The ability to create Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) has been around much longer than the term itself; since version 8, the Flash Platform has been a viable RIA platform. But it was initially geared toward designers using the environment from a creative perspective, which wasn’t ideal for those coming from a pure development background.

If you were a Flash application developer, major hurdles still remained in your way. Delivering feature-laden rich applications in a productive and timely manner was difficult because you had to do most of the work yourself.

The challenge became clear and simple: provide a pure development environment that leveraged the ubiquity and capabilities of Flash yet catered directly to developers and their systems-development lifecycle. Give developers tools to be productive, and give them a framework that did most of the hard work for them so that they could focus their efforts on application logic. The solution to this challenge was Flex.

Flex has been on quite a journey since its release in March 2004 by Macromedia. That first version was followed by the more widely distributed version 1.5 later that year. Flex started as a server product and was billed as a way for developers to create applications on the Flash Platform.

This opened up a whole new world and helped light the fire for RIAs. As Flex-based RIAs began to gain traction, it proved that a demand existed for RIAs and that the general premise for the technological approach was sound. The next step would be to bring RIAs to the masses.

Now under the Adobe brand, the product made a huge jump with the release of Flex 2 in June 2006. Performance was greatly improved as a result of a language overhaul (ActionScript 3) and a major update to the Flash Player (V9).

The tooling switched to the Eclipse platform, which gave it instant credibility with programmers. Flex 2 saw the split of basic compilation and server-side data management. We also saw the first release of the free SDK for compiling Flex apps outside of the IDE. The server-side component evolved into Flex Data Services, now known as LiveCycle Data Services, which enabled real-time data sharing.

These changes helped legitimize the idea of RIAs by proving a desktop experience was possible inside of the browser. At this point, what RIAs needed most was community support.

Tariq saw the need for community support and was there from the very start. He began by creating the first portal and community dedicated to Flex—also known as Community Flex (CFLEX.Net).

CFLEX.Net aggregated tips, tricks, blog posts, events, and technical articles about how to get started with this new framework. Tariq was instrumental in contributing content to the early Flex community, and I owe many of my Flex skills to him.

Early on, Tariq grasped the importance of data services and how real-time data can help complete a Rich Internet Application. He’s built everything from internal business-facing Flex applications to great consumer applications. He’s seen and used everything the platform has to offer, which is one of many reasons he’s an ideal author for a Flex book. I think it’s long overdue that this recognized expert’s work be bound and made portable.

The release of Flex 3 brings us to a new and exciting stage in the framework and the technology. Adobe open-sourced much of the Flex platform in an effort to be as transparent as possible and to incorporate valuable feedback (not to mention great code) from the community.

With the release of the Adobe AIR, developers can now use Flex to deploy desktop applications as well as browser-based applications.

Adobe has long been known for its great design tools. Flex 3 is the first release that allows designers using those tools to seamlessly collaborate with developers to create great-looking Flex applications. Numerous productivity enhancements in the framework and Flex Builder also make it easier for new developers to get started and scale their applications.

Regardless of your development background or experience with Flex, you’ll find Flex 3 In Action to be an invaluable guide. There is something for everyone in this book. Tariq and his coauthors Jon and Faisal provide a must-have for any Flex library. This is to be expected from the star who has provided the Flex community with the must-have resource we all know and love, CFLEX.Net.

Ryan Stewart, Platform Evangelist Adobe Systems, Inc.