Flex 3 VS Flex 4

The latest and piping-hot version of Flex is Flex SDK 4. How different is it from Flex 3? Let’s take a look.

The code name for Flex SDK 3 is Moxie, while that of Flex SDK 4 is Gumbo.

In Flex 3, the layout of components and containers are defined inside individual controls. Halo components which include List, TileList, and HorizontalList are used. These Halo components share the same functionality but for their layouts. Still, their layout logic is defined within these component classes.

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Which Flex Framework Is Right For You? - By Andrew Powell

Frameworks. They can be both a blessing and a curse. Recently, I was asked, by an aspiring Flex developer, which framework they should learn. They were looking at Cairngorm (and the UM Extensions) and Mate. Each framework has their high points and their low points. Mate is very slick and simplifies a lot of tasks that Cairngorm can make, well...obtuse. It's just plain facts.

Cairngorm however, is the iPod of the Flex framework market. Just as you think "iPod" when you think mp3 player, you think "Cairngorm" when you think Flex frameworks. Within the last four months we have seen the introduction of two new major players to the Flex framework scene: Mate and Swiz. Mate is the brainchild of our fine friends at AsFusion. Swiz is the fruit of Chris Scott's efforts. Mate is a totally tag-based approach to a Flex framework, while Swiz is much more focused on inversion of control (IOC). 

So, which framework should you learn? Well, I can assure you that, as a Flex developer, you will run into a Cairngorm project at least once during your career. Its prevalence lends itself to this. Does this mean you should be thoroughly proficient in Cairngorm? Absolutely not. I do believe however, that every Flex developer should be able to recognize a Cairngorm application and be able to work within its patterns (side note: look to the Core J2EE Patterns for Cairngorm's inspiration.). I think that Cairngorm will make more sense to developers coming from the Java world. Developers coming to Flex from ColdFusion would probably be much more comfortable in Mate, due to its tag-based nature. Does this mean that any one is more right for you than another? No. As with anything else in this field, it depends on the task, the developer's skill and comfort levels with different technologies, and the time you have to learn something new. 

If you take all this into consideration and then do your own research, you should be able to come up with which framework fits right for you. Don't rely simply on my advice or the advice of others. Frameworks tend to gather semi-religious followings, so try to wade through the zealotry and find your best solution.

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Top 10 mistakes when building Flex applications

1. Using an RIA framework to build Web 1.0 applications (aka. New technology same old stuff).
   
   
   
   One of the largest challenges when moving from Web 1.0 applications to the RIA’s development paradigm is learning to think differently. Flex gives developers an advanced component library that allows for doing things that simply weren’t possible only a few years ago. Often, the power of Flex is missed, and the framework is used to implement more traditional Web 1.0 applications.
   Building Web 2.0 applications is more than partial page refresh and rounded corners. For example, Flex developers should be using vectors to provide users a visual understanding of data, and advanced controls for a rich application flow.
   
   Stephan Janssen discusses this struggle recently with InfoQ.com:
   
   
   
   “As a Java developer, learning Object Oriented ActionScript and the UI markup language is really a walk in the park. The challenge however for (Java) developers is that we’re not designers, and with RIA technologies these two skills are very much needed.”
   
   
2. Breaking standard browser experiences.
   
   
   
   While Flex does provide an excellent platform for improving the user experience, it is still important to maintain familiarity of things like the back button, book marking, and auto complete.
   Flex 3 includes new Deep Linking features for back button support and book marking. You can learn more at labs.adobe.com. There are a number of components out there for implementing auto-complete. From the Adobe Exchange, you can use the AutoComplete Input component.
   
   

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Formating Datagrid Rows and Headers

When developing applications with the DataGrid component, you may want to use a custom font so the data grid fits with your overall design. YOu change fonts by setting a custom text format using a TextFormat object, and the setStyle() or setRendererStyle() methods. If you want to set the text format for a DataGrid component’s header, use the setStyle() method along with the headerTextFormat  style. If you want to set the text format for each row in the DataGrid component, use the setRendererStyle() method along with the textFormat style.

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What is Flex

Flex is a convoluted term for sure. As the history of the product has evolved it has been a j2ee server, an as framework, a compiler and and IDE among other things.

In todays day and age we are at a released version 3, with version 4 in beta. The term flex typically refers to a way of developing flash platform application using the components in the open source framework developed by adobe.

Flex applications are written as a combination of xml markup (mxml) and actionscript much in the same vein that html applications are written with JS. The big difference is that the output of all your mxml and actionscript files is a single swf that can be embedded in a web page and displayed to the world. You can also use Flex to develop AIR applications, applications that can be installed on a users desktop.

Although Adobe produces an IDE to help in developing Flex applications it is not a requirement. Everything

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Introducing Flex

Flex is a programming language developed on adobe technology to enhance the users capability in building rich internet applications. This latest adobe technology possesses all flash features. Flex is embedded with two languages MXML and Action Script respectively. Among all known scripting languages Action Script is one of them that comes along with Flex SDK(software development kit). MXML is a tag based language while Action Script is a flash language and developers pro to oop’s (object oriented programming) will face no problem with this flash language.

Server the compilation of flex source file is adobe’s Application server which is a J2EE application.

Flex coding is done with an XML based language known as MXML and like Flash applications, Flex codes too are compiled into a file having SWF format called ShockWave Flash files. These SWF files are executed with stand-alone Adobe’s Flash Players, and can also be directly executed in browsers that have Adobe Flash Player Plug-in installed.

For developing Flex applications, Adobe has launched Flex builder that works in Eclipse environment. Flex 3 builder is the latest and can be freely downloaded from Adobe’s official website. But building Flex applications on Flex builder in eclipse environment is a cumbersome job to perform, one reason is that using eclipse with flex builder plugin will make it very slow, also lot of time is been taken in compilation. To get rid of this problem there is another way to compile Flex application which works on Apache Ant technology. Apache’s this technology is used to make a build.xml file that will be used later to call the flex compiler in deploying the flex application. You will get more to know after going through the tutorials presented below.

Flex languages

Flex coding involves two different languages MXML and ActionScript respectively.

MXML is an extended form of XMLand is a tag based language, and therefore it is called an XML-based markup language. Program files coded with mxml language possess ‘.mxml’ extensions. MXML used along with ActionScript provide tags to devise GUI (graphical user interface) component and is also used to get access to data on servers. MXML facilitates its users with its data binding services. HTML and MXML both provide tags but the difference is that MXML consists of several new tags like TabNavigators and Accordions and many more that also enable users to get any web service connection. A MXML file is converted into a SWF file that runs on a Flash Player or on a browser which has Adobe Flash Player Plug-in installed in it.

ActionScript a flash language is an implementation of ECMAScript and is similar to OOP based JavaScript. In Adobe Flash Player this is the main programming tool. It consists of built-in objects and functions, and allows its users to build their own objects and functions. With this strong tool one can extend its competency in creating RIAs. Its coding is done inside the tag . We create ActionScript files and call them inside the main MXML file with either ’source’ attribute of tag or with ‘include’ statement inside tag by passing the relative path names of ActionScript files in these attributes. Each and every ActionScript file should be saved with ‘.as’ extension.

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Features of Flex

The good news for Flash users is that the new and improved version of Adobe Flex has an array of wonderful features and nice improvements that will definitely help automate the designing and development workflow. Discussed below are some of the featured characteristics of the recently introduced version of Flex.

Features of Flex:
* User Friendly Controls:
      Flex 3 features form-based controls that can easily handle user interactions as well as enable the user to directly manipulate the display data.
* Data communication
      The data communication services of Adobe Flex enables it to connect to the server data utilizing a set of communications services.
* Easy to Use Containers:
      The improved version of Flash Flex includes improvised drawing surface. Flex also allows the user to control the entire layout for everything that lies within the container, inclusive of all other containers and controls.
* Event model
      The Event Model of Flex displays occurrences that need a response from the Flex application. These events include both user (through key press or mouse click) and system events (for application initialization).
* Data modeling:
      Macromedia Flex has the most versatile feature that represents application data to the client. The data model of Flex features facilities for storing application data, data binding for bidirectional or unidirectional binding for UI controls and custom and predefined data formatters. It also consists of data validation so as to be able to validate data model.
* Behavior
      Flex Application development tool amplifies the experience of the user through motion, animation, effects and sound.
* Style sheets
      The style sheets of Flash Flex incorporates a standard mechanism that declares styles for the ease of the user.
* Managers
      Adobe/Macromedia Flex furnishes support for even application tasks of high-level.
* Development tools
      The Flex development tools can be used extensively for developing Flex based applications.
* Deployment tools
      Flex features deployment tools that can be used to deploy various Flex applications.

Flex Features at a glance:
    * Smaller Flex SWF Files
    * Versionable
    * Cross-Domain
    * Easy to Use
    * Failover and Hosting
    * Security and Code Signing
    * Cross-Domain RSL
    * Advanced Datagrid
    * SDK and Components Enhancements
    * Runtime and Resource Bundles Localization
    * Deep Linking
    * Code Enhancements
    * Flex Component Kit
    * Language Intelligence
    * Compilation
    * Class Outline
    * Refactoring
    * Profiler
    * Code Search
    * Multiple SDK Support
    * Module Support
    * CSS Design View
    * Designer/Developer Workflow
    * Developer/Designer Workflow (CSS Design View)
    * Design View Zoom/Pan
    * CS3 Suite integration
    * Skin Importer
    * CSS Design View
    * Advanced Constraints
    * Flex 3 SDK Style /Skinning Enhancements
    * CSS Outline

The best feature of Macromedia Flex is that it helps in automating the workflows for both designers as well as developers. The newly introduced extensions of Flex enable it to surpass all expectations of users making it a favorite choice of developers and designers alike.

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