A few weeks ago I mentioned ChessJam, a Flex/AIR/ColdFusion/LCDS app built by Greg Wilson and some of his pals. Greg has since posted technical details on how the app works. (He actually posted this last week, but I missed it while on the road).

One of the most talked about MAX keynote demos was the FedEx Custom Critical shipment tracking dashboard as presented by FedEx's Adam Mollenkopf. And now RedMonk's Michael Coté has posted an interview with Adam where they look at the app, discuss the business case, and explain why the solution was built on the Flash Platform and powered by LiveCycle Data Services.

[Via Duane Nickull]

Fellow Adobe platform evangelist Greg Wilson has posted some details about ChessJam, a new multi-user chess game he helped create. The client is a Flex based AIR application, and the back-end is a mixture of ColdFusion and LiveCycle Data Services. He has promised to post a follow-up entry with details of the technical underpinnings.

BlazeDS is LiveCycle Data Services' little brother, our free open-source server-based Java remoting and web messaging technology that enables developers to easily connect to back-end distributed data and push data in real-time to Flex and AIR applications.

If you use BlazeDS, then take a look at BlazeMonster, a little app that generates Flex code to consume BlazeDS Remoting services, and also generates configuration files to expose Java classes as Remoting services. BlazeMonster was built by fellow Adobe evangelist Sujit Reddy G.

LiveCycle Data Services 3 is now in beta and available for download on Labs. Product Manager Anil Channappa has posted details on what's new in LCDS 3.

Our pals at Fig Leaf have posted a Captivate tutorial on how to create PDF forms powered by ColdFusion CFCs.

We're running a series of Adobe Day events focusing on Flex, AIR, ColdFusion, and LiveCycle Data Services. Adobe Day Boston is on Monday, February 9, 2009, and I am scheduled to speak. Registration is open and there is still some room left.

UPDATE: Looks like this is going to be reschedule for some time in March, sorry.

I presented a MegaLab hands-on session in San Francisco and Milan, and introduced lots of developers to data-services powered Flex and AIR apps. The session walked Windows and Mac developers through a dozen hands-on apps that started with basic data integration and worked all the way up to data synchronization and offline support and more. Unfortunately, due to a corrupt ZIP file, Mac users were unable to follow along in San Francisco.

If you'd like to try the session yourself, here is what you need:

• RealTimeDS.zip [400MB] is the complete server containing TomCat, LCDS, ColdFusion, a database, and more.
• RealTimeDS.pdf [200KB] is the student hand-out.

All of the instructions are in the ZIP file. Enjoy!

The Adobe LiveCycle team is now blogging at About LiveCycle ES.

LiveCycle ES Developer Express is an EC2 cloud hosted pre-configured, virtualized installation of LiveCycle ES Solution Components in a self-contained development environment. And if you really want to know what that means, Duane Nickull explains.

ReadWriteWeb is running a story entitled Adobe's LiveCycle Powered by Amazon about running LCES on Amazon Web Services.

As a follow-up to last week's story on how NaturalInsight uses ColdFusion 8, TechRepublic is running a new story entitled How FoodSHIELD's developers put ColdFusion 8 to good use. In it, Brian Kotek explains what FoodSHIELD does, and how they use ColdFusion, Savvy CMS, Adobe Connect, and more to power their important work. Among the ColdFusion 8 features mentioned are Ajax support and the integrated LiveCycle Data Services (used to power AIR applications).

We've had to make some minor MAX scheduling changes. My 3 hour hands-on MAX session Getting Started with Real-Time Flex and AIR via LiveCycle Data Services has been moved to Wednesday, November 19th, 9:00am-12:30pm. That's the bad news. The good news is that the room we're in accommodates over 200 people, and there are still some open slots left. I hope to see you there, and don't forget to bring your laptop!

I previously mentioned that I'd be presenting a MegaLab session at MAX this year. The session is titled Getting Started with Real-Time Flex and AIR via LiveCycle Data Services, and it'll be a massive bring-your-own-laptop hands-on event where we'll build Flex and AIR apps powered by LiveCycle Data Services, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion. The idea is to give you first-hand experience building apps that leverage messaging, push, data synchronization, online/offline processing, and more. We'll make sure your laptop is configured and ready to go (you'll get setup instructions a few weeks before MAX, and we'll have techies present on the day to help you, too), and you'll walk away with knowledge, and a fully working environment of your own. Fun stuff!

But, as we've started to plan the content, we've determined that 90 minutes is just not enough time, and so the MegaLab sessions (all three, including mine) are now 3 hours long! (Well, 3 1/2 hours actually, but we'll give you a 30 minute break in the middle).

The MegaLab room will accommodate at least 200 attendees, so there will be plenty space for you and your laptop. But, these sessions are already being signed up for, so don't miss out on this MAX first, and register now!

San Diego Department of Child Support Services (SDDCSS) has been using ColdFusion for years, and they have built and deployed innovative systems that truly do make a difference in the lives of children and their families. They've now built a new version of their solution, this time using ColdFusion and LiveCycle Data Services on the backend, and Flex and AIR on the client.

SearchSOA.com is running a story on this project entitled Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) melds with ColdFusion - builds calendaring system for child services agency, and explains in detail why ColdFusion was chosen, why it is still the platform of choice, and how ColdFusion is being used in conjunction with AIR and Flex.

I'm about to head out to Lansing to present at <michigan:FlexCamp>, my shortest commute for any FlexCamp to date. I'll be covering Flex, AIR, LiveCycle Data Services, BlazeDS, and of course some ColdFusion.

As a general rule, you want to be using AMF for communication between Flash Player on the client (running a Flash or Flex app) and your back-end server (unless you need messaging and push and data management services, in which case LiveCycle Data Services is what you'll want).

Lee Brimelow explains this (and lists AMF options for different back-ends) in a recent post entitled What the hell is AMF? And James Ward demonstrates the performance implications in his Census - RIA Data Loading Benchmarks.

LiveCycle Data Services 2.6 (aka LiveCycle Data Services ES Update 1 has been released. Release notes have also been posted.

ColdFusion 8 includes LiveCycle Data Services 2.5, and the instructions we've provided on getting CF to use the about-to-be-released LCDS 2.6 leave much to be desired. Joshua Rodgers has written a superb step-by-step post on getting this all working. [Via Ryan Stewart].

At Scotch on the Rocks this week, Adam Lehman and I chatted about ColdFusion, Flex, and LiveCycle Data Services (LCDS for short). We spent quite a bit of time on the latter because when I polled the crowd of 150 or so, only 3 raised their hands when asked who'd looked at LCDS. That's a shame, as LCDS is tightly integrated with ColdFusion 8 and can even be seamlessly installed along with ColdFusion 8, and few ColdFusion developers have taken the time to figure out the value that LCDS bring to the table, and especially the value of the Data Management Services. Which is why we spent time on the subject in Edinburgh, and why I focused on it in recent presentations in D.C., Toronto, Atlanta, and more. So I was really pleased to see that Adobe TV posted my Understanding Data Management Services session today, it's not ColdFusion specific, but it does explain the basics.

Steve Drucker has posted a recorded Connect session showing how to create a PDF form (using LiveCycle Designer) containing controls which are powered by a ColdFusion backend.

I just presented an opening session at WebManiacs in D.C. in the magnificent auditorium at The Carnegie Institution. Less than a handful of those present had any experience with Data Services, and so I spent the bulk of the time on LCDS, BlazeDS, data management services, and more. If you have yet to tinker with Data Services, you may want to check out Christophe Coenraets' LCDS Test Drive and BlazeDS 30 Minute Test Drive.

Yesterday evening I presented a session on data services at a Flex Camp in Toronto. I ran through a series of demos (and ran over time, of course) and several attendees asked (repeatedly, both during the session and afterwards) for me to clarify which needed Data Services and which didn't, as well as which needed LiveCycle Data Services versus those which could use the free open-source BlazeDS.

And so, in the order that they were presented:

1. Basic HTTP calls via <mx:HTTPService> - nothing special needed on the back-end, any server or app that can respond to HTTP calls can be invoked this way, and this is definitely the crudest (and generally least preferred) form of integration.
2. Web Service calls via <mx:WebService> - nothing special needed on the back-end, if you have code that is exposed as a Web Service, then the Flash Player can invoke it (although this generally does not perform as well as the next option).
3. Flash Remoting via <mx:RemoteObject> - this obviously requires a back-end that can respond to AMF requests, if you are a ColdFusion user then you have Flash Remoting built-in and so nothing more is needed, if you are a Java user then you'll want to install data services to give you this functionality (either BlazeDS or LiveCycle DS will do), and if you are using some other back-end then you'll want to look at community and 3rd party offerings (as a rule, use this option over Web Services).
4. Messaging via <mx:Consumer> and <mx:Producer> - this is what powered the chat apps and real-data push updates, and this does require data services on the back-end, and either BlazeDS or LiveCycle DS (including the LiveCycle integrated into ColdFusion 8) will do.
5. Data management and synchronization via <mx:DataService> - this is what powered the synchronized data editing screens (including pushing updates, conflict resolution, auto-commits, and more) and this requires LiveCycle DS on the back-end (sorry, BlazeDS won't do for this one).

This one via Greg Wilson. LiveCycle team member Gary Gilchrist and longtime LiveCycle partner Avoka are both blogging.

LiveCycle Data Services 2.6 is now in public beta. The update includes better support for Flex 3, support for AIR offline storage and data management, improved performance, and more. And yes, it can be used with ColdFusion. You can get LCDS 2.6 beta from Labs.