this is not a technical question, well maybe potentially, but since this is such aresponsive messageboard I thought I would get some good responses here.
I am due to create a pretty robust website coming up soon that has to be creative but also incorporates a lot of data. My perspective, as a newcomer to flex, is that it is better for applications than it is for more abstract websites. Things are harder to skin in flex, you can have smoother animations in flash, etc. These are just my perceptions.
Question is, can you do the same creative material in flex that you can do in flash, or if you can is it worth the extra time? Basicially trying to figure out if I should do this project in all flash or flex and flash, because I know the design, transitions and look of the site will be fairly organic.
You can do a lot of the same creative material in Flex that you can do with Flash. In some cases, especially if you can handle coding easily, it's even easier, because you can add effects without having to tweak a timeline. You can use the graphics class to draw the kind of simple shapes Flash lets you work with and you can style them.
You can also add any bitmap or vector images you want to Flex and use them however you want, even as background-images for, say, a Canvas. I create graphics symbols in Illustrator and export them to SWF files which can then be embedded and accessed directly in Flex using the [Embed] directive.
It involves a different way of thinking about it, but let me put it this way: I started off as a graphic designer who could code, and loved and used Flash to create cool interactive animations that used complicated and extensive ActionScript. Then I started working in Flex and once I got to a certain level of proficiency I completely abandoned Flash. I don't use it at all anymore unless I have to work with someone else's Flash files directly.
If in your HTML/Javascript/CSS work you're the kind of person who codes in a text editor first, Flex is going to feel right for you. If on the other hand you rely on DreamWeaver or some other visual tool, you may want to stick with Flash. Bear in mind that Flex also has a fairly rudimentary "design" view, which I never use because it just gets in the way. As would DreamWeaver.
Edited to say: I should add that you can also create animations in Flash and use them in Flex. So you don't have to abandon Flash to use Flex, but it just might fall out that you do, as I did.
Flex has a bunch more components out of the box for handling data -- and is much more geared toward handling data than Flash. And Flash is much more geared towards "animation" (in a broad sense of the word).
You can create your skins in Flash if you want, but skinning in Flex 4 in general is much easier and more robust than in previous releases.
It sounds like Flex will suit your project better, and you can decide as you go if there's a piece that may be more suited for Flash. They're working together pretty well in Flex 4.
Flex & Flash.
Flex for robustness and ease of development.
Flash IDE for assets libraries (gfx, sounds & animations to import in Flex).
Related
One common hebavior I observed in my slow Internet connection is that most sites on the Web embedding Flash Video, their player is always written in Flex. I can tell by the extremely long loading scroll bar that Flex defaultly provides. From my experience Flash loads faster, Why do people stop writing stuff in Flash anymore?
Are there any fast loading yet rich feature Flash video players>
My experience is that the components provided by default in the Flex framework are more stable than the ones provided in the Flash IDE. So I'd prefer to use the Flex components simply because it means less time debugging problems in the actual component code. It is however true that players based on the Flex framework tend to be heavier in terms of download size. But since video is bandwidth heavy and people who watch video over the net tend to have good bandwidth these days, I guess the conclusions most developers come to is that the extra download size is an acceptable tradeoff for less time spent in coding boilerplate.
Personally, if the requirements state that the player has to load fast and be light weight then I always roll my own in pure AS3 and just implement exactly as much as is needed. But if there is no such requirement, then I'll use the Flex-components as a base and do customization from there.
As for the second part of your question, sorry can't think of any open source fast loading feature rich flash video players right now.
Flex produces a flash movie (swf), so the end result is still flash.
As for the reason behind it, not everybody has or wants Adobe Flash (Studio) or any of the other timeline based studios.
Flex enables anybody to create a flash based application or widget using XML and the free Flex SDK.
There may also aesthetic reasons such as standardised controls.
Try Flowplayer, JW FLV Media Player and the last contender, but not the least from Adobe - Strobe Media Playback http://www.osmf.org/strobe_mediaplayback.html
From my experience Flash loads faster, Why do people stop writing stuff in Flash anymore?
When done correctly, there's no difference in how they work - in fact, I'd argue that stuff done in Flex (specifically, using the Flex SDK) give you more freedom to control how loading is done.
But to answer the question, people stopped using Flash just because there's much better stuff out there. Flex Builder, FlashDevelop, FDT - they're all much better tools for any serious coding and debugging. I used to love the IDE, but now I can't fathom how would anyone do anything serious on it, even when using external code editors.
Flash still works when you need vectors, or to create a library with some embeddable assets, but that's pretty much all it's useful for nowadays.
I am a flex developer, see flex is somewhere flash, here flex has two frames, preloader stage(first frame) and creationComplete stage(second frame), the same frame concept as flash has, but flash has more than two frames and layer concept is also there
Major differneces comnes in the ease of using the components in flex, in flash, altho flash is one of powerful tools that has changes the web,
but flex gives the freedom, i m using flex, so i know that i can give more time on business login development, rather than concentrating on design aspects,
but it's also true, i have to see the design aspects as well in flex,
so happy flexing
I'm familiar with Actionscript and Flex. But when it comes to design the interface in Flex, I find myself that do not know where to start. I like to know what are the online resources/books to create the cool user interfaces like TweekDeck and Adobe Digital Edition.
UI like in the ones like TweetDeck are done by custom skins. You need to look into skinning of flex components. If you are using flex 4 i.e, the spark components, its more easier to skin them. Also you can use Flash Catalyst if you are finding it difficult to skin using Flash Builder.
You have to have design skills to make cool interfaces. #jase21 is correct that the spark components are easier to use (once you understand how to do it, which may mean unlearning a lot of Flex 3 habits you may have acquired). But just being able to skin components doesn't mean you will have great-looking interfaces. If you don't have those skills yourself, try to hook up with a designer who can make the comps in Photoshop or another graphics program, then you can implement them in Flex.
Look into Flex Catalyst. It is still green -- not nearly as capable as Expression Blend on the Silverlight side -- but it is a pretty good start. Catalyst is the tool that designers can use to apply their Illustrator/Photoshop art to the skins in your app.
Unfortunately a lot is not skinnable via Catalyst. It is also one-way at this time (the two-way beta is far from being useful IMO) which makes the Dev/Designer workflow cumbersome at best. That being said, I have an amazing looking app based on work my designer is doing in Catalyst. It takes some work to get it over into your app, but it can be done, and the results can be fantastic.
Flash Builder has a "design view" mode... although honestly ever since version 4 it has been a little picky and buggy.
Without that, you could try this, but I've no idea how it is:
http://flexible.riaforge.org/
Basically these are WYSIWYG gui editors, drag and drop components into a preview screen. They're nice when they work correctly, but it's tough to do.
I've tried looking everywhere for a concise list of the advantages and disadvantages of using Flex vs. Flash.
Coming from a programming background, I absolutely love Flex. It's easy to pick up, and since it can use flash classes, why would I want to use Flash without flex?
Flex:
Pros:
good for RIA development
provides many user-input options out of the box
Build in lay-outing system
the MXML is easier for non-programmers
You can quickly combine components to create small applications
components can provide an advantage in large-scale projects because of their modular
nature.
can be developed using linux
has a nice component lifecycle for validation, etc.
Cons:
increases the size of your .swf
Customizing the look of components can take a lot longer than anticipated, depending on the visual style you're looking for
when you find out you need a custom component that doesn't exist, you might need to go back to Flash to do the real programming work and packaging of the component
The "flexibility" of Flex means you will be reading a lot of documentation
Bugs in the Flex framework
You eventually will need to compromise with the architecture of the Flex framework
Flash
Pros:
good for making movies/animations
Timeline can be easier for designers/animators to conceptualize
when working from scratch, provides a great deal of control.
easier for someone with a programming background
You can program whatever you like; no compromises with existing frameworks
Cons:
only provides basic user input (text box) out of the box.
timeline can be daunting for programmers (although you can quite safely ignore it)
Development of certain types of applications will be slower than with Flex
can't be developed using linux
user input validation must all be handled in the code. No built-in validation.
need to implement your own lay-outing system
Please correct me if I missed anything said so far.
Flash and Flex both use the same underlying rendering engine, just with different front-ends. Flash is better suited for making movies and animations. Flex is better for application development.
From a programmer's viewpoint, the big difference between Flash and Flex is not so much which IDE/application you use for programming, but whether you program in ActionScript (AS) only, or use the Flex framework and MXML to program your applications.
I would say pure ActionScript is better for programming (whether you use Flash IDE or Flex IDE is not that relevant), and MXML is better for non-programmers to combine the components programmed in AS.
I would add to your list these pros/cons:
Flex:
Pros:
Easier for non-programmers to get into application development
You can quickly combine components to create small applications
Components can provide an advantage in large-scale projects
Cons:
Customizing the look of components can take a lot longer than anticipated, depending on the visual style you're looking for
When you find out you need a custom component that doesn't exist, you might need to go back to Flash to do the real programming work and packaging of the component
The "flexibility" of Flex means you will be reading a lot of documentation
Bugs in the Flex framework
You eventually will need to compromise with the architecture of the Flex framework
Flash (or Flex IDE in ActionScript project mode):
Pros:
Easier for someone with a programming background ;)
You can program whatever you like; no compromises with existing frameworks
Cons:
Timeline can be daunting for programmers (although you can quite safely ignore it)
Development of certain types of applications will be slower than with Flex
In short: pick the right tool for the right task.
Flex is a library of code written in ActionScript3, so it adds lots of capabilities and standard-library-like stuff to Flash. The downside is that it a is a huges amount code that gets included into your application. If you use any Flex at all in your app, the download size of the SWF goes up by 100's of K.
If your application has any kind of user interface widgets, then you almost have to use Flex as Flash itself only has the most basic things like text boxes. Flex has a whole XML GUI with layouts, data binding and XML setup etc.
Doing that in flash, you end up having to write from scratch things like list boxes...
In my opinion, the most important feature of the Flex framework is the component lifecycle, which provides a really elegant model for validation/invalidation of properties, component size, and hierarchical rendering.
The benefit to developers is that it creates discrete application phases for business logic and rendering, avoiding expensive geometry & rendering code until the last possible moment before drawing a frame.
Here's a really good presentation, explaining how it works:
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15384v1002
The model is so well-designed that the component lifecycle remains almost entirely invisible during the majority of Flex development, when you're using the framework default components and containers. You only need to learn the inner-workings when you start developing your own components.
Developing in the Flash environment, or in pure Actionscript, you don't get any of that. Anyone developing pure AS3 applications either needs to code very carefully to separate business logic from rendering, or will suffer severely decreased performance.
[...] why would I want to use Flash without flex?
Flex is a new product, whereas Flash existed from the Macromedia days. Designer, animators and most anybody who is not brought up on a staple diet of programming education will probably find Flash easier to master than most other such solutions.
Target is different.
Flex is more dedicated for programmer while Flash is more friendly to Artist / web designer.
Flash is the IDE used (generally) to create animations and things that work well on a timeline.
Flex works better for creating internet applications which have interactions more akin to a desktop.
Why use Flash? Well, if you need to do something more specifically attached to a timeline, of course!
I see Flex as more of a solution for doing RIA applications where you need to develop application based solutions. There's quite a lot you get right out of the box with using Flex but it also comes at a price in terms of file size, granularity, etc.
If on the other hand you are working on a totally custom solution such as a game then perhaps Flash is the way to go because you can start fresh with a blank canvas. Many people still use Flash because they don't need all the app based bells and whistles of the Flex platform.
I like the freedom of Flash, and its really simple to embed assets in Flash, a little more confusing to do in Flex.
One thing that I love about flex is the ability to make a fluid application with minimal effort. Which would take forever in Flash.
Anything you can do in flex you can do in flash, just may take a lot longer to do. You can't do everything in flex that you can do in flash though.
Flex takes care of all the UI programming for you and lets you focus on the business logic, with flash you will spend a majority of time programming the UI.
You can develop Flex applications under Linux easily but with Flash you simply can't.
Another solution that was not suggested at here, will be to use them both. You can add flex components to flash movie clips using ContainerMovieClip. And you can add flash movie clips to flex components using SpriteVisualElement. Another thing that wasn't mentioned was lay-outing your application. It will be flex pros against flash disadvantage, because you got build in flex lay-outing system. But again when you are using them both, you can layout your movie clips with flex lay-outing system.
Also flex become Apache top-level project. And it become more and more excepted by the community now.
Flash and Flex are 2 complete different things, one is a design tool with support for action script, the other one is a framework that also has action script but is maily built around MXML which is a XML based UI definition "Language".
I just got started using Adobe Flex SDK. I was very excited because it's the first time I've found a good, free way to create Flash applications. But then I noticed something: Flex doesn't seem to be much about making animations or designs. It seems more like an application to build forms and menus and the like... which I can already do in (D)HTML.
What features does Flex have that make it better than HTML in some cases?
Also, are there any techniques/software programs that would allow me to add the flash/design components that I mentioned earlier?
Thanks!
Flex, like Silverlight, is marketed for the creation of something called RIA = rich internet application. The idea being that (D)HTML isn't really well-suited to create large-scale, well-responding applications on the web. I'm not sure whether this is really (still) true but historically, it fits.
Flex and Silverlight attempt to correct this by providing two things: a different, extensible technology along with a large library and an adapted toolset for the creation of applications. The disadvantage in both cases is the dependency from further (non-free, non-standard) components. The advantage is a potentially much more productive workflow and better performance.
Flex has a cohesive component model, and the basic building blocks were designed to support applications. HTML, on the other hand was designed for displaying text, and the DOM is a sorry excuse for a component model -- and it was most definitely not designed with applications in mind.
There is a plethora of JavaScript libraries that try to implement a workable platform on top of the DOM, and to even out the differences between browsers. While these work fine in many situations most of them don't come near the richness of the Flex component model, or even the more basic Flash API:s.
However impressing libraries like Dojo, YUI and jQuery are, they are limited by the platform, and it is limited indeed. Flex has all the benefits of the Flash Player platform, like vector graphics, remote objects, video support, cross-domain loading, sockets, font embedding, etc. but also a very good component model, data binding and skinning capabilities, to name but a few. If you're writing rich internet applications Flex is as rich as it gets.
Flex is a layer on top of Flash, and was designed from the ground up for building applications. As such it has very powerful capabilities when it comes to interface construction and data manipulation. If you are interested in movies and animation sticking with Flash is more appropriate.
The advantages of Flex over DHTML (AJAX) include:
- Faster prototyping
- Better cross-browser support
- Better support for data management
- More "serious"
Disadvantages include:
- Stuck with a single vendor
- Requires the Flash plugin
You can do audio and video in Flex/Flash vs DHTML.
Some more details and comparisons are in this The Top 10 Things You Should Know About Flex article.
If you're interested in leveraging the graphics potential of Flex, why not go check out Degrafa which is an open source graphing and general graphics api. It's pretty cool, very well documented, and quote - "Adobe has asked if the Degrafa team would consider helping directly contribute to the Flex Graphics open source effort." - which they are!
It's not just all about charts and graphs.
Just a quick clarification - to be clear, Flex is built on top of Flash. What that means is that anything you can do in Flash, you can do in Flex when it comes to programming. Flex Builder does not come with any tools that let you make animations with timelines or vector art or anything like that, but all of those elements are still usable provided you have the tools to make them elsewhere.
Flex is really about bridging Actionscript 3 as a language and Flash as a runtime into an environment where application programmers can feel truly comfortable with it.
As stated above, "Better cross-browser support." That's probably the biggest factor right now for me.
A few more...
It's a lot easier to get "pixel perfect" designs in place.
It's really easy to integrate Flash content into Flex. Which makes it easier to work with designers.
Actionscript is better than Javascript (go ahead and flame me!)
There aren't any really good alternatives to buying the Flash product for making timeline based animations.
The bad sides:
Sometimes, html is just plain easier / more powerful
Make sure to pick the right tool for the right job. Sometimes DHTML, sometimes Flex, sometimes Flash, and many times a combination of those.
What you're talking about is Flash versus Javascript. Flex is Flash, DHTML is Javascript.
Flex allows for rapid prototyping, an alternate IDE for building Flash .swf s, and fits nicely into Air - Javascript only runs in browsers, includes less animation support by default (although there are plenty of well-established libraries that provide that functionality) and doesn't require a plugin to work.
Also with Flex you don't have to deal with JSON, XMLHttpRequest, compatibility issues and the likes... Everything works like magic.
Unless you need a lot of animations, HTML will feel more lightweight than Flex.
No "loading" screen.
On OS X performance of Flex is abysmal. Even DHTML animations are faster! (see GUIMark).
HTML has wider compatibility than Flex. It may not be as easy as writing for single implementation from single vendor, but OTOH you're not limited to that single implementation:
No problems with iPhone or 64-bit Linux.
With graceful degradation basic functionality might even be accessible from Lynx or BlackBerry browser.
HTML is better integrated with the browser and OS:
Form elements can have native look'n'feel.
Text has preferred type of anti-aliasing, no problems with ClearType.
Keyboard shortcuts, context menus and text selection work as expected.
Browser extensions can improve DHTML apps, but Flex is impenetrable.
Accessibility tools have better support for HTML.
What are the key differences between Flash and Flex? I have over five years experience with flash and feel very comfortable developing with it and ActionScript3. I find myself more and more curious about Flex and want to know when it is best to use flash or flex. Also, is everything that can be done with MXML, able to be done with AS3? I have a strong understanding of AS3 and OOP and would like to know the diffrences between using AS3 and MXML in Flex.
Flex is great if you quickly want to build a UI, you can mock up a functioning UI in a couple hours. Since it still can be limiting for some custom UI's it's not perfect for everything but if something should "look" more or less like an application and fit in a grid it's super quick to mock up the UI in MXML. Also don't be intimidated of how most Flex apps look (ugly, imo), you can customize everything or easily create your own components.
Putting actionscript in mxml is the same as putting css or javascript in html = really bad. Unfortunately even Adobe has this in multiple examples (probably mostly because it's easier & faster for demostrations).. My personal opinion is that this applies to bindings too, as i don't want to put my data in the UI (mxml).
As an experienced developer I'm sure you don't do any development on the timeline (to clarify the Flash = timeline misconception). Still with Flex you have the UI separated in a framework that handles a lot of the burden with layout so that you can concentrate on the business logic. The rest of the workflow is close to what you probably already have with Flash.
It depends on what kind of applications you are developing now with Flash. I have been a Flash developer (mainly applications) for 7 years. I must honestly say that I was extremely glad when Flex 2 was released because it had the component framework (good components, layout managers, ...) I did not have in Flash. This is IMO the biggest difference between Flash and Flex (or the Flex framework).
MXML is a real blessing, especially when using data binding. In the end, everything is compiled down to ActionScript (check the -keep compiler option), but MXML just saves you so much time.
Flash and Flex provide different ways to produce different things. I am not familiar with Flash, but I would expect that it is dependent on a time-oriented way to produce something, whereas Flex is geared toward more traditional software development. That is, rather than dealing with time and frames in Flash, one is dealing with describing where components should be placed with MXML and how those components work with ActionScript.
One should also be able to write a Flex app with just AS3 and no need MXML.
The main difference between AS3 and MXML in Flex, as far as I know, is that MXML is not intended to be used with application logic, but rather it is intended to be used like HTML/CSS in web pages and puts components and content onto the Flex app. ActionScript is used to program behaviors, components, and other things outside or what MXML does. Thus, if you want to attach an event to a component one would write ActionScript code.
Hope that helps. I am still learning about Flex myself.
Some other differences that come to mind:
Flash allows you to create graphical assets and then work with them immediately. To use those same things in Flex, you need to use Flash to export them to a swf or swc first.
Flex has a layout manager, so applications that have variable window size are waaaay easier to make. For instance, you can take a window and set it to 90% width of the window, and it will change size... not scale mind you, but actually change its width as the window is made larger or smaller. This is not easy outside of the Flex framework.
Data Binding in Flex is a huge timesaver. It essentially creates all of the code you'd need to write in AS3 by simply saying blah="{foo}" The curley braces denote "bind to this".
The Flex Debugger is vastly superior to the Flash one. There is also a Profiler.
Since I started with Flex and not Flash, I'm not sure what kind of IDE is best for Flash dev, but the Eclipse based Flex Builder is quite nice. The code hinting is great. Subclipse integration is great.
Really, Flash and Flex are different beasts. You should know and understand AS3 if you want to use Flex, and since you do, you're in a perfect position to take advantage of Flex's features. Flash is not going anywhere as a tool for making more visually creative pieces, but Flex offers a lot of advantages for application development.
I prefer Flash IDE vs Flex (aka Flex Builder aka Flash Builder for my comment)
In general i would say it depends on the size of the project.
I find it easier to start and finish small projects quickly in Flash.
I would advise Flex for larger projects because it has various debug tools that can save you plenty of time (although i would still just use Flash my self)
But maybe if you really get used to flex, that might not matter.
some Cons of Flex from my experience.
When working on a team of 4 on a
large project, Flex failed to keep
the project
settings from one computer to another. (we shared files using SVN)
Flex constantly conflicted with SVN for us.
I felt distant from the art assets.
some Pros of Flex
being able to follow variable references from one class to another at the click of a button.
being able to easily see many variables while debugging. w/o needing to trace them.
and Flash used to not have Custom Class Code hinting, but now with CS5 it does.
I think you can use the newest features of Flash Player w/o waiting for a new Flash CS#, for example MoleHill (a new 3d api that uses the GPU) has a beta release out right now. and i think the Flex SDK can already use it.
hope this helps.
it should be noted that I am a rare case that doesn't prefer flex, most people strongly prefer flex, so you should give it a try at least.
MXML compiles to action script so it's really like a higher level version of that. So, yes, everything that can be done with MXML can be done with actionscript (but not the other way around).
Flash CSx:
GUI\Layout: Basic GUI class framework
Graphical Content: Great for editing graphical library objects with or without animation
Code: Lacks a good code editor
Flex/Flash Builder + Flex Framework:
GUI\Layout: Advanced GUI class framework and layout engine (Flex)
Graphical Content: Lacks drawing capabilities of Flash, but you can include Flash generated graphics by exporting them for ActionScript into a SWC and importing/referencing the SWC in Flash Builder.
Code: Much better code editor than Flash; not sure if it's on par with FlashDevelop
Other: Supports MXML, which is basically just another style of laying out content. Instead of writing a bunch of "c = new C()", "c.prop = x", "c.addChild"... you can structure display objects and thier children using XML constructs, and the MXML compiler will convert it all back into the less-readable, but basically the same AS3 code.
These technologies are all related and interoperable. They are natural and predictable extensions of the Flash player and ActionScript techonolgies, but for some reason Adobe developed the Flex/Flex-builder/MXML technologies as a totally separate product, and market it as something totally new and oh-so-amazing. Whatever. So now we have to go back and forth between the two to use all the features, which is LAME. They also have to waste time and resources developing unnecessary, but helpful, packages like the "Flex Component Kit" to reduce the number of steps necessary to get Flash content into Flash Builder.
You have to go back and forth between these applications, because of their mutually exclusive features -- Flash Builder lacks graphics editing, and Flash CSx lacks MXML and a good code editor -- but they're interoperable in the sense that you can use Flex classes in Flash, Flash classes (and their embedded graphics) in Flex, you can use Flash Builder and MXML without Flex, etc.
I think they need a single, truly integrated Flash IDE, so they need to merge Flash Builder into the Flash CSx editor.