Martyn Jones

Sakamoto Software

Small ActionScript project to visualize a countdown timer.

Adobe Releases Flex 3

One of the first things to note with this new release of Flex is that the changes mainly relate to work-flow and performance and most of your previous Flex 2 should still work. Regarding Flex 2 projects, please refer to:
– Migrating applications from Flex 2 to Flex 3
– Flex 3: Backwards Compatibility and Migration

Following is a summary of what you can expect to find in Flex 3 :

• open source with public bugbase
• memory & performance profilers added to Flex Builder
• data wizards that will generate both client and server code to hook up to existing database tables
• Cold Fusion, Java, PHP and my old love, ASP.NET server-side technologies supported
• web service introspection which generates client side proxy classes from WSDL signatures
• visual CSS editor
• native support for AIR
• enhanced Flex Charting Package

(for a more detailed overview, please refer to Matt Chotin’s article)

Now that Flex has become open-source, developers might be interested to peruse and adopt Adobe’s own coding conventions and best practices for their own use.

System requirements

NOTE: Flex 3 applications will run on any version of Flash Player 9, although size optimization through signed RSLs is only supported on Flash Player 9 (Version: 9,0,60,235) or later. Flex 3 Beta 3 includes the Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 (9.0.115.0) debug players.

Flex Builder 3 for Windows

• Intel® Pentium® 4 processor
• 1GB of RAM recommended
• Microsoft® Windows® XP (with Service Pack 2)
• Microsoft Vista™ Home Premium or higher
• 500MB (Stand alone) and 500 MB (Plug-in) of available hard-disk space to install
• Java™ Virtual Machine: Sun® JRE 1.4.2, Sun JRE 1.5 (included), IBM® JRE 1.5, Sun JRE 1.6
• Eclipse 3.2.2 or higher for Plug-in install (Eclipse 3.3 recommended for Windows Vista)
• New Flex Builder 3 projects create applications that require users to have Flash Player 9 (9.0.30) or higher. You can change this to an earlier version of Player 9 in the Flex Compiler section of your project’s Properties.
• BEA Workshop 10.1
• IBM Rational Software Architect 7.0.0.3 (Eclipse 3.3 plug-in configuration only).

Flex Builder 3 for Mac OS X

• G4 1.25GHz PowerPC or Intel-based Mac
• OS X 10.4.7 through 10.4.10, OS X 10.5.x
• 1GB of RAM recommended
• 500 MB of available hard-disk space to install
• Java Virtual Machine: JRE 1.5 or JRE 1.6 from Apple®
• Eclipse 3.2.2 or higher for Plug-in install
• New Flex Builder 3 projects create applications that require users to have Flash Player 9 (9.0.30) or higher. You can change this to an earlier version of Player 9 in the Flex Compiler section of your project’s Properties.

Useful Links:
Adobe’s Getting Started with Flex
Adobe’s Flex 3 LiveDocs