Introduction to Flex

Introduction to Flex
If you're familiar with traditional programming languages and you want to develop some rich Internet applications that take advantage of the power of Flash, you might want to take a look at Flex. Read on to learn how this presentation server can help.

What is Flex?
Macromedia Flex is a presentation server that developers can use to build a new generation of Enterprise Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

Flex is a presentation server installed on top of a J2EE application server or servlet container, a rich library of user interface components, an XML-based mark-up language used to declaratively lay out these components, and an object-oriented programming language which handles user interactions with the application. The result is a Rich Internet Application rendered using Flash Player and developed using industry standards and a development paradigm familiar to developers.

Flex defines a development and runtime environment that lets developers familiar with server-side technologies build rich front ends for applications that take advantage of Macromedia Flash Player. While executing in Flash Player, your application can interact with server-side functionality, such as databases, Web services, Java objects, and other server-side services.

Flex brings the power of Flash to developers who are familiar with traditional programming languages and server-side development environments. In Flex, you use a standards-based programming model to develop an application, describe the user interface, configure user-interface controls, and define data bindings.