Adobe’s Open Source Flex SDK. - O'Reilly Media

Adobe’s Open Source Flex SDK. OSCON - July 2008 Portland, OR

Duane Nickull & James Ward Sr. Technology Evangelists 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

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ADOBE FLEX ® 3 A highly productive, free open source framework for building expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers and on the desktop with Adobe AIR

Understanding Flex   2 languages   MXML (actually a library of ActionScript)   ActionScript 3

  Compilers   Debuggers   Rich Component Library

  Flex Builder IDE   Eclipse Plugin or turn-key install   Accelerates Design   Design view and code view

Flex Builder IDE Flex SDK MXML

ActionScript

Flex Class Library Debuggers

MXML



MXML - Components



MXML – identifiers (references)



MXML - Properties



MXML - Events



MXML - Bindings



How Flex Works in the Browser Flex Builder IDE

Browser

Flex SDK MXML

Flash Player ActionScript

Flex Class Library

SOAP

HTTP/S

AMF/S

RTMP/S

Web Server

Compile XML/HTTP REST

LC Data Services

SOAP Web Services J2EE Application Server Existing Applications & Infrastructure

How Flex Works on the Desktop Flex Builder IDE

Files

SQLite

Flex SDK MXML

Desktop

Notifications Clipboard

AIR Client Runtime ActionScript

Flex Class Library

SOAP

HTTP/S

AMF/S

RTMP/S

Web Server

Compile & Package XML/HTTP REST

LC Data Services

SOAP Web Services J2EE Application Server Existing Applications & Infrastructure

FLEX 3 SDK ® COMPILERS

Compilers

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/download/attachments/12845394/compiler.png?version=1

MXML Document Container

THE MEAT: Downloading, Building the Flex SDK Open Source! LIVE!!!

Flex SDK Source Code   In Subversion Repository:   http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/flex/sdk/

  Prerequisites (Mac OSX, Linux):   Java 2SDK   Apache ANT

  SVN Client

  Open Terminal and enter   svn checkout http://opensource.adobe.com/svn

  Warning – this might take some time (larger files)

Flex SDK Source Code   Sit back and have a beer while the source rolls in. We tested this and one beer is about right.

Flex SDK Source Code   Navigate to the ~/install_directory/trunk and type “source setup.sh”   NOTE: you have to have perms (if not try “SUDO ..”)   Watch the fun start. This sets up all environmental variables.   On Mac OSX/Lunix/Unix you can verify this with “printenv” (prints all variables)

Flex SDK Source Code   When you build, two things happen:   First the Java source code for the author-time command-line tools, which is located in the modules directory, is compiled using the J2SDK to create JAR files in the lib directory. This includes the code for the command-line tools mxmlc and compc.   Then the ActionScript source code for the runtime framework, which is located in the frameworks/projects directory, is compiled using compc to create SWC files in the frameworks/libs and frameworks/locale directories.   To build, type in “ant -q main”

  Go get a second beer while it compiles! If you have lots of RAM and a high speed GPU, you may need to chug it (see below). Ignore the messages about deprecated APIs

Flex SDK Source Code   Now build something!

Voila~

Adobe Flex Builder 3 – Developer Productivity   Eclipse based IDE   Code hinting, interactive debugging   Visual UI design and behaviors   Import assets from Adobe CS3

  Professional edition adds:   Memory and Performance Profilers   Charting components, advanced datagrid   Automated functional testing support

What you’ll need:   Flex SDK or Flex Builder 3   http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/

  Fles Source Code:   http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/flex/sdk/

  Flex Skin Design Extensions for CS3:   http://www.adobe.com/go/flex3_skinning

  Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3:   http://www.adobe.com/go/flex3_cs3_swfkit

  Visit the Developer Centre for tutorials   http://developer.adobe.com/

2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

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2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.