PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a standards-based, open-source development framework that helps in saving development time by providing a cloud-based build service. 

Adobe PhoneGap Build enabling code once with HTML and JavaScript and deploy it to any mobile device without losing features of a native app. PhoneGap was donated to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under the name Apache Cordova.

Related articles

• CLI-9.0.0 Support Has Been Added to PhoneGap Build
• PhoneGap 2.9.0 Released!(phonegap.com)

Item Renderer

An overload of communications (Photo credit: windsordi)

list controls have default mechanism for controlling the display of data, or view. You can override that default behavior by creating a custom item renderer.You can also use custom component as an item renderer.

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.
Related articles

• Item Renderers in Practice(flexdevelopers.com)

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• Creating a Custom Visual Component(flexdevelopers.com)

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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

Flex Technology Overview

Image by rutty via Flickr

Creating a Simple Application with Adobe Flex Builder

More DIY videos at 5min.com

key points about Flex technology that is relevant to this module.

• Flex applications are compiled to SWF files.
• Flex is a programmer-centric framework and development environment for creating Flash-based rich internet applications.
• Flex applications are executed in ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) inside Flash Player.
• Flex is a client-side technology.
• Flex can integrate well with server-based technologies like ColdFusion, PHP, ASP.NET and Java EE.
• Flex can retrieve plain text or XML data over HTTP service.
• Flex can also retrieve Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages using web services.

You may also refer ActionScript Coding Convention for Flex SDK.

Introducing Flash Builder 4

Flash Builder is a commercial tool from Adobe focused on developer productivity. It supports the following capabilities.

• Intelligent coding help and templates
• Network monitor
• Interactive, step-through debugger
• Emulation and on-device debugging
• Visual design interfae
• Data access wizards
• Memory and performance profilers
• Automated testing support

Hello World in Flash Builder 4


Introducing Flash Builder 4


Related articles

• Adobe's New Tools for Web Apps (technologyreview.com)
• Adobe Flash Builder 4 Beta: Get it while it's hot! (blogs.adobe.com)
• Flash Builder, Flex 4, and Flash Catalyst Betas Available (blogs.adobe.com)
• Adobe gives Flash a programming boost (news.cnet.com)

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• Flash Builder 4.7 and Adobe Scout 1.0 Released(inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com)

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• Adobe Extension Builder and Creative Cloud 2014(blogs.adobe.com)

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• Getting Started with Adobe Creative Suite Extension Builder and Creative Suite SDK(blogs.adobe.com)

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Introducing Flash/Flex Builder

Featured Video on Flash Builder
Visit the link below to view featured videos on Adobe Flash Builder
http://tv.adobe.com/product/flash-builder/?source=EWUMA

Intoducing Flash Builder


Introduction to Flex Builder 3

More DIY videos at 5min.com

Related articles

• Adobe Flex Builder 4.6 Extras(practicalflex.blogspot.com)

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• Flash Builder 4.7 Beta is now available.. !!(practicalflex.blogspot.com)

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• PowerFlasher FDT 5 - Yet Another IDE for Flash/Flex/Air(practicalflex.blogspot.com)

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• Introducing Sprout Builder - Flash Content Made Easy(5min.com)

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Getting Started With Flex SDK

Flex architecture contains following components:

•Adobe Flex Builder

•Adobe Live Cycle Data Services ES

•Adobe Flex Charting

•Adobe Flex SDK

Flex SDK is a free tool containing the following components:

• Command line compiler
• Debugger

the following link provides step-by-step instructions for creating an Adobe AIR applications using Flex SDK
Creating your first application using Flex SDK

Related articles

• Apache Flex :: Hello Apache Flex SDK(teotigraphix.com)

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• Are You Developing Apps for Your Enterprise? Top Reasons Not to Miss BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011(blogs.blackberry.com)

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• Flex Development - The Most Beneficial Choose Of Bunch Regarding Rich Internet Software(monarchboost.wordpress.com)

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• Flex 4.6 SDK gets last non-Apache release(h-online.com)

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• BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR - Beta 2 Release!(blogs.blackberry.com)

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Getting Inspired & Exploring the possibilities of Adobe Flex, updated

Image via Wikipedia

Now its time to browse some Rich Internet Applications (RIA) built in Adobe Flex.

Rich Internet Applications are web applications that works like full fledged desktop applications.

They can be delivered to the user through a site specific browser either through a plug in or virtual machines.

A site-specific browser (SSB) is a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single source (site) on a computer network such as the Internet or a private intranet. SSBs typically simplify the more complex functions of a web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome associated with functions that are external to the workings of a single site. These applications can be started by using mostly a desktop icon using the favicon.^[1]

Examples of site-specific browser

• Mozilla Prism - https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/prism/ 
• Robin Web Browser - http://raven.io/ 
• Fluid App - http://fluidapp.com/

RIAs let you perform in-line editing, drag and drop items or otherwise interact directly with elements.
Popular browser based RIAs include Flickr, Google Maps, and eBay.

Why Adobe Flex ?

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems.

Flex applications can be built using Flex SDK or Adobe Flex Builder 3. It is basically a collection of technologies developed by Adobe which can be used for the development of cross platform Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

Flex applications can be delivered on the web via the Flash Player or to the desktop via Adobe AIR

Flex requires server-side technologies like Java, SAP NetWeaver, ASP.NET or PHP to provide it with real-time data.

Adobe Flex is used across broad variety of industries and use cases.

Flex showcase which is a Flex application letting you browse and search for publicly available Flex applications. Many companies are developing Flex RIAs for internal applications.

Feel free to explore different the Flex showcase on your own, this will provides you with good inspiration and great ideas, and will lets you see what Adobe Flex is capable of.

1. Adobe Flex Showcase
2. Adobe AIR Application Showcase

Flex development can be beneficial not only to developers but also to end-users. Due to Flex programming model you can get scalable and reliable solutions. Even these solutions can be re-designed whenever needed. 

Please click the link below to get Tour de Flex application which provides over 600 running samples with source code!

 "Tour de Flex" and "Tour de Flex Mobile" - provides collection of Flex applications showcasing the capabilities of the technology for web/desktop and mobile application development respectively.

Related articles

• Where can I download old versions of the Adobe Flex SDK?(stackoverflow.com)

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• Talking about: Flex Gumbo - new features (psyked.co.uk)
• Adobe releases trio of Labs goodies for designers, developers (downloadsquad.com)
• Flex Development - The Most Beneficial Choose Of Bunch Regarding Rich Internet Software (monarchboost.wordpress.com)
• Stimulsoft Company Announces New Generation of Reporting Tools: Stimulsoft Reports.Fx for Flex (prweb.com)
• Weekly Poll: Which Site-Specific Browser Is Your Favorite? (mac.appstorm.net)

Preparing your Runtime enviroment, updated

The so-called “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player provides a layer between the plugin and browser that abstracts away differences between browser and operating system implementations. It is an API Co-developed by Google and Adobe for hosting plugins within the browser.
1) Version Test for Flash Player
2) Installing the latest Flash Player Google Chrome browser includes Adobe® Flash® Player built-in. Google Chrome will automatically update when new versions of Flash Player are available.
3) Installing Adobe AIR
4) Flash Player Version Penetration - check this link if you are wondering which version of Flash Player would be best for you.


Watch the video below to Learn about Flash Player Integration and Support

More DIY videos at 5min.com

Introduction to Adobe AIR

More DIY videos at 5min.com

FlexJS - An introduction from OmPrakash Muppirala

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• Adobe AIR for Linux now available (hackitlinux.com)
• Adobe gives Flash a programming boost (news.cnet.com)
• Learn about Adobe Integrated Runtime Application (5min.com)
• Adobe aligns software branding to shine light on Flash (macworld.com)
• Adobe Releases Flash Player 11, Air 3 (ghacks.net)
• Important BlackBerry Tablet OS Update: Adobe Flash Player (blogs.blackberry.com)
• Adobe Air Now Supported In ICS (droidflash.wordpress.com)
• Why a Flash-Enabled Browser Matters (mycricket.com)
• Flash Player 11.2 Introduces Automatic Updates (ghacks.net)
• Adobe Releases Another Flash Security Update (ghacks.net)

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

Related articles:

• Talking about: Flex Gumbo (Flex 4) - new features (psyked.co.uk) - Flex 4 was codenamed Gumbo

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• FlexJS: Flex for HTML/JS/CSS(flexcloset.wordpress.com) - A next generation flex sdk that cross compiles MXML & ActionScript into HTML, JS and CSS.

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• Apache Flex 4.11 Released!(blogs.apache.org)

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• How is Flex Doing? Quick Start Guides and Tutorials(jetbrains.com)

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• Flash Platform Rundown - Week of October 27th, 2013(inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com)

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• Alex's Flex Closet Lives On!(flexcloset.wordpress.com) - yet another blog about flex.

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• Thumbs Up for Apache Flex(robsondesign.com) - success story about migration from Adobe Flex 4.5.1 SDK to Apache Flex 4.10.1 SDK.

  ---

• Flash Platform Rundown - Week of October 20th, 2013(inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com)

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