What Lies Beyond?

Hints of this session came out at the conference's first keynote speeches, when Adobe's Chief Architect, Kevin Lynch gave us a peek at Adobe's exciting new AIR technology and Flex Builder offering. This was followed by Alan Lewis' quick demo of the new eBay look and feel that has become known as the San Dimas Project.

In this session Alan delved into the depths of desktop vs. browser evolution and explained the joys and challenges of developing on each. He asked the rhetorical question, "What lies beyond?", taking us into the world of Web 2.0.

Alan explained that Web 2.0 is about internet-connected, graphically rich, user-centric, applications. As he discussed the pros and cons of each type of application development, Alan stressed that the most important things to keep in mind when deciding whether to implement a browser or desktop application are simplicity and good design.

Some of the main components of Web 2.0 will be: WPF, AIR, Mozilla, Java, and Core Animation. Rating these on their merits in the areas of: Animation, Multi-OS, Web Tech, and Maturity, Alan discussed a few of the reasons that Multi-OS capability is one of the highest priorities for eBay as we implement Web 2.0 in our own designs.

Key 'how tos' when developing with Web 2.0 include avoiding duplication between your browser and desktop offerings. Clear separation between client platform and backend platform is also key. In the San Dimas Project, there is no service structure in the middle of the client and backend, so as the application scales, we only have to scale the backend.

Launching into the San Dimas demo, Alan filled the screen with the colorful new eBay UI. He demonstrated the popular picture-flipping effect and the coolness that all views are now accessed from the same page.

Join the Beta, and give us your opinions. You input will determine what the final application will be and when we will release it.

-- Janet