Already, even in pre-release, Adobe's Spry seemed to catch the imagination of many Web professionals wrestling with how to integrate new AJAX frameworks into existing workflows. Created with designers in mind, Spry uses regular HTML tags, CSS, and JavaScript, and is easy to use - boiling down to a couple of JavaScript libraries that you include in your Web page in order to be in a position to add dynamic interactive content to your site.

What spurs me to mention Spry is the approach of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo, of which Adobe is a Platinum sponsor. There is no doubt that it will be the most intense three-day conference anywhere on the East coast this year, devoted to the issues most preoccupying those who design, build, and deploy Web sites and Web-based applications.

There are several Flex sessions at the Conference, including one by Kevin Hoyt - known to many readers of WebDDJ from his regular appearances at various user group forums and conferences throughout the United States. Kevin will be talking about using Flex and AJAX "to bring the 'sexy' back to the enterprise," as he puts it. His session will provide an interactive deep dive on how to integrate Flex, AJAX and Apollo to bring the 'sexy' elements of Web-based RIAs to the enterprise.

As for Apollo, that will naturally be making an appearance at AJAXWorld 2007 East, too. In a session called "Denting the Browser's Chrome: Intense Experiences, Advanced RIA Development and Apollo," Cynergy's Andrew Trice, an Enterprise Applications Consultant for Cynergy Systems, will remind us of the dark decade or so during which the user experiences that drove applications on the web were primitive at best; when, as Trice expresses it, "forms and grids trapped in the browser's content-centric chrome ruled the earth."

The thing is, as Trice notes, grids are not how users think; grids are how programmers think. And the problem is... most of the users aren't programmers.

"In the past," Trice says, "it was easy to claim that the platform was simply too primitive to work any other way. That however doesn't fly anymore. Today with RIAs you now not have only a vast array of rich controls but access to a complete robust vector graphics drawing API. Thanks to all of this, if you can imagine an interface or a way to present data and information to the user, you can make it come alive. More importantly, these RIAs are no longer trapped inside the browser's chrome and the vision of the web driving the applications that run the business of the world is coming alive."

Many other sessions at AJAXWorld are devoted to demonstrating how to turn designs into reality and how to build out incredible user experiences for the Web. Enterprise application developers are embracing AJAX - and increasingly, Flex - to bring the same next-generation functionality to the enterprise. They are designing enterprise applications that perform like desktop software but have the connectivity of the Web and integrate with enterprise systems. Adobe's product road map is guiding developers and designers into exactly the right part of the technology landscape at exactly the right time.

Drive safely, and enjoy!