I need a 3D library that works well with Flex... NOT Flex Builder - the free Flex SDK.
Papervision 3D. Note Flex Builder is an IDE that internally uses the Flex SDK (and sort of simplifies life for you). There is nothing that stops you from using any library with Flex SDK (if you know how to add them to your project etc).
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What are main differences between flash ActionScript and Flex actionscript?
Why Flash can not compile AS files generated from Flex (with keep-as) directly?
Some problem is - I want to compile generated from MXML .AS files using Flash CS5... But it appears to me I can not... Why?
The reason is that there's a difference between Flex Builder (the software program you use to create Flex apps) and the Flex Framework.
The Flex Framework is a set of classes and components built on ActionScript that extend what's already there. Flex Builder has access to all of the code in the Flex Framework - Flash Professional does not.
That's why, for instance, the [Bindable] keyword doesn't work in Flash - all of the code that makes it magically work in Flex apps doesn't exist in Flash.
That said, they've come a long way towards integrating the two. Right now you can build a component in Flash CS5 and drop it into Flash Builder (they renamed Flex Builder to Flash Builder recently) and use it - but it's still not possible to take an .mxml file from Flash Builder and compile it in Flash.
I hope that helps, I know the distinctions can be tricky.
Actionscript is the same, you can work with the Flex Builder for the code and compile everything with the Flash Authoriting Tool. What you can't do is using specific Flex technologies like mxml in Flash Authoriting, but it's not related to actionscript.
I have a Flex project that I need to work on that using some mxml elements which I believe are charting related: Pie Chart, and some LineGraphs. Do I need to buy Flex Builder Professional to compile the project, or will Standard work? On a related side-note, the Adobe website is brutal.
I was going to use Eclipse with the SDK but the increased setup time and lack of code completion makes it not a contender in my situation.
If code completion and ease of setup are primary concerns, then I highly recommend you get Flex Builder.
The charting components are part of the Flex "data visualization" kit from Adobe. You need a license key for these unless you're happy to have a "trial" watermark rendered over the top of every chart your app displays.
Flex Builder Professional buys you the license key you need to remove the watermark.
No, you do not need to buy Flex Builder. You can do everything with notepad (or whatever your favorite editor may be) and the Flex SDK. Some may say it is easier to work within Flex Builder...but I am not so sure! And, yes, agreed, the Adobe site is quite the mess.
Download Flex SDK 3.4
I'm looking to be able to run some actionscript 3 in the background to handle some audio and build a javascript front-end. I heard that you can simply compile actionscript 3 and run it using the flex framework, but I'm new to all of this and am not really sure the difference between flex and actionscript. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Matt Mueller
Flex is a framework for developing data-driven flash SWFs. It lets you create gui using the markup language mxml (similar to html, but with a strict syntax) and has a lot of inbuilt UI components like Button, Panel, ComboBox, Datagrid etc.
The flex compiler, mxmlc.exe, can compile both flex projects and normal actionscript projects (that doesn't use any flex components).
If you are looking for just the audio functionalities of Flash, you need not use Flex, pure AS3 would suffice. Download the Flex SDK and compile the ClassName.as file using the mxmlc.exe
Yes, you can achieve this using actionscript. And Flex is a framework for developing flash applications which requires coding in Actionscript. Flex api is extension to actionscript's tandard API with lots of built-in functionalities like drawing charts, handling videos etc. If you are just looking for handling some audio in the background then you can just use actionscript with Flash IDE. But you are looking to build a full fledged GUI with lots of functionality then yes, you should have a look at Flex as it provides lots of built-in libraries.
What differences are there betwee Flash CS4 and Flex, besides the GUI of Flash?
"Flex" isn't the application, "Flex Builder" is. That's important - "Flex" is a framework. Asking the difference between Flash and Flex is a bit like asking the difference between JavaScript and JQuery.
Flex Builder is an eclipse-based code editor that has built-in support for the Flex framework. The Flex Framework gives you a powerful set of tools for working with data - these tools are generally speaking not available in Flash.
If you're doing something really complex that deals with dynamic data, it might be worth considering using Flex instead of straight up Flash.
It gets a little confusing, though - you can use Flex Builder as your ActionScript editor in a Flash project. In other words, you still have the .fla but you do your coding in Flex Builder instead of Flash. The reason many people do this is that Flex Builder provides a much more robust code editor. For instance, you'll get code hinting for custom classes - which is an enormous timesaver if you're building something even moderately complex.
I hope that helps! Both Flex Builder and Flash are powerful tools, I'd recommend playing with both of them to get a sense of what you can do with each.
Flex is a programming environment, with a proper programming IDE like you'd find for Java. It's focused on software development - the fact a Flex app is compiled to a Flash SWF binary is almost irrelevant.
Flash CS4 is an art/graphic design tool. It allows you to do some coding, but this is focused on tagging code onto animations. It's a bit like how you can do coding in MSAccess - it's allowed but not the main focus, and the development tools are not at all geared at coders. In fact you have to learn how to even find the code in CS4.
Bottom line, if you are a programmer then Flex will seem natural. CS4 won't.
Flash is more focused on animation (comes with a library, etc.) and Flex is focused on web application development.
A nice article covering Flash and Flex can be found here.
Hmmmm...
It appears that charts are only available through the Flex SDK that comes built-in with Flex Builder. This is a problem, since I want to use Flex 3.3, and Flex Builder came with 3.2.
Eclipse is also ticking me off, and I prefer to use a different IDE (FlashDevelop).
Any way around this? And is there anything else that isn't included the the free SDK that I should be aware of?
The charts are only available with the professional Flex Builder plugin. If you have a FB license, however, there is no reason you can't use the libraries with FlashDevelop.
You can download the Data Visualization components from the Adobe website here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=flex3sdk - It's the download at the bottom of the page, look for "Adobe Flex 3.3 Data Visualization Components".
However, even though you can download the components, you will still need a license to use them in your applications. The components will display a watermark over them unless a valid data visualization license is used when compiling with MXMLC.
As mentioned by riaflexer, if you need the Adobe charting components, you can download those from Adobe, and install them into your copy of Flex Builder - provided that you already have a license for the charting components.
However, if you're looking for charting and data visualization components that you can use with the free Flex SDK, you should take a look at the Axiis Data Visualization Framework. It's an open source data viz framework that can be used to create just about any type of charting component you could think of. Also, since it's built on top of Degrafa, it's fairly easy to customize the look of your charts. It's still in alpha, but it still seems to work pretty well so far.
The flex charting libraries have been made open source from roughly around the release of flex 4, as you can see from the announcement on February 19, 2010 here.
The memory profiler and automated testing tools are only available with the professional version. The test tools are still in their infancy, but they are looking better and better and every day, but are the only way to do unit testing of Flex apps.
according to Flex 3 SDK Release notes,
Flex Charting package enhancements – Flex 3 improves the Charting package with a number of enhancements. The axis system can now support multiple axes, and the DateTimeAxis allows for work-week filtering. A new data-oriented graphics API allows you to draw data coordinates, leaving the chart to render everything in its proper screen position. There are new formatting options and added interaction capabilities for all of the existing charts. Available only with Flex Builder Professional.
I was looking forward to doing Flex 3 using command line or FlashDevelop, but it seems not all features are covered.
You might wanna install Flex Builder 3, track it while it is installing to see what values it is adding to the system like registry entries, and then uninstall and remove those entries when doing uninstall... but that's too much work...