Yesterday at Oracle OpenWorld I co-presented a session with Dipock Das on Siebel CRM and Rich Internet Applications. Dipock and I talked about how Rich Internet Applications are transforming the user experience in Enterprise Software. We also presented a proof-of-concept I built with Flex in about two days. Dipock and I were able to move from his paper-based mock-up and Siebel data file to a working application with only two short conversations and two days of coding. The application, named “Contact Radar”, allows sales people to easily see how long it has been since they were in contact with their customers and potential customers. Ultimately we wanted to illustrate how my four axioms of Rich Internet Applications - Connected, Alive, Interactive, and Responsive - relate to Enterprise Software.

At Oracle OpenWorld yesterday the Oracle Enterprise Manager team introduced their new Flex based interface for doing database query reporting. I am very excited to see this new use of Flex within an Oracle product! The audience was very enthusistic about features like rich data grids with tree interfaces and custom chart item renderers. These types of interfaces make DBAs lives much easier when they need to quickly find where there are bottlenecks and problems with their Oracle database clusters. Here is a picture from the session (courtesy of Todd Ruhl):

At Oracle OpenWorld yesterday there were Flex applications EVERYWHERE! There are even more to come today but before that I need to show off a few others from yesterday that we were able to grab pictures of.

These days how can you do data visualization without Flex? With the number of BI companies now using Flex it seems you can’t. I’m glad to see Oracle’s BI team using Flex and I’m looking forward to seeing more sexy dashboard goodness from them soon. Here’s a rather blurry photo of the new Flex based BI Publisher Dashboard (courtesy of Todd Ruhl):

Today I’m at Oracle OpenWorld watching a number of keynotes and sessions and I’m seeing Flex EVERYWHERE! First up was the Monday Keynote with Charles Phillips where Oracle demonstrated a new Flex based MetaLink. Back when I was a DBA/SysAdmin/Programmer I had to use MetaLink to get support from Oracle. Working with the interface was like a trip to dentist. Not fun. Well, today Oracle demonstrated the new version of MetaLink built with Flex. It looks great and using it is like a trip to the day spa. Great job Oracle! Here’s a photo of the new interface courtesy of Todd Ruhl:

Just a quick note to say how excited I am that Evolution will be getting a MAPI Connector! I’ve been using Evolution with Exchange since 2003. Thankfully it works - but for me it crashes quite often. So I’m really excited about the prospect of a better Exchange connector. Screen scraping is just too brittle and too slow. This should also improve offline support. Currently before I get on a plane I sync Outlook in VMWare. That works but I don’t care much for Outlook and VMWare is a killer on my battery life. With this improvement to Evolution and the improvements that are happening with the video drivers on Linux, things are shaping up for Linux on the Desktop. Could 2008 really be the year of Linux on the Desktop? Just kidding. I’ve been happily using Linux as my primary Desktop since like 1996. It isn’t without some annoyances and required maintenance. But neither is any other OS. And at least with Linux it’s easier to fix stuff myself.