It’s a very proud moment for us, the LiveCycle devnet site has been refreshed with new content around ES2 as well as undergoing a face lift.

Hopefully you will find it easier to locate the valuable content we have posted.

Let me know what you think, suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

We keynote on day 1 was very exciting. Not only did we announce LiveCycle ES2  and it’s availability by the end of this year (finally, I will be able to publicly blog about all the amazing new stuff in ES2) – we also announced the availability of LiveCycle Workspace ES2 for mobile. This app will enable you to access your process management tasks from your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone devices. Read more on Matt MacKenzie’s blog. Another cool fact about this mobile application is that it is the very first Adobe application to make it on the iPhone AppStore!!! SWEET.

See how Deutsche Telekom is using Flex + Adobe LiveCycle in combination with its enterprise systems to streamline and improve HR communications with over 100,000 employees and retirees.  Learn about Adobe’s vision for user-centric computing and see an in-depth demonstration that illustrates how the Flash Platform + LiveCycle ES2 together improve customer experience and employee productivity.

This session will be held Wednesday, October 7th at 11:00 AM

The first 25 people that send me an email at mboucher@adobe.com between August 31st and September 4th and I will supply you with a promo code that you can use to save some of your hard earned money and attend MAX 2009 in Los Angeles.  This offer is for new full pass registrations only and cannot be combined with any other promotion, package or offer.

I can’t make it any easier  :)

There is a lot of stuff happening at Adobe in the enterprise space, so I thought that a little reminder of what’s available to our community of enterprise developers would be a good idea.

MAX 2009

This year, there is a true focus on the enterprise space. We have put a lot of effort to define and develop a truly valuable session track that will cater to the intermediate / advanced audience. For those of you that are beginners or want an guided tour of the next release of LiveCycle ES, we also have a pre-conference track focused on training. This will ensure that everyone is at the required level to take full advantage of the sessions we have defined during the conference. We even have a LiveCycle@MAX bundle available.

LiveCycle ES Next

Don’t forget about the LiveCycle ES Next prerelease program that is in progress. If you have not had a look at the next version, I strongly recommend that you do. I have to admit that after using the new version, it pains me to go back to the current release. The improvements that have been made around the development experience are tremendous. Workbench is quickly becoming a best in class enterprise application IDE. The installation and configuration experience is effortless.

We have some exciting contests under way as well. Take the time to log a few bugs and win a free copy of Acrobat Professional Extended. Or build a cool application and enter to win a free pass to MAX 2009. All of the details are available on the prerelease.adobe.com site.

LiveCycle Data Services 3

LiveCycle Data Services 3 also posted on labs.adobe.com introduces a set of very compelling features. the least of which is a new technology code-named “Fiber” which provides the ability to create model-driven applications. The Adobe Common Data Model will allow developers to declaratively define a data model that will contain more than just structure and simple constraints. Within the data model you will be able to define business logic, variants, rules, etc. The very powerful approach will dramatically reduce development time while truly enable developers to separate data from presentation. 

ColdFusion 9 And Flash Builder 4

Previews of the next generation of ColdFusion and Flash Builder are still available on labs.adobe.com. There are some very compelling reasons to check these out as well. ColdFusion 9 introduces many new features – a new Eclipse-based IDE (Bolt), turn your CFCs into services, integrate your CF applications with Exchange, etc.

Flash Builder 4 is also got some game… Enabling Flash Catalyst workflows by introducing a new component model called “Spark”, service discovery with auto-code generation, network monitor so that you can see what’s being sent and received by your Flash applications, etc. You will also need Flash Builder 4 if you want to have a look at the new Adobe Common Data Model introduced by LC Data Services 3.  

Just like any other service, I needed to get a handle on the current execution context so that I would use the same security context and connection factory already instantiated within the container. Basically, I need to get the exact same security context of the process that will be calling my component and use it to call JobManager as the calling user might not have permissions to query the LC ES queue. We can’t be bypassing that now can we?

Anyway, after poking around for a while… I could not find any samples or documentation on it. So I talked to some of my resources (thanks Brad) and got the answer. 

JobManager jm = new JobManager(ServiceClientFactory.createInstance());

In the code above, I simply create a new JobManager object and in the constructor arguments, use the ServiceClientFactory.createInstance() call. This will attempt to locate the container’s context and pass it in the the ServiceClientFactory. From there, I can call any JobManager operation knowing that I will use the current user context and not bypass any security rules.

Long title for a simple solution :)

Read more on Greg’s blog

1. Drive more developers to try the beta build of the next release of LiveCycle ES and experience how easily enterprise applications using Flex powered by LiveCyle ES services
2. Provide a platform for LiveCycle ES developers to showcase their innovation and creativity  

I strongly recommend that you sign up for the LiveCycle ES Next prerelease immediately. Once you have an account, you will have access to the latest build, documentation, feature spotlights, user forums, etc.

Then, while you are enjoying a nice cold beer on your deck this summer, build and submit the coolest LC ES application and get a chance to win a complimentary pass to MAX 2009, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection or Acrobat Professional Extended.

Read all about the contest here…

What's new in the LiveCycle ES Next?

The most important changes have been made around usability of LiveCycle Workbench ES as well as developer productivity. Workbench now supports the concept of a LiveCycle Application with check-in/check-out and deploy features. Other major improvements we are working on are:

• Task wizards that will make the development and deployment  of LiveCycle ES applications more intuitive
• Graphical UI which provides a drag and drop interface for building and managing DDX files used with LiveCycle ES

You won't believe how easy building a LiveCycle ES application has become.

Under the covers, the next version of LiveCycle ES introduces a much enhanced turnkey install as well as an updated support matrix for platforms, application servers and databases.  Most of the LiveCycle ES modules have been also enhanced. For example, LiveCycle ES is now able to generate PDF portfolios on the server.

Help us gather bugs this summer!

In order to reward you for your valiant efforts in helping us improve the quality and usability of LiveCycle ES Next, starting Monday July 20th we will be awarding one copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional Extended per week to the individual that has logged the most issues on the prerelease site. 

Build the coolest LiveCycle ES NEXT application and win!

Take some time during the summer months to build the most interesting application using the next version of LiveCycle ES and win some exciting prizes. Watch the General Announcements forum on prerelease.adobe.com for the official announcement.

Sign up now!!!

The next session is scheduled for this week and another one is scheduled for August.

Thursday, July 9, 2009 11:00 AM PT
Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:00 AM PT

Register here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=462539&loc=en_us&sdid=EUQZQ

The bottom line is that anything that makes it easy for a design challenged person like me to import visual comps and be able to implement the code behind them – I am all for it. As a matter of fact, I actually had to speak about FC recently at a user conference here in Ottawa.

I presented to the Ottawa Flash User Group on Wednesday, June 3. There was about 80 people in the room at the Ottawa Adobe location. I had a 1 hour slot from 7:45 pm to 8:45 pm. My session was after the pizza break - so I needed to wake them up from the cheese educed coma. I used the default UG tour presentation. However, I skipped a lot of the detail slides on Flash Catalyst features since I would cover them in the demo. Everyone was very receptive to the Flash Builder renaming. They actually agreed that Flex Builder / Flex SDK was a source of confusion. I then dazzled them with the Congress demo. I did the whole thing starting from Illustrator to Flash Catalyst to Flex Builder + ColdFusion. We actually had to mop the floor of saliva and jaw marks from when they hit the floor ;). The session was a great success. A lot of "OMG - this is going to put me out of a job" and "What you just did in 2 minutes (data binding to list and showing details form as Master/Detail record) I do all day in my job, this is going to be awesome!"

Adobe LiveCycle Cafe is a web-connected desktop application – built on AIR of course. It provides you with real time access to all of the latest news, refined searches, live chat with the experts and more. 

Get Adobe LiveCycle Cafe now from DevNet.

See you in the cafe…

OK people – with the drive for more Enterprise content, we also need to make a dent in the MAX Awards! This is a great opportunity to get your wicked cool LiveCycle ES / Flex applications some visibility and recognition.

submit your nominations here: https://max.adobe.com/awards/

The MAX 2009 site is now live. Under the “Session and Speakers” section, you will find a LiveCycle@MAX bundle option.  For those of you that are new to LiveCycle ES or need a refresher, I strongly recommend this bundle. It include a 1.5 day preconference lab titled LiveCycle ES: Building Rich Engaging Applications. In this lab, you will gain a baseline level knowledge of everything from the Adobe Flash Platform to LiveCycle ES Server technologies. Having worked on some of the content in this session, I can assure you that it’s a very solid base that will enable you to get the most out of the high quality sessions during the event.

The LiveCycle@MAX bundle pass includes:

• 1.5 days LiveCycle ES: Building Rich Engaging Applications preconference lab
• A full conference pass which allows access to all:
  • MAX 2009 sessions and labs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (October 5-7)
  • MAX keynotes, evening events, the MAX Store and all activities within the Community Pavilion
  • MAX-provided meals and breaks

We really have some valuable and mind blowing content to share this year at MAX… DON’T MISS IT!