As noted by many people last week, Adaptive Path (who coined the term Ajax) has released an amazing new Flash based slider component that can be controlled via JavaScript, much like the Yahoo! Maps API. The component is utilizing the Flash JavaScript Integration Kit that was released a few months ago which Christian, Mike and I have worked on.
Yesterday, while I was browsing some of the Ruby on Rails blogs, I came across this post. In it, Rick Olson (also known as Rails Weenie) demonstrates in a screencast how you can integrate this new slider component into a Ruby on Rails application using a Rails plugin.
It is great to see all of these technologies integrated seamlessly like this. This screencast also illustrates the fact that Flash and Ajax do not neccesarily have to be mortal enemies bent on destroying the other. Sometimes the debate has been positioned this way, which is a shame. There is no doubt that there is a place for each technology and sometimes they will intersect in interesting and wonderful ways that benefit the end user and thier interaction with your application.
Daniel Dura 