekend and should have the final installment dealing with Grouping and Column labels and Styling.

STAY TUNED!!

And as usual, Thanks for stopping by,
Kenny

Welcome back Flexgeniers (now it’s a word).
If you have not gone through the Pt1 of this series I suggest you do, so you can follow along as this is a continuous series.

If you have you will remember that we looked at the Data Grid(again from here on DG), and addressed using XML data converted to an Array Collection as the Data Provider for the Grid.
The XML structure was very complex and let’s face it in a real world situation, the XML is NEVER simple.
To refresh, the DG I displayed showed the data but in a very FLAT view, this is not optimal when trying to view numerous items with the same Category name.
In this case, “Courses”.

Enter the Advanced Data Grid (again from here on ADG).
Here is a look at the ADG with a bit of styling applied (we will get to that later).

EXAMPLE ADVANCED DG


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Today begins the multi-part series on Data Grids and Advanced Data Grids.
Throughout this series rather than typing out “Data Grid” and “Advanced Data Grid” I will be using “DG” and “ADG” (less typing you know).

Topics that will be covered, explained and exampled (again….is that a word??)

• Basics of Grids – How to use them, How to provide Data for them, When to use them
• Data Grid(DG) vs. Advanced Data Grid(ADG) – How to decide
• Using XML for a Data Provider – Using E4X, converting to Array Collection, Modifying the Data
• Using Grouping Collections and Hierarchical Data as Data Providers in Advanced Data Grids
• Using Item Renderers and Custom Item Renderers in Grids
• Editing Data in a DG or ADG using standard editable Columns and Item Renderers
• Writing edited Data back to the Data Provider (both Array Collection and XML)
• Adding Style to your Grid – Styling using CSS and Skins

We will stick to the above items but as this series progresses if you have additional items that you would like me to include in this Series, please add a comment and let me know your thoughts.
And of course as the author of this series I will probably take the liberty to expand and add to the topics as anyone who has attended one of my speaking engagements knows is a strong possibility when I get on a roll.
Read more »

Flexgeniers (is that a word?), I apologize for the delay in getting the series up and running.
Took a few rare and much needed days off.
We will start into this series over the next couple of days and hopefully you will have a strong grasp of the Data Grid and Advanced Data Grid when we get to the other side.

Thanks for your nice comments and to respond to the question about me being a professional journalist…….Nope, just apparently was born with the gift of gab (he humbly said).

As always, thanks for visiting and see ya soon,
Kenny