What does this mean for developers?

From what I read in the live blog, it allows you to write ActionScript 3 which runs on the server by defining a .sas file containing your AS3 code. In the same file you can also define code to run both on the server and in the client by setting a runat variable: runat="client" for client side code and runat="server" for server-side code.

As you can see in the photo above, pulled from the live blog feed, you can run ActionScript code on the server from within your normal client-side application code. If you can't quite make it out, the photo is showing MXML in Flex Builder.

And in this photo you can see how ActionScript can be embedded within HTML, just like PHP, etc. Notice how both client and server-side code allow calls directly to databases with an executeQuery() function, passing in an SQL statement.

I'm eager to hear more about this, but from what I can gather, unfortunately not much else was mentioned at the sneak peek session. Nothing on Adobe Labs yet, either. As more details become available, I will certainly be sure to blog about them.

Update: Looks like it is coming with the next release of ColdFusion server, codenamed Centaur, which makes a lot of sense. Some additional details can be found over at this blog post.

I have seen a lot of people complaining about this (and Adobe has responded really well and explained their solid reasoning), but the fix is actually really simple and takes only two minutes to install. Just download the ZIP file mentioned in this blog comment on WordPress.org, copy the included files over your current installation, and you'll be all set. The fix includes a new version of SWFUpload, which is used on the WordPress upload page in the admin panel.

http://whatismyflashplayerversion.com

As a developer, I get this question from clients all the time, so I thought it time to create a simple service where I could send them to check.

In the future I'd like to have the site automatically test to see if the version reported from SWFObject is the same as the latest version, and if not, provide a link (or better yet, Express Install) to the latest version. However, I'd prefer to not have to keep the latest version number updated by hand, so if anyone knows where I can find an official data feed (RSS, a simple text file, etc) of the latest general public release version, please post in the comments.

Enjoy!

This is a great example of how to use various services, such as Flickr, to fit your simple mashup needs -- just like David and Shaun spoke about at FITC Hollywood a few months ago. Great idea, fellas!

Congrats to Dave Coletta and team! It is great to see Flex RIAs taking off and to know that all the resources available to Adobe will be put behind this amazing product.

More details can be found on the Yahoo! Flash Blog.

While to date I have only put together a couple of ActionScript 3 and Flash CS3 examples of how to use SWFAddress, I look forward to helping out the open source project more in the future and continuing to blog about the project as it progresses.

On that note, keep an eye out for a new version that includes functionality updates and additions, including better SEO support.

More info about SWFAddress can be found on Rostislav's blog, the SWFAddress website, and Sourceforge. I highly suggest you subscribe to the mailing list to be the first to hear about updates and new releases.

Let's look at the current manifestations of ECMAScript 4, the standard on which ActionScript 3 and the new version of JavaScript are based. There is Flash/Flex (SWF) with delivery to the web browser via a plug-in, JavaScript for direct interaction with the web browser, and AIR (Apollo) for desktop delivery. The only missing piece is server-side deployment, a fact of which I'd bet Adobe is well aware.

PHP is a great server-side language which I use very often, but every language has its own nuances, and switching continuously between PHP and AS3 often opens the door for several small bugs due to the syntactical differences.

As a framework for how much effort it would take to port AS3 for server-side usage, let's look at how PHP5 and AS3 compare on key web development factors. These core features are supported in both PHP5 and AS3:

- MySQL/database integration (PHP built-in, AS3 through classes)
- Open source and free
- Extendable (PHP through plugins, AS3 through classes)
- Large developer community
- Class-based development possible (Full OOP in AS3)

So with most of the features needed already included in AS3 or written by the community, why not take the extra step and port it to the server side? I'm sure Adobe doesn't want to sell Coldfusion 8 short, so there is that corporate hurdle. I could see it being integrated with Coldfusion in a similar manner that ActionScript can be included in MXML through the usage of a code/cdata block.

All said, nothing is stopping the community from developing an open source project based around this concept. A quick search of Google reveals that at least one other person is having similar thoughts.

Would you use AS3 if it was ported for server-side usage?

Tim's site/blog runs a completely Flash front-end using WordPress as the content management system, so he has some experience making Flash and WordPress work together. You can even see the normal WP install at this URL.

On his PressConnect page he explains the necessary process of retrieving the data from the WP database and using PHP to format it as XML. This concept isn't exactly new, but Tim has done everyone researching the topic a favor by explaining the process in detail, creating a diagram, and posting some of the PHP code which interfaces with WP. Just another example of the Flash community giving back.

For other takes on the same idea see Arpit's blog Code Zen and Brendan Dawes' wp-xml file (link to the file is at the very end of the post).

So, after some thought, I've decided on the following as my personal definition:

"Web 2.0" describes sites like Digg and YouTube, where the audience itself provides material for the Web site.

But, what does the rest of the internet community use as their collective definitions? Tim O'Reilly has claimed in the past that he coined the phrase "Web 2.0" - if you can coin something this generic. Here is Tim's definition, which takes five pages to distill. Five pages? Too long-winded. Give me the elevator pitch (at least let us at XPLANE distill is for you). Maybe his second approach is a little better:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")"

Based on that definition, maybe the fact is that "Web 2.0", as I stated above, is inherently generic and broad. I wonder if the term "Web 3.0" will come to have a consensus definition. But, until then, what do you think Web 2.0 means? And what do you think Web 3.0 will come to mean?