I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking with Ed Mansouri (who was behind the O2Apps site when AIR first launched) and he’s been working diligently on something called the UcompOS Rich Experience Framework. It’s an impressive bit of code and it’s also one of the best examples of HTML and Flash integration that I’ve seen inside the browser. The premise is pretty simple. He defines it as a platform that lets you build Rich Portal Applications. At first glance it looks a bit like an operating system inside a browser, something that Goowy tried back in the day. And it does kind of fit that model, but don’t let the “OS” look turn you off, there are some cool integration points.
He’s made it very easy to create portlets out of either HTML or Flex/AS3 and then made everything configurable with an XML file. So it’s incredibly easy to add new pieces to someone’s portal. He also has some cool integration with Adobe AIR. You can either deploy apps in Adobe AIR or you can use the Adobe AIR helper application to provide some native functionality in the browser. For instance it’s very easy to expose files to the UcompOS framework via AIR’s file APIs.
He has a ton of video tutorials up as well as a wiki and forum for questions. It’s well worth checking out if you’re looking to build something complex on top of a portal-based framework. It’s a great example of a lot of web technologies coming together and a great building block on which to create your own stuff.
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