Re: [flexcoders] Re: FDS question

[Rob Rusher]

ouch! As I wrote that email, I avoided the buzzword bingo sentence, as I was thinking data-oriented, but put it in more laymen terms. :) Although, I never said it was "only" of interest for real-time data. (sematics boy - my wife chimes in)
FDS does encompass more than just real-time data. Even the "Data Services" part of the name implies that it provides services for managing CRUD, concurrency, synchronization, etc... and I greatly appreciate that FDS does these things. If it did not provide these services, it would be called Flash Remoting, right.
:)Thanks for detailed description Steven.Humbled Laymen,Rob RusherOn 7/12/06, Steven Webster <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:












  


    
            


I'm going to step this thread all the way to the beginning 
again; there was a flawed message in this thread that suggested that FDS was 
only of interest for real-time data; while it's certainly true that when we're 
demonstrating the power of FDS, we'll leverage real-time/collaborative examples, 
let's not forget here that the FDS value proposition is much more than real-time 
dashboards.
 
Christophe Coenraets articulated very clearly during MAX 
last year, the concept of a data-oriented versus a service-oriented architecture 
(I think credit is due to Matt Chotin here too); I think that is the starting 
point for discussion as to whether you are going to leverage benefit from FDS in 
your application architecture.  
 
RPC services are most appropriate in an SOA 
environment.  You have an existing infrastructure with which you wish to 
integrate, and that infrastructure presents a set of services that can be 
invoked from your RIA client.  That's where you'd likely make a decision to 
use RPC services:
 
OnlineBankingService.java
    +schedulePayment( payment, date 
)
    +openAccount( account )
    +requestCurrency( fromAccount, amount, currency 
)
    +generatePrintableStatement( account, fromDate, 
toDate )
    ...etc
 
If however, your service tier starts to look a lot 
like:
 
PatientRecordService.java
    +createRecord( patient )
    +readRecord() : patient
    +updateRecord( patient )
    +deleteRecord( patient )
 
AppointmentService.java
    +createAppointment( appointment 
)
    ...etc
 
Then you're services are really just defining CRUD 
operations on your data-tier, and it would suggest that you have a data-oriented 
architecture.  You're probably also having to do a great deal of 
heavy-lifting on the client, to manage relationships, to manage the fact that 
you have state on the client (your client model) that has to be replicated on 
the server, and you will need strategies in place to manage synchronisation and 
conflict resolution between these 2 models.  If you then have multiple 
clients that can all access patients/appointments/etc, then you're also going to 
start having to think about locking/concurrency policies, and suddenly your 
services have a great deal of infrastructure work associated with them.  
And I haven't even started talking about clustering, and failover, and such 
enterprise requirements for a mission-critical system as you 
describe.
 
In these scenarios, where you have a data-oriented 
architecture, but where there is no real-time requirements, no 
push-requirements, no collaboration (per-se - screen-sharing/etc) requirements, 
there is still *tremendous* value being offered by an application architecture 
that leverages data services.  Flex Data Services is going to do ALL that 
heavy-lifting for you.  Quickly.  With code written by people smarter 
than me (cheap shot, don't take it).
 
To define the problem that was originally 
stated:
 
"Currently our thinking is to connect 
to the data through web services sending XML data to a JSO file that then will 
communicate with a JAVA based API back to the MySQL backend. What, if anythign 
would FDS bring to the table? Still not sure how it is better than XMLbased 
solution."
 
When I look at that problem, I see a number of moving parts 
and infrastructure work that is required - yet you are in the business of 
building a large-mission critical application for healthcare.  FDS is going 
to remove a great deal of these moving parts, and potentially offer you an 
elegant architectural solution that allows you to focus on delivering a truly 
effective user-experience.  You can focus on creating a useful, usable and 
desirable application, and you can focus on delivering a scalable, maintainable 
and performant application, you can focus on delivering feature and value to the 
user (and the business) rather than focus on delivering 
infrastructure.
 
Let FDS manage your CRUD operations for you.  Let FDS 
manage relationships.  Let FDS manage synchronisation between your client 
and server models.  Let FDS manage concurrency, and locking and conflict 
resolution.  Let FDS manage how all that jazz works in a clustered app 
server environment.  Let FDS make your integration to your MySQL database a 
walk in the park.
 
I'd seriously recommend that you (the general you here) 
spend some time understanding in it's entierity, the value proposition that 
we're making with Flex Data Services; there is a great deal of misconception 
that FDS is a solution for real-time, for push, and for collaboration 
only.
 
Not so.  When you are building enterprise n-tier RIA 
(buzzword bingo - Webster wins) that have a significant reliance upon EIS such 
as database integration or message-queue integration, FDS is going to give you 
bet-the-business assurance on your technical robustness, and let you focus on 
delivering the kind of user-experiences that no-doubt were the reason Flex 
caught your attention in the first place.  
 
Do you think we need to do more work in helping you 
understand the ways in which you can deliver better apps smarter and faster with 
FDS ?  Let us know what would help you here - because FDS is helping 
us.
 
In the meantime, let a take-away from this simply be that 
FDS is about more than "real-time-update-in-front-of-your-eyes-charts".  
Those are just the demos we build in a few minutes at conferences to show you 
how all the bits hang together.
 
Does this offer any pause for thought ?
 
Best wishes,
 
Steven
 



  
  
    
      
        
        
          
          
            
            Steven WebsterPractice Director (Rich 
            Internet Applications)Adobe ConsultingWestpoint, 4 Redheughs 
            Rigg, South Gyle, Edinburgh, EH12 9DQ, UKp: +44 (0) 131 338 
            6108
            m: +44 (0) 7917 428 947 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
          

      

    
    










-- -- Regards,Rob RusherAdobe Certified Breeze, ColdFusion MX and Flex 2 Instructorm: 303-885-7044im: robrusher

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