Introduction to the Flex framework

When we are learning a technology, we are always accustomed to look at the name of this technology is the abbreviation of which English words. Examples of this are many, such as ASP is the abbreviation for Active Server Page .

But looking for a long time, did not find Flex is the abbreviation of which words. So my own understanding is that flex is a technical term introduced by Adobe, not an English abbreviation.

Brief introduction

Flex is an efficient, free, open source framework for building expressive WEB applications that leverage the Adobe®flash®player and Adobe air® Runtime to achieve consistent deployments across browsers, desktops, and operating systems. Although you can only build flex applications using the Flex framework, Adobe Flash Builder™ (previously known as Adobe flex®builder™) software accelerates development with smart coding, interactive traversal debugging, and visual design user interface layouts.

Macromedia Flash is a powerful vector animation editing tool, after making a start in animation, Flash has been seeking rich Internet application (RIA rich client) The supremacy, the most influential is that object-oriented programming Scripting ActionScript3.0 has been introduced, and class libraries and corresponding component (components) similar to Java Swing have been built. Flex interprets the. mxml file organization components and generates the corresponding. swf file through a Java or. NET, and other non-flash approach. Flex's component is similar to Flash's component, but has improved. At present Macromedia Company has been acquired by Adobe Company. The Flex version currently (October 2008) is 3.0.

The use of Flash is completely able to achieve the effect of flex, why also need Flex? There are two reasons for this:

1: To cater to more developers (developers). Flash is born to designer (designer) design, interface and Flash animation concept and program developers out of tune, in order to attract more jsp/asp/php and other programmers, Macromedia launched a Flex, Use very simple. Mxml to describe the interface to jsp/asp/php program personnel. (x/d) HTML is very similar, and mxml more standardized and standardized.

2: For a standard. You must have heard of Microsoft's newest generation of operating system Longhorn (that is, Vista, followed by Win7 is also the same core), in the Longhorn launched by Microsoft also introduced a new language XAML, an interface description language, with the corresponding is the smart Something very similar to client and flex (that is, Silverlight). Mxml and XAML are very similar ... This is an important embodiment of the progress of human-computer interaction technology, that is, internal logic and external interface are separated from each other.

Flex and J2ee/.net actually does not matter, Macromedia use Java to make a application to the Flash technology into Java, And then use the. NET technology to make a. NET application to integrate flash technology into the. NET; it should be said that flex solves the most tedious problem in the Java EE and. NET, which is the problem of Web clients.

Causes

Traditional programmers have difficulty in developing animation applications, and the Flex platform is the first to be created. Flex tries to improve the problem by providing a workflow and programming model that programmers already know well.

Flex was originally published as a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, or as a JSP (JavaServer Pages) tag Library. It compiles the running Mxml (Flex Markup Language) and ActionScript into Flash applications (that is, binary SWF files). The latest version of Flex supports the creation of a static file that can be deployed online using interpreted compilation and without the need to purchase a server license.

The goal of Flex is to make it easier for programmers to develop RIA applications faster and simpler. In the multilayer development model, the flex application belongs to the performance layer.

Flex is developed using a GUI interface and uses an xml-based mxml language. Flex has a variety of components, such as Web Services, remote objects, drag and drop, column sorting, charting, and other functions, flex built-in animation effects and other simple interactive interfaces. Compared to html-based applications such as PHP, ASP, JSP, ColdFusion, and CFMX, the server-side template is required for each request, and the workflow of the flex application is greatly improved because the client only needs to load it once. Flex's language and file structure also tries to isolate the logic of the application from the design.

A Flex server is also a path for communication between clients and XML Web services and Remote objects (Coldfusion CFCs, or Java classes, and other objects that support the action message format).

OpenLaszlo and Ajax technologies are generally considered to be Flex substitutes.

Flex Application Development Steps

The following help files come directly from Flex 2.0 Beta 3:

Define a development interface using a System predefined component (window, button, etc.).

Organize the components and now customize the user interface design.

Use styles and themes to define visible designs.

Add dynamic actions, such as interaction between applications.

Define and connect to the previous data service as needed.

Generates a SWF file that runs in the Flash Player from the source code.

Version history

Flex 1.0-March 2004

Flex 1.5-October 2004

Flex 2.0 (Alpha)-October 2005

Flex 2.0 Beta 1-2006 year February

Flex 2.0 Beta 2-2006 year March

Flex 2.0 Beta 3-2006 year May

Flex 2.0 Final-2006 Year June 28

Flex 2.0.1-2007 Year January 5

Flex 3.0 Beta 1-2007 Year January 11

Flex 3.0 Beta 2-2007 Year October 1

Flex 3.0 Beta 3-2007 Year December 12

Flex 3.0-February 25, 2008

Flex 3.1-August 15, 2008

Flex 3.2-November 17, 2008

Flex 3.3-March 4, 2009

Flex 3.4-August 18, 2009

FLEX4 (FLASH Bulider)