Last night I presented ColdFusion, Flex, and more to a joint meeting of the local Flex and ColdFusion groups. The group took a little while to warm up, but then really got going. The session ran over 2 hours and was highly interactive.

Big winners were spreadsheet integration, ORM, Bolt extensions, and the data connectivity in Flash Builder 4. We also got into a lively and heated tangent conversation about the AS3 server proof-of-concept shown during the MAX sneaks last year (the crowd was lobbying heavily to turn this into a product).

Last night wrapped my scheduled usergroups presentations, for now.

I am on my way to Toronto for tonight's usergroup presentation on ColdFusion and Flex. Details posted online.

I am in San Francisco for a few days of meetings, video shoots, and more (almost all MAX 2009 related). But tonight I'll get to do what I really enjoy doing, presenting to our usergroups. I'll be presenting ColdFusion and Flash Builder futures to the BACFUG group this evening at 6:30pm in the Adobe San Francisco office (601 Townsend). Details posted online.

"Debbie" is a persona, a composite character representing a type or class of developer. Lots of Flash Builder 4 features are being built with "Debbie" in mind, and Tim Buntel is asking for help finding Debbie to validate and test features. More on Tim's blog.

I presented to 4 usergroups this week, primarily focusing on ColdFusion futures (including "Bolt", the planned ColdFusion IDE) but also covering Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst.

The reactions at all groups were highly consistent - enthusiasm, excitement, and lots of spontaneous applause. The big winners (measured using the rather unscientific applause-o-meter) were the spreadsheet support planned for ColdFusion "Centaur" (easily #1), ORM support, and "Bolt", as well as the Flash Builder 4 ColdFusion data integration.

I'm not presenting to any groups this coming week, but will present to the San Francisco and Toronto groups the week after that. And there are lots of other tour dates too, presented by other members of the Adobe Platform Evangelism team.

Last night's usergroup event in NYC was incredible! A crowd of about 120 packed one of the beautiful new conference facilities at NYU Medical Center, and we chatted for over 2 hours about ColdFusion, Flex, Flash Catalyst, and more. The crowd was amazing, dozens of questions and comments and interruptions before I had even gotten to the second feature! The crowd was so involved and engaged and enthusiastic that I actually had to ask them to stop the questions a couple of time so as to get to the next topic, and that does not happen often.

Thanks to Ben Nadel and Clark Valberg and crew for putting together an incredible event, complete with top notch catered food (sandwiches, sushi, and even ColdFusion branded cupcakes)! Oh, and sorry about the late start (darned NYC construction crews and cabbies who are unaware of them).

Next up, flying to Minneapolis for tonight's session to the Twin Cities ColdFusion Usergroup.

Last night's usergroup presentation in Atlanta went really well. About 100 attendees turned out for an hour of ColdFusion "Centaur" and "Bolt" and close to an hour of Flash Builder 4. The Atlanta group is home to some of the more vocal users, but the crowd was a little more subdued than usual, probably the result of no A/C running. Still, lots of good questions, and spontaneous applause for the Server Manager, Data Services in FB4, spreadsheet integration, and more. I am now in Atlanta airport, on my way to D.C. where we do it again this evening.

I am on my way down to Atlanta (literally,I am posting this from on-board a Delta flight featuring on-board wifi, and I can feel the plane starting to descend). Tonight I'll be presenting to the Atlanta usergroup, one of my favorite groups to speak to. We'll be talking about ColdFusion and Flex futures, and more. Atlanta is the first stop for me, here are the locations I'll be visiting:

• June 8th, 2009: Atlanta, GA
• June 9th, 2009: Washington, DC
• June 10th, 2009: New York, NY
• June 11th, 2009: Minneapolis, MN
• June 25th, 2009: Toronto, Canada

Visit the links above for details and registration information, and I hope to see you at one of the events!

We have a long history with ESRI, the world's leading GIS technology company, and ESRI has long supported the use of Flash and Flex as a front-end to the offerings. But check out the ArcGIS Server Live User Sites page - Flex examples dominate! (And the very first app listed is powered by ColdFusion, too, and built by our pals at ROK Technologies).

In conjunction with the public beta of Flash Builder 4, Adobe Developer Connection has published lots of new ColdFusion related content, including:

• Flash Builder 4 beta for ColdFusion developers
• Updated Flex for ColdFusion developers mini learning guide
• Getting started with ColdFusion and Flash Builder 4 beta
• Understanding the role of CFCs in Flex application development
• Binding ColdFusion data to Flex UI components with Adobe Flash Builder 4 beta
• Managing ColdFusion data with Adobe Flash Builder 4 beta
• Generating ColdFusion forms with Adobe Flash Builder 4 beta
• Deploying a Flex application with ColdFusion URL variables

We've just kicked off a massive usergroup tour, and Adobe Platform Evangelists are spanning the globe to talk about upcoming versions of Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, ColdFusion, and the new ColdFusion IDE. I'll be presenting at the following locations:

• June 8th, 2009: Atlanta, GA
• June 9th, 2009: Washington, DC
• June 10th, 2009: New York, NY
• June 11th, 2009: Minneapolis, MN
• June 25th, 2009: Toronto, Canada

Visit the links above for details and registration information, and I hope to see you at one of the events!

Title says it all, public beta versions of Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder) and Flash Catalyst are now available for download on Adobe Labs.

Over the past 24 hours or so, word has gotten out that the next major version of Flex Builder, currently codenamed "Gumbo", won't be named Flex Builder, the final product name will be Flash Builder 4. This is a good thing, it'll greatly simplify explaining the Flex/Flash relationship, an obstacle that we still deal with every time we present Flex. So, the Eclipse based tool will be named Flash Builder, emphasizing that it is used to build apps for the Flash Platform. The Flex framework will still use the name Flex, as will the Flex SDK. This greatly clarifies what Flex actually is, Flex is an ActionScript 3 framework for creating apps for the Flash Platform. It's nice and clean, you can use Flash Builder and/or Flash Professional to build apps for the Flash platform, and when doing so you can start from scratch or you can use the Flex framework (which makes you a Flex developer, so you are free to still call yourself one).

For more on the subject, Tim Buntel has posted his thoughts, as has Lee Brimelow (who also posted a FAQ), Serge Jespers, and Duane Nickull.

I'll be spending much of next week and the week after in Eastern Europe, starting in Bucharest where I'll get to present at an Adobe Developer Day, and then on to Pargue. Adobe Czech Republic is hosting a full day conference on Rich Internet Application development and the future of the Internet, and I am presenting several sessions. Registration is now open.

A week or so ago we released the ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform allowing Flex and Flash developers to easily build apps for Facebook. And now ADC helps you get started with a just-published article by Jeanette Stallons entitled Deploy your first Flex application on Facebook.

Flash Camp Orlando is a full-day event, on May 29th 2009, featuring some top industry experts on the Adobe Flash Platform from both inside and outside Adobe. You'll learn more about Flash and Flex, and will get to meet members of the Adobe team and network with local companies and fellow developers. Sessions will be geared towards both developers and designers. There will be plenty of giveaways, raffles and swag (and lunch). Fellow Adobe Platform Evangelist Greg Wilson will be there.

At MAX 2008 in San Francisco, Kevin Lynch announced that Major League Baseball was going to be using Flash for broadcast video. What he did not say at the time is that MLB had been using Silverlight, which they were abandoning for Flash. Greg Sandoval has posted a story on CNET explaining what he's learned about why Silverlight is out, and Flash is in.

The Adobe Affiliate Program lets owners of web sites and blogs recommend Adobe software, and make up to 8% on referrals. Lots more details in the program FAQ.

Adobe and Facebook have just announced a new ActionScript 3 Client Library that can be used to build Facebook applications in Flash. The library is free and open source, and includes more than 60 new APIs designed to compliment current Facebook APIs to ensure seamless implementation. Details are now online at http://www.adobe.com/go/facebook.

Mike Chambers has posted an entry entitled Rich Runtime Install Sizes Matrix in which he compares the download size of RIA runtimes Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Silverlight 3 beta, and JavaFX.

The HP Web Security Research Group has released HP SWFScan, a free security tool to help developers find security vulnerabilities in applications developed with the Adobe Flash Platform. HP found that developers building applications with the Flash Platform often leave security vulnerabilities unintentionally in their code. They decided to develop SWFScan to help not only their own customers, but also developers around the world to make the web a safer place.

This evening I presented a sneak peak at the next ColdFusion to a joint session of the Tampa Flash, Flex and AIR Developers Group and the Tampa ColdFusion User Group. The really cool thing about this event was that 2/3 of the audience were not ColdFusion users, and several commented that now they needed to take a look at ColdFusion. Kevin Hoyt presented an overview of building AIR apps using HTML and web technologies, and then did an incredible presentation on how to make Flash interact and communicate with hardware devices (including a wii controller).

Great Indian Developer Summit is one of the premier India tech conferences and events. Each year the conference hosts awards, and last year ColdFusion 8 won for Best Web Development Platform. This year, ColdFusion is nominated again for that same category, and Flex, Flex Builder, Connect, LiveCycle Rights Management ES, Flash Platform, and Device Central are all up for awards, too.

The Flash Lite Developer Challenge is the leading competition for developers working with Flash Lite. The competition challenges three groups of developers: 1. those currently working with Flash Lite, 2. Flash developers interested in developing applications for mobile devices, 3. mobile application developers interested in using Flash Lite. If you belong to one of these groups and you are a company or an individual, a professional or a researcher, you can enter the competition in one of the five categories, get access to great tools from Adobe and stand a chance of winning one of the great cash prizes and promotional packages from the sponsors (including Adobe). The competition is open to developers worldwide (with just a few exceptions, see the rules). The deadline for entries is May 31st, 2009, and winners will be announced June 17th, 2009.

JavaWorld has published Part 1 of a two part article by Chet Haase on ActionScript for Java developers.