Saturday, November 15, 2008

Is Sun's JavaFX RIA platform a RIA?

It's been a long hype cycle for Sun's RIA strategy. JavaFx was first touted in 2007 and a public beta took almost a year to reach the hands of developers. While the official release is scheduled anytime between now and December, I can't help feel that Sun has lost momentum in a space it should own.

Earlier this year Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, claimed that Java has always been an RIA platform. Technically, he is correct -- Java is and was "write once, run anywhere (that has the Java virtual machine)" platform. For Sun, client-side Java never really took off for Web apps and to a large extent technology like Flash, and later AJAX, stole the show. Although Java at first stumbled with performance issues, it was on par with these technologies but never seem to marry the designer tools and the developer back-end know-how efficiently.

Fast-forward to 2008 and Adobe is the clear leader in the RIA world and its investment in technologies like Flex and Air are pulling traditional Java developers away from aging technologies like Swing. On top of this Microsoft has stuck its RIA pole in the ground with Silverlight and is looking to drum up a large developer community with their technology stack. Microsoft is catching up fast.

Sun is running behind. For a company that itself boasts penetration rates of its virtual machine to be 85% of desktops, 90% of handsets, and many home entertainment devices, the progress seems slow-going.

Sun needs to be seen as innovating in this area. Technology decisions are made on progressive platforms which attract significant investment in time and resources by the company that produces it. It's simply not good enough to leave Java quietly chugging along in the corner, even if it is open source.

If Sun can marry the client-side potential of JavaFX to the server-side it will be a huge boost to the company, the Java community, and related vendors who are powered by Java technology. If not, Java certainly won't go away, but it's not going to attract a great deal of new business.

The stakes will be even higher in the embedded market for Sun, an area in which it has strong marketshare. With JavaFX for mobile devices due out in early to mid 2009 the company will need to show its platform is up to speed compared to stiff competition from Google's Java-powered Android phones, Microsoft's mobile platform, the iPhone, and other next-generation phones.

Can Sun do it? Maybe it can. Will Java live on? Of course it will. With or without Sun in the picture Java will still be innovated by the likes of IBM, Google, and Oracle. The technology just needs a clear steward to take it to the next level.

What do you think of Sun's efforts with JavaFX? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

JavaFX

JavaFX is a family of products for creating so called Rich Internet Applications, web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications, including interactive multimedia applications. The JavaFX products can build applications for desktop, mobile, TV and other platforms.

JavaFX consists of JavaFX Script and JavaFX Mobile.

The primary component of JavaFX is JavaFX Script, a declarative language, intended to make Swing easier to use for interface programmers or visual designers who might be more familiar with scripting languages. In JavaFX Script, the structure of the programming code is supposed to closely matche the actual layout of the GUI.

JavaFX Mobile is a Java operating system for mobile devices, including PDAs, smartphones and feature phones. It features a Java SE and Java ME implementation running on top of a Linux kernel.

JavaFX Mobile

JavaFX Mobile is a complete mobile operating and application

environment built around Java and Linux open source technologies. It is a complete, fully integrated Java software system for advanced mobile devices designed to enable developers to author rich, high-impact content and network-based services. Built around open and standards-based technologies, JavaFX Mobile enables control and flexibility for the mobile ecosystem.

Being centralized around Java technologies, JavaFX Mobile software system provides a greater scalability and portability, speed time-to-market, and enhances the consistency of applications and services. Additionally, it also provides a support for Java ME applications and other standard Java APIs which enables a broad range of new and existing Java applications.

It is like the networking in your hand. It is based on open standards. JavaFX Mobile runs on all mobile phones with Java support e.g. Nokia N800.

JavaFX Mobile, Sun's software system for mobile devices, is available via OEM (i.e. Original equipment manufacturers) license to carriers, handset manufacturers and others seeking a branded relationship with consumers. Through OEM multiple companies can simplify and accelerate the development of powerful standardized software systems to leverage the power across a wide range of consumer devices.

Additionally, It allows content creators to create rich media content without relying on developers, allowing the drag and drop of desktop and mobile content, which is not possible with any other RIA.

Get Ready for Dynamic Interactive Content on Any Device: It is unpredictable to guess what devices or platforms the end user is using; however with JavaFX, you don't have to worry about the things. JavaFX Mobile uses industry standard technologies--this means that applications built with JavaFX can run on a wide range of Java-enabled devices, and content providers can add them to their devices quickly. JavaFX Mobile includes the latest standards, like the Mobile Services Architecture, set of device APIs, which allows developers to have a rich set of highly portable capabilities.

End users always look for an exciting and dynamic content on the web and expect a better interactive experience with web services. JavaFX helps in delivering visually compelling applications, such as maps and mashups, video, audio, and pictures, that is standardize across cell phones, TVs, and more.

Reduced Integration Costs with Expanded Opportunities: Implementation of the majority of the solution in Java, including middleware and resident applications, JavaFX Mobile reduces integration costs, improves device software consistency, and enables device manufactures to provide new offerings with substantially faster time-to-market.

JavaFX Mobile Architecture:

JavaFX Mobile streamlines the environment and reduces reliance on underlying technologies by providing a complete middleware and application stack implemented in Java.

JavaFX Script

JavaFX Script is a scripting language designed by Sun Microsystems, forming part of the JavaFX family of technologies on the Java Platform. JavaFX targets the Rich Internet Application domain (competing with Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight), specializing in rapid development of visually rich applications for the desktop and mobile markets. JavaFX Script works with integrated development environments like NetBeans and Eclipse. JavaFX is released under the GNU General Public License, via the Sun sponsored OpenJFX project,

Google Gmail for Mobile 2.0 Adds J2ME Support


Google Inc on Thursday launched a new version of its Gmail for Mobile. Google Gmail offers J2ME support which includes mobile devices such as NOkia N95 and RIM BlackBerry mobile phones. The online Google Gmail application has better performance and smoother scrolling.
Google Gmail for Mobile 2.0 has been released. The updated Google Gmail application offers improved performance and smoother scrolling. Gmail users with multiple accounts can now switch between them without using different applications to view messages.

Google Inc on Thursday released version 2 of its Google Gmail for Mobile application. Google Gmail has several nice features including support for offline access for the first time.

Google Gmail for Mobile 2.0 adds new support for J2ME-supported mobile phones. The Nokia N95 and BlackBerry mobile devices are some of the phones that use J2ME.

The new Gmail for Mobile application offers improved performance and speed. It also offerssmoother scrolling and fixes the "freeze" bug. Some mobile phones were freezing up while scrolling in Gmail.

"We re-architected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize every bottleneck piece of code we came across," Google software engineer, Derek Phillips, said in a statement.

The offline support lets users read and compose new emails offline. This feature also works when there's no 3G signal.

The mobile application now supports multiple accounts for Gmail. Users can also switch between accounts without using different applications to view messages. Gmail for Mobile 2.0 also offers support for smart phones that have a QWERTY keyboard. This feature lets users create shortcut keys for Gmail.