Introducing Flex SDK 3.2 and Flex Builder 3.0.2
Since Flex 3 was released at the end of February 2008,
developers have been able to see progress within the Flex SDK by monitoring the commit
list and downloading nightly or stable builds from the Flex SDK Open Source site. In
August we released our first milestone build of the Flex SDK, version 3.1,
along with the associated Flex Builder 3.0.1. We are now providing our next
milestone, Flex SDK 3.2, a certification of recent work and a build that is
recommended for all users. Flex Builder 3.0.2 is an update that includes the
Flex 3.2 SDK along with numerous bug fixes and certified versions of the
professional data visualization and testing components.
You can download the Flex Builder update from here, or if you wish to
manually initiate an update to Flex Builder using the Adobe Updater, open Flex
Builder and go to Help > Search for Flex Builder Updates...
Here is a quick summary of what's included:
Flex SDK 3.2
- Numerous bug fixes including fixes provided by the
community. You can find a complete list of bug fixes here.
- Support for Flash Player 10. While the Flex framework does
not explicitly use any new functionality, developers can write code that
takes advantage of the new features in the latest release of the Flash
Player. You can learn more about Flash Player 10 by reading Justin Everett-Church's introductory article.
Enable Flash Player 10 functionality by setting -target-player=10 in your
compiler arguments (or making the appropriate updates in flex-config.xml).
- Support for Adobe AIR 1.5. Similar to support for Flash
Player 10, developers can leverage any new functionality available in Adobe
AIR 1.5, though the Flex framework does not expose anything new itself.
This SDK is already configured to enable Flash Player 10 functionality
when targeting Adobe AIR by using amxmlc.
- Support for sandboxed and multi-versioned applications.
Flex 3.2 adds the ability for an application developer to divide
functionality between multiple sub-applications and allow them to
interoperate. Applications can be developed using different versions of
Flex (starting from 3.2), and can optionally operate in an untrusted
environment which allows applications to safely load code provided by
third parties. For more information, please refer to the related documentation.
Flex Builder 3.0.2 (including the data visualization
components)
- Numerous bug fixes. You can find a complete list of bug
fixes for the IDE here and the data
visualization components here.
- Support for Flash Player 10. Enable Flash Player 10
functionality by setting the HTML wrapper's required Flash Player version
to 10 in the Project > Properties > Flex Compiler section; or if the
wrapper is not enabled set -target-player=10 in the additional compiler
arguments.
- Support for Adobe AIR 1.5. The default settings for Adobe AIR
1.5 will enable Flash Player 10 functionality in Adobe AIR.
- Support for QTP 9.5 testing against IE7. Previously only QTP 9.2 was supported. See the Flex Builder release notes for more details.
Please review the SDK release notes and Flex Builder release notes for the
most up-to-date information on what is included in each release, and any
remaining known issues.
About the author
Matt Chotin is a product manager on the Adobe Flex team who focuses on the Flex SDK. He has been a member of the Flex team since 2003. Prior to joining the "dark side" of Product Management Matt was a principal engineer contributing to the Flex 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 releases.