Kevin Hoyt

ColdFusion 8 introduced a number of new and impressive Ajax features. The most notable of which is probably the complete Ajax-based forms generation, which uses Ext 1.1. There are a couple drawbacks to the ColdFusion 8 implementation however, most notably that it is Ext 1.1 when the current release is Ext 2.0, and that you have to have ColdFusion 8. Dan Vega has come to the rescue though with a project he calls cfExt. During a pre-release tour user group stop in Cleveland, OH, I had the chance to connect with Dan and get his thoughts on the project, its origins and its direction.

If you’re an Ajax developer, and if you’re not familiar with Ext, than this is the interview for you! I got a chance to get training on Ext directly from Jack Slocum and Brian Mosque (in Las Vegas nonetheless). While I was there, I couldn’t pass up the chance to help shed some light on this often overlooked framework, it’s features and the features of the upcoming Ext 2.0 release. Ext is targeted specifically at Ajax developers building enterprise applications, and has an amazingly rich and productive library. But who are these guys? Where do they come from? And why should you use Ext? Listen in for all the details!

My booth partner at RailsConf was none other than Adobe’s Suzanne Nguyen, Sr. Field Marketing Manager. Suzanne and I have had a lot of fun at other conferences, and she’s an amazing supporter of the community. In fact, no sooner did I arrive on the first day to help setup the booth, than did she have some great news for me about an exciting new program she’s running, Flex Developer Champions. In short, Adobe wants to help make you a Flex rock star! If you already fancy yourself as a champion of the Flex technology, then you should listen to this interview.

Andre Charland of Nitobi stopped by the Adobe booth at JavaOne and we got a chance to talk Ajax, Apollo and the future of the web. If you’re not familiar with Nitobi, they have some amazing Ajax components, an experienced development shop, and a new book on the way called ““. My first exposure to Nitobi was from an example they did that tied their grid control to Adobe Ajax Data Services (now LiveCycle Data Services). You don’t get much more cutting edge than that!