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Today, DevNet announces the release of a new type of product from Macromedia, the Macromedia MX Developer Resource Kit (DRK). This CD-ROM kit brings you a collection of Macromedia Flash MX, Dreamweaver MX, and ColdFusion MX extensions, components, resources, and sample applications. You can get the DRK in the Macromedia Online Store.

What's on the Macromedia MX Developer Resource Kit?
For full details, check out the Macromedia Developer Resource Kit content overview. Below, I'll explore some of the highlights of the kit, most of which (such as the components and sample applications) are exclusive to the DRK.

Note that the components and extensions are only available for Macromedia MX products.

Macromedia Flash MX DataGrid component
Here's the component you've been asking for—it's been worth the wait. Not only does the Macromedia Flash MX DataGrid component have all of the features and functionality that you would expect from a datagrid, but it's also extensible and allows you to easily remove features that you are not using, reducing file size.

Macromedia Flash UI Component Set 3
The Macromedia Flash UI Component Set 3 has five new Macromedia Flash MX UI components. The components include:

• Advanced Message Box: Automatically inserts a scroll bar if the message doesn't fit within the box. It also has additional features.
• Loading Box: A window that displays animations (delete, copying, and so forth) and can provide feedback to the user in situations when you aren't sure how long it will take a specific task to complete (such as loading data through Macromedia Flash Remoting). (Additional tip: Check out the timer functions and class in the component.)
• Prompt Box: Similar to a JavaScript Prompt Box, the Prompt Box provides an easy way to get input from your users.
• Tool Tip: A fully customizable tool tip component that allows you to set fonts, colors, background, graphics, size, formatting, and so forth.
• Tool Tip Lite: A small-sized, lightweight tool tip component that provides basic tool tip functionality.

Sample Applications
This set includes three sample applications that use Macromedia Flash MX, ColdFusion MX, and Flash Remoting together. The sample applications demonstrate how you can encapsulate client/server code, making it easier to develop and reuse.

• Stock Services Application: This application retrieves historical stock information based on user input and then charts it.
• E-mail Services Applications: This includes two applications. The first application sends e-mail from Macromedia Flash, while the second application retrieves e-mail from a POP account and then displays it within Macromedia Flash.
  

I've only mentioned some of the highlights of the Macromedia MX Developer Resource Kit. The DRK provides you with a deep repository for learning more about Macromedia Flash MX, Dreamweaver MX, ColdFusion MX, Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX, and other Macromedia products.

Licensing
As you have probably figured out by now, this new type of product from Macromedia focuses on content instead of a software tool or package. This raises some new and unique issues.

Users are familiar with software licenses that restrict the use of the software to one computer. The DRK has a similar license. In fact, it can be useful to think of the components as mini-software packages, which means that you need a license or a DRK for each computer that will use the DRK.

Since you might have some questions about reusing content from the DRK, I've addressed some of them below:

• Components: "Can I use the components in my own projects? Can I distribute them?" This is all covered in the End User License Agreement (EULA). You can use the components and content as part of a larger application. But you cannot wrap the components within another component and then sell or distribute them without the permission of Macromedia. They can be distributed as part of an application.
• Sample Applications: You can use code from the sample applications within your own application, but you cannot redistribute or sell the samples applications on their own.

In essence, you cannot resell the content or components on the DRK, but you can create and sell applications that use the content and components from the DRK.

Why isn't the Macromedia MX Developer Resource Kit free?
The DRK contains valuable content. For instance, the first time that you use the Macromedia Flash MX DataGrid component in a project, the DRK will have already paid for itself.

Now, I know what you're thinking, “I can just make the datagrid (or other component) myself.” I know you can. But consider how much time it will take to make an extensible, fully-documented, fully-featured datagrid component. Take that time and multiply it by how much your time is worth per hour. It's likely that your cost-per-hour exceeds the cost of the entire DRK. Why not save yourself valuable development time and money?

Use your time to create applications and content without having to devote time to developing highly specialized parts of your applications. You'll get your work done faster, your clients will be happy, and you'll have more time to make more profits.

We're also trying to create a market for components and similar content which is something that our customers have been asking us to do for a while (especially within the Dreamweaver and ColdFusion communities).

Creating such a market is good for everyone involved, especially developers.

• Customers and developers get access to a wider range of high quality, supported components and content, making application development quicker and easier.
• Developers have a new source of revenue, selling components.

In fact, I'm most excited about the DRK because it has the potential to be a huge benefit for the developer community, by creating a new market for existing developers.

Finally, a lot of resources were devoted to creating content for the DRK. For instance, we developed the DataGrid component over a three-month period. All of the components are completely documented and tested for quality assurance, both of which require time and resources. By charging for the content, we can continue to produce and make available high-quality components, extensions, and resources.

Piracy
Because the DRK is not a software tool, some people might feel that sharing items from the DRK with friends is alright and not the same as pirating software. That is simply wrong. Macromedia created the DRK as a distinct product. We devoted time and resources to putting it together, just as a company would create any new product.

By pirating the content, you make it more difficult for a market to grow around this type of content. In the end, this hurts developers who have the most to gain from the existence of such a market.

We will use all means at our disposal to prevent the piracy of all of our software products and tools.

Our hope is that we can help create a market for this type of content, particularly components and extensions. Doing so will help ensure that high-quality components continue to be created, by both Macromedia and the developer community. But perhaps, more importantly, it opens up a new market and source of revenue for developers. When you consider that there are over 1 million Macromedia Flash developers, it's clear that the market for such items could be significant.

So what are your thoughts on the DRK? Like it, love it? Do you have any questions, comments, or flames about this article? Post them here. You can also post feedback and future content suggestions for the DRK on the feature request page.