Why we use Adobe Flex?

 Flex is an Asynchronize and high productive technology, building web and desktop based rich internet application using different frameworks and operating systems by leveraging the Adobe Flash player and Adobe AIR. While Application build using only Adobe Flex builder.  Compare to other development platforms like java, Microsoft technologies, they such complex but Adobe Flex applications are much easier to integrate and more efficient to maintain. Flex provides a modern, standards-based language and programming model that supports common design patterns. There are lots of frameworks available in market such as cairngorm, Mate, PureMVC, Parsley, RobotLegs and Swiz.

Flex can create number of different application types such as E-commerce with vast shopping carts. It also can be used to create widgets and Plugins for popular social sites such as facebook, twitter and myspace.

• Adobe Flex is easily integrate with other technologies using Remote service, Web service and http service but remote service is more powerful and provide fast response as compare to other services. We can also directly connect to SQLLite database from Adobe Flex or AIR.

Client Technology

(Adobe Flex / AIR)

Bridge Technology

(WebOrb for Microsoft.Net, PHP, Ruby on Rails and Java)

(AMF (Action Message Format) for PHP and Ruby on Rails)

(FluorineFx for Microsoft.Net)

(BlazeDs and LCDS for Java)

Server Technologies

Advantage of using Abode Flex / AIR

• High Productive and building Rich Internet Applications
• High Performance and cross platform runtime
• Integrated support for text, graphics, animation, and audio/video
• Enterprise data integration
• Support for disconnected computing ( Online and offline synchronization )
• Provide high Security and reliability

Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Overview

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern separates an application into three main components: the model, the view, and the controller. The ASP.NET MVC framework provides an alternative to the ASP.NET Web Forms pattern for creating Web applications. The ASP.NET MVC framework is a lightweight, highly testable presentation framework that (as with Web Forms-based applications) is integrated with existing ASP.NET features, such as master pages and membership-based authentication. The MVC framework is defined in the System.Web.Mvc assembly.

           MVC design pattern

MVC is a standard design pattern that many developers are familiar with. Some types of Web applications will benefit from the MVC framework. Others will continue to use the traditional ASP.NET application pattern that is based on Web Forms and postbacks. Other types of Web applications will combine the two approaches; neither approach excludes the other.
The MVC framework includes the following components:

• Models. Model objects are the parts of the application that implement the logic for the application's data domain. Often, model objects retrieve and store model state in a database. For example, a Product object might retrieve information from a database, operate on it, and then write updated information back to a Products table in a SQL Server database.
  In small applications, the model is often a conceptual separation instead of a physical one. For example, if the application only reads a dataset and sends it to the view, the application does not have a physical model layer and associated classes. In that case, the dataset takes on the role of a model object.
• Views. Views are the components that display the application's user interface (UI). Typically, this UI is created from the model data. An example would be an edit view of a Products table that displays text boxes, drop-down lists, and check boxes based on the current state of a Product object.
• Controllers. Controllers are the components that handle user interaction, work with the model, and ultimately select a view to render that displays UI. In an MVC application, the view only displays information; the controller handles and responds to user input and interaction. For example, the controller handles query-string values, and passes these values to the model, which in turn might use these values to query the database.

The MVC pattern helps you create applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. The pattern specifies where each kind of logic should be located in the application. The UI logic belongs in the view. Input logic belongs in the controller. Business logic belongs in the model. This separation helps you manage complexity when you build an application, because it enables you to focus on one aspect of the implementation at a time. For example, you can focus on the view without depending on the business logic.
The loose coupling between the three main components of an MVC application also promotes parallel development. For example, one developer can work on the view, a second developer can work on the controller logic, and a third developer can focus on the business logic in the model.

 for Test-Driven Development

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In addition to managing complexity, the MVC pattern makes it easier to test applications than it is to test a Web Forms-based ASP.NET Web application. For example, in a Web Forms-based ASP.NET Web application, a single class is used both to display output and to respond to user input. Writing automated tests for Web Forms-based ASP.NET applications can be complex, because to test an individual page, you must instantiate the page class, all its child controls, and additional dependent classes in the application. Because so many classes are instantiated to run the page, it can be hard to write tests that focus exclusively on individual parts of the application. Tests for Web Forms-based ASP.NET applications can therefore be more difficult to implement than tests in an MVC application. Moreover, tests in a Web Forms-based ASP.NET application require a Web server. The MVC framework decouples the components and makes heavy use of interfaces, which makes it possible to test individual components in isolation from the rest of the framework.

When to Create an MVC Application

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You must consider carefully whether to implement a Web application by using either the ASP.NET MVC framework or the ASP.NET Web Forms model. The MVC framework does not replace the Web Forms model; you can use either framework for Web applications. (If you have existing Web Forms-based applications, these continue to work exactly as they always have.)
Before you decide to use the MVC framework or the Web Forms model for a specific Web site, weigh the advantages of each approach.

Advantages of an MVC-Based Web Application

The ASP.NET MVC framework offers the following advantages:

• It makes it easier to manage complexity by dividing an application into the model, the view, and the controller.
• It does not use view state or server-based forms. This makes the MVC framework ideal for developers who want full control over the behavior of an application.
• It uses a Front Controller pattern that processes Web application requests through a single controller. This enables you to design an application that supports a rich routing infrastructure. For more information, see Front Controller.
• It provides better support for test-driven development (TDD).
• It works well for Web applications that are supported by large teams of developers and for Web designers who need a high degree of control over the application behavior.

Advantages of a Web Forms-Based Web Application

The Web Forms-based framework offers the following advantages:

• It supports an event model that preserves state over HTTP, which benefits line-of-business Web application development. The Web Forms-based application provides dozens of events that are supported in hundreds of server controls.
• It uses a Page Controller pattern that adds functionality to individual pages. For more information, see Page Controller.
• It uses view state on server-based forms, which can make managing state information easier.
• It works well for small teams of Web developers and designers who want to take advantage of the large number of components available for rapid application development.
• In general, it is less complex for application development, because the components (the Page class, controls, and so on) are tightly integrated and usually require less code than the MVC model.

Features of the ASP.NET MVC Framework

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The ASP.NET MVC framework provides the following features:

• Separation of application tasks (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), testability, and test-driven development (TDD). All core contracts in the MVC framework are interface-based and can be tested by using mock objects, which are simulated objects that imitate the behavior of actual objects in the application. You can unit-test the application without having to run the controllers in an ASP.NET process, which makes unit testing fast and flexible. You can use any unit-testing framework that is compatible with the .NET Framework.
• An extensible and pluggable framework. The components of the ASP.NET MVC framework are designed so that they can be easily replaced or customized. You can plug in your own view engine, URL routing policy, action-method parameter serialization, and other components. The ASP.NET MVC framework also supports the use of Dependency Injection (DI) and Inversion of Control (IOC) container models. DI enables you to inject objects into a class, instead of relying on the class to create the object itself. IOC specifies that if an object requires another object, the first objects should get the second object from an outside source such as a configuration file. This makes testing easier.
• Extensive support for ASP.NET routing, which is a powerful URL-mapping component that lets you build applications that have comprehensible and searchable URLs. URLs do not have to include file-name extensions, and are designed to support URL naming patterns that work well for search engine optimization (SEO) and representational state transfer (REST) addressing.
• Support for using the markup in existing ASP.NET page (.aspx files), user control (.ascx files), and master page (.master files) markup files as view templates. You can use existing ASP.NET features with the ASP.NET MVC framework, such as nested master pages, in-line expressions (<%= %>), declarative server controls, templates, data-binding, localization, and so on.
• Support for existing ASP.NET features. ASP.NET MVC lets you use features such as forms authentication and Windows authentication, URL authorization, membership and roles, output and data caching, session and profile state management, health monitoring, the configuration system, and the provider architecture.

Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Smartphones and tablets are becoming integral part of every one’s life, this vast demand leads to many OEM and many platform available in market, this obviously means a wide spectrum of devices and many choices the user has and they are available in different range and one can select based on their need either on different platform or extending the open source one and customize it. But what does the proliferation of different devices mean for product companies? It means increased cost of development and maintenance of the solution. In order to cut these costs down to some extent there are few such solutions. Below are few cross platform kit that Verve has capability on:
1.  Rhomobile provides a complete set of products for managing an enterprise’s mobile apps and data. Rhomobile uses the power and productivity of web technology and the cloud to allow enterprises to more easily develop design and distribute the application.
Platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile
License: Free
2.  Appcelerator is a free and open source application development platform. Appcelerator Titanium lets you create native mobile, tablet and desktop application experiences using existing web skills like Javascript, HTML, CSS, Python, Ruby, and PHP. It comes with an in built language-OS bridge and a runtime shell that compiles and packages your applications for cross platform distribution.
Platforms: iOS, Android based mobiles and tablets and windows/linux/mac desktop based apps
License: Free
3.  PhoneGap is a HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies and get access to api’s and appstore. Allows to develop applications for iPhone, iTouch, iPAD, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Palm becoming one of the few products that supports almost all major platforms. The company offers a cross-platform simulator (an Adobe AIR app), as well as online training sessions to help you access native APIs and build functioning mobile apps on the PhoneGap platform.
Platforms: iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Palm
License: Free (Open Source)

What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology for implementation on the .NET Framework, and is purportedly intended to deliver stunningly rich internet applications and visually stimulating media experiences. Operational virtually on all of the popular browsers, its plug-in is pretty light-weight and easily deployable. Essentially a combination of technologies on a single platter, it allows developers to pick and choose tools and languages for development. Interestingly, it complements and gels seamlessly with existing ASP.NET AJAX code as well as JavaScript to enhance the application’s inherent properties and functionalities. In many ways, it is a dazzling answer to Adobe Flash or even to that of Sun’s JavaFX. Versions 1.0 and 2.0 (earlier referred to as 1.1) are the two major releases till date.

The first release consisted of the core presentation framework, responsible for generation of the rich user interfaces, interactivity, user inputs and basic user interface controls, graphics, animation and media playback, DRM support, with DOM API integration. It has inherent support for MP3/WMA audio as well as VC-1/WMV video formats and optionally supports built-in media streaming. It has the ability to download and play audio-visual media content from any web server, progressively. It not only provides for blending of vector graphics and HTML to create persuasive content experiences but also assists in throwing up gorgeous user interfaces, animation and rich interactive video player experiences. 

The version 2.0 takes the experience a few notches up. Much to delight of the Silverlight developers this version comes with the complete CLR (.NET Framework 3.0), with the facility to host multiple instances of the CLR in a single process, and has this uncanny ability, built-in, to execute any of the .NET languages including C# and VB.NET. With these benefits, the associated XAML files, containing the programming logic, could easily be augmented by code-behind code, written in a choice of .NET languages. The super-strong CLR engine drives high-performance execution on browsers. This version comes with a plethora of user interface controls including CheckBox, TextBox, ScrollViewer, Slider, DataGrid, ListBox, StackPanel, grid, etc. – not less than atleast thirty of various UI, data-binding support, layout management and data management skinnable, encapsulated, template-driven controls. The rich library of built-in classes associated with the framework, with its support for Windows Phone Foundation user interface programming model, makes it one of the most potent technologies for developing superior web browser-based and SmartPhone applications. The Deep Zoom feature on the latest version allows smooth zooming in-and-out of images using the user’s mouse wheel. The amazing scaling up-and-down range, from megapixels to a few gigapixels, is optimised and managed efficiently by the technology feature. The Version 2.0 allows limited ‘filesystem’ access, using the operating systems’ native file dialogue box. In fact it does not mandatorily require ASP.NET to be deployed and utlised on the web-server and can easily leverage Linux or even PHP, if Silverlight programmers intended or required it to. 

Microsoft Silverlight 2.0, in association with Visual Studio 8.0 empowers programmers to produce striking applications on any browser or operating system. Developers can finally focus on the back-end application core without bothering about the visuals those could simultaneously be taken care of by the graphic designers using the power of XAML. Licensing is pretty simple while developers can pull weight of the powerful CLR to use Ruby, Python or even EcmaScript, etc., leveraging the .NET Framework! Dramatic improvement in browsing and operational speed on AJAX-enabled websites makes Silverlight development such a craze amongst the global developer community. No wonder this emerging cross-platform / cross-browser technology promises to throw-up tons of promises and opportunities ensuring enriching client experiences.