Potomac - OSGi-inspired Flex framework

Before I post my next 'Extending FlexBuilder' post, I figure I should talk about why I'm doing such a thing. Truth is, I'm working on a Flex framework. Cue the collective groans from the Flex community. Do we really need another framework? .. Well this framework is a bit different. The primary focus is on modularity. Specifically, the Potomac framework (the name we're using) will be an OSGi-inspired modular UI composition platform. For the last few years I've been working in the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP). Essentially, Potomac takes the principles and goals of OSGi and the Eclipse RCP and brings them to Flex.

Why not just use the normal Flex module system? A couple of reason. First, the IDE support for Flex modules is very simplistic. Modules are defined inside application projects. This makes large, enterprise-level development difficult. When you have multiple teams working together to produce one large application, you want each team to be working on their pieces in their own projects. Also, having the modules inside the application project prevents them from being reusable in other projects. Once we start thinking about modules being reusable, we can quickly count off many reasons why the current module system is lacking. Thats not to say we should throw it away. In fact, Potomac 'bundles' are built and delivered as Flex modules (just with a lot of stuff thrown in).

Potomac will be:

• New module system for Flex including new FlexBuilder 'bundle' support
• Extension mechanism inspired by, but quite different than, Eclipse extension points
• UI Composition and templating framework

Stay Tuned. We'll be releasing Potomac in a few weeks.