ADOBE FLEX 4

Peter Andreas Moelgaard

About Me

Adobe Certified Professional (Flex)

About Me

Adobe Community Professional (Flex)

About Me

Adobe Advisory Board for Flash Builder

Adobe Advisory Board for Flash Catalyst

Adobe Advisory Board for Flex SDK

About Me

I’m Peter Andreas Moelgaard I’m 35 years old I’m

About Me

Adobe MAX Award x 2 (2008) Adobe MAX Award Semifinalist (2009) Author of Flash Catalyst 2.0 Unleashed

(Addison Wesley, 2011)

Agenda Introduction to Flex

First Things First - What Is Flex ?How Does Flex Work ?What Can You Do with Flex ?The Flex Ecosystem

Build your First Application (Bootcamp)Build the User InterfaceConnect to DataCreate PagesCode Your Interactions

About Me

Twitter: @petermoelgaard Blog:blog.petermoelgaard.com

Introduction to Flexbefore we get our hands dirty…

Introduction to RIA’s

Rich Internet Applications (RIA) are desktop-like applications running in the browser.Overcome many limitations of traditional web technologies:Stateless architectureUser interaction is mostly point-and-clickNon-responsive (click > load > wait > click >

load > wait > ...)

Introduction to RIA’s

BenefitsRich user experience, like desktop applicationsNo cumbersome installations, or upgradesSingle point management, leading to the concept

of Software as a Service (SaaS)

Introduction to RIA’s

Engaging, informative, self-service-oriented RIAs encourage customers to Stay on your site longer Explore more options Complete more online transactions Spend more money Recommend the site to others Return more often

Introduction to RIA’s

Well-designed customer-facing RIAs can Increase online sales up to 30%* Increase conversions, cross-channel sales,

and upsells by up to 40%* Reduce contact center / telephone agent

calls up to 20% annually*

* Forrester: “The Business Case for Rich Internet Applications” (Ron Rogowski, March 12, 2007)

Introduction to RIA’s

“…even modest improvements in online customer experiences can boost revenue gains by $117 million to $311 million per year -- due to additional purchases, reluctance to switch, and likelihood of recommending to colleagues and friends.”

Forrester “Customer Experience Boosts Revenue” by Bruce D. Temkin, June 22, 2009

First Things First - What Is Flex ?

Flex is an open source software development toolkit for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) on the Flash Platform.

To build a Flex application, you write object-oriented code using ActionScript 3, MXML and CSS languages.

The Flex SDK includes a compiler, debugger, profiler and hundreds of ready-to-user components and ActionScript classes that accelerate development.

First Things First - What Is Flex ?

To help us rapidly develop applications and content using the Flex framework, Adobe offers an Eclipse based IDE.

Adobe Flash BuilderIt includes support for intelligent coding,debugging, visual design as well aspowerful testing and monitoring tools.

Alternative IDEsFDT, FlourineFX, FlashDevelop,Amethyst, FlexBean, etc.

How Does Flex Work ?

Flex source code is first compiled into ActionScript classes and then eventually Flash bytecode, which is executed at the client side by the ActionScript Virtual Machine in Adobe Flash Player or Adobe AIR.

Flash Flex

ActionScript

Flash Platform

What Can You Do With Flex ? You can use Flex to build anything from

multimedia-rich consumer experiences to functional line-of-business applications that run behind the firewall.

You can use Flex to deliver an entire application experience, or you can embed Flex-based components and widgets within existing HTML websites.

You can use Adobe AIR to run an enhanced, standalone version of your application across Windows, MAC OS X, Linux and Android operating systems.

RIAs help businesses save money by enhancing employee productivity

Used internally, RIAs can help the enterprise Unite key data from disparate sources Increase employee productivity Reduce data entry time up to 40% Improve accuracy Save time Reduce operating expenses

Common use cases for RIAs across various industries

Customer self-service applications Intuitive, guided self-service applications lower

costs, increase visibility and usage while increasing overall customer satisfaction

Guided selling applications increase ASP and revenues, while reducing errors and returns driving down costs

Data visualization Rich, interactive data visualization simplifies

complex data and leads to faster decision making

Dashboards enable real time pulse of critical business metrics

NASDAQ

Challenge Manage and deliver trading data in

relevant, interactive ways Give users instant insight into extremely

detailed trading activity in the market at any time during the day

Solution: Market Replay RIA Adobe AIR Adobe Flex Amazon S3

Results Delivers valuable data analysis at a lower

cost to everyone involved Enables investors and brokers to replay

market events and review historical data in simulated real-time

“There’s no doubt that working in Adobe AIR is a huge benefit. The ability to process trading data on the desktop enables NASDAQ to deliver valuable data analysis at a lower cost to everyone involved.”

Randall Hopkins Vice president, NASDAQ Market Data

Enabling stock market participants to replay, understand, and explain market events at any point in time

SAP

Challenge Accelerate new product innovation and

user adoption of Business Intelligence (BI) tools through dynamic, impactful user experiences

Solution: Xcelsius software Adobe AIR Adobe Flash Builder Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES

Results Accelerated product development from

years to months Improved BI analysis Drove increased adoption of BI

solutions across enterprises

Transforming business data into rich, interactive dashboards and data presentations– without programming

“With BI tools based on the Flash Platform, business users can quickly access and analyze enterprise data to better understand the business without assistance from IT or business analysts.”

James ThomasVice President of Product Marketing, SAP

BusinessObjects

FedEx

Challenge Improve customer access to

shipment tracking information, online as well as on the desktop

Solution Adobe AIR Adobe Flex

Results Delivered consistent customer

experience online and offline Enabled easy-to-use, always on,

branded tracking method Increased development productivity

by almost 50%

All external content and images pending approvals.

Connecting customers to shipment tracking information online and offline

“… individual shippers, consignees, and small businesses will benefit most from the new, easy-to-use Adobe AIR application because they will have immediate access to critical information about their shipping and supply chain activities.”

Aitza Anderson, product manager, FedEx

The Flex Ecosystem

Flex

ColdFusion

Flash Media Server Family

Flash PlatformServices

AIR

Flash Player

Flash Builder

FlashCatalyst

FlashProfessional

Creative Suite Analytics &Optimization

TOOLS FRAMEWORK CLIENTSSERVICESSERVERS

LiveCycle

The Flex Ecosystem

The Flex Ecosystem Adobe Flash Platform

Is an entire family of technologies you can use to create, run and provide data to RIAs, including client runtimes, tools, frameworks, servers and cloud services.

Flash Platform RuntimesAt the center of the Flash Platform are the

client runtimes. Adobe Flash Player for the browser and Adobe AIR for outside the browser.

The Flash Player is the world’s most pervasive software

98%of Internet-connected PCs worldwide have Flash Player installed

of top 20 smart phones will support Flash Player this year

develop using the Flash Platform

3.5 millionof Alexa 100 top websites use Flash Player

85%

of web games are delivered using Flash Player

70%

95%

98%penetration rate in enterprises - Forrester

of enterprise professionals will seek Flash Platform development skills in 2011 (Society of Digital Agencies)

75%

The Flex Ecosystem Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player is a browser plugin or Active-X control with a rich object model and rendering engine that allows developers to include highly expressive and interactive content in web-applications

To include this richer content, you create a SWF file using Developer tools and then reference this SWF file in your HTML page.

When the browser parses the HTML page, the flash player downloads the SWF file and runs in the browser.

The Flex Ecosystem Adobe AIR

Is a cross-operating-system runtime and set of tools that allow developers to deploy HTML, Ajax, and Flash Platform applications (SWF files) to the desktop.

An emerging design pattern is to deliver a browser-based version for all users and a desktop version for the more active or power users-

Companies use Adobe AIR to deliver RIAs outside the browser

AIR runtime installations

AIR SDK installations

Installations of Adobe AIR within one year of release

300 million2.5 million1 million

Applications in the Adobe AIR Marketplace

840

The Flex Ecosystem Flash Platform Tools

Adobe Flash Builder (FB)Is an Eclipse-based development tool targeted at developers. With this IDE you use the Flex framework to create SWF files.

Adobe Flash Catalyst (FC)Is a new interaction design tool for rapidly creating expressive interfaces and interactive content without writing code.

Adobe Flash Professional (FL)Is the industry standard for interactive authoring.

Supported across the Board

CAIRNGORM

ADOBE OPEN SOURCE (opensource.adobe.com)

Frameworks

Performance and load testing

Tooling plug-ins

Pre-built components

Product extensions, functions and code

1,000+ global and regional system integrators, ISVs, and VARs

52 Adobe Agency Partners, including the top digital agencies

250+ training partners

More than 70 Open Screen Project members

337 User Groups worldwide

PARTNERS PROGRAMSTECHNOLOGIES COMMUNITIES

3.5 million developers

150+ supporting technologies to help in application and project development

The Flex Ecosystem Flash Platform Languages

ActionScriptIs an inheritance-based object-oriented scripting language based on the ECMAscript standard. The syntax and features are very similar to Java.

MXMLIs a convenience language, it provides an alternate way to generate ActionScript using a declarative tag-based XML syntax. When you compile an application, the MXML is parsed and converted to ActionScript.

Flex integrates with

Browsers

RESOURCE TIEREIS Databases Directories

ECM Repository

MessageQueues

SAP…

DESIGN &DEVELOPMENTTOOLS

HTTP/S, Sockets, AMF, RTMP,SOAP, WS*, SMTP, REST, …

Flash Catalyst

FlashProfessional

Flash Builder

Creative Suite

3rd PartyServices

SERVICES TIER

CLIENT APPLICATION TIER

AIRFlash Player

Flex Framework

Flash PlatformServices

Flash Media Server Family

LiveCycle

The Flex Ecosystem Flash Platform Services

A set of hosted and managed services.

Collaboration ServiceReal-time collaboration service featuring chat, audio, video and simple data.

Distribution Servicefor distributing, promoting, tracking, and monetizing applications on e.g. social networks, mobile devices and desktops.

Social Servicefor integrating with multiple social networks including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, AOL and many more…

Flash and HTML5 Adobe actually supports HTML

The Flash Platform has integrated with HTML for 14 years.

AIR 2.0 (desktop) includes support for HTML5. Adobe is committed to supporting HTML5

The Flash Platform delivers cross-platform, cross-browser, cross-device consistency.

HTML5 implementations will differ and hinder content adoption of rich features, including video tag support.

No consistency in codec support for video is yet visible.

Build Your First Application

now lets get our hands dirty…

Build Your First Application Build The User Interface Connect to Data Create Pages Code Your Interactions

What We’re Building ?

An simple staff management system

Build Your First Application

Build The User Interface

Create a New Flex Project Use Design Mode to Add Components Use Design Mode to Set Properties Change Component Attributes in MXML Browse and Run the Application

Build Your First Application

Connect to Data

Create a Flex Data Service Connect the getEmployees() Service

Operation to a DataGrid Configure DataGrid Columns Browse and Debug the Application

Build Your First Application

Create Pages

Create Employees and Departments States Retrieve and Display Department Data in the

Departments DataGrid Change Property Values in Different States Change a Property or Style Value in All States Create a New EmployeeDetails State Add Objects to Specific States

Build Your First Application

Code Your Interactions

Generate an Event Handler Change to the Departments State on a Button

click Event Change the Employees State on a Button click

event Change the EmployeeDetails State on a DataGrid

change Event Clear the TextInput Component on a focusIn

Event Change Styles on a click Event

Great Resources

Adobe Developer Connection Flex Developer Center Learn Flex in a Week More than 335 user groups Adobe TV Tour de Flex Training Partners and Support Centres 1000’s of active bloggers and forums

Conclusion on 1. Day Setting up Environment Design Mode of Flex Using Source Mode of Flex Introduction to ActionScript 3.0 Interactivity and Events in Flex Using Data Binding in Flex Laying out in Flex and Flex Containers Creating Forms in Flex Displaying Data in Flex Application Flow and Visibility Working with View States