Macromedia Ships New Presentation Server

As previously reported by CRN, Macromedia, San Francisco, aims to bridge the gap between multimedia Web application design and enterprise developers with the new product, formerly code-named Royale.

Flex provides a presentation server that allows developers to build multimedia applications through an XML-based language, FML, and then to compile applications and deliver them in binary code to the Flash player, which runs on the client. The binary contains all of the code needed to run a rich media application on a local client through the Flash player, precluding the need to call back to the server for information, according to Macromedia.

This way of presenting applications leveraging Flash allows developers to quickly and easily produce network-based applications that present a user experience similar to that of locally run applications, without the slow page loads that can occur when rich media applications run on the Web.

Macromedia designed the Flex environment to be friendly to developers who use IDEs such as Borland JBuilder or Visual Studio.Net. Macromedia hopes the new server will encourage enterprise developers familiar with such developer tools to build rich Internet applications using Macromedia's software.

Flex runs on most Java application servers, including IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, Macromedia JRun and Apache Tomcat. A .Net version of the product is in beta and should ship later this year, according to the company. Flex pricing starts at $12,000 for two CPUs and includes annual maintenance.