Under the agreement, Mercury will supply testing tools for functional and load testing of Flex framework servers and Flash clients once Macromedia releases Flex 2 technologies during the first half of next year. Additionally, Macromedia will adopt Mercury’s tools for its own internal development of Flex.
Previously, Macromedia Flex 1 framework had performance testing support from rival test vendor Segue. There is no word on whether jilted Segue will continue providing support for Flex 2.
However, the most interesting part of the agreement, and the one for which few details are currently available, is Mercury’s commitment to use Flex for developing rich Internet clients for its own products. Although it is not specifying which of its BTO products will get the Flex and Flash facelifts, prime candidates would likely include those making extensive use of dashboards.
Another side of the question is whether Mercury is providing test tooling for Ajax rich Internet clients. Compared to Macromedia Flex, for which the technology is still emerging, a key benefit of Ajax technologies (which include JavaScript over asynchronous XML) are already available and in the public domain. And because Ajax is already out there, they have a natural headstart on the less mature frameworks form Macromedia, Microsoft, and Laszlo.
We have not secured an answer from Mercury as of press time, although the data sheet for Mercury’s best-known functional test product, WinRunner, does list support for JavaScript.
In other announcements, Macromedia is opening a developers website that is similar to AlphaWorks where it will provide early stage product ideas for developer feedback.
