Macromedia Flex is an umbrella term for a group of technologies initially released in March of 2004 by Macromedia to support the development and deployment of rich internet applications based on their proprietary Macromedia flash platform. The expression umbrella term means a word that provides a superset or grouping of related concepts. ... Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software house. ... Also known as RIA, Rich Internet Applications are the expected next iteration of software development. ... // == Macromedia Flash == ==]] Using Macromedia Flash 8 (bundled in Studio 8) in Windows XP. Maintainer: Adobe Systems (formerly Macromedia) Latest release: 8 / September 30th, 2005 OS: Windows (no native Windows XP Professional x64 Edition support), Mac OS X, Linux (i386 only, via wine [1]) Use: Multimedia Content Creator License: Proprietary Website...

Traditional application programmers found it challenging to adapt to the animation metaphor upon which the Flash Platform was originally built. Flex seeks to minimize this problem by providing a workflow and programming model that is familiar to application developers.

Flex was initially released as a J2EE application or JSP tag library that compiles Flex Mark-Up Language (MXML) and ActionScript on-the-fly into Flash applications (binary SWF files). Later versions of Flex support the creation of static files that are compiled at authoring time and can be deployed online without the need for a server license. Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE (formerly also J2EE) is a programming platform – part of the Java platform – for developing and running distributed multi-tier architecture applications, based largely on modular components running on an application server. ... JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a Java technology that allows software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML or other types of documents in response to a Web client request. ... ActionScript is an ECMAScript-based programming language used for scripting Macromedia Flash movies and applications. ...

The goal of Flex is to allow Web application developers to quickly and easily build Rich Internet Applications, otherwise known as RIAs. In a multi-tiered model,Flex applications serve as the Presentation Tier. Also known as RIA, Rich Internet Applications are the expected next iteration of software development. ... In software engineering, multi-tier architecture (often referred to as n-tier architecture) is a client-server architecture in which an application is executed by more than one distinct software agent. ...

Flex features development of graphic user interfaces using an XML based language called MXML. Flex comes with various components and features that make capabilities such as web services, remote objects, drag and drop, sortable columns, charting/graphing, built in animation effects, and other interface interactions simple. Since the client only loads once, application workflow is significantly improved versus HTML based applications (eg. PHP, ASP, JSP, CFMX) which require executing templates on the server with every action. Flex's language and file structure are seek to decouple application logic from design. A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ... MXML is a variation of XML introduced with Macromedias Flex application server. ... A web service is a collection of protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications. ... An excerpt of HTML code with syntax highlighting In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser. ... PHP is an open-source, reflective programming language. ... Active Server Pages (ASP) are Microsofts server-side technology for dynamically-generated web pages that is marketed as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS). ... JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a Java technology that allows software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML or other types of documents in response to a Web client request. ... ColdFusion is the original and most common implementation of a tag and ECMAScript-based programming language -- ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) and CFSCRIPT, respectively -- which is typically used in web application development for the generation of dynamic web pages. ...

The Flex server also acts as a gateway to allow the client to communicate with XML Web Services and Remote Objects (such as Coldfusion CFCs, Java Classes, and anything else that supports the Action Message Format). Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ...

Commonly mentioned as alternatives to Flex are OpenLaszlo and Ajax technologies. OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of web applications with a usable human interface (sometimes called Rich Internet Applications) on the World Wide Web. ... Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive web applications. ...

Initial Releases ( Flex Server 1.0 and 1.5 )

Initial releases of Flex were targeted towards the enterprise application development market, and were priced around US$15000 per CPU. Each license included 5 Flex Builder licenses. CPU redirects here. ...

Flex 2

Flex 2 changes the licensing model to open room to a free version of the technology, called "Flex Framework".

The new Flex Builder 2 is based on the Eclipse IDE. Enterprise-oriented services will continue to be available for those who require advanced features such as data push and automated testing. The French 1999 eclipse An eclipse (Greek verb: ekleipô, to vanish) is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. ...

Flex 2 introduces the use of a new version of the ActionScript scripting language, Actionscript 3, and requires Flash Player 9 or later for the runtime. ActionScript is an ECMAScript-based programming language used for scripting Macromedia Flash movies and applications. ... In computer science, run time (with a space, though often its spelled without one) describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). ...

Flex will be the first Macromedia product to be rebranded as Adobe, starting with the 2.0 release. Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) (LSE: ABS) is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California that was founded in December 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. ...

Flex and ColdFusion

Macromedia embeds a subset of Flex 1.5 into its Coldfusion MX 7 middleware platform, for use in Flash forms. It is possible to use this framework to write rich internet applications, although its intended purpose is for rich forms only and this functionality is not supported by Macromedia.

Flex Application Development Process

Everything below is directly sourced from the help file in version 2.0 Beta 3:

• Define an application interface using a set of pre-defined components (forms, buttons, and so on)
• Arrange components into a user interface design
• Use styles and themes to define the visual design
• Add dynamic behavior (one part of the application interacting with another, for example)
• Define and connect to data services as needed
• Build the source code into a SWF file that runs in the Flash Player

Release history

• Flex 1.0 - March 2004
• Flex 1.5 - October 2004
• Flex 2.0 (Alpha) - October 2005
• Flex 2.0 Beta 1 - February 2006
• Flex 2.0 Beta 2 - March 2006
• Flex 2.0 Beta 3 - May 2006
• Flex 2.0 FINAL - June 2006 (Tentative)

See also

• XUL
• Thin client
• XAML
• Flash Player
• OpenLaszlo

XUL (XML User Interface Language) is a user interface markup language developed to support Mozilla applications like Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. ... Photo of a modern thin client. ... XAML (short for Extensible Application Markup Language, and pronounced Zammel) is the user interface markup language for the Windows Presentation Foundation, which is one of the pillars of the WinFX API. XAML is a declarative XML-based language optimized for describing graphically rich visual user interfaces, such as those created... Macromedia Flash or Flash is a graphics animation program, written and marketed by Macromedia, that uses vector graphics. ... OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of web applications with a usable human interface (sometimes called Rich Internet Applications) on the World Wide Web. ...

External links

• Official Macromedia Flex site
• CFlex - Community Driven Macromedia Flex Developer site
• Flex Authority - Macromedia Flex Developer site
• Flexcoders - Flex Developer Mailing List
• CFFLEX - Coldfusion/Flex Developer Site
• Setting up Flex on Tomcat