Fun with Flash and SAP’s NetWeaver Platform
Mrinal twittered today about a project he’s been working on and it took me on a pretty cool tour of what’s going on with SAP, NetWeaver, and Flash. NetWeaver 7.0 supports something called “Flash Islands“, which are basically SWF files inside of Web Dynpro interfaces, which is the user interface for SAP’s NetWeaver platform. Using ExternalInterface interface, you can pass data from Web Dynpro and a Flex/Flash application.
What’s cool is to see the most cutting edge parts of the Flash Platform being used in an enterprise setting like SAP NetWeaver. Mrinal has an example of Ribbit working, letting you make phone calls from NetWeaver, and there is an example of Cocomo collaboration by Mogens Enevoldsen, which shows off building a social network in SAP.
2009 is going to be a gigantic year for real-time data and collaboration. This is something that, arguably, the Flash Platform does better than anyone else, so I think it’s going to be an exciting year for Flex developers as they get to show real world examples of things that most people are just starting to think about.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:56 am
Hi Ryan,
Glad you found my experiment interesting
I totally agree when you say that 2009 is a very exciting year for Flash platform developers as the platform gets more and more established as a valid and arguably the best option available to innovate in the “real” world.
By introducing Flash Islands, making it a core feature and currently the only extension point to an otherwise closed framework: WebDynpro … SAP has given flash/flex its stamp of approval establishing it as the best way to enhance the experience of SAP applications. While SAP plans to introduce other Island technologies inside WebDynpro, the fact that they chose Flash/Flex first goes to say a lot about the maturity of the platform.
Mrinal
P.S: I think you meant to say ExternalInterface
January 27th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Thanks Mrinal, and yeah, I did mean ExternalInterface
. I’d love to chat more about the SAP stuff at some point. I hadn’t realized there was as much going on as there seems to be.
=Ryan
January 27th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Although we do use the ExternalInterface internally in the FlashIslands framework, the whole process is actually much easier for developers. SAP delivers a SWC that you link into your project. This SWC automatically exposes all public variables or get/set functions. We serialize the values to XML and send it back to the server using the ExternalInterface. We then do the same on the ABAP or Java Server. We take any data that is bound to the FlashIsland UI element, serialize it and send it into the Flex Component. From both the Flex programming or the Java/ABAP the developer doesn’t actually worry about this transformation or communication, it is all taken care of by the framework.
We have a WIKI on SDN that was co-built by SAP and Adobe that has some links (which I will need to update with Mrinal’s blog), tutorials, etc.
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/wiki?path=/display/EmTech/SAP+Rich+Islands+for+Adobe+Flash
January 27th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Yeah, there’s a lot going on in the SAP world relating to various RIA technologies … would love to talk more about it with you sometime
Mrinal
January 27th, 2009 at 9:13 am
hey ryan- we’re working with SAP on launching a bunch of content and a new home on SAP’s Developer Network as soon as early next month- so everyone should keep an eye on http://www.sdn.sap.com
today, we have a temporary WIKI set up with more examples and info at-
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/wiki?path=/display/EmTech/SAP+Rich+Islands+for+Adobe+Flash
January 28th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Hey! Stop having so much fun with Flash & NetWeaver, and start having more fun with CS4 drops!
http://theflashblog.com/?p=719&cpage=1
January 30th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Actually SAP was one of the first companies in Europe do really investigate Flash based RIA solutions. In 2004 SAP Press published a magazine with the title “Rich Internet Applications on the SAP Web AS” (in German: http://www.sap-hefte.de/katalog/buecher/inhaltsverzeichnis/gp/titelID-794)
That magazine already covered Flash MX 2004, Macromedia Flex, OpenLaszlo, Ming and other technologies.
SAP has been one of the early adopters of RIA technologies, and in 2005 they already announced they’d integrate Flex into Netweaver.