LiveCycle server data services

LiveCycle ES - "Enterprise Services"

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES) is a suite of J2EE-based J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) server software products from Adobe Systems Incorporated. LiveCycle ES combines its PDF (Portable Document Format) technology and Flex (Flash-based UI technology) to develop "customer engagement applications" that provide end users with a dynamic and intuitive user experience that can be used inside or outside the firewall, in both online or offline environments. LiveCycle "ES" (Enterprise Suite) is the newest version of LiveCycle software and currently available in pre-release on the Adobe Developer website. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_LiveCycle

Adobe doesn't announce the price for LiveCycle, you have to call for pricing.

Pricing and Availability

LiveCycle Production Print ES is available in limited release today, with general availability expected in Fall 2007. Adobe LiveCycle Output ES is expected to be available in July 2007. Adobe's existing document generation product line, the Adobe Central Output Server family, will continue to be available. Central Output software customers who wish to take advantage of the LiveCycle environment will be eligible to trade up to LiveCycle Output ES. For additional information, please go to: www.adobe.com/products/livecycle .

Editors note: This is from Adobe's Press Release. Don't you just hate it when they have a paragraph called pricing, and it says nothing about the pricing! I did find some contract pricing here. $6K for department server, $20K for enterprise server.

Alternatives
- http://fluorine.thesilentgroup.com/ - Fluorine, the open source .NET Flash Remoting Gateway Todo: Need to look closer that this.

LiveCycle Express
- Free version - download
- http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/dataservices/faq.html
- Google: livecycle express limitations
  - only one app per cpu, no load balancing, or multiple cpus. No remoting.
- The LiveCycle Data Service ES, formerly known as the Flex Data Service, now includes an express edition free of charge. Under the license agreement, you are free to use the Data Service ES Express in a production environment, with unlimited number of connections. The only limitation is that you can only run it on a single CPU, which is sufficient for most small to medium sized projects. Here is the direct link to the download page. After you have it installed, be sure to check out the offline message queuing, automation API, and the PDF generation features. - www.flexlive.net/?p=75
- Live Cycle ES Upgrade Center - http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/upgrade.html