Rich Internet Application Category

[Glen Cai]

I suggest to add a new category for Rich Internet Application (RIA) which covers Flex, ....

Can we vote on it?

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Glen,
Do you see a lot of Flex questions in an existing forum? We usually create new forums based on seeing demand for it.

[Glen Cai]

There are quite some discussions about FLEX in several categories.

RIA is not just about FLEX+Java, and it should cover other Java related RIA technologies.

[Bear Bibeault]

I haven't seen much traffic on Flex or RIAs outside of the HTML forum. I don't think that there's enough traffic on this subject to warrant a new forum at this time.

[Glen Cai]

RIA client is the direction for web applications. I have seen many companies are moving or plan to move to RIA. We should not just look at the current
posting in HTML section. Having a separate RIA category would help the users
of RIA to communicate more effectively.

[Gregg Bolinger]

RIA's cover a wide spectrum of technologies; html, javascript, css, servlets, flex, flash, openlazslo, javafx, and the list goes on. We already have forums for most of these technologies. I consider RIA a bit of a mashup. Several different technologies all working together. Mashup forums tend to create a ton of work for the moderators because 99% of the time the questions belong in a different forum so we just end up moving a bunch of posts. That doesn't help anyone.

There's two thoughts on creating new forums.

1) If you build it they will come
2) If they want it they'll find a place to ask.

Generally, as has been said already, we prefer #2. If enough folks come around and begin to ask questions about technologies for which we don't have a forum (usually, there's something pretty close already) then we discuss creating a new forum to accomidate the amount of questions.

Right now, we don't see the need.

[Bear Bibeault]

For now just continue to use the HTML and other forums. If the number of topics that are RIA-related grows, a new forum can be considered.

[Glen Cai]

Originally posted by Gregg Bolinger:
... Mashup forums tend to create a ton of work for the moderators because 99% of the time the questions belong in a different forum so we just end up moving a bunch of posts. ...

It might be easier to create the new forum earlier than later because of less postings...
[ March 22, 2008: Message edited by: Glen Cai ]

[Bear Bibeault]

That argument could be applied to any technology subject and so it doesn't scale. If we created forums in anticipation of traffic, we'd have -- as we've had in the past -- forums with little participation. Rather, we create forums in reaction to traffic.

If you'd like to see a forum on a specific subject, start topics on that subject and see what sort of traffic you can generate.

[Ken Boyd]

Originally posted by Glen Cai:


It might be easier to create the new forum earlier than later because of less postings...

[ March 22, 2008: Message edited by: Glen Cai ]

I know creating new forum won't take much time but moderating might be headache. But some forum has little traffic on ranch so it depends on ranch moderators to delete not heavy traffic forum or merge some...

I think Flex, GWT, jQuery, DOJO, Prototype, DWR, Wicket or JBoss Seam are many RIA kind of framework worth discussing or to have one RIA forum..rest up to ranch..

[Kavita Sen]

If you search all the forums for Flex, you will be able to understand that people seeking answers are posting questions in different forums. And most of the questions go unanswered as they dont find appropriate audience.

I would vote for a RIA exclusive forum for people looking for answers and for people who can provide answers.

I am among the one looking for answers but found that Javaranch isn't the place for answers at least for now.

Hope this will change pretty quickly.

[Paul Clapham]

Originally posted by Kavita Sen:
I would vote for a RIA exclusive forum for people looking for answers and for people who can provide answers.

I am among the one looking for answers but found that Javaranch isn't the place for answers at least for now.

Well, frankly if I had a Flex question the first place I would ask it would be at the Flex Support Forums. And that's where I would expect the best chance of getting an answer. If you aren't getting an answer there then it's unlikely you will get an answer somewhere else.

Not that that should prevent JavaRanch from hosting Flex questions. It's just that I wouldn't be surprised if they went unanswered here. (Whether they were in a dedicated Flex forum or in a forum lumped with other topics.) Flex is a new subject and there aren't many experts around yet.

And remember, it's not the moderator's job to answer all the questions in a forum. The moderator's job is to keep the forum nice.

[Glen Cai]

I bring this thread back because SUN has JavaFX now. RIA is the hottest topic in this year's Java One.
[ June 12, 2008: Message edited by: Glen Cai ]

[Bear Bibeault]

Originally posted by Glen Cai:
I bring this thread back because SUN has JavaFX now. RIA is the hottest topic in this year's Java One.

Yet, I've seen little in the way of JavaFX posts here.