Comments on: Some thoughts on open sourcing Flex components

By: Yakov Fain

Yakov Fain — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:05:26 +0000

Components are ready, but they won’t be open source. We were planning to sell them (see http://www.myflex.org), but after consulting with Adobe lawyers, we realized that the products have to be renamed to avoid using Adobe’s trademarks. At this point we are renaming the products (FlexBI becomes ClearBI, DaoFlex becomes Clear Data Builder). As soon as this mini project will complete, we’ll make an announcement.

By: Vasile

Vasile — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:20:40 +0000

PS: I think to develop a tool to generate web sites and code using your components (this and DAOFlex). So, I am waiting for source code of this component.

By: Vasile

Vasile — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:16:39 +0000

Hi,

I like the Flex, and I think FlexBI will be (is) a great component.
Now is may 2007 , where can I download sources of this components.

Thanks in advance,
Vasile

By: Yakov

Yakov — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:47:28 +0000

It’s currently in beta. We are planning to release the first commercial version of FlexBI in March 2007

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:28:52 +0000

Hey. what’s the status of this? It looks great but there seems no way to get hold of it. Have you a plan to release it?

Thanks

-Dave

By: Thomas Gonzalez

Thomas Gonzalez — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:00:19 +0000

We would defnitely be interested in helping to support open source around this. For a commercial endeavor I could see selling royalty free source code licenses with or without additional support. And/or open source it and sell pre-paid support packages similar to what Open Laszlo did. That would provide a business model that mitigates a lot of risk as you will have cash up-front to get tech support staff.

Regards,

- Tom Gonzalez

By: Jamie Badman

Jamie Badman — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:40:29 +0000

Just wondered if you guys have given any more thought to whether or not you’re going to release this – and if so, in what way ?

Regards,

Jamie.

By: Anatole Tartakovsky

Anatole Tartakovsky — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:43:49 +0000

Well, the SuperGrid is not direct descendent of DataGrid – it is 100% compatible with datagrid, but is completely rewritten inside. The post would be rather long (10,000 lines+) just for the base objects .
If you are looking to just compliment DataGrid with headers and footers, you can do it in approximately 500 lines – basically adding additional elements on the dataProvider, and then adding additional locked column @ position 0 / overriding some rendering. In the end of the day, it will work, but enhancements will be difficult and have to stop quickly.
Regards,
Anatole

By: Gareth Edwards

Gareth Edwards — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:42:13 +0000

Wonderful looking product. Just wondering how you are able to put totals and sub headers in the datagrid? Could you post how you were able to do this?

Cheers
Gareth.

By: Yakov

Yakov — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:34:41 +0000

I agree – every product has its buyer, and in no way I’m blaming people for selling item renderers.
It it cost $50 and can save me a day of work, I’ll get it without thinking twice. The more components the merrier.
I’m a firm believer in open market – if $50 was too expensive for this component the market will force the vendor to lower the pice and visa versa.

By: judah

judah — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 04:32:36 +0000

“These days some people are trying to sell Flex item renderers.”
This is a grey area I have seen since the web started. Everyone loves to get free help but when you have no time or need to pay rent then what do you choose to do? I would say the value of something is relative to the person who needs it. I wished in my early days of Flash for working examples of certain functionality. When this was not available and time moved on, I would not hesitate and would be grateful to pay for an example so I could continue my project and not lose any more money. It is a tough question and no one should “guilt” you into giving back to the community. Its up to you to decide what you can give. I choose the same way. If I can offer it at production quality and support then I will value it as a product at a price can sustain its further development, bug fixes and support. Good luck on your projects.
Judah

By: Yakov Fain

Yakov Fain — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 12:09:31 +0000

Farata System’s free contribution to poularization of Flex is huge. There is not many BUSINESSES that blog, write, speak and give away software components as we do (Adobe does not count)
Just to make it clear: If a business donates a product to an open source, there are business reasons for this, and I perfer to talk about them, rather than make a noise how Farata Systems gives back to the community.

I refer to cases like “donating” of a dead-end products like BEA’s Weblogic Workshop 8.1 a year ago. I blogged on the subject over here.
But FlexBI is a top-quality product that does not have competition at the time of this writing. And giving it away for free has pragmatic reasons.

Sincerely (and I mean it),
Yakov

By: anon

anon — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 03:20:41 +0000

\”Some pathetic bloggers call this ‘giving back to the community’\”, could you sound any more like an arrogant prick? Since when did trying to help each other become pathetic?

By: mike

mike — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 21:34:01 +0000

“Some pathetic bloggers call this ‘giving back to the community’.” .. ahhh.. some of us have benefitted from the work of others and do feel some sense of obligation to pass on the good deed and help others. The funny thing is.. up until a couple of years ago I felt like there was a real community of Flash developers.

By: Douglas Camargo (from Brazil)

Douglas Camargo (from Brazil) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:43:28 +0000

Yakov,

The SuperGrid is amazing, congratulations! What do I have to do to buy it?

By: Michael Ramirez

Michael Ramirez — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 03:55:45 +0000

I think the dual license is the best choice. If more developers integrate Flex BI into their projects then it opens up more opportunities for support later. Flex is free but look at all the money generating opportunities it generates books,trainnig, support, components, etc. Those money making opportunities are limited to those who build Flex but to everybody you learn Flex.

Just-my-two-cents

By: Roman Chocina

Roman Chocina — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:59:30 +0000

I was thinking to build similar reporting tools with similar ideas as FlexBI and I know it require a lot of effort to build it.
I completely understand (nothing is for free, special when you need to support it) and I think is fair to pay for these complex components (DAOFlex, FlexBI).
Please let’s me know when it will be available.

By: joshuajnoble

joshuajnoble — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:56:14 +0000

I like and respect the idea of dual license. This is something that I would love to use in a project for a client, and were I using it for a client I would have no problem convincing them to pay for the fully supported version. However, without being able to use it first I would feel uncomfortable only having the options of a) pay for it to see whether it would be a good fit or not or b) recommend it to a client without having been able to fully test it myself first.

By: Renaun Erickson

Renaun Erickson — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:44:31 +0000

Dual license is a decent option.

In regards to Flex components though I think people should be able to provide/sell components with no support. A component is a component if it works for someone (they find value) then they will pay for it. If the value proposition is that they need support then that component’s value goes up. Basically it comes down to value and time and how much a developer is willing to pay for that, many a people would buy components with out support if they understood that and had a basic doc outlining how to use and implement it.

By: Jamie Badman

Jamie Badman — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:34:42 +0000

This looks VERY sweet. I’m from a PB background and as you say… looks very familiar! To be honest, I’m happy to take this for free OR pay for it – just don’t take too long getting it out here please

By: Mark Fuqua

Mark Fuqua — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:03:53 +0000

I think you should charge for your components and the idea of offering support is a real bonus. Very few of the people begging for open source work for free themselves.

By: Yakov Fain

Yakov Fain — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:07:47 +0000

We are considering dual license – free personal license with no support, and professional license with support and the option for customization.

Yakov

By: Tom Chiverton

Tom Chiverton — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:52:04 +0000

Create a mailing list so users can help themselves, or point them at something like FlexCoders.

By: JBatUN

JBatUN — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:17:33 +0000

Please, please decide to open source FlexBI. Promise not to ask for support Or, if you are willing to release for public service, non-commercial purposes, please write me.