Buntel Blog - Flex Future

Flash Builder 4 Beta is here

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:11:00 -0400

It was an exciting (and late night) last night watching as the Flash Builder 4 Beta became available on Adobe Labs (at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4/). We're all extremely proud of this preview and can't wait to see what you build with it! There's a great selection of content on Labs to help introduce you to the release - tutorials, videos, articles - but you may also want to find out more at your local user group. We'll be visiting dozens of cities this month with all the details on the Flash platform, including FB4 and Catalyst, and the upcoming releases of ColdFusion (and Bolt!). For more info, see http://groups.adobe.com/groups/ab704331ab. Tim

Gumbo will be Flash Builder 4 - but you already know that!

Sat, 16 May 2009 12:39:00 -0400

Looks like the proverbial cat is already out of the bag on this, but due to some technical difficulties last night this post never appeared. Alas, it sounds as though the reaction from folks has been positive! So, here's my take on the new name for the next version of Flex Builder. It's been somewhat challenging to deal with one codename for both the upcoming version of Flex Builder and Flex SDK. We've been referring to both as Gumbo, but as you know the IDE and the framework are really two separate parts of the overall Flash platform. So today we're going to not only clarify these upcoming versions, but also bring some additional clarity to the products' naming. The next version of Flex Builder will be named Flash Builder 4. It will be the same Eclipse-based IDE with a new name and lots of great new features. This is a name change to the commercial product only, and does not affect the Flex framework or Flex SDK. Flex is the open source framework at the core of the Flash Platform, including Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst. What does this mean for you as a Flex developer? Just more amazing features in the next release. You're still a Flex developer. A person who uses Dreamweaver to create HTML content for a browser isn't called a Dreamweaver developer; he or she is called an HTML developer. It's the same with Flash Builder; you use the Flash Builder tool to write applications using the Flex framework or pure ActionScript for applications that will run in Flash or AIR. And Flex Builder 3 is still Flex Builder 3. Of course, for me this release is about a lot more than a clarification on the branding. We have an incredible release on its way with killer features for designer/developer workflow, data centric development, and coding productivity and improved testing and deployment capabilities. You can experience it all for yourself with the upcoming Beta of Flash Builder 4 on Adobe Labs: watch for it this summer. I can't wait to see what you do with these releases! Tim

How will CF/Flex work in FB4?

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:07:00 -0400

Thanks to the more than 300 folks who signed up to be in our pre-release to start testing the Flex/ColdFusion workflow planned for our upcoming release. I've just passed along names to our pre-release program manager, so you should be receiving an invitation in the next few days. Once the program is under way, I'll be hosting a series of online events to help with your evaluation: we'll have Connect sessions where we'll demo the features and let you interact with the product team to learn more. In the mean time, I'd like to make a few posts about the basics of these new features. Hopefully this will be of interest to other folks who lacked the time to participate in the testing, but who will hopefully join our public Beta later this year. Service-Based Development
At the center of the new Flex Data-Centric Development (DCD) features is a services-based model for building apps. Here's the rough picture of how it works:

Create a service with CFML (a CFC or set of CFCs that implement your logic, like CRUD functions)
Create a new Flex Project
Go to the Data/Services Panel or Data Menu and select "Connect to Data/Service"
Point FB at your CFC
Click Finish

That's it really. FB introspects your CFC and builds a design-time model representing all the datatypes and operations in your service (it also creates the required AS classes, but more about that later). You can then start binding service operations to Flex components by just dragging and dropping the operations onto the components (to have a datagrid display the results of your getEmployees function, for example). When you're ready to synchronize changes between the data on the client and the server, the new client-side data management features allow you do do so with a single line of code (myService.commit()). But again, more about that later. I'll spend some time in the coming days drilling into more detail on each part of the DCD workflow. The thing to remember is that this set of features will completely change the development experience for developers who have either found Flex difficult in the past or who have been reluctant to try Flex doe to its complexity. If you can write a CFC (or generate it with a single click when Bolt comes out...) and point to it from FB, you can build a Flex app. So, I look forward to seeing many of you on the pre-release forums. And for those of you who are going to wait a bit, stay tuned for more DCD info.

CF and the future of Flex

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:42:00 -0400

Since MAX last fall we've been showing off a new set of features in the upcoming version of Flex Builder aimed at making it much easier for data-centric web developers to deliver rich Flash user interfaces atop their existing server-side logic. A huge target for these features are the half-million strong ColdFusion developers out there. Just last night here in Boston we had a demo of Bolt - the new ColdFusion IDE currently under development - and Flex Builder and the reaction from the attendees was very positive! If you've seen the demos, or have wanted to try using Flex but have found it difficult or not productive or powerful enough, here's your chance to impact the direction of the product. Prior to our public Beta later in the year, we would like to invite a select group of ColdFusion developers into a private pre-release program for Flex Builder. You'll get to work with the new data-centric development features, interact with members of the product team, provide feedback, and generally help shape the future of Flex. Now that development is coming along, I'll start blogging about some of the features - but it's far better to try them out for yourself! If you're interested, please fill out this brief survey. You don't need to have any prior Flex experience - in fact, we'd rather hear from folks who are just doing ordinary apps; data intensive, departmental Intranet apps for reporting or data entry/management, whatever. I hope to hear from you! Tim

Flex Future at MAX

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:48:00 -0400

We're nearly there - MAX 2008! I'll be attending here in SF next week, as well as in Milan next month and Tokyo in January. I did want to take a moment out of the hectic schedule of keynote rehearsals, pre-release testing, session reviews, etc. to let you all know that there is going to be a lot of information revealed about the future of Flex Builder at the conference. We have a demo in the Day 2 Keynote as well as a great "Future of FB" session on Wednesday where we'll be showing lots of demos. There's also great news for all you ColdFusion developers out there. Some very exciting CF news will be revealed at MAX, plus I'll be sharing some new Flex features that will significantly change the experience of creating data-centric ColdFusion applications with Flex. Anyone who's been reluctant to try Flex with CF should be ready to change their mind! Stay tuned... Finally, once we've presented the MAX content, I'll finally be free to start blogging about some of these features - so hang in there and we'll do our best to show you where we're taking the products. I think you'll like it! Tim