Flex: Is it right for you?
Submitted by ben.bishop on Wed, 10/17/2007 - 02:21. Actionscript 3 Flex
I was cruising the FlashKit forums and came across the following post:
Hi All out there,
Im new to flex. I'm thrilled with the HYPE flex has caused, and the
heap of awards in so little span. I'm a flash designer and programmer.
I know a little bit of web designing, i usually use Dreamweaver. Im not
so good at PHP, and other web based scripts. I'm fimiliar with
Macromedia Flash 8 Professional. I wanna know some thing from my GURU's
here.......
1. Is flex for me?
2. Is flex a complete RIA or can desktop exe's be created?
3. Does Flex 2 have support on OS 10.4.9 and 10.5 Leopard? Can i use a
single downloaded copy for both or will i need a MAC copy for MAC?
4. Im presently into desktop based applications in flash, so question 2 repeats.
5. Can I get the names of some fine, easy learning books on flex?
6. What's the future of Flex over Flash?
7. Does Flex support writing files to HD, OS native popup's, CD
functionalities, Printing functionalities, Audio and Video
functionalities, text parsing functionalities?
8. I have some fla and swf files with me, I want to add flex database
functionalities. Can i import the swf? or fla? and code the buttons on
my swf in flex?
9. You look tired. i will be back with more queries.
Im very keen to know about flex. I have read many articles. I hope
someone could answer me my questions and get me started with flex.
Regards
Roshan Kolar
I think Roshan is a like of a lot of people wondering if they should continue using Flash or should commit to adopting Flex as their development platform of choice. To help, I thought I would share my opinion after working with Flex for the past year...
1. Is flex for me?
If you have been creating Flash animations for the past 5 years or so and nothing else, then probably no. However, if you have substantial experience in OOP (Object Oriented Programming) and find yourself building robust applications that use and display XML data, then "yes" Flex is definitely worth checking out.
2. Is flex a complete RIA or can desktop exe's be created?
Up until the beta release of Apollo/AIR, the answer was a strong "yeah kind of." Using programs/technologies like Multidmedia's Zinc, a developer could compile their swf into a full fledged desktop executable. Wrapped with Zinc, a swf could read and write files to the hard drive, manipulate the registry, create instances of Internet Explorer, and connect to a Microsoft Access database.
A short coming of this practice is the inability to effeciently debug the executables during runtime. Unfortunately, a developer is relegated to prompting out a series of traces to find out what the problem is. Enter AIR.
With AIR a developer can not only build desktop executables without any third party software packages, but they can debug them in real time with the Flex Builder debugger. As for capabilities, with AIR your application can do the following (just to name a few):
Browse directories using the system windows/popups
Connect, use, and create SQLLite DBs
Read and write files using a FileStream class
Read and write to and from the clipboard
Check for net connection
Create an instance of a web browser that can be manipulated at will
3. Does Flex 2 have support on OS 10.4.9 and 10.5 Leopard? Can i use a
single downloaded copy for both or will i need a MAC copy for MAC?
SWFs can run only platform with Flashplayer. Additionally, AIR applications should run on any platform that has the Adobe Runtime Environment installed.
4. Im presently into desktop based applications in flash, so question 2 repeats.
Check out my answer for number 2
5. Can I get the names of some fine, easy learning books on flex?
Essential ActionScript 3.0
ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers
ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques
If you throughly read these three books you'll be more than on your way to becoming a Flex guru.
6. What's the future of Flex over Flash?
Flex more likely than not will become the preferred platform for developing Flash-based applications. Subsequently, Flash's purpose will be a support one giving designers the ability to skin Flex components and create animations. Flash will always be a viable tool for creating applications. However, Flex and its framework lends itself very easily to the Model/Controller/View design pattern, thus making it a natural solution for making robust applications.
7. Does Flex support writing files to HD, OS native popup's, CD
functionalities, Printing functionalities, Audio and Video
functionalities, text parsing functionalities?
Inherently Flex creations can play FLVs and MP3s no problem. Print functionality is a bit limited but could be enhanced with AIR's browser capabilites. With AIR, a developer has access to native popups, file contents, and the hard drive. However, AIR applications cannot run off of CD. An AIR application is basically a zipped up bundle of files that the Integrated Runtime interprets and compiles. This is not conducive to an app housed on a fix media such as a CD. Hopefully as bandwidths increase and user comfort with internet grows, CDs will be used less and less as a delivery vessel for software.
8. I have some fla and swf files with me, I want to add flex database
functionalities. Can i import the swf? or fla? and code the buttons on
my swf in flex?
You can load a AS2 swf into a Flex generated swf and communicate with it via LocalAreaConnection. However, it is not like loading an AS2 swf into a AS2 swf. It does not become in essence a MovieClip. In fact, another Flash Player/Virtual Player is created to run it. Consequently, you have to use LocalAreaConnection to communicate much like you would with two swfs on the same HTML page.
9. You look tired. i will be back with more queries.
Not at all... feel free to leave as many comments or questions as you like.
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