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/

Related articles

• SAP Netweaver 7.4(novisblog.wordpress.com)

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• What is Web Dynpro?(wd4a.wordpress.com)

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Free eBooks on Adobe Flex

Image via Wikipedia

Register at this link to get a free copy of "Fast Track to Developing Rich Internet Apps" delivered to your inbox.

Rich Internet applications (RIAs) offer a rich, intuitive and engaging experience that improves user satisfaction and increases productivity. Using the broad reach of the Internet, RIAs can be deployed across mobile devices, browsers and desktops.

Pro Flex on Spring (Expert's Voice in Web Development) | Download IT Ebook

Pro Flex on Spring is about building rich Internet applications (RIAs) that combine the interactive user experiences of Adobe Flex with the delivery of back-end services through the Spring Framework.

Related articles

• Spring + BlazeDS Integration API for Flex based Enterprise Apps (ravigeek.wordpress.com)
• Flex Development - The Most Beneficial Choose Of Bunch Regarding Rich Internet Software (monarchboost.wordpress.com)

mx.core.Application

To access properties and methods of the top-level Application object from anywhere in your application, you can use the application property of the Application class.

• use parentDocument property to define an DataGrid that is slightly smaller than the Application container .
• If you set the width and height properties of the child components MXML tags to percentage values, your components can also resize as your application resizes

Lifecycle of a flex component

Image by alexdecarvalho via Flickr

What this video to understand in depth exactly what happens every time a component is created and rendered in Flex.

Write text here...

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.

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

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