Why is there a watermark on my Flex charting applications saying 'Flex Charting Trial'?
There are actually two different licenses for FlexBuilder (and the plug-in): Flexbuilder Standard and FlexBuilder Professional. One is the base version, which will allow you to use most of the components, but there is a more expensive version which is part of the Flex Data Visualization component set. You can tell if something is in this license by looking for (Flex Data Visualization components only) in the documentation.
There are a number of workarounds to get rid of that TextField (which you can search for online), but the moral way is to buy the more expensive license.
You need to purchase Flex Builder 3. You are probably using the trial version which shows the watermark.
I even think you have seperate serials for Flex and for Flex Charting.
Related
Is there any opensourse, free set of components for creating Flex mxml graphs?
like aviary Peacock style ones
(source: peacockwiki at sites.google.com)
with at least Drag, drop, and connect generators
so each graph element could have
(source: peacockwiki at sites.google.com)
or something like that.
Framework should be opensource (like GPL, LGPL etc)
BTW: I found one wary bacic made by Erno Aapa with Degrafa but I would really love to see something much more Flex 4 - mxml oriented and frienfdly.
So blog articles, Google code projects, anything - please help
I don't have a specific answer for you; but just some places to go look.
Have you looked at the Advanced Charting and Visualization package from Adobe? They are part of the open source SDK with the release of Flex 4.
You already mentioned Degra. I understood that Degrafa stands for Declarative Graphics. I'm surprised you'd say it is not MXML friendly.
Have you looked at Axiss? It is another project out there, and I believe it relies heavily on Degrafa.
You said open source, but didn't say free. So, I believe source code is available if you purchase a license to iLog. I'm not sure about FusionCharts, but I've heard very positive things about it from other Flex Developers.
Moccasin and Flex Wires combined should get you most of the way there.
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
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...
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'm used to working in a Delphi and C# environment which seem to have a rich set of third party components available. I'm currently wanting to do cross-platform programming in C++ using either qt or wxwidgets. Is there a large market for third party components? I was looking at sourceforge and that doesn't seem to show much that is useful (how the hell do you find out what components or features are in a project without downloading the source?). I'm thinking carousel/coverflow components, rich datagrids (like the sort DevExpress provide). Or is this, write your own territory?
There are a number of good quality third party Qt libraries, though I don't know of a centralized resource for finding them.
A few places to start looking:
http://www.ics.com/products/qt/addons
ICS provides the
QicsTable, a high performance
model-view-delegate table library,
and resells various libraries by
KDAB. (These are all available as a
free download.)
http://www.qtcentre.org/contest-first-edition/finalists
QtCentre has an annual
programming contest which awards
interesting Qt-based tools and
libraries. This year's contest is
still being judged, but the
finalists from last year can be seen
at the above link. Check out the
Custom Widget and Helper Library
categories.
There is a third-party component for Qt - advanced data grid - Qtitan DataGrid.
In it there are almost all necessary possibilities.
Ultra-fast processing of large data sets
Use of QStyle for rendering objects ensures that the grid blends into the UI design of any application
Two modes of vertical scrolling
Customizable colors of rows and columns
Two integrated table views
Column banding and grouping
Automatic width and height adjustment
Fixed columns
Flexible sorting
Column summaries
Integrated high-performance caching mechanism
Advanced paint engine for faster rendering of UI elements
Cross-platform support
API for external editors
Screenshots about this Grid
http://www.devmachines.com/qtitan_screenshots.php
For a crossplatform GUI development, Qt is the tool you should be looking for. I have used both. Here is what I feel about Qt
Building rich GUI is a piece of cake if you use Qt. It has a loads of GUI capabilities, starting with its Graphics View, OpenGL support, stylesheets that supports css. A mature painting system, Richtext formatting, Integration with Webkit, and I am sure I am missing a lot more here...
Qt has its own build system, qmake which creates platform dependent Makefiles, so no Makefile hassles. Moreover you get a single pro-file which is much easier to manage. For wxWidgets, you will need to create different Makefiles for the various compilers you intent to use.
Other advantages of using Qt over wxWidgets are - the Api is very easy to learn with its intuitive api, superb documentation and tons and tons of examples. This helps you get yourself productive pretty soon and thus getting your product early to marker. BTW Qt is a RAD tool. Moreover, there is a huge user base, and there are forums like QtCentre.org to help you with your questions.
If you are planning to buy commercial license, you get support directly from Qt Software (trolltech).
You would obviously be using Qt's Model View pattern, allowing you to separate your business logic from the presentation tier. I would suggest that you write to "support at trolltech dot com" or "sales at trolltech dot com" to get more information. You can explain your requirements and they would be able to explain how Qt fits your needs.
You could also download the opensource version and have look at the demos.
Coverflow: http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2007/11/02/pictureflow-on-windows-mobile/ , http://ariya.blogspot.com/2008/03/introducing-photoflow.html
As I said, if its Rich gui you are planning to develop, use Qt.
In addition to the ones by ICS and at QtCentre the Qt-apps website has some open source widgets/components for Qt.
For wxWidgets you have wxCode which has quite a few things although not all the existing third party components (including a few very useful ones) are available from there.
Good quality components for Qt can be found here - http://www.devmachines.com/
At the moment there are Microsoft Ribbon Control for Qt, DataGrid for Qt, Charting for Qt.
All components are commercial and should be used in Qt Commercial or Qt LGPL.