what is flash builder 4 wrt flex?

[abhilashm86]

i see adobe changing whole flex name and making it flash builder
4......
what is main differences to flex builder 3.0 and flash builder 4?
Do they want to anyway merge time line based editor flash and flex!!
in future?

also i saw flash catalyst, to develop RIA's, is this flash catalyst
has something to do with flex related application?

adobe mentions future portfolios, buisness and internet websites will
be more RIA and all mostly belong to concept of flash catalyst?

To what extent is this true, i just want to know will future websites
and portfolios belongs to RIA and flash catalyst?

since i'm student and can't discuss with none, could not figure out
whats going on, had few doubts and posted, express your views on
this..........

[Gaurav Goel]

In my opinion this a move to give the idea that Flex 4 (Flash Builder)
and Flash CS 5 will be closely integrated. One of such feature would
be to compile fla's from Flex 4 but Flex will need Flash CS5 to do so.
Another feature is - A breakpoint created in Flash CS5 can be used to
debug in Flash Builder.

Regarding Flash Catalyst, I think Adobe is now offering to two options
to create SWF's - 1. Flash 2. Flash Catalyst. They are not meant to
replace each other but to target different designers' needs in terms
of usability and fast development.

Regards,
Gaurav Goel

Share and inspire yourSelf with anyone and everyone
http://www.shivolve.com/blogs/grvgl

[Saurabh Narula]

Hi abhilash,

couple of suggestions to you..

one, if you would have been in either hyderabad and chennai you could have attended the Adobe developer summit which had introductory to detailed sessions on Flex 4.

if you have missed out on the sessions you can have a look at the presentations that speakers would have uploaded by now post these developer summits, go visit this site to get more information

http://endtoend.in/apps/forms/adobe/DevSummitNovDec09/home.html

you can also check the presentation that mrinal gave during the summit on flex 4 components that will give out some idea to you about new things in flex 4

http://weblog.mrinalwadhwa.com/2009/12/01/custom-components-in-flex-4/

i have given a session on skinning in flex 4, you might want to check out that presentation as well

http://saurabhnarula.com/blog/presentations-on-skinning-in-flex-4-flex-debugging-tips-and-tricks

second, flex 4 as a platform has evolved, its difficult to write a all the changes that have happened, to start of with you can check out the spec sheets at this url

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Gumbo

to answer your questions

what is main differences to flex builder 3.0 and flash builder 4?

if you are asking about the IDE, then the apart from the name change ( flash builder) there are several enhancements in code hinting, break points, debugging, profiling features, network monitor, data model drives development etc etc.

about the SDK changes, well there are several and you need to go n read them at the adobe open source url that i mentioned above, for one the architecture has evolved and changed and now is more robust and developer and designer friendly.

Do they want to anyway merge time line based editor flash and flex!!
in future?

no this has not been the intention as far as i know, the editors are still different, coz the underlying technology is different, timeline based editors stay with flash suits and code based editors stay with flex.

also i saw flash catalyst, to develop RIA's,  is this flash catalyst
has something to do with flex related application?

Well in the entire Adobe Flash platform stack, yes it has to do a lot and its has great deal of importance, wilh flex yes, it will be significant to use catalyst with flex, the intention behind this is the developer - designer work flow, with catalyst you would have more control over this workflow and you can streamline the process and your applications and you both become mature and productive :)

post flex 4, the catalyst would be placed as a tool between the designer and developer, where in a designer can work on the designs separately and the developer can make use of it, the new language FXG facilitates  this :), go ahead and read more about this.

adobe mentions future portfolios, buisness and internet websites will
be more RIA and all mostly belong to concept of  flash catalyst?

post flex 4, yes to a certain extent, because it would easy to conceptualize your applications in catalyst, also transformation of your static designs from an image( built using photoshop etc) to an application would be easy.

I hope i was able to give you a sneak peak into flex 4, and i hope my responses were able to answer your questions.

Thanks
Saurabh Narula

http://saurabhnarula.com

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[veeru rahul]

Abilash,

 

I'll tell u what I know about Flash Builder.

 

This Flash Builder is more likely like our Flex Builder, some of the key features which they introduced as part of Flash Builder is as follows.

 

Data Centric Development :

 

DataCenric development is a Rapid Application Development in Flash Builder (Gumbo).

 

This helps web developers to rapidly develop their application and integrtae with Back end like PHP. Blaze DS, HTTP , Java etc.

 

Basically they have automated the Back end integration process rather going by configuring the Services.mxml and Services-Config.xml for every back end calls.

 

Work Flow:

 

Connect to data/Service --> Explore Service --> Configure Return Type --> Bind data with Components.

 

All in one shot which will save a hell a lot of time which we cannot imagine.

 

Model Driven Development :

 

As part of Model Driven development they have intorduced a nebie called Data Mgt Service which will facilitate the developers the follwing services.

 

Auomatic data Sync up between client and server, between the clients, in a single Client and also in offline.

 

Then Lazy loading, Paging, Conflict Resolution and very important thing is change tracking (Update, create and delete).

 

Developer/Designer Work Flow :

 

Here comes the Flash catalyst, in that u can convert a PNG or JPEG etc to an appliaction.

Once u r done with that, automaticc code will be generated in code perspective.

 

You can import the code inside ur Flash builder and you can integrate with ur server thru Data Centric development.

 

by using this we can easily achieve 0% tolerance of the Mock given by your designer.

All these were in Developer perspective, there were some for Designers in Flash builder 4.

 

Please let me know if this helps you to some extent.

 

Thanks,

Veeru

 

 

 

[veeru rahul]

one thing I missed in the above mail is spark component.

 

The evolution of spark component is a great idea in Flash builder 4.

 

From my underatnding, in spark they have introduced a skinnable component for all visual component so that the developer can do what ever he wants in context with look and feel of the component with out touching the core functionality of the component.

 

Lets say there will be class files here after, button.as and buttonSkin.as

 

Some one please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.

 

Thanks,

Veeru

[Saurabh Narula]

just to add what Rahul said ..

SkinnableComponent is an extension of UIComponent ( rings a bell? :) flex 3? - flex 4 architecture is basically is developed / designed over flex 3),  ideally your component should have an acitionscript class to contain the core component logic (extends from skinnable component), mxml class that contains all your view logic / declarative code etc.

The association between a component and its skin is maintained through a skinning contract.

for a button a component class is button.as and skin class is buttonSkin.mxml.

Thanks
Saurabh

[veeru rahul]

Thanks Saurab,

But lemme tell u honestly what I feel,

This Flash builder has made our life easy but the charm of the  coding will be wiped out soon if they develop things in a more automated way.

Whats ur take on this?

Thanks,

Veeru

[abhilash M]

@ veeru
the spark component is almost same as CSS transformed component? well i don't know much, i did some components to CSS, so functionality of components did not change.....

[abhilash M]

oh flash catalyst will be great!! nice to see the RAD coming to flash builder,
yes thats why when i started downloading flash 4 from adobe website,
they asked whats background you are implementing like php, java others.....
thanks a lot:)

[abhilash M]

yes saurabh, i understood to a extent and cateogory of designers and developers should be made different in future, thanks a lot:)

[Norris.Lin]

Dito！ flash catalyst and flash builder both are great jobs!

2009/12/7 abhilash M <abhil...@gmail.com>

yes saurabh, i understood to a extent and cateogory of designers and developers should be made different in future, thanks a lot:)

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