Flex Overview

What is Flex?

• Flex is a powerful open source application framework that allows traditional applications to be built for browsers, mobile devices, and desktops using the same programming models, tools, and code base.

• Flex provides FLEX SDKs and other utilities consisting of Flex Class Library (ActionScript Class), Flex compiler, debugger, MXML, and ActionScript programming languages to build expressive and interactive Internet-rich applications (RIA)

• Flex is responsible for the user interface (UI) or client functionality of Web applications. Server-side functionality depends on server-side components written in traditional scripting languages (Java/PHP, etc.).

• Flex-based applications are actually provided as SWF files, much like the HTML/Javascript section of traditional Web applications.

• Flex applications act as SWF files as well as HTML wrappers, CSS files and any server-side script files (i.e. Java, . C FM，. P HP, etc.) deployed to the server. Like a traditional Web application

• These resources are delivered from the server to the client browser using the usual HTTP request/response method, in which Flash Player runs the application.

The benefits of Flex

• Flash Player-based Flex applications can access device features such as GPS, cameras, local databases, and graphical accelerometers.

• Flex apps can run on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, iOS devices.

• Flex applications can run on browsers and desktops.

• Flex applications are platform-independent. /b10> The UI can be local to the platform or the same on each platform.

• Flex applications can use industry standards (e.g. REST, SOAP, JSON, JMS and AMF) with all major server-side technologies (e.g. Java, Spring, Hibernate, PHP, Ruby, .NET, Adobe ColdFusion and SAP)

• Flex application development ensures a rich user experience by visually interacting with applications to present information in a more visually rich interface.

• A Flex application is a single-page application where states can be transitioned from one state to another without having to get a new page from the server or refresh the browser.

• The Flex application significantly reduces the load on the server because it only needs to return the application once, rather than a new page whenever the user changes the view.

The disadvantages of Flex

• The Flex application is a single-threaded application, but Flex provides an asynchronous programming model to mitigate this problem.

• Flex is based on actionscript and XML. /b10> Learning these two is what Flex must do.