Introduction to LiveCycle Data Services 3 Beta

As part of Adobe’s initiatives to align it self with Enterprise computing, it has made LiveCycle Data Service (LCDS) 3 Beta available for preview, no its not open source, but you can download and test out the new features. Things have changed considerably in LCDS 3 and quite new features have been added which I believe makes it exciting to work with. The new features that are part of the LCDS 3 Beta version are:

1. Execution runtime support for Adobe Data Model

With the introduction of Fiber, a suite of technologies that enables Model-Driven-Devleopmet using Flash Builder 4 and LCDS 3, also comes Adobe Data Model. Adobe Data Model, is an XML-based persistence modeling language, and under the hood it implements the Java Persistence Query Language (JPQL) which is part of the Java Persistence API (JPA). In order to work with Adobe Data Model, you will need Flash Builder 4, Modeler Plugin, and LCDS 3 Beta. Without LCDS 3 Beta, you will not be able to execute or deploy your data model definitions, this also means Adobe Data Model wouldn’t work with BlazeDS.

2. Data throttling

For developers who worked with Flash Media Server, this should not be new. Throttling means the server increases or decreases the amount of data streamed based on how much the Flash Player can consume and process. LCDS 3 beta has various throttling mechanisms, and the one that automatically controls the server’s data outflow rate based on the client consumption rate is known as Adaptive Throttling.

3. Reliable Message Transactions

In LCDS 3, the Quality of Service (QoS), has been largely improved, for instance when working with data transactions applications like a Banking App, its necessary to have an acknowledgement made at all ends of the the data pipeline. This guarantees that whatever is send/receives is reliable.

4. Recover over Network Failures

Another feature that has been added to improvise the quality of service, is the ability for the Flash Player clients to recover data over network failures. A particular business case where this feature can be handy is a Trading application. Data Transmission is crucial in any data driven application, and also it becomes necessary to have high network redundancy. With multi-tier features it makes it possible for the Flash Player client to switch sessions with different LCDS 3 server definitions, if an network failure occurs with a particular destination.

5. Pause/Resume Capabilities

Another interesting feature, which can change the way the Flash Player client handles large chunk of binary data transmission is the Pause/Resume capability. Exchanging documents, large set of data can be controlled in more orderly fashion, the user gets the ability to control the exchange of data.

If you feel the above features excite you and want to test drive the MDD feature of LCDS 3, watch for this space. Till then I hope you have a great time.