Adobe, Salesforce Push Rich App Dev in the Cloud

Salesforce.com and Adobe Systems have announced a new solution that brings together the developer productivity power of the Salesforce.com Force.com platform with the richness and ubiquity of the Adobe Flash Platform.

Together they are enabling a new generation of cloud-based rich Internet applications (RIAs), officials of both companies said.

The new offering, Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com, is now available as a preview release, which will later be jointly marketed by both companies. It integrates the two platforms to bring the richness of the consumer Web to enterprise cloud applications to enhance both usability and productivity. Up to now the development of rich, cloud-based applications has required specific expertise.

“Adobe and Salesforce.com share a common vision for accelerating developer success with cloud computing,” said Ariel Kelman, vice president of platform product marketing, in a statement. “Bringing together Adobe Flash Platform and Force.com will enable the creation of exciting new kinds of business applications that run in the cloud and are as compelling and easy to use as the best of the consumer Web.” 

Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com is a jointly developed integrated development environment (IDE) that provides a single, powerful tool for building cloud-based RIAs, said Dave Gruber, Adobe's group manager for developer marketing, in an interview with eWEEK. Moreover, the technology can easily be deployed to end users through the browser using the Adobe Flash Player or directly to the desktop via Adobe AIR. This tight integration enables client-side data management and synchronization between cloud and client, simplifying the development of applications that seamlessly run online or offline across operating systems and devices, while taking full advantage of the proven scalability, security and reliability of the Force.com platform, Saleseforce.com officials said. 

And developers can use Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com to extend or enhance existing Salesforce CRM implementations and custom-built Force.com applications, or build entirely new applications to provide customized user experiences for any business need, the companies said.

“This strategic partnership with Salesforce.com, announced late last year, has opened up a significant opportunity to tightly integrate our platforms for the development and delivery of rich, highly productive business applications that can be quickly deployed in the cloud, adapted and scaled as the business changes and grows,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe, in a statement.

Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com includes an Eclipse-based IDE that unifies Adobe Flash Builder and the Force.com IDE into a common environment for building a variety of Force.com applications. It also features code-editor, design-view, browser and cross-platform compatibility, as well as user interface capabilities with more than 100 customized, reusable components, including access to motion graphics, drag-and-drop capabilities and more. 

In addition, the product includes data visualizations, including built-in interactive charting and animation components capable of processing large data sets, Plus, it features prebuilt integration with Adobe LiveCycle Data Services for client-side data management and synchronization services. This integration supports automatic synchronization of data between the Force.com database and an Adobe AIR secure local data store on the client, enabling developers to build apps that seamlessly span connected and disconnected environments, Gruber said.

“Bringing together Flash and Force.com has completely changed the speed at which we can deliver great user interfaces for our clients’ business applications,” said John Barnes, chief technology officer of Model Metrics. “Our customers have been thrilled with the ease of use, and the ability to continue working whether connected or not.”

Eric Stahl, senior director of product marketing at Salesforce.com, said Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com makes it easy to build rich CRM extensions, rich custom cloud applications and occasionally connected applications.

"Our Pharma2Go customers see a huge increase in productivity for their remote sales teams by capturing customer information when on the road that doesn't have to be re-entered when back online," Barnes said.

Adobe and Salesforce.com said the Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com solution empowers developers to deliver applications targeting anything ranging from the client to the cloud. Indeed, the solution gives developers flexibility to scale their applications to fit a variety of business needs by:

• Building new applications supporting both browser and desktop deployment scenarios.
• Creating new application components that are tailored to specific job functions or business use cases and integrated into existing applications.
• Adding rich UI elements to existing Salesforce CRM or Force.com applications.

The developer preview of Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com is now available on the salesforce.com developer Website at http://developer.force.com/flashbuilder. Expected final delivery is scheduled for the first half of 2010, the companies said.