Presentation on Apache Flex from Java 2012 conference (May 2012, Tuheljske toplice, Croatia). Presenter: Tomislav Pokrajcic

1. Enterprise ready GUI
framework
Tomislav Pokrajčić
Binaria d.o.o.

2. Intro
 Binaria d.o.o.
 Building for business, marketing,
entertainment and industry since 2007
 Flash/AIR/Flex, Java, PHP, HTML5
 Zagreb Flex User Group (www.zgflex.org)
 2008
 FlasHR (www.flashr.org)
 2011

3. What is Flex?
 Open source GUI framework
 Easy to build new components &
complex interactivity
 Fancy performance
 Superpowers show up on projects that
require GUI beyond standard
components

4. Brief history
 2004 - Macromedia Flex Server 1.0 i 1.5
 2006 - Adobe Flex 2
 2007 - Adobe Flex 3 (MPL)
 2009 - Adobe Flex 3.5
 2010 - Adobe Flex 4
 2011 - Adobe Flex 4.5
 2011 - Adobe Flex 4.6
 2012 - Apache Flex 4.8 (4.6 parity release)

5. Runtimes
 Flash Player browser plugin
 (desktop, mobile)
 AIR desktop
 (Windows, Mac, Linux)
 AIR mobile
 (iOS, Android, Blackberry tablet OS,
TV)

6. Languages
ActionScript3

7. Languages
MXML

8. Languages
FXG

9. Web/deskop components

10. Mobile components
Out of the box Easy and powerful skinning

11. Examples

12. Examples

13. Examples

14. Examples

15. Framework features
 Mature and well documented
 i18n and L10n support
 Dev process shielded from 99% of the
browser issues

16. Development
 Strong typing
 Namespaces support
 Compile time testing
 Easy refactoring
 Code obfuscation
 Unit testable (FlexUnit)

17. Framework features
 Powerful internal component lifecycle
 Invalidation
 Events
 Easy drag n’ drop support
 Easy data binding
 Validators, formatters, transitions,
effects

18. Connectivity
 AMF remoting, WebServices, JSON, ...
 Java ORB: BlazeDS, GraniteDS, ...
 AS3 Object <-> Java object
 RPC
 HTTP, polling, long polling, streaming

19. Flex Ecosystem
 350.000 <= Flex developers <= 500.000
 Many good IoC / MVC frameworks
(Swiz,Parsley,Mate,RobotLegs,...)
 Lots of other open source code (maps,
graphics, charts, …)
 Many commercial components
 Active community

20. Cons
 Printing issues from browser
 Doesn’t work on mobile browsers
 Flex mobile apps performance not blazing
fast as native
 “Well, hello, it’s Flash!”

21. Current state
 Fresh blood / more developers on project
 Full open source life
 Framework detached from corporate
strategy
 Tools in bloom from other vendors (Jetbrains,
FDT...)
 Awaiting new compilers (Falcon, FalconJS)

22. More
 http://incubator.apache.org/flex
 flex-dev-subscribe@incubator.apache.org
 www.zgflex.org
 www.flashr.org
 tomislav.pokrajcic@binaria.hr