ASC 2.0 vs Falcon

ActionScript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Falcon, the next-generation MXML and ActionScript compiler that is currently under development 

Following are the key differences between Falcon and ASC 2.0
- ASC 2.0 is essentially a fork of Falcon. 
- Falcon was branched off from ASC 2.0 in summer 2012 and the packages were renamed from com.adobe.flash to org.apache.flex.
-  Falcon supports Flex (MXML)
- ASC 2.0 is mainly focused on gaming.

the new ActionScript Compiler (ASC 2.0) is part of the AIR 3.4/FP 11.4 SDK. The complete release notes are available here. It things like Concurrency (ActionScript Workers) support for debugging and more.

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Mirror of Apache Flex SDK at Github

English: Logo of the Apache Software Foundation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mirror of Apache Flex SDK at Github

Only few committers of the project has write access to the code repository of the project, but everyone has read access.
https://github.com/apache/flex-sdk

Below is the link to the details of how can you get involved & contribute towards the open source development, documentation, training & marketing of Apache Flex® through its Community
http://flex.apache.org/community-getinvolved.html

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Two Best External Debugging Tools for Flex / Flash Applicaitons, updated

Script Debugger icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Below is the list of external debugging tools for Flash / Flex 

1. Monster Debugger (http://demonsterdebugger.com/)

an open source debugger for Adobe Flash, Flex and AIR for the desktop, the web and the mobile. Its made in Flex and AIR, It was donated by De Monsters as an open source debugger to Adobe Flash Community and is avaialble for free.

To take a tour of its debugging features visit: http://www.monsterdebugger.com/tour

2. Fxspy

A visual tool in Flex 3 that's able to read and modified the properties and styles of a running application (http://code.google.com/p/fxspy/ ). Visit the URL: http://www.mieuxcoder.com/data/2007/12/FlexSpy-1.2/dashboard.html for live demo of this tool.

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• Flash Builder 4.7 and Adobe Scout 1.0 Released (inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com)
• Can't get Flash Builder 4.6 debugger to run (stackoverflow.com)

Adobe AIR Launchpad

What is Adobe AIR Launchpad ? 

Adobe® AIR® Launchpad is a desktop tool for Adobe Flex® developers to generate a basic Flex project that can be used to jump-start application development in Flash Builder. 

Adobe AIR Launchpad creates Flex and ActionScript code packaged as a Flex project based on pre-selected options. However, the final output is not intended to be a useful application. Rather, it is intended to be a starting point for a new project.

It can help developers in getting started with building desktop and mobile applications (iOS, Android, BlackBerry PlayBook) for deployment on Adobe AIR.

For more details visit the following website
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/airlaunchpad/

Currently Adobe AIR Launch is in prerelease version and is designed to be used in evaluation purposes only. 

About Apache Flex & its Roadmap

About Apache Flex 

First public release of Apache Flex is Apache Flex 4.8.0. The initial Apache Flex release would be a "Parity" release. That means no new improvements, features or bug fixes will be in this release, the goal would be to try to match Adobe Flex 4.6. Some features in case dependent on features not donated by Adobe to Apache may be missing or may require separate installation.

Apache Flex Road-map

Apache Flex road-map is available at: https://cwiki.apache.org/FLEX/roadmap.html
the Flash Platform Road Map - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/whitepapers/roadmap.html

Apache Flex Home page 

http://incubator.apache.org/flex - contains information about how to checkout the code and submit patches to Apache Flex SDK development.

Apache Flex Mailing Lists

http://incubator.apache.org/flex/mailing-lists.html

References

• UI Flex Components: Tested! Supported! Ready! - http://www.flextras.com?c=104
• Podcasts on Flex - http://www.theflexshow.com

Flash Builder 4.7 Beta is now available.. !!

the latest version of Flash Builder is currently in public beta with support for Apache Flex 4.8. The beta is free to all - it will expire when the official version ships. The official version will be a free upgrade for retail 4.5/4.6 customers.

 The Flash Builder team is looking for feedback on support for Apache Flex SDKs
(and how it can be made using Apache Flex easier in Flash Builder).


The URL of the download page is

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4-7/

The key highlight of this release is support for Flash Player 11.4 and AIR 3.4, as well as support for the new Apache Flex 4.8 SDK. Other new features include

• New compiler support for ActionScript Projects
• Support for creating ActionScript Workers
• Support for iOS USB deployment, testing & debugging
• Support for iOS simulator

changes from previous release: 

• FB 4.7 no longer includes design view.

More about Adobe Flash Platform & SAP Integration

Rich Islands for Adobe Flash Platform - Flex 3.0 SDK support for SAP NetWeaver was introduced on the Java stack as of 711 SP2 and on the ABAP stack as of 701 SP3 and 711 SP2.  Because of incompatibilies with Flex SDK versions it is required that Flex SDK 3.0 is used to compile a Flash Island.  In particular Flex 3.4 introduces an incompatible change to an interface.  

Flex SDK 3.4 is therefore not supported.  Please see the Adobe bug here: 
https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-23171

How to create a colorpicker in SAP WebDynpro ABAP using Adobe Flex - A step-by-step guide on how to create an Adobe Flex component in Flash Builder and adding the SAP WD Libraries and integrating it with SAP WebDynpro ABAP UI. 

References:

A Book about Developing SAP Applications with Adobe Flex:
http://www.sappress.com/product.cfm?account=&product=H1951

Demonstration Video of Adobe Flex application on top of SAP:
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/flexsappoc/

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A Video on Mobile Application Development with Flex and Flex Builder

One tool, one framework, multiple devices

• With increased internet connectivity over mobile and more services moving to the cloud, RIAs are becoming increasingly popular on mobile devices. 
• With onslaught of so many different types of digital devices from PCs, laptops, smart phones, and tablets cross platform user  engagement has also became an import aspect of RIA development.

Develop high performance mobile applications for the iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ devices and BlackBerry® Playbook™ with one code base. Please find below a video about "Mobile application development with Flex and Flash Builder" from Adobe TV presented by Adobe Developer Connect.

Delivering an app for multiple devices no longer requires writing separate code for each platform. Flex and Adobe® Flash® Builder® 4.5 software let you develop & debug dynamic, high performance apps for
multiple platforms.

Many mobile application developers build custom components and custom navigation patterns to enhance the application’s user experience.

With the following the best practices in mobile development your application performs well on all platforms.
• List optimization
• Item renderer optimization

Create data-intensive apps for iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ devices and the BlackBerry® Playbook™
Flex and Adobe® Flash® Builder® 4.5 make the developing of enterprise mobile apps with data visualization both easy and cost effective.

This video demos how to develop high performance mobile apps that connect with major back-end systems and web services.


Mobile Application Development can be very interesting, fun and lucrative experience. Please keep sharing your experience through your comments.

Anyone who can build an Flex content can now build mobile applications for growing number of devices and platforms.

For more details one should vidist the Mobile and tablet Development page in Adobe Development Connection (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices.html).

Related Links

• Adobe adding support for iPhone and iPad to Flash Builder and Flex framework (9to5mac.com)
• Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5 (oreilly.com)
• Adobe releases tools for creating mobile apps (macworld.com)
• BlackBerry Tablet OS for Adobe AIR Updates (devblog.blackberry.com)
• Boosting Development of India-Centric Mobile Apps (technologyreview.in)

Introduction Flex UI Framework

English: A vector version of Overview_of_a_three-tier_application.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

the open source Flex 4.5 Framework provides

1. Rich & extended set of controls / component library 
2. Complete set of layout mechanisms.
3. Mobile-optimized components
4. Containers
5. MXML declarative language for layouting UI components & ActionScript an ECMA compliant scripting languages for writing business logic.
6. Rich class library based on ActionScript 3.0

Layout Mechanism functions
- controls look and feel
- helps in management of display area during window resizing.

Containers hold other containers and components, container lays out its children

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How to create custom MXML components with Flex Builder 3.0

Image by Geoff S. via Flickr

Watch the video below to learn How to creating an MXML custom component:

More DIY videos at 5min.com

How to add properties and methods to a MXML custom component.

More DIY videos at 5min.com

Building Simple Application with Flex

EBA AJAX Grid + Flex Charting Component (Photo credit: Andre Charland)

Working with Containers

Lets now learn about the most important MXML tag in Flex.

Applicaiton
Description: root container for an Flex application

Properties:

layout, define lay out for its child components, possible values for this property are:

1. vertical - automatic top to bottom in order layout
2. horizontal - automatic left to right in order layout
3. absolute - no automatic layout, (x,y) location based layout

Note: The default layout, BasicLayout renderer doesn't respect the transformations that occur in the object's width/height/position during rotation. It still tries to layout the objects as if they were not rotated. However, if you use any other layout, like VerticalLayout or HorizontalLayout, the objects new dimensions after rotation is used.

style, defines formatting for the child components

1. backgroundGradientColors
2. verticalGap

How to Use Absolute Layout in Flex

More DIY videos at 5min.com

How to Use the appropriate Layout Type in your Flex Applicatoin

More DIY videos at 5min.com

Also visit blog to learn about adding inline ActionScript in MXML code

• Using Inline ActionScript in Flex

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Apache Flex Overview, updated

crazy with the books (Photo credit: leff)

What is Flex? 

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework that provides enterprise-level components for Flash Platform for designing, building and maintaining expressive mobile, web and desktop applications that deploy consistently on all major devices, browsers, desktops, and operating systems.

Flex allows you to build web and mobile applications that share a common code base, reducing the time and cost of application creation and longer term maintenance.

Flex Overview

Adobe has donated the Flex SDK to Apache Software foundation. [Adobe Donating Flex to Open Source Foundation (infoq.com)]

• Flex 3 Getting Started - Animated Overview on Adobe Learning Resource 
• Flex 4 Getting Started - Getting Started page for Flex 4 (current release) on the Flex Developer Center.

What is Adobe Flash Builder ?

Adobe^® Flash^® Builder^™ 4.5 software (formerly Adobe Flex^® Builder^™) is an Eclipse^™ based development tool for rapidly building expressive applications for the following platforms:

1. mobile, 
2. web, and
3. desktop

using the following technologies:

1. ActionScript^® and MXML
2. the open source Flex framework. 

Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 introduces new support for mobile application development and testing that enables use of a common code base to build apps for the following platforms: 

1. Android^™,
2. BlackBerry^® Tablet OS, and
3. iOS mobile platforms 

while sharing code from web applications. It includes support for the following features: 

• intelligent coding, 
• interactive step-though debugging, 
• application profiling, and 
• visual design of the user interface layout.

Can I learn Apache Flex (previously Adobe Flex) ?

Below are the Prerequisites for learning Adobe Flex includes basic understanding of following topics:

• Basic understanding of any programming Language ( for e.g. C#, Java, C / C++ etc..)
• HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
• XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• Exposure to any server side technology (like ColdFusion, Java Servlet/JavaServer Pages, PHP, .NET) is recommended but not necessary. 

Which languages does Flex Framework supports ?

A Flex application consists primarily of code written in two different languages

• ActionScript - a fully object oriented, strictly typed, ECMA Script language. It is is used for describing the event handlers and custom application logic.
• MXML - an XML based markup language. It is used to provide description of the appearance  and components that make up the application.

What is Flash Catalyst ?

An additional product Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™ (code-named Thermo)  a professional interaction design tool for designers to create complex RIA user interfaces and interactions by using a visual editor which will create Flex application code that the designer and developer can share. Adobe Flash Catalyst is a tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.

Future of Flash Catalyst & Flash Builders

Following the decision of Flex moving to the Apache Foundation, that Flash Catalyst will be discontinued. Flash Builder will also have features the following features removed in future:

• Design View,
• Data Centric Development (DCD)
• and Flash Catalyst workflows. 

Adobe has stopped sales and development of Flash Catalyst tool, Adobe is now focusing mainly on creating tools for native applications using AIR and HTML5 for e.g. 

1. Adobe Muse (http://muse.adobe.com)
2. Adobe & HTML (http://html.adobe.com/)

As an alternate to Flash Catalyst it is recommended to use Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection. (refer http://www.adobe.com/in/products/flashcatalyst.html for details)

Further Reading:

• Future of Flash and Flex
• Life After Adobe Flash Builder(drdobbs.com) - Developing Flex with using Microsoft's Visual Studios IDE

Learning Resources:

• Flex 3 LiveDocs - Flex Help Documentation
• Tour de Flex - A desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities
• Flex Developer Center - collection of resources on flex
• flex.apache.org - Apache Flex website
• Flex Showcase - list of desktop and mobile applications written in Flex
• Flex Cookbook - collection of solution to common problems

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