Hello all
I'm wondering if anyone has tried to use Flex to power the front end of an enterprise level application at all, and if so, what advantages/disadvantages did you find when doing so. I'm currently looking into a possible project that would have global users requiring enterprise level access and performance, and wondering if it would be prudent to call upon some of my contractors flex experience with this project.
There are thousands of production Flex enterprise apps out there. If you are looking for help check out these companies:
Gorilla Logic
Cynergy Systems
Universal Mind
I have been using it for exactly that and, like anything, it has it ups and its down. One thing I have found impressive is its support for SOAP based web services. Your requirements here are very vague - but I would say that using Flex has been a positive experience for me.
Flex and Flash is a great tool for enterprise level applications.
Our general rule of thumb is to use Flex or Flash when the type of rich interface required cannot be achieved using html/javascript/ajax. In this event the rich UI in flash/flex should be built keeping in mind that its the "Presentation Layer" and apart from basic front-end validation all the work (server side validation and logic) should be done by the underlying application. I would say that flex/flash should be used ot build component parts of an interface, not the whole interface.
The advantages are mainly in achieving a much richer and more stable interface than html/javascript/ajax type interfaces. In my experience the development time may not neccessarily be quicker, but the end result can be much greater!
The disadvantages I have experienced come in the form of finding the right kind of developers and finding developers to take over projects if contractors are used.