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New Flex Powered ColdFusion ISP List

My CF ISP list has long needed an overhaul, and today I deployed a new Flex powered version of the application. You can browse and search for hosting companies, view company specifics and reviews, and post your own reviews too. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

23 responses to “New Flex Powered ColdFusion ISP List”

  1. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    A few users seem to be experiencing an issue where data never loads and the wait cursor spins indefinitely. Refresh the page and this won’t happen again. I am still trying to find out what is causing this (of course it does not happen for me, grrr).

  2. jonese Avatar
    jonese

    It’s also breaking big time in firefox. I’ve got reports from co-workers that it "crashed" there computer / brower when visiting it with the latest FF browser.

  3. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    I’m running it in FF1.02, no probs. Hummmm.

  4. Eric Jones Avatar
    Eric Jones

    ok she’s got some adblock plugin running and other tweaks which are causing it to crash, and JS errors to be reported.
    so must be an isolated case or something.

  5. Ed Rynearson Avatar
    Ed Rynearson

    I couldn’t get the data to load either.
    Windows XP Professional SP2 IE 6.0

  6. John Farrar Avatar
    John Farrar

    I like the concept of Flex… but the dependability of HTML served up via CFMX7 is still a sure thing. MM should concentrate on broad support for that will be one of the biggest struggles for MS with thier upcomming attempt at a simular product. (Cross Browser and Cross Platform.)

  7. Yacoubean Avatar
    Yacoubean

    John,
    Flex uses the Flash player to display its content, and Flash is on 99% of machines (or something close to that).
    Ben,
    I’m using FF on Linux with Flash 7, and I get the right side of the ‘screen’ (the app) covered by a grey square.

  8. tony petruzzi Avatar
    tony petruzzi

    extremely cool!
    I have to admit that Flex makes the whole user experience really sweet.
    I just hope that all the browser issues that it has get fixed at some point. I still have problems viewing most Flex app when they first load.

  9. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    John, Flex generates Flash apps. There is no real platform dependences as there are Flash players for all major platforms. Not is there a browser dependency in truth, there is a player requirement obviously, but there are players for browsers (the Flash player) and desktops (Central).

  10. Adam Reynolds Avatar
    Adam Reynolds

    Ben,
    Your comment on 99% deployment of Flash ipso facto Flex is ok is just plain wrong.
    I know of places where Flash 3 is still the standard corp install as later versions haven’t been approved. Very slow IT and no justification to move it forward.
    Ben can you provide the figure for the % deployment that can actually run a Flex application?
    The issue with flex is illustrated very nicely by your blog. 95% are experiencing no problems, 5% now can’t see the content…and while we’re at it lets completely ignore those people with accessibility issues (the partially sighted etc).
    Flex is OK, but it really is bells and whistles and until it allows people very simply to ‘switch’ to an accessible html version (generated by Flex), you are not going to take this further.
    MM might be harping on about how wonderful flash is and how they are taking it to new levels, but you are still not getting away from the fact that you are not addressing accessibility.
    You may wish to ignore this, but these days, my clients require a minimum W3C AA accessibility compliance and for those people that think this means boring sites…have a look at http://www.csszengarden.com
    Apologies, didn’t mean this to turn into a rant.
    Adam

  11. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Adam, a few comments:
    1) I did not mention percentages at all, and Flash Player 7 does not have 99% adoption that I know of. If you want version usage statistics see http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html.
    2) Flex can indeed be used to build accessible applications. See http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/ for details.
    3) I don’t think that anyone implied that CSS sites are boring. But at the same time, I don’t really agree with your implied assertion that CSS sites are somehow automatically accessible. Accessibility takes work and planning, regardless of the delivery mechanism.
    — Ben

  12. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    This is a real nice use of Flash forms. Is there any chance of seeing the source code for this?

  13. Sam Farmer Avatar
    Sam Farmer

    What about a Flex version of the blog?

  14. Britt Avatar
    Britt

    I am not able to get the data to load, until i visit the absolute link (http://www.forta.com:8700/flex/cf/isp/app.mxml), then the app works fine.
    Hope this helps out a bit.

  15. Robert D. Avatar
    Robert D.

    Nor I. No data load, spinning cursor. Windos XP Pro, IE 6.1.

  16. Tom K Avatar
    Tom K

    I thing the biggest problem is being glossed over. 8 of the first 16 posts to this thread couldn’t get the Flex version of the ISP list to work the first time they tried it, including myself.
    Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Flex driven consumer applications, compared to their Flash Remoting or Flash Forms counterparts.

  17. Britt Mileshosky Avatar
    Britt Mileshosky

    Tom, take a look at the source code on the page where the ISP list is located. The Flex app is being delivered via an iframe, which I’m betting is the main cause for these issues.
    Visit the flex link directly…and it works fine, Id imagine a majority of Flex apps will not be delivered via an iframe, however the issue seems to be stemming from the use of Flex delivered via an iframe, not really as big of a problem as you would imagine.

  18. Tom K Avatar
    Tom K

    Yup, skipping the IFRAME fixed the problem. So now the app works great from my home ISP. But the :8700 in the direct Flex URL is blocked by our corporate firewall, as well it should be.
    Any one have an idea why the app is being served up on port 8700, instead of the normal 80?

  19. Yacoubean Avatar
    Yacoubean

    It was ME that said flash is on 99% of machines. I didn’t know the exact numbers, but I wasn’t off by much (< v. 7).
    Ben,
    As I stated before, I’m on SuSE Linux with FireFox (v. 1.02) and Flash v. 7. I tried the direct link that other’s report works for them and I still get most of the screen covered in solid gray. A problem with the Flash player on Linux maybe?

  20. Britt Avatar
    Britt

    Yacoubean, I’ve had similar problems with Flash in general (not just Flex) on Linux / FP7…haven’t had the time to look into why.

  21. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Ok, so we *seem* to have fixed the problem, and if that is the case then it is actually not a Flex or Flash issue but a ColdFusion one. It looks like a problem with how the web server handles ColdFusion URL’s when a jsessionid gets appended, adding a ? to the gateway URL seems to have solved the problem. So, if any of you still run into issues let me know.

  22. Patrick Desroches Avatar
    Patrick Desroches

    Is there a reason that http://www.webserve.ca/ is not listed
    We are starting to have problem with them and I want to know if anyone else have issue with them.
    My main problem with them is that they use a DevNet Edition of Coldfusion MX 7.
    Thanks

  23. merkezi Avatar
    merkezi

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