Ted Patrick > { Events & Community } > Adobe Systems

Things have really changed for Flex! It is really amazing seeing June 28th go by marking the 1 year anniversary of Flex 2's release. What has really impressed me is the sheer number of public facing sites and companies committing to Flex since June 28. Typically there is a long wait until the Flash Player runtime is widely deployed but somehow with Flex 2 we moved rapidly beyond this trend. I think this was partly due to the sheer size of the Flex 2 release some 4 years in the making. It is really rare to get a new runtime, compiler, language, tooling, components, and servers all shipping concurrently on the same day. It was a great release!

Flex has really entered a growth stage as a development framework. If you are writing applications for AIR or Flash Player, it is hard to avoid using Flex given the productivity of development and what you get free in the SDK. The release has changed the consulting marketplace and there is an ever present drought of Flex development talent. This shortage has raised consulting rates and fills my inbox daily with requests for names of developers to recommend for projects.

Flex 3 builds upon what was delivered in Flex 2 adding to the capability without disrupting the value of wide deployment and compatibility. When Flex 3 is released it will be supported in 95% of browsers without installation, that is a big deal. Additionally the changes in the SDK were designed to be non-disruptive from Flex 2 to Flex 3.

More impressive is that Flex has a long future ahead. There are teams hard at work on pushing Flex far beyond todays capabilities, far beyond what Flex 2 and Flex 3 deliver. All I can say to this is that MAX 2007 will be an amazing event. :)

More to Come!

Ted :)

We have 16 new speaking spots coming available at MAX Chicago next week specifically designed to showcase designers and developers from the community. Next week we will be announcing the details on how you can speak at MAX and have a shot at presenting in the MAX Keynote. The MAX team has posted MAX banners and badges that you can add to your blog or site. If you are speaking, let everyone know with the speaker badge!



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<a href="http://www.adobemax2007.com"><img src="http://adobemax2007.com/banners/MAX07_B120x90.gif"/></a>


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<a href="http://www.adobemax2007.com"><img src="http://adobemax2007.com/banners/MAX07_B125x125.gif"/></a>


Stay tuned!

Ted :)

At MAX 2007 in Chicago, we are adding boot camps to allow you to work directly with the ColdFusion, Flex, AIR, LiveCycle, and Mobile & Devices development teams for 3.5 hours. This goes way beyond the "Meet the Team" or "Birds of a Feather" sessions as you will get to work directly with the development teams in a collaborative environment. The sessions will provide a mixture of short presentations, workshops, and free-form coding. Make sure to bring your laptop, your best questions, your most desired features, your coolest projects to share, and be ready to learn something new. The teams will have thumb drives with the latest bits to install and it is a rare chance to learn directly from the best of the best.

I will be at the Flex Boot Camp with the Flex 3 Development Team.

MAX 2007 is different this year, see you at Boot Camp!

Adobe MAX 2007. Connect. Discover. Inspire.

Ted :)

Keith Peters will be presenting "Making Things Move" at the "Inspire" sessions at Adobe MAX 2007 in Chicago Sept. 30 - Oct. 3. Keith is one of the best interactive developers in the world and is the leading author for programmatic animation and motion graphics. Last year his 2 books "Making Things Move" were top sellers 2 years in a row. Keith makes very complex math and programming subjects easy to understand and has inspired many interactive developers/designers to push the boundary of what is possible with Flash Player and ActionScript.




"It is nothing less than brilliant. No other book on Flash so boldly straddles the line between advanced design and compelling development." - Charles Freedman


MAX 2007 Chicago will be Keith's first MAX event and his inspirational session is sure to change the tone of the event. Programmatic animation is essential for creating great experiences on the web and on the desktop and this class of session has been long missed at MAX. I highly recommend that you do not miss Keith's session at MAX 2007 in Chicago.

Keith thanks for helping us change MAX 2007!
Adobe MAX 2007. Connect. Discover. Inspire.

See you at MAX 2007!

Ted :)

I am going to be on the "on AIR" (Adobe Integrated Runtime) Bus tour from Seattle to Denver. In preparation for the tour I am practicing Guitar Hero non-stop, bringing 100K Flex stickers, and have a new Guitar shown below. I will be on leg one of the on AIR ( Adobe Integrated Runtime) bus tour from Seattle to Denver.



(Can I sticker or what!)




I have a few AIR projects that I will be working on during the tour. It is time that IFBIN 2.0 and TagTV 2.0 got some development attention. Since February, I have been so darn busy that the bus tour will be some time to focus on getting these projects out the door. It should be a great trip and I will be blogging about MAX and Flex during the entire trip.

See you on bus tour!

More to come!

Ted :)

Last night event agenda, sessions, and speakers were posted to the MAX 2007 website. In addition to the workshop and hands-on sessions posted, I have been working around the clock securing speakers for a new area at MAX called "Inspire". The "Inspire" sessions will be hosted in a prominent 500 person room and will provide 13 unique sessions that are currently not listed in the event agenda, speaker list, session list, or Flex Scheduler (post registration). These speakers and sessions will be announced gradually and it is a whos-who of the top speakers in RIA, Web, Design, and showcase some of Adobe's best customers.

Somewhere along the way the inspirational sessions migrated away from MAX as an event. This year we are bringing them back and putting them center stage like never before. It will be a great change for MAX as an event. The speakers are 13 really great reasons to attend MAX and I look forward to showcasing every one of them.

More to come!

Ted :)

Today I updated the Flex directory and the directory crossed 100 Consulting Firms providing solutions using Adobe Flex worldwide.

Flex Directory

It is also pretty interesting that a Flex application got indexed into Google! The only listing higher is flexdirectory.com as a domain. Google is indexing XML files without issue! Sweet.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Want to got to MAX for $730? Last night we launched a special discount for teams wanting to attend MAX. Currently it is the best discount offered at MAX regardless of the promotion code (price will go up on July 21). Simply select "3 for 2" on page 2 of Registration and you are all set. It is an easy way to get the lowest rate at MAX.



Here are the details:


3 for 2 Group Discount - $730 per person (price changes on July 21)
Buy two full event passes at the regular price and get one full event pass free! Offer applies only to full event pass rates. No other offers/packages apply. Qualifying passes must be purchased at the same time and for the same organization.

Also from the image you should see we are also selling 1 and 2 day passes to MAX. If you can attend just one or two days this option should be helpful.

See you at MAX 2007 in Chicago!

Ted :)

Every year at MAX Adobe hosts a pre-conference training day. These additional full-day hands-on training sessions sell out every single year and last year sold out in 30 days. The training classrooms have computers fully loaded with all training material and you work with the technologies hands on with an instructor.

MAX 2007 Registration

Here are the Training Sessions available at MAX 2007 in Chicago:

Unlocking Cross-Media Workflows
Attend this action-packed workshop to learn how Creative Suite 3 Master Collection enables you to design smoothly and cost effectively for multiple media — including print, web, interactive design, mobile, and video. We'll deconstruct the workflow process behind several projects to demonstrate how to: prepare assets for use anywhere; design compelling websites that leverage video, interactivity, and external content contributions; create digital publications from print layouts; output compelling video for use online and in interactive content; and prepare content for viewing on mobile devices.

Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (Windows Lab)
Immerse yourself in a full day of training on the tightly integrated toolset in Creative Suite 3 Design Premium. Discover powerful new features such as Live Color in Illustrator CS3, the new Smart Filters, Quick Selection, and Auto-Align features in Photoshop CS3 Extended, and transparency effects, table styles, and Multi-image Place in InDesign CS3. Learn how to build a web page using the industry-leading tools in Dreamweaver, and expand your creative options with an introduction to Flash CS3 Professional. Tight integration among Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash enables you to apply what you know to learning new skills. Take your creative work to a new level with the leading cross-media design toolkit.

Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (MAC Lab)
Immerse yourself in a full day of training on the tightly integrated toolset in Creative Suite 3 Design Premium. Discover powerful new features such as Live Color in Illustrator CS3, the new Smart Filters, Quick Selection, and Auto-Align features in Photoshop CS3 Extended, and transparency effects, table styles, and Multi-image Place in InDesign CS3. Learn how to build a web page using the industry-leading tools in Dreamweaver, and expand your creative options with an introduction to Flash CS3 Professional. Tight integration among Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash enables you to apply what you know to learning new skills. Take your creative work to a new level with the leading cross-media design toolkit.

Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
Discover the most comprehensive web design toolkit available today. In this one-day, hands-on class, you'll learn how to prepare web assets in Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3, prototype a web project in Fireworks CS3, build dynamic websites using CSS and the new Spry framework for Ajax in Dreamweaver CS3, and integrate Photoshop and Illustrator assets into interactive projects designed in Flash CS3 Professional. Find out how to identify and solve common CSS issues with the Browser Compatibility Check and Adobe CSS Advisor website. Discover how to prepare content for mobile devices and then preview and test it using Adobe Device Central. You’ll walk away with practical tips and techniques for maintaining best practices in web design and development.

Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
Experience working at peak efficiency on every phase of video production with Adobe’s tightly integrated post-production tools for Mac and Windows. In this all-day class, you'll explore new support for video layers in Photoshop CS3; prepare Illustrator CS3 graphics for video output more easily; design compelling After Effects CS3 Professional animations; apply slow motion with variable speed control for dramatic effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3; and accomplish everyday audio tasks more intuitively with new Soundbooth CS3. Also learn about integration with Flash CS3 Professional and the direct-to-disk recording and on-set monitoring tools in OnLocation CS3. Then master delivering content to film, video, DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, the web, and mobile devices to reach your broadest audience ever.

LiveCycle ES: Building Applications
In this one-day intensive course, you'll learn how to develop, streamline, integrate, and protect composite applications across geographical and organization boundaries with Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite. By enabling service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM), LiveCycle ES allows both business and IT professionals to visually assemble end-to-end processes that unify systems, people, business rules, and web services quickly and flexibly. The basics of SOA solutions and using rich Internet applications are introduced, followed by an in-depth walkthrough of designing, deploying, and monitoring processes. We'll cover the use of form guides and Flex, development of web services to build the composite application, and the use of business rules in processes.

Flex 3: Integrating with ColdFusion
This session provides ColdFusion developers with hands-on, practical experience connecting their Flex 3 client applications to remote, dynamic data provided by ColdFusion and LiveCycle Data Services. This two-day course teaches developers how to connect with remote data using ColdFusion Flash Remoting and the Flex Data Management Service, and how to integrate ColdFusion Enterprise Edition with the Flex Message Service.

Flex 3: Integration with Java
This session provides experienced application developers with hands-on, practical experience connecting their Flex front ends to remote, dynamic data using LiveCycle Data Services. This two-day course covers how to connect with remote data using web services and LiveCycle Data Services, allowing communication with a Java back end. We'll also discuss how to manipulate and format the returned data.

Flex 3: Developing Rich Client Applications
Get hands-on, practical experience using Flex. This course introduces developers to all the primary features of Flex they need to know to build a fully functional, well-architected front end for a rich Internet application (RIA).

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR): Bringing Rich Internet Applications to the Desktop
This full-day course will include everything you need to get started building applications with Adobe AIR. We'll cover techniques that will allow Flex and HTML developers to create rich applications for deployment on the desktop. Learn how to interact with the windowing API and file system, drag and drop to the desktop, handle data persistence, and more. Learn more about the dynamic cross-scripting between Flash and HTML within the Adobe AIR runtime. We'll also discuss how to easily package and distribute Adobe AIR applications.

What's New in ColdFusion 8
ColdFusion 8 is the most ambitious and capable version of ColdFusion to date and features enhancements for developers, administrators, and managers alike. In this full-day session you will get invaluable hands-on experience with PDF manipulation, image processing, .NET integration, Acrobat Connect Presentation generation, debugging, server monitoring, and much more.

Building ColdFusion Applications around Design Patterns
Design patterns are ways to write code for maximum reuse and manageability, and the ColdFusion community has created and adopted design patterns ideally suited to ColdFusion development. This full-day session will expose you to design patterns and give you hands-on experience building more scalable and manageable applications.

Introduction to Flash Lite 2
This session is a deep-diving workshop on developing Flash Lite content and applications. We'll begin with a general Flash Lite tutorial and then move on to more detailed information on how to develop content for mobile operators, including Verizon Wireless.

MAX 2007 Registration

See you at MAX 2007!

Regards,

Ted :)

At MAX 2007 speakers will encounter some changes. Having spoken at prior MAX events myself, speaker treatment and benefits were not on par with other events. The MAX team has rewritten the book this year on speaker benefits and overall treatment at MAX. These changes will change MAX inside out as an event and allow us to attract the best speakers in the Web, Design, and RIA marketplace.

New MAX 2007 Speaker Benefits:

1. Complimentary Hotel at MAX 2007

2. Upgraded Speaker Ready Room - Larger area, Food/Drinks, Quiet Area

3. Dedicated staff for speakers

4. Exclusive Speaker Dinner

5. Speaker gifts

6. Simplified agreements using Digital Signatures (PDF)

Speaking at MAX will be wildly different this year for both internal and external speakers. We need to recognize the hard work that goes into preparing original content for MAX. Speaking at conferences is hard work and at MAX 2007, Adobe will be putting out the red carpet for speakers.

More to come!

Ted :)

Late last night we launched Adobe MAX 2007 registration for North America. Adobe MAX 2007 North America will be held in Chicago from September 30 to October 3. This year we wanted to launch registration not through marketing email or mail but rather through blogs within the community. The community will be the first to register for MAX and is first in line for the training sessions that sell out every year.


ADOBE MAX 2007 North America (Chicago) Details

ADOBE MAX 2007 North America (Chicago) Registration



The current site does not list the Agenda or Session information. We will be adding this in 2 weeks time as speakers confirm their attendance at MAX 2007. I promise the session and agenda will be great and it will be posted in 2 weeks time!

See you at Adobe MAX 2007 in Chicago.

Cheers,

Ted ;)

Two weeks ago I began a transition into a new role at Adobe. Over the next 4 months I am focused on making Adobe MAX events great in Chicago, Barcelona, and Tokyo. Having attended many MAX/UCON/DEVCON events as a customer, MAX has migrated towards a more marketing centric event of late. This year we are restoring MAX to focus on the community of developers and designers creating great expieriences. The change is a major shift in tone and focus that, I believe, will result in the best Adobe MAX to date.



ADOBE MAX 2007 North America (Chicago) Details

ADOBE MAX 2007 North America (Chicago) Registration



The theme for Adobe MAX this year is Connect. Discover. Inspire.

Connect.

• Connect with the Community.


• Strengthen Relationships.


• Foster Ecosystem and Evangelism.

Discover.

• Discover the latest technology.


• Learn new skills.


• Enable rich, engaging experiences.

Inspire.

• Find inspiration in leading developers / designers.


• Inspire each other to build innovative projects.

It is one thing to put words on a page and quite another to take action. We are very busy with the latter in creating areas for the community to interact, bringing together the best minds in the industry, and fostering inspiration to fuel the next year of design and development. If you have been to MAX lately, this year is going to be different as we refocus on the community and ecosystem surrounding Adobe tools and technologies. We have great events planned and over the next few months I will be highlighting what to expect in Chicago, Barcelona, and Tokyo. MAX is changing and 2007 is the year to attend.

I look forward to seeing you at MAX!

Regards,

Ted Patrick
MAX Evangelist

PS. I will return to Flex Evangelism in November. Until then it is 100% MAX.

The player team has been working long hours to add some amazing features into Flash Player 9. I would do a wild diservice to the work of the player team so I will defer to them directly.

Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 1

Tinic Uro on Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 1

Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 1 - Emmy Huang

From Tinic's Post:

1. Mip map support for all bitmaps for Flash 9 or newer content. This improves the quality and rendering performance of downscaled bitmaps. Perfect for thumbnails and such. Even better, Papervision 3D content now automatically looks better and should be slightly faster when large textures are used.

2. Multi-threaded vector renderer. Now we take advantage of up to 4 Cores/CPUs for vector rendering.

3. Multi-threaded bitmap filters. Same as above but this applies to bitmap functionality specifically instead of the core vector rasterizer only.

4. Multi-threaded video decoding. The VP6 video codec will now run in a separate thread if a multi-core system is detected which leaves the main thread to do rendering and post processing of the video. With this true 1080p video is now possible on most modern dual core machines. Also, the responsiveness is improved with this change. The Sorenson codec on the other hand did not get this change for technical reasons.

5. Full-screen mode with hardware scaling. Probably the biggest new feature in the Flash Player Update 3. This leverages DirectX on Windows and OpenGL on OSX. There is an new API to control the behavior which was required since we could not change current behavior and we wanted to give the maximum flexibility possible. I know you are probably eager to use this feature, we will post more information on this on labs.adobe.com soon. I'll also will give you much more technical details in an upcoming blog post.

6. Less tearing in the new full screen mode. We now have some code which will try to do VBL syncing. It's still a work in progress but we hope we can fix the remaining issues.

7. Going into full screen mode has a zoom transition effect. The beta does not work perfectly right now, but we want to get feedback if this is acceptable to end users. We will not expose an API to access/control this, either we'll leave it in and fix the remaining bugs or it is out. Also you might notice that this even affects the current full screen mode, something we will remove in the final release.

8. The Linux plugin now uses the XEmbed protocol. This is work in progress. The downside is that konqueror and Opera do not support this right now, so the Flash plugin will not work until these vendors update their plugin support. Also we are seeing decreased performance because GTK lacks somewhat in the the basic graphics API department. I'll explain in a later post.

9. Tons of performance tweaks and bug fixes. Looking the the current bug database statistic we fixed 371 bugs since 9.0.r45. Fixed really means fixed, it does not include duplicates, unreproducible bugs etc.

Lead with Grenades, Way to go Player Team! That team is real rocket science.

Ted :)

Tonight we launch the Flex 3 open bugbase. Get a JIRA account and log bugs into the same bug database that the engineers use. You will see updates to bugs, you can vote for bugs, and you can help make Flex much higher quality software.

Flex Bug Database
Flex Standards and Community Process



Before you log your first bug, just for the hell of it. Make sure to read up on the bug process. Submitting complete bugs helps engineering to validate and fix the defects that you find.

Better Flex!

Ted :)

For you Flex 3 feature geeks, we are posting nightly builds for Flex 3 starting with Beta 1 onward. You can see the release develop as it is checked in nightly. You wanted open and transparent and this gets about as close as anyone would want to Flex engineering.

Flex 3 Nightly Builds



Cheers,

Ted :)

I would like to congratulate the Flex 3 SDK and Builder engineering teams for putting together an amazing product in Beta 1. It is impressive to think that Flex 2.0 was release some 11 months ago and today we download beta 1 of Flex 3.0. Flex is on a roll as a product and the momentium is building due to a great product in Flex Builder and great foundation in the Flex SDK. Both are a pleasure to evangelize.

Flex Team Blog on Flex 3

Ryan Stewart on Flex 3


DOWNLOAD FLEX BUILDER BETA 1
DOWNLOAD FLEX SDK BETA 1
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
LABS WIKI FLEX 3

Flex Builder Team Kudos
Flex SDK Team Kudos
Flex QA Kudos



Make sure to leave them a note in the comments!

Amazing work!

Ted :)

"Apollo" codename has been replaced by Adobe Integrated Runtime, Adobe AIR. Tonight we receive Adobe M4 build of Adobe AIR adding first class support for HTML as an application base and a host of new features including an integrated SQLLite engine and ActionScript 3 API.



Long live "Apollo", Welcome Adobe AIR!

Cheers,

Ted :)

Wake the neighbors, grab some Red Bull, and hold on tight! There is a ton of news coming from Adobe tonight at midnight EST. Given the massive news day from both Apple and Adobe, I wanted to give everyone in the Adobe camp a heads up about the news arrival.

See you on MXNA and Adobe Labs tonight.

More to come tonight!

Ted :)

The "Apollo" additions to Flex 3 are numerous. The additions include project wizards, AIR file export, UI components, and many classes. As you will see, there has been a ton of development done to make RIA on the desktop easy to build with Flex.

Lets look at the feature additions:

"Apollo" Project Wizards:
To make creation of "Apollo" applications easy, the Flex Builder contains new project type.



.AIR file Export:
To make export of finished "Apollo" applications easy, Flex Builder contains an AIR file exporter. Simply press the Export button and an AIR file is generated.



UI Components and Classes:
The components for Apollo include: FileSystemComboBox, FileSystemDataGrid, FileSystemHistoryButton, FileSystemList, FileSystemTree, HTML, ApplicationWindow, mx.managers.DragManager









Flex 3 adds lots of support for creating desktop applications leveraging "Apollo". Seriously it takes all of 5 minutes to make a useful "Apollo" application using Flex 3 and the combination of wizards, Flex 3 features, new components and classes make Flex the leading development environment for "Apollo" development.

Soon you will find out why the images are distorted! :)

Cheers,

Ted :)

What if Flex SWF files could be smaller? (Over 500Kb+ smaller???)
What if a Flex SWF didn't need to embed the Flex Framework?
What if the Flex Framework could cache in the Flash Player?
What if the cached Flex Framework worked across domains?
What if the cached Flex Framework could be updated and versioned?
What if anyone could host the Flex Framework for caching on their domain?

Flex 3 and "FrogStar", codename release of Flash Player 9, adds support for caching the Flex Framework within the Flash Player. This feature is nothing short of a revolution for Flex applications deployed to Flash Player. Moving forward the Flex Framework will be cached within the Flash Player dramatically reducing the size of the output SWF files. Your application SWF files will only contain your code plus the Flex Preloader containing the caching/loading logic and will exclude by majority the Flex Framework. Simply put, the file size cost of using any additional component adds negligible size to your base SWF file.


VISUAL SIMULATION*
*(results may vary, see Matt Chotin for details)

BEFORE PLAYER CACHE:

Flex SWF with Button



Flex SWF with Button,ComboBox,TabNavigator



Flex SWF with All Flex Framework Components





AFTER PLAYER CACHE:


Flex 3 SWF with Button


Flex 3 SWF with Button,ComboBox,TabNavigator


Flex SWF with All Flex Framework Components



Lets dive into some of the details:

Cross-Domain:
The Player Cache allows the Flex Framework to be cached for use across domains. Say the end user visits Yahoo Web Messenger and receives the Flex Framework (Flex 3.0.0 Moxie) for caching. If they then visit Picnik.com or SlideRocket.com or Buzzword or BrightCove.com, and these sites are targeting Flex 3.0.0 Moxie), these sites will reuse the Flex Framework cached within the Flash Player. Because the Framework is cached across domains many sites can receive the benefits of reduced SWF size.

Versionable:
The Player Cache supports Flex 3.0 and future versions of the Flex Framework. Your application can pick which version of the Flex Framework to use and regardless of what changed in Flex moving forward, the legacy version will just work. Each RSL cached within the Flash Player is stored under a unique SHA256 hash based on its unique binary content and signature.

Easy to Use:
The MXMLC/COMPC compilers and Flex Builder 3 makes supporting this functionality easy to use. The Flex Preloader has been enhanced to support the Player Cache features.

Security and Code Signing:
Caching of RSL assets across domains opens many security issues if anyone can cache code in Flash Player. To eliminate this risk code signing was added in Flash Player and assets using this feature must be signed by Adobe. Without this tight security model this feature could never have been added to Flash Player. The upside is that with Flex 3 going Open Source, developers can get new features and components added into the Flex Framework which supports this feature.

Failover and Hosting:
The Flex Framework RSL can be located anywhere even in multiple locations. A site using this Player Cache is not dependent on an Adobe domain or any 3rd party site. The feature includes support for failover URLS so that the Flex Framework SWF can be located in multiple locations cross domains. If downtime on a server occurs, the application will download the Framework RSL from a failover URL.

Cross-Domain RSL:
In parallel with this feature, the Flex Framework now supports Runtime Shared Libraries (RSL's) to be loaded across domains with a Cross-Domain Policy File. Say for example Yahoo wanted to provide an RSL for all Yahoo properties using Flex 3, they could host an RSL that any team could load at runtime to allow code-reuse cross-team and cross-project hosted across Yahoo domains.

Cheers to a more distributed Flex with smaller SWF files and code caching within the Flash Player. It is a great day for Flash and Flex as we can now support a secure distributed component model across domains.

Oh...
One more thing...

This is all 100% optional. If you want deployment to any build of Flash Player 9 version, that remains the default. Over time as "Frogstar" gets wide deployment we will see Flex get smaller and smaller and smaller!

What else is in "FrogStar" you ask? My lips (and blog) are sealed.

I will be covering Apollo features tomorrow. There are new components specific to Apollo and new deployment features as well.

More to come!

Ted :)

ps. Doug, I sure hope this is enough! If not there is still more. :)

There are some wide ranging changes within the Flex SDK and components within Flex. These new classes/components/features include AdvancedDataGrid, new Collection classes, Deep Linking API (BrowserManager), Resource Bundles, Runtime Localization, and Container support in Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3. These features broaden the capabilities of Flex in providing deeper integration with AJAX, advanced visualization, and support for complex resource management/localization. Lets take a deeper look:

Advanced DataGrid:
The AdvancedDataGrid support complex views of both hierarchical and tabular data. In supporting these new types of data new collection classes where required. Also included are some helper classes to organize columns into groups and provide support for SummaryObjects and SummaryRows. Here are the new collection classes that were added:

mx.collections.HierarchicalData
mx.collections.Grouping
mx.collections.GroupingCollection
mx.collections.GroupingField
mx.collections.HierarchicalCollectionView
mx.collections.HierarchicalCollectionViewCursor
mx.collections.ListCollectionView
mx.collections.SummaryField
mx.collections.SummaryObject
mx.collections.SummaryRow

Here are some images of the AdvancedDataGrid in action:














Deep Linking:
The deep linking feature of Flex 3 allows a Flex application to manage data within a URL using the HTML Anchor(#) feature. Using the new BrowserManager a Flex application can bind to data within the URL to both set and detect changes in the URL. This feature makes it easy to persist data in the URL for bookmarking and provide a new way to input data into a Flex application. The new classes added include:

mx.events.BrowserChangeEvent;
mx.managers.IBrowserManager;
mx.managers.BrowserManager;
mx.utils.URLUtil;
Application.historyManagementEnabled

The cool part is that this API is open and can be used for many purposes outside of the deep linking feature. It allows the URL of the browser to be in sync with the context of a Flex application.

Deep Link 1
Deep Link 2


Resource Bundles and Runtime Localization:
The MXML compiler supports the creation of resource bundles (SWF) files. These bundles are created from java .properties files using the property sheets format like so:

YES_LABEL = Yes
DATE_FORMAT = MM/DD/YYYY
AGE_OF_CONSENT = 16
SOME_FLAG = true

These values are compiled into objects within a SWF file so they load quickly and are highly compressed. The key is that they allow you to create large sets of data that can be loaded in and out of the ResourceManager within Flex 3 like so:

//create a resource bundle in AS3 and add to Resource Manager
var newBundle:ResourceBundle = new ResourceBundle("fr_FR", "myBundle");
newBundle.content["OPEN"] = "Ouvrir";
newBundle.content["CLOSE"] = "Ferme";
resourceManager.addResourceBundle(newBundle);

With resource bundles it becomes easy to provide support for Localization so that you can build resource that support different languages within your application but are switchable at runtime. Within your application binding to a resource is simple and abstracts which resources are loaded into the ResourceManager. When writing your application, you bind to resource values and all strings are stored within resources that are easily recompiled and loaded.

Binding to Resource values
<mx:Button label="@Resource(bundle='controls', key='OK_LABEL')"/>

Obtaining a Resource typed value using ActionScript 3
fooBundle.getNumber("AGE_OF_CONSENT")

Loading a Resource Bundle via url
resourceManager.loadResourceBundles(url);

Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3:
Although we have released an early build of the Flex component kit for Flash CS3, we will be updating it for the Flex 3 release. We are adding support for container creation and support for more fine grained animation.

Sample





I ran out of time for todays update and could not cover the SQLLite implementation for Apollo, Chart enhancements, and FABridge integration. I will be covering all Flex 3 enhancements for Apollo on Friday.

Tomorrow I am covering my favorite feature in Flex 3. This feature will forever alter how Flex is deployed and I am pretty confident that you will be shocked. Flex is about to become much more distributed. :)

Until tomorrow's episode!

Cheers,

Ted :)

The code enhancements in Flex 3 are a standout in this release. The features include faster compilation, compiler class caching, deeper language intelligence for AS3/MXML/CSS, Code Search, Refactoring (Renaming: Method,Class,Variable), Code Outline, Memory Profiling, Performance Profiling, Profiling Live Memory Data, Enhanced Module support, and Multiple SDK support. Lets take a look at them all:

Compilation:
The MXML/COMPC/ASC compilers have been optimized within this release of Flex. The changes support class caching during the compilation process and result in much faster compilation times. In testing projects of various sizes, typically the first compilation will be about 30-40% faster than prior versions but the N+1 compilations are now limited to the classes that have changed resulting in orders of magnitude improvement. Given we typically are only changing one class at a time, this results in a very solid performance enhancement for compilation.

Language Intelligence:
The core language intelligence within the Flex Builder IDE has been dramatically improved to contain full knowledge of MXML/AS3/CSS assets during development. This might not seem like a big deal until you realize that it enables Refactoring, Code Search, Code Outline, Syntax highlighting, and Code completion. The work here changes the core of Flex Builder and enables much more advanced tooling.

Refactoring:
Flex Builder 3 supports refactoring for method renaming, class renaming, and variable renaming. Change the class name via refactoring and all instances, references, strong typing will change as a result. It allows you to make massive changes within a project quickly and consistently.






Class Outline:
The Class Outline view now supports imports and all the enhancements to Language Intelligence. I keep finding this new view to be a great addition for exploring larger projects. Given the ability to find methods and properties easily, combined with code search it becomes very useful.





Code Search:
Within Flex Builder simply select any variable and press CRTL+G to search globally. The resulting search panel will locate all instances of this variable, method, or property within your project.



Profiler:
If there were 3 things that will define the Flex 3 release, the Profiler is in the top 3. It is game changing to see inside your application running in Flash Player or Apollo. It will quickly show you how much memory is allocated to instances, allow you to force Garbage Collection, and see what the internals of your application are doing. It is a mountain of information about your projects and I think this feature will improve the quality of Flex applications for a long time to come.
















Module Support:
The Module and ModuleLoader has been fully integrated into Flex Builder.



Multiple SDK Support:
Flex Builder now supports multiple SDKS and allows you to switch SDK's easily. This allows you to fully use Flex Builder 3 for projects using FXSDK 2.0.1, any hotfix, or the new Moxie SDK. It also allows you to customize your own SDK and use that configuration across projects. Provided all developers have identically named SDK's, these when projects are shared the compiler settings will work seamlessly.





Wednesday I will be covering new framework components and features. Look for some samples of the new Advanced DataGrid, deep linking, and SQL in AS3?

Cheers,

Ted :)

I missed an important feature this morning and the product team let me know about it! I am so very sorry for leaving out the Design View for CSS. This allows you to edit a style visually and see the impact before working with MXML. Pure visual CSS editing.

CSS Design View
CSS editing has been enhanced with a design view. CSS files now support design view and property editing.



Sorry for missing that feature, I just never thought to click the "Design View" button when looking at a CSS file. It is like an integrated Flex Style Explorer.

Cool,

Ted :)

One of the key areas of change in Flex 3 is the designer/developer workflow. Des/Dev enhancements to Flex 3 include support for much deeper skinning of Flex 3, Skin Importer, Design View Zoom/Pan, ItemRenderers in Design View, Advanced constraints, CS3 integration, CSS Outline, and many Flex 3 SDK style/skinning enhancements. These enhancements allow a much improved workflow between designers and developers and allow for much improved skinning of all aspects of a Flex application.



Let's take a look at the Des/Dev features in Beta 1 (more coming in Beta 2):

Skin Importer:
Select a folder of images, SWF/SWC file and import them into a Flex Project mapping the assets to skinnable elements in the Flex 3 SDK components. The import wizard presents all assets and mappings to the component skinning elements.






Design View Zoom/Pan:
This enhancement allows you to gain pixel perfect layout in design view.


Design Mode support for ItemRenderers:
For List, HorizontalList, TileList, Tree, DataGrid populated with static data, custom itemRenderers will preview in Design View. This feature allows you to see what custom itemRenderers look like at design-time and greatly simplify the design process for data driven elements.





Advanced Constraints:
There are 2 new components for constraint based layout, mx:ConstraintRow and mx:ConstraintColumn. These new components allow you to subdivide containers supporting absolute positioning. Where Flex 2 provided parent-child constraints, Advanced constraints allow definition of sibling relative constraints.

CS3 Suite integration:
Flash CS3 Skinning
Illustrator CS3 Skinning
PhotoShop CS3 Skinning
Fireworks CS3 Skinning
FireWorks CS3 - Flex components & Save as MXML/CSS
Flash CS3 - Flex Component Kit (Container support coming)
Skin Importer - See Above

CSS Outline
CSS editing has been enhanced with full language intelligence support for CSS. This feature is surfaced in Beta 1 in support for "Outline" and CSS navigation.


CSS Design View
CSS editing has been enhanced with a design view. CSS files now support design view and property editing.




Flex 3 SDK Skinning/Style Enhancements:
- Graphical border skins now use "scale9Grid" property for borderMetrics
- DataGrid Subcomponent skins - Skin the elements within DataGrid
- Panel PanelSkin programatic skin class
- ProgressBar skinning via maskSkin
- more coming...

The enhancements for Designer/Developer workflow in Flex 3 are much improved from Flex 2 and remove many barriers to achieving better design with Flex. The ability to quickly skin components and layout your application with pixel accuracy are important changes. With Flex Builder 3 Design View enhancements, I am finding myself editing design and layout in more complex applications where prior I would choose to use MXML hand editing. Integration with CS3 also makes for much easier workflow with the industry standard in design tools yet providing open support for all modern graphics formats.

Well there is the first installation, I will be covering code enhancements tomorrow.

Cheers,

Ted :)

I am going to be blogging about Flex 3 details all next week. Each day, starting on Monday June 4, I will be covering a major aspect of Flex 3 in detail. Many of these features have not been discussed publicly and this will be the first time for many to see what the teams have been working on. I will be showcasing some new components, Flex Builder 3 features, and discussing some "game changing" platform capabilities within Flex 3, Apollo, and Flash Player.



Trust me, you will not be disappointed, the teams at Adobe have been very very busy! It should be a wild week as the teams prepare for the beta of the single best release of Flex yet, Flex 3!

Have a great weekend, Flex 3 is right around the corner!

Ted :)