Accessibility

Flex Article

 

A Primer for Building Flex Applications


Kevin Hoyt

Kevin Hoyt

Platform Evangelist
Adobe

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding the Flex Class Library
  3. Dynamically Creating User Interface Components
  4. Thinking Outside the Proverbial Box
Comments
User Level:
All

You’re ready to make the Macromedia Flex plunge. You have installed the trial edition on your favorite application server. You have your favorite IDE ready (or maybe you decided to leverage Flex Builder (code-named Brady) and now you are ready to start coding your first Flex project. Hold on! Wait a second! Before you get started there are some things you should know about Flex that will make your life much easier.

Flex is a new product and you might think that best practices and patterns are still forming around the technology. In reality, the Flex programming model builds on traditional software engineering methodologies, best practices, and design patterns. Better understanding how Macromedia architected Flex can dramatically soften your learning curve.

In this article I cover some helpful hints that may not be immediately apparent when you start down the Flex development road. The first step is to understand the class library and how it manifests itself in the Macromedia Flex Markup Language (MXML). After that, I explain how you can dynamically create user interfaces (UI). At the end of this article, I will take a moment to stand on my soapbox and encourage you to think outside the box in terms of UI design—in hopes of improving your application performance at the same time.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software:

Macromedia Flex

Prerequisite knowledge:

  • You have experimented with Macromedia Flex
  • You are familiar with object-oriented programming
  • You are familiar with general design patterns
Page 1 of 4
Next Page

About the author

Kevin Hoyt is a platform evangelist with Adobe Systems, Inc. Passionate about engaging user experiences as he is, you'll most often find him meeting with customers, speaking at conferences, presenting online seminars, or just enjoying the chance to share ideas and brainstorm with other developers. When not on the road, Kevin enjoys spending time with his family, photography, and general aviation.