LiveCycle ES3 is now released as ADEP, lists open for business!

I have been debating how to write this message for a while and finally decided to make a brain dump to this blog and on the Google list.

As many of you know, Adobe has decided to retire the name LiveCycle for what would have constituted the ES3 release.  The new release is called the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform (ADEP).  The Document Services side of the product itself will be very familiar to LiveCycle developers and components such as the server, WorkSpace and WorkBench/Designer are all present and well built.  

*******UPDATE*******
Adobe LiveCycle is BACK as a brand name!  For information on how to get the Adobe LiveCycle ES3 download, click here.  I no longer speak for Adobe however it appears that Adobe has returned to using the LiveCycle name for the product again.  Uberity Technology Corporation has also added a new section for LiveCycle Professional Services and LiveCycle Consulting.  I am glad the LiveCycle ES name is back
*********END*********

The great news is that it is available for download now!!! 

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/enterprise-platform.html

This leaves a quandary for the user group lists and I am going to make a suggestion.  There are two relevant lists for LiveCycle ES developers that will be affected as well as a new list for ADEP developers.

The first is the official Adobe LiveCycle Developer list.  This has well over 10,000 posts and is a great group.  For the last 5 years, a second list, the LiveCycle Developers List on Google's platform has been a community owned list and helped introduce thousands of new developers to LiveCycle.  We set this up originally as a community list based on a suggestion during a "Meet the Team" event at Adobe MAX in 2006 when it was disclosed that the then current LC lists were not working well for everyone.  There are hundreds of code samples and file downloads, all of which will available until August 31, 2011 (Google's limitation, not ours).  Please understand that this group is not an Adobe group, it is owned and run by the community. It is not any single person's decision to kill the group or move it.   I have moderated it and tried to keep spam from reaching members but it is not my list.  To re-iterate however, the official Adobe LiveCycle ES list at http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle/ is also a wealth of knowledge.

Adobe has placed a huge emphasis on the developer knowledge exchange experience and has already set up a new list for ADEP users.  The ADEP Developer program is now open for business at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/enterprise-platform.html.  It also has a brand new list (URL below).

While it is not my decision, here is what I will recommend.  

All developers moving on to ADEP (a.k.a. LiveCycle ES3 and beyond) should sign up for the new developer center.  You can sign up at http://forums.adobe.com/community/adep (I made my first post today!). We want to avoid duplication and make sure there is a single consistent place to ask technical questions and be informed of new events etc.   PLEASE:  do not use the existing LiveCycle lists to discuss ADEP topics as this will lead to fragmentation of knowledge and duplication of effort.

While not my decision, I believe we should leave the existing LiveCycle Developers list on google until it becomes unnecessary based on low traffic or low membership.  It is important to recognize that not all customers will move on right away and I am not going to suggest we close the list as it still provides an important function.  While this list does somewhat duplicate the official Adobe LiveCycle lists, I know many of you have found it to be a great resource and nothing will change.  I will personally remain on that list as well.  It might be prudent to move over to the official Adobe list to consolidate the knowledge base into one area.

The last item I want to encourage you all to do is to consider downloading ADEP from the http://www.adobe.com/devnet/enterprise-platform.html site and attend Adobe MAX this year to learn all about the new features in various hands-on sessions.  We have put a lot of work into this release and it also communicates with the software formerly from Day Software.  There are architectural documents at the new ADEP developers center to explain how this all works.  I have a new course on ADEP that will teach you how to get started, which will be shared on the new ADEP list.

The Adobe official LiveCycle ES lists are going to operate as normal to service existing LiveCycle ES developers.

Thank you for all being part of this great ride and I hope you will jump on board with ADEP and continue to learn more!  Sometimes it is hard to let something you have grown and nurtured wither over time.  I urge you to look at the bigger picture and the fact we are all part of the coolest tech community on the planet.  Long live the "LiveCycle/ADEP" developers!!   

Duane Nickull

Announcement: Adobe’s biggest CEM event of the year

In conjunction with Adobe MAX 2011, there will be a new event. The Adobe Digital Enterprise Summit 2011 will take place October 3-4, 2011 at both the JW Marriott and L.A. LIVE in
Los Angeles, California, USA.  The Adobe Digital Enterprise Summit is the first dedicated Customer Experience Management (CEM) conference where attendees will learn about new architectural disciplines and product innovation, as well as understand the latest industry trends and core principles of CEM.  We have filmed an earlier bit on CEM to describe it from an architectural perspective.  This is a new discipline of EAI that will affect every Fortune 1000 company in the next decade.

Top reasons why you should attend
· Learn from industry thought leaders on delivering multichannel experiences using cutting edge technologies.
· Understand Adobe's roadmap into the next era of enterprise architecture and why it matters.
· Gain exposure to new product innovation, insights into the latest industry trends, and access to key personnel from Adobe including CEM experts.

What you will take away
· Insight into the new world of the digital consumer and how to engage them
· An ability to understand how to generate ROI based on great customer experiences
· Understanding how to create an army of positive advocates for your brand by delivering the best experiences for your employees, users, and customers.

To learn more about ADEP and CEM, follow these twitter accounts:
http://twitter.com/#!/eptechies
http://twitter.com/#!/duanechaos
http://twitter.com/#!/AdobeCEM
http://twitter.com/#!/ADEP_Developer

Early-bird pricing is available ONLY in July, 2011 (Expires July 31).
· Contact me (dnickull at adobe dot com) and register by July 31st and you can attend for only $1,195, which is $300 off the price of a full conference pass and an additional $100 savings off of the published Early Bird price.
· Return registrants (Loyalists): A Loyalist is any Digital Enterprise Summit attendee who has attended a previous Adobe MAX, Day Ignite, or Omniture Summit. Loyalist pricing  is the lowest available for any attendees.

Education, government, and international attendees can attend for an equally low rate.  Oh yes - I will be there!

Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform

There are two new announcements from Adobe that are the most exciting products I have ever seen us release.   Flash Builder 4.5.1 brings a new model for portable development for mobile, meaning you can use a large portion of the same code base for desktop, laptop, tablet and smart phone targets.  This tool along with the Flex 4.5.1 framework is a complete game changer.

Flash Builder 4.5.1 outputs applications for Android, RIM PlayBook, and Apple iOS devices, including the i(Devices).   All of us have been busy writing several applications and will roll some out in the coming weeks as well as leading a large hands-on mega lab at Adobe MAX this October in Los Angeles, CA.  Last year, two instances of this class sold out in advance so if you want to immerse yourself in mobile development, strongly consider reserving your spot ASAP.  Several other evangelists from Adobe including Greg Wilson, Michael Chaize, Ryan Stewart, Kevin Hoyt, Serge Jespers, Ben Forta, Mihai Corlan, Anne Kathrine Petteroe, Mike Jones, Paul Trani and more will be diving deep into all the subjects.   See the blog roll for a list of all evangelists.

We are also introducing the new Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform (ADEP), which embodies multiple functionalities formerly offered by Adobe LiveCycle ES, Day Software, and more.  ADEP is a bold platform, which solves a major issue emerging in modern enterprise architecture.  The architectural discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM) is important for modern enterprises to grasp and act upon.   CEM is described from an architectural perspective within the blog post and video here.

ADEP offers customers many choices (such as HTML5 or SWF), which I believe is best decided on a per requirements basis.  A further explanation from the Adobe website reveals some of the problems ADEP solves:

"Companies that want to differentiate themselves from the competition realize that they must deliver applications that engage customers as they access information and interact with the business and its frontline employees. And customers want access on
any device or across any channel. Central to accomplishing that goal is simple, yet engaging, interfaces that enable customers to access information and processes, even if they are contained in corporate systems. Efforts to merely extend access to such systems have not proven successful due to the complexity of user interfaces that have been designed for specialists, not customers and the frontline employees who serve them."

The obvious enrichment a platform can deliver is a common pipeline for data and processing, designed from the bottom up with Cloud and Social Media DNA.  The data modeling capabilities also offer enterprise developers some really cool new features.

Over the next few weeks we will continue to post articles to expose bits of the platform and explain what it means in terms of existing LiveCycle ES customers.

Hope to see you at Adobe MAX 2011!