As the marketing and PR battle rages on between Apple and Adobe, blanket statements are being tossed around regarding the viability of both HTML5 and Flash technologies as if they’re competitors. So far, this debate has only served as a disservice the community in general as the misinformation train continues to board people in high places who don’t completely understand the technologies and begin to make decisions for their organizations that are driven by the general influence of external, biased companies promoting their own product interests, as opposed to properly assessing project technology needs based on other factors that have more, real world substance.

Many people have voiced their opinions on this topic and it’s certainly not breaking news though we thought it beneficial to speak directly on the future viability of Flash and Flex for enterprise Rich Internet Applications, specifically in the Business Intelligence space.

Flash and HTML have both been and are still going to be around for a long time for one very good reason: They both serve an indispensable purpose on the web and for supporting business applications that run on web based technology. Both of these technologies fill in unique gaps and should be used as complimentary technologies and not as competitors or as “one-or-the-other” choices.

With the new release of HTML5, some of the new and long awaited features included in the specification are: A new caching utility to support offline web applications, video and audio API’s with native video embedding, a drag and drop API, new form controls and validation utilities that don’t require custom coding, new online and offline data caching capabilities and a 2D drawing API for rendering vector graphics and images on the fly, just to name a few.

With much respect to HTML5 and the forward progress it is making with the aforementioned features, in the BI space of developing RIA portals, dashboards and data visualizations, I’m having a really hard time seeing where HTML5 could even come close to Flash or Flex technology, without a herculean effort, as many have suggested. I say this as an engineer who has years of experience in both camps. For the past several years, since the very first Flex Alpha release, I’ve been enthralled with the Flex technology, the API’s, the SDK and how rapidly one can develop a highly interactive and infinitely customizable application to solve even the toughest challenges and fill in the most demanding requirements. I won’t get into a punch-down list or table of comparisons between HTML5 and Flex/Flash for BI because it would be both unfair and irrelevant; rather provide a higher level assessment of these technologies and the value that Flash brings in the enterprise BI space.

When considering what technology to adopt and run with for enterprise BI projects, below are just a few of the fundamental categories that I consider to be compelling factors that set Flash and Flex far ahead of the HTML5 pack. For most developers, these go without saying.

OOP Rapid Development

Flex technology is simply and absolutely indisputably light years beyond what HTML5 can bring to the table in this arena and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Why? Because Flex is a highly adaptable software approach developed on top of a robust and comprehensive ever-expanding tried and tested SDK that leverages the powerful concept of Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript. What does this mean aside from the fundamental benefits gained when comparing a full OOP approach to a scripting language? While HTML5 is getting up to speed and is only scratching the surface of Flash capabilities with its new list of features, Flex and Flash are evolving on a frequent basis with an impressive progress rate and evolutionary leaps of capabilities in each release of the Flex SDK which also happens to have release cycles much faster than releases of HTML (a year or 2 for Flex releases vs. years and years for HTML ). This advantage ultimately means a faster time to market/delivery, lower development costs (because so much is already baked in and easily extensible), much more flexibility and feature-rich applications that can continuously evolve in shorter cycles with much less effort.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

While HTML5 and browsers are constantly taking strides to reduce this gap, cross platform compatibility will remain an uphill issue for HTML5 and its new features for the foreseeable future because there are so many factors that come into play. This is nothing new; it’s the same sort of compatibility issues we’ve always had to deal with when using browser scripting technologies.

Flash has few differences between platforms, most of which are minuscule when compared to those found in HTML applications. Testing and developing for cross-platform compatibility takes a hit on developer productivity, which can have a significant ripple effect. Flash applications in general require exponentially less cross-platform testing, which is a big part of the draw for developers and organizations alike as it saves both time and money.

SDK and API Evolution

I was thoroughly impressed to see that HTML5 has snapped to with native access to a handful of very useful API’s and enjoyed thinking of the new mashup possibilities while browsing the some of the new features in action while taking the IE9 test drive. This is a great step forward for the web and is a direction that will certainly continue to grow.

Flex allows developers to build on a comprehensive SDK which is perfectly suited for BI and enterprise development, complete with a base charting framework, classes for data modeling, and an ever expanding arsenal of highly adaptable frameworks and 3^rd party open source BI technologies.

How fast the HTML5 direction and evolution of its tooling will grow is a good question, but one thing remains certain, and that is that Adobe Flash and Flex products will always be leading the way a good 10 steps ahead and setting the new innovative standards into the future of RIA technology and rich experiences on the web.

The State of Flash Mobile

Flash is alive and thriving in the enterprise and will continue to do so, especially with the imminent release of Flash support for many mobile platforms on the horizon. The mobile platform is another example of where these two technologies can co-exist and add tremendous value to one another. The prospect of having a mobile device with these powerful features combined opens a new world of possibilities and we’re absolutely champing at the bit to get a hold of the Flash releases for Android.

Conclusion:

Flash and HTML will always be a part of the web, serving as complimentary technologies that drive value and ultimately combine forces to provide for an optimal application and user experience. However, they should not be compared or pitted against each other for web dominance arguments, because it’s unfair, inapplicable and way off base. The “versus” argument has no merit when discussing these technologies for enterprise business applications, which is where a large disconnect of understanding around the argument is running rampant. In short, we need to be sure we’re always basing our technology decisions objectively, on technical facts and sound research and not on any particular media hype machine.

Evan DeLodder is a Senior Software Engineer focused on the development and application of cutting edge Rich Internet Application technologies in the Business Intelligence space. To learn more about him, please visit our new FleXcelsius page.

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Part II Video 1

Part II Video 2

Kalyan Verma is a BI consultant, freelance Xcelsius Developer and a Web Blogger. He is based out of Boston, MA and his technology interests range from BI to Visual Data Analysis. Visit our Gurus page for more info.

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Apart from showing how to Download, Install and talking about the new components, I also quickly demonstrated how to use them. Beginners might find it a little hard to follow. Please note that this is just to introduce the components. We will be doing a series of Text and Video posts in the near future to demonstrate the full functionality of the new components.

Kalyan Verma is a BI consultant, freelance Xcelsius Developer and a Web Blogger. He is based out of Boston, MA and his technology interests range from BI to Visual Data Analysis. Visit our Gurus page for more info.

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The flashy aesthetics of Xcelsius has always been a debate sparked by data visualization experts and designers who like the “shiny” graphics provided by Xcelsius and other technologies. I disagree with customers or developers who passionately desire Flashy graphics over what Few emphasizes as well executed dashboard design by maximizing every inch of screen real estate. Xcelsius does not derive its value by looking shiny, and customers today don’t buy into flashy graphics over a solid value proposition both for business and/or IT stakeholders. Xcelsius sells because it provides value as a flexible point and click development tool for constructing BI dashboards. The sleek look of Xcelsius with simplistic interactivity captivates the attention of customers the same way that advertising does in print, web, and television media. After a customer purchases a dashboard technology like Xcelsius, the novelty of flashy widgets fades immediately once execution and implementation becomes priority number one.

Many software vendors offer their own “dashboard” technology, so customers exposure to these concepts have put pressure back on vendors to improve the technology. A gray scale dashboard with flat graphics is not exciting to look at compared to Xcelsius at first glance, but once you dive into the content and the visual communication aspects of dashboard design, Xcelsius can lose its luster if the dashboard designer does not understand technology and technique. I believe that the following are the top reasons that experts like Stephen Few get agitated with Xcelsius:

1. Flashy Graphics and Gradients
2. Missing data visualization controls and features
3. Poor execution of best practices

1. Flashy Graphics and Gradients

I think the standard skin that comes bundled with Xcelsius 2008 is much better than the previous Apple OS (Aqua) skin from 2003, which was bubbly and over the top. Like everything, trends can dictate how design is applied during a certain period. In the early 2002 up until recent years, shiny graphics with heavy shadows and bevels dominated the discussion of why Xcelsius graphics produced tremendous interference. Good design does not adhere to technology trends, and data visualization shouldn’t be any different. What Edward Tufte advises in a statistical landscape and Stephan Few advises in a business landscape will not change much over time, regardless of technology. What I consider “interactive data visualization” borrows from these concepts but focuses data visualization as one important element of an interactive application. What most customers desire and adapt from Xcelsius technology is basic data visualization coupled with an interactive user experience for drilling, filtering, and inputting information. Users are comfortable with clean, yet stylized graphics in Vista and Apple operating systems, so there is no reason why interactive controls can’t be stylized with light gradients to provide some depth and create that perceived ease of use.

2. Missing data visualization controls and features

The demands for better data visualization controls has not changed much in recent years, but unfortunately Xcelsius has fallen behind with a lacking library of data visualization components that belong in every dashboard application. Why we still don’t have Microcharts, Sparklines, and Few’s bullet charts out of the box is beyond me. The Xcelsius SDK has opened the door for us to improve Xcelsius to a certain point, and there are excellent new add-on components coming on-line to fill this gap. This short list of components have become the de-facto standard for dashboards, so I look forward to having them at my disposal soon.

3. Poor execution of best practices

Everyone has a creative side, but someone who has never picked up a design book with an emphasis on data visualization should not implement dashboards for their own company and certainly not as a consultant. Dashboard development is not the forum to unleash creative juices when the intent is to monitor business performance. Working with clients who have educated themselves have definitely facilitated more productive engagements. Reading a book does not make you an expert, but it does allow for more constructive discussions and a smoother delivery of a dashboard. While I can appreciate Stephen Few’s passion for calling out vendors for product gaps, I do not think that marketing materials intended to illustrate technology capabilities should be placed into the critique bin. With that said, vendors need to put their best foot forward to prove that their technology can deliver adequate dashboards execution as well as marketing sizzle.

Hopefully this sparks interesting conversation, but more importantly I hope it will lead you to:

• Submit enhancement requests to BOBJ and push them to continue improving and evolving the technology to support good design.
• Practice design principles and guidelines set by the experts including Stephen Few.
• Educate your customers or stakeholders who do not understand best practices and guidelines for good design.

Ryan Goodman is the Founder of Centigon Solutions, an SAP® software solution partner that is strategically focused on developing add-on products for use with Xcelsius®. To learn more about him, please visit our new Gurus page.

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To be able to fully leverage the power of the Xcelsius 2008 SDK, you should be familiar with fundamental software component development principals and the Flex 2.0.1 SDK as well as ActionScript 3 and Flex development practices. You should also have a functional knowledge of Xcelsius 2008 and how various pieces can connect and communicate.

There are 3 primary high-level steps for an Xcelsius component integration (illustrated in Figure A) project.

(Figure A – Xcelsius Component Development/Integration Workflow)

Once your custom component has been installed in Xcelsius 2008 via the Add-On Manager, you are free to use it just as you would any other Xcelsius 2008 component. Any installed custom component will reside in the common Xcelsius component library menu or in the connections section of Xcelsius 2008 if you have created a custom connection component.

There has not been an official announcement regarding the transition from the Flex 2.0.1 SDK to the Flex 3 SDK, but as soon as we get wind of a release date, we will be the first to notify you via the EverythingXcelsius.com blog.

Currently, the Xcelsius 2008 SDK does not enable developers to extend, customize or enhance existing Xcelsius 2008 components.

Your component may not inherent themes or styles from the Xcelsius dashboard that they are being used in. However, with the infinite skinning and coloring capabilities available to you in the Flex SDK, it is certainly an option to bake in your own styling and theme skinning to suit your dashboard design requirements.

One of the first things that I would suggest is taking a read through the SDK documentation and tutorials that are bundled along with the Xcelsius 2008 SDK download. There are great fundamental tutorials included as well as deep-dive hands-on functioning projects, complete with source code to help get you going. There is also a primer video and other useful resources located on the Xcelsius SDK website. If you’d like expert advice or professional development  services, you may contact Centigon Solutions or drop the gurus a line at EverythingXcelsius.com. We can always point you in the right direction based on your needs.

Evan DeLodder is a Senior Software Engineer focused on the development and application of cutting edge Rich Internet Application technologies in the Business Intelligence space. To learn more about him, please visit our new FleXcelsius page.

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