I have been going crazy thinking about a solution for our new intranet which I am in charge of. I am definitely the biggest proponent of AJAX/DHTML front end, PHP/Apache/Mysql backend for most web design but with the intranet we are going to need a lot of mashup like functionality and have many different programmers working on modules that may often reside on the same page. At the same time we are being told we are never going to move past IE 6, at least not any time in the near future. But I can't base the entire intranet on IE6's capability (its so 2001) and I know eventually it will go away. Hopefully, before the intranet requires redesign.

I have no issues with the backend part. In fact now that all our new servers arrived and have been set up, I cannot be happier with that. But with IE6 being the main output mechanism for the data, I am definitely unhappy with the front end.

Not only that but it al works slightly slightly different in each browser and that I have to use a rather large javascript library to deal with those inconsistencies.

We also have the need for some desktop applications that should be build cross platform and tie in with the intranet data. Those could be developed in java but it would be ideal to have a solution that is develop once deploy in multiple formats and apple and java are doing so well together right now.

Flex 3
So this weekend I am evaluating Adobe Flex (web/air app) front end with PHP backend and it seems like a possible solution. As Zend calls it "Party in the front, business in the back."

I am not suggesting the entire intranet reside inside flash, only that modules/mini apps which are embedded in it are. The two major drawbacks that usually are with flash are slow download times and lack of the latest flash player - both not an issue at all in the context of our intranet at work.

The Flex IDE is based on eclipse which has tons of free mods for it. So is the new Zend studio neon, so is Aptana - so it will be nicce to have one development environment for evertything.

With Flex/Flash I can ouput to swf for in browser embedding or I can output to native desktop apps. Even the native desktop apps exported to adobe air have the ability to use HTML/javascript/actionscript/flash. The inbuilt browser is based on webkit, the parent of safari which means no matter what platform I targeted the code would be the same.

Here is a skeleton of what it will look like. On the right are three tabs that will load in different flash/flex based modules based on who you are. Right now I have repeating flash based vector clocks loading just to test if they were memory leaking at all and how fast it loads them. It all seems pretty good right now. Mind ou the deign will be much more refined this is just layout the areas for content. The rest of the page is DHTML/ajax


I will keep testing it this weekend but here are my feelings now:

Pros
0. I do not have to worry about the other programmer's javascript colliding in any way when multiple modules are on the page at the same time. This is huge - in the other approach with only DHTML/ajax we would have to test every single modules with every single other module of which there could easily be hundreds. I mean we would use namespacing etc, but al lot of the people developing this stuff are new to javascript and the potential for messing up is huge.

1. Flex has a 60 day trial for the pro version so we can test it out extensively with no overhead, although I am sure I want it.

2. Flex builder is amazing. It is like visual studio which would be a familiar interface for the other teams who would be makng modules for this but is based on eclipse and is multiplatform.

3. Because it is based on eclipse, skills used for zend studio neon could transfer. It is definitely made for programmers.

4. We would be losing nothing in terms of backend development as flex/flash is totally front end solution independent of a backend, meaning we could use php. This article calls it "Flex and PHP - Party in the Front, Business in the Back"

5. Web modules work the same in every freakin browser. Who cares if they upgrade to IE6 or not then. This is a huge bonus.

6. Applications can exported as web swf, mobile apps, or as native system apps using adobe air. They work as native apps the same on every platform. Beats visuals studios windows only output.

7. It can be visually flashy without trashing the CPU the way javascript does.

8. It uses vectors.

9. The front end is scripted in actionsript which is essentially the same language as javascript with more robust options. The major advantage is there is no need for different scripts in different browsers.

11. It can even work with .NET as a backend. Is this a bonus, lol?

12. Linux Apahce is the best for doing this and that is what we are going with so it fits perfect with our current architecture.

13. If we want to do video/audio manipulation or capture, we already own flash media server!

14. With air you can use html/javascript or actionscript/mxml in it.

15. Adobe's MXML which makes widgeting a breeze. It has data grids, accordians, etc built in meaning we don't have to redevelop them in javascript.

16. Easy socket communication for real time data push (COMET) instead of pull (AJAX)

17. If the modules need to interact with the main app they can through ExternalInterface calls, the way surebert does.

Cons
0. Flex builder is $241 for gov't pricing - not very much compared to the retail price of like $700.

1. I am master of cross browser DHTML/AJAX and know the ins and out of every browsers. I even developed my own extensive library for dealing with this - not so masterful of Flex as I am new to it. I doubt, however, that I will have much trouble.

2. Flash modules wouldn't work on the iphone. Boo, fucking boo hoo. I think that Adobe is going to address this at some point. If not I really don't care as we are using Windows Mobile at work and there is a flash 7 client already and a flash lite 3 client for that coming out. Because the backend is agnostic of the fron end, we could always make special apps for the iphone.

I decided to just come up with a way to deal with this. I will just post more about it later.

So Apple started pushing safari with itunes installs and making it an auto selected update with itunes and quicktime update. However much I love firefox and use it as my primary browser, it seems like work will never go with it at Roswell. We do support Safari for our mac users but I was told we will not support firefox because it is too hard for our help desk staff to support two browsers. I never considered that Safari could be our standardized browser for both platforms until now. I would do anything to get rid of IE6.

Seriously, the entire institute is on IE 6 for next eternity, a browser that came out in 2001. We had a major initiative to push to IE 7 but we couldn't because our medical records system, a vendor product called sunrise record manager by eclipsys is not IE 7 compliant. IE 7 is not hard to update an app for. If anyone of you are familiar with IE6 to IE7 porting you will immediately realize how ridiculous this is. They didn't even change the javascript engine, so it is mostly about CSS and any hacks that they were using for IE 6 but mostly has to do with them just no caring because they already have the cash. Maybe it is customized activeX controls? The problem is it is such a critical application that we can't risk it not working.

The vendors rake in the big bucks and then can't do simple things like be IE 7 compliant despite years of beta and tons of data on how to update your software. It makes me sick.

How can we say as an organization that we want to push our technology into the future and rely on web based solutions and then use a delivery interface that is an insecure, non standards compliant, memory-leaking piece of crap from 7 years ago. Even Microsoft thinks it sucks. I mean they had IE 7 a forced update but we had to turn that off.

We, and I am sure many other organizations, have many other problems that come from relying on other expensive vendor products. Its like they have no responsibility once the buyer signs on the dotted line. This one product which is not even in production yet and comes from a major vendor and is susceptible to SQL injection. Instead of forcing the vendor to fix the problem (which there is an answer for) we are now getting a $90,000 reverse proxy for the server that will look for possible sql injection attempts and stop them before they hit the server. How did we get so in bed with the vendor that they can get away with this. I feel like they should be sued for selling an insecure product.

If I ever ran an organization like Roswell I would do a major re-evaluation of the cost benefit of such heavy reliance on vendor products. Most of them could be reproduced with teams of dedicated in house developers and moreover even make money for the institute if we could sell to others. Its not like the vendor products just get purchased and work out of the box. They all have teams of people that have to support them anyways. I guess it is hard to find people who know how to program.

Really, I don't know the answer - I do know that it is not just keeping IE6 forever and relying on more vendor products to act as band-aids.

I think my stomach is trying to kill me right now. I skipped breakfast, except a banana because I was in a rush and we had no eggs. Then I skipped lunch because I had a meeting to prepare for.

Then it was 3PM and I didn't want to stop programming what I was working on when all of a sudden my stomach started feeling like it was being stabbed in my stomach. It was way up high in my actual stomach which is weird as I don't even really have pain there. Right now it hurts really freakin' bad I hope eating will satisfy the monster.

this is what I get for eating now-a-laters before bed and not eating a normal breakfast or lunch. I suppose I just should push it to much, this whole "better" thing, argh.

The word of the day on my screensaver was antichrist? Do you think that happened by chance or that my computer is possessed. It is good Friday after all.

I got my chumby today. It's name is Alastair. I think it has tremendous potential for as an interactive display device at the hospital. The background behind them sounds so much like the (e:jesse) story I always expect to read about. Here is a wiki about the chumby. (e:shawnr) got me hooked on it.

At work it looks cute on my desk.


At home it looks redic next to mr. big.


It came with the cutest packaging and some charms to hang on it.


During lunch (e:jon), (e:enknot) and I went out to Lagniappe's on Allen Street and I got the oyster poboy with fries. It is really freakin good. (e:enknot) got the same thing with fried okra.



We were down there because (e:enknot) was selling some books to Rust Belt for trade value. Book stores fascinate me. They seem so primitive in terms of information delivery and they have a particular smell. I think it used to be the smell associated with knowledge. Now that is pretty much replaced with the sweet smell of fresh plastic. At least in my world.





While we were on the way to Lagniappe's I saw this couch at that eclectic store across from the pink and decided to buy it for (e:matthew). After work (e:tery) and I went to go pick it up. I haggled it down a bit.


He liked it but it didn't match his plan for the home show. Luckily, we have lots of other rooms to stick it in. I think it is the first piece of really sturdy furniture we own.


I bought my tickets for Kimya Dawson at the Tralf on April 10th. You can order them on Ticketmaster
As a side not I really want to beta test the PS3 home world. Does anybody have a connection that can get me in?