If you have worked at length with the Zend framework for PHP, you already know that it can do just about anything you could possibly need it to. With that in mind, it is not surprising to find that Zend will talk to almost any web service available, and it’s all built right into the framework. This is ideal when you want to build a truly “thin” client, where the code for the user interface is actually specific to the user interface and the business logic is abstracted into an entirely separate layer. This allows for maximum code reuse as well as multi-tier enterprise scalability and ease of deployment.

In some respects, the Internet cursed the enterprise because it caused developers to abandon rich, client-side user interfaces in favor of advantages such as version management that they had on local networks. The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a desktop application development tool that is conducive to enterprise software development simply for the fact that the only code that needs to reside within the client application is that which pertains directly to the user interface. Therefore, a powerful language and framework like PHP and Zend can hold the business logic for server-side processing before handing the data off to the client. When combined with the Action Message Format (AMF) protocol for rapid data transfer, you end up with a seriously powerful enterprise-grade desktop application that’s hooked right into the Internet.

This brings up an important point: just because a code library or Software Development Kit (SDK) already exists for ActionScript that does the same exact thing as the Zend framework’s implementation, does not necessarily mean that it should always be used. Nine times out of ten, the users of your Flex or AIR application will be pleasantly surprised to find how smoothly it runs when you optimize your database and cache the information on the server, while using AMF or RTMP to transfer compressed, binary data packets between client and server.
Some may argue that this will increase costs associated with bandwidth consumption in an enterprise environment. This is true. At the same time, AMF is the most efficient protocol standard available right now, and the cost to the company is a fraction of the cost compared to using REST or SOAP.

Enterprises waste a lot more money by scaling hardware in clustered network infrastructures rather than moving to Cloud-based solutions right now anyway, so the credibility of that argument is questionable.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Second Generation Micro-architectures, Part 1: The Swiz Framework
• Thinking Outside the IDE: Ideas for Flex Architects
• Micro-architectures for Flex Enterprise Development
• Understanding Flex Communication Protocols
• Enterprise Flex Model – v0.3

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Posted by Dan Orlando on August 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under Enterprise Flex
Tags :: AIR, AMF, Cloud, Zend, Zend_AMF
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