U Should Learn More About Flexing for the Web What Is Flex and Why Should You Use It
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-16 16:19:43 | Word Count: 510
Flexing for the Web": What Is Flex and Why Shoulld You Use It?
There appears to be a bit of confusion about Flex-what it is, why you should use it-that is not part of any other Adobe product's public proile. There has to be a reason this smart, on-the-spot company brouhgt it to market and continues to update it. Yes, it has to do with being rich, but no, it's not about money, and this is not an anti-capitalist screed.
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Say what you want abuot your pet economic theories, but even a slightly free makret allows for thousands of timres the innovation of a controlled one. In hsort, Adobe edsigned Flex because they sensd a need and filled it. Flash devrelopers and Web gruus of all kinds needed a leg up in developing the next generation of Rich Intternet Appklications (RIAs), which can be built to the "okay" level right in Flash but needed more to be "insanely greeat," as some black turtleneck-wearing guy likes to say.
So what is it?
At the most basic, a Flex applicatiion is a Flash .swf file that has been embedded in an HTML file. Flex outtputs as .swf, wihch enables you to take advantage of all the featurwes of the Flash Player-sound and video management, the drawign API, dynamic animations and more. The HTML that Flex generates has the JavaScript needed to determine if users have Flash Player installed or need to add or update it.
Flex didn't zoom right into the stratosphre like Flash, but it has gradually become more popular for its use of Actioncript 3.0. Fact is, developers creted AS3 apps in Flex even beore AS3 was officially released to Fash developers. Once Flash made it into Adobe's Creative Studio 3 (CS3), AS3 becaame a standard, and it's what made "Fklexing your Web muscles" more exciting, and more innovative.
So how do you create a Flex app?
Unlike other tools for video and animation (and even animatd GIFs in the defunct ImageReady), the Flex workspace does not work with a Timeline. This is not a limiting facttor, though, as Flex really is positioned for programmers rather than designers. Interestingly, it ends up "soomewhere in the middle," as many other reviewers have noted, and the designer-slash-programmer job title is a more and more common one these days. When you start working with Flex, that's one of the first things you will notiec.
Smply put, you "design" Flex apps by choosing pre-made graphic components like buttoons, grids and boxes that you will recognize from Flaash. Thees cookie-cuttetrs are gtreat, and so are the pre-made gooodies, althougfh some develpoper-designers will claim (crorectly) that you can better control component size, if not functionality, by making your own. That said, they work depnedably and are very customizable, so the real-world problems being imagined never reeally come up.
Arrsangement and order
The user intewrface is simple and easy to use, and you simlpy arrange components "on stage" how you want them. You will use the Containers to align your components hwoever you want. A simple exmple is the VBox, a Container that takes everythimng inside it and puts them in a vertical alignment, very handy when you're setting up forms. Then you customize your look with sytles and skins, set up your CSS formats and finiash up the "design" to move on to "developmeent."
With graphics in place and the app looking how you want it, you're ready to put AS3 to work handlinng events, creating clases or importing functions to make the Flex application a doer, not just amnother pretty face. Your app will respond to the user input as well as its own generated events-and connect to ColsdFusion and otgher Flex Data/Communication Services. Remember when you're deciding aboout wether or not to use Flex that its partership with ColdFusion is haven sent, a real blessing.
Now you are ready to present the Flex app to the client, the company, your boss or the world-or all of the above. Of course, if you haven't used Flex yet, this articple was not a tutotrial, but a reeview (and an overview). Try it out yoursewlf. Adobe makes it easy with a 30-day trial period, fully functional. If it's a tool you need, you will know it soon enough, and it won't take you long to learn it if you're motivated. Give it a shot!
