About Flex
For those unfamiliar with Adobe Flex, it is a free and open-source software development kit (SDK) built on top of Adobe Flash that uses a somewhat different approach to development than the Adobe Flash authoring environment. In the past, it’s been designed with software developers in mind, though the current development version seems to place more emphasis on design. What this basically amounts to is that in its current state, Flex is used very much like a traditional software development kit, being run from a command-line compiler which takes an MXML file and makes a SWF file from it.
Alongside the free Flex SDK and compiler thereof, Adobe has also released its commercial Flex Builder software which greatly facilitates development of Flex projects. With this software, everything needed to build Flex projects is bundled into the installer and the user would have no need to setup or even work directly with the command-line compiler. The software also contains an integrated visual builder, a drag-and-drop interface for building an application from various components, allowing one to basically draw an application. It’s built on the tremendously popular and powerful Eclipse IDE, so software developers will likely feel quite at home working with it.
About this web site
I’ve attempted to model this Flex blog after the tremendously helpful Flex Examples blog. That blog was the greatest aid to myself in learning Flex and I think the formula it uses to teach (offering easily downloadable, ready-made examples) is the most practical one. With each such ready-made example I offer here, I hope to include a functional example SWF with the “View Source” option enabled and also the relevant Flex project ZIP file, not to mention that the source code used will be displayed in code-highlighted format for ease of reference. For the most part, these examples will be built using Flex Builder and the project files are being packaged therein, so the optimal usage of the examples assumes the user has Flex Builder. However, as some people may not have the funds to purchase that software, I’m going to try, as much as possible, to make the project files compatible or easily usable from within another IDE (Integrated Development Environment) such as FlashDevelop.
I’m going to try and keep all example code contained in a single MXML file, though with some of the more massive examples I’m going to include here, it wouldn’t be feasible, so the separate files will be easily available in the included ZIP package. Also, I intend on using CSS styles where those styles will be common among examples, yet I don’t want a separate CSS file, so many of the examples will contain the styles in mx:Style tags.
About My Adventures in Development and Flex
I am basically a hobbyist software developer. I began programming early on in the PC scene using Quickbasic for DOS. Eventually, I progressed to learning Microsoft’s Visual Basic, which granted me access to a basic understanding of object-oriented development. Over time, I picked up various other development tools such as the more modern day, open-source FreeBasic and C++ based Juce SDK, which allowed for cross-platform development.
In a more recent venture into web site development, I stumbled upon some pages which mentioned Adobe Flex. I took a look into Flex and was amazed at what it represented as far as rapid development is concerned. I downloaded the free and open-source Flex SDK and tore apart a few examples using the free and open-source editor, Notepad++. Through those examples, I learned the basics of the Flex SDK. From that point, I decided to download the demo version of the Flex Builder software. Upon loading up a previous example project that I’d created via the Notepad++ and Flex SDK compiler, I realized how dramatically easier Flex Builder would make my development. I purchased a copy of the software and several books regarding Flex and this portion of the web site, I now dedicate to making public, various projects and tutorials related to that development.