Adobe Releases Flex 3 and AIR 1.0
Adobe announced on Monday the latest product line to their software line, Flex 3 and AIR 1.0.
Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.
Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you’ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.
Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.
Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you’ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.
Adobe RIA technology deploys consistently on all browsers and now on the desktop with Adobe AIR. You can create engaging, highly interactive, expressive experiences with a highly productive development environment. With the introduction of Flex 3 and AIR 1.0 it will increase the designer and developer relationship productivity.
RIAs created with Adobe technology have the widest reach in the world. They have consistent quality of experience, regardless of OS. Adobe has 10+ years of proven, consistent, cross-platform performance consistently reaching more desktops and devices than any other OS or runtime. As of today, Flash has a 99% reach on connected PCs and 8 million installs per day, and all Flex applications compile into SWF files that are rendered in a browser through Adobe Flash Player.
And then, there's the upcoming release of Thermo. Thermo will make it easy for designers to create expressive, interactive interfaces that can be taken directly into production. It feels like an Adobe Creative Suite product such as Photoshop, allows designers to design interactions visually by building on existing workflows and creates working applications that easily flow into development.
On a very high level (remember, this product is still in development), designers can use drawing tools to create wireframes or import artwork directly from Creative Suite tools, transform static artwork, in place, into the interactive components of a Flex application, define states & transitions visually and easily define visual effects and transitions, and deliver working data-driven prototypes to developers and maintain design control.
Flex 3 is a highly productive, free open source framework for building expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers and on the desktop with Adobe AIR. The open source SDK consists of two languages, MXML (actually a library of ActionScript) and ActionScript 3, compilers, debuggers and a rich component library. There is the Flex Builder IDE which is an Eclipse plugin or turn-key install that accelerates design with a design view. It also allows the developer the option of a code view with color-coded code.
For deployment on a browser, the Flex application is compiled into a SWF and displayed in a browser with Flash Player providing a universal display on any OS in any browser. For deployment on a desktop, the Flex application is compiled and packaged into an Adobe AIR application and run using the AIR Client Runtime providing a universal display on any OS (Linux client coming with Release 1.1)
Adobe AIR enables web developers to use existing technologies to build and deploy rich Internet applications on the desktop. Adobe AIR is Always there, anywhere, provides a Branded experience, Convenient desktop functionality, Data access, and Efficient development and delivery. Adobe AIR allows develops to create rich applications with a broad reach in any Adobe design environment developed from Acrobat, Flash or HTML. AIR universal application installer contains all application files which are cross platform web technologies (SWF, HTML, PNG, XML, etc). The same .air file installs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux (coming in release 1.1). The installation process creates OS specific executables that allow the AIR application to behave like a native application.
AIR applications have full desktop application privileges, read/write files, background execution, full network access, etc. For security purposes, all AIR applications need to be digitally signed by the creator for a mandatory, trusted install process. AIR uses the WebKit HTML Engine because it is open source, proven, small and has existing mobile/device support. AIR has rich media and video support. Video codec support including H.264 video, AAC audio, VP6, MP3 and Sorenson. Adobe AIR has a local database, SQLite. It supports ACID transactions, zero-configuration allowing for embedded solution, SQL-92, complete database is a single file on disk and supports terabyte-sized databases. SQLite provides synchronous and asynchronous data transfer. AIR applications can run in the background, register to run at startup or user logon and can send user notifications using the system tray, docks or new windows. The best part about AIR is that you can leverage existing tools for designers and developers such as Flex, Aptana, Dreamweaver, Flash and more.
RIAs created with Adobe technology have the widest reach in the world. They have consistent quality of experience, regardless of OS. Adobe has 10+ years of proven, consistent, cross-platform performance consistently reaching more desktops and devices than any other OS or runtime. As of today, Flash has a 99% reach on connected PCs and 8 million installs per day, and all Flex applications compile into SWF files that are rendered in a browser through Adobe Flash Player.
And then, there's the upcoming release of Thermo. Thermo will make it easy for designers to create expressive, interactive interfaces that can be taken directly into production. It feels like an Adobe Creative Suite product such as Photoshop, allows designers to design interactions visually by building on existing workflows and creates working applications that easily flow into development.
On a very high level (remember, this product is still in development), designers can use drawing tools to create wireframes or import artwork directly from Creative Suite tools, transform static artwork, in place, into the interactive components of a Flex application, define states & transitions visually and easily define visual effects and transitions, and deliver working data-driven prototypes to developers and maintain design control.
Flex 3 is a highly productive, free open source framework for building expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers and on the desktop with Adobe AIR. The open source SDK consists of two languages, MXML (actually a library of ActionScript) and ActionScript 3, compilers, debuggers and a rich component library. There is the Flex Builder IDE which is an Eclipse plugin or turn-key install that accelerates design with a design view. It also allows the developer the option of a code view with color-coded code.
For deployment on a browser, the Flex application is compiled into a SWF and displayed in a browser with Flash Player providing a universal display on any OS in any browser. For deployment on a desktop, the Flex application is compiled and packaged into an Adobe AIR application and run using the AIR Client Runtime providing a universal display on any OS (Linux client coming with Release 1.1)
Adobe AIR enables web developers to use existing technologies to build and deploy rich Internet applications on the desktop. Adobe AIR is Always there, anywhere, provides a Branded experience, Convenient desktop functionality, Data access, and Efficient development and delivery. Adobe AIR allows develops to create rich applications with a broad reach in any Adobe design environment developed from Acrobat, Flash or HTML. AIR universal application installer contains all application files which are cross platform web technologies (SWF, HTML, PNG, XML, etc). The same .air file installs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux (coming in release 1.1). The installation process creates OS specific executables that allow the AIR application to behave like a native application.
AIR applications have full desktop application privileges, read/write files, background execution, full network access, etc. For security purposes, all AIR applications need to be digitally signed by the creator for a mandatory, trusted install process. AIR uses the WebKit HTML Engine because it is open source, proven, small and has existing mobile/device support. AIR has rich media and video support. Video codec support including H.264 video, AAC audio, VP6, MP3 and Sorenson. Adobe AIR has a local database, SQLite. It supports ACID transactions, zero-configuration allowing for embedded solution, SQL-92, complete database is a single file on disk and supports terabyte-sized databases. SQLite provides synchronous and asynchronous data transfer. AIR applications can run in the background, register to run at startup or user logon and can send user notifications using the system tray, docks or new windows. The best part about AIR is that you can leverage existing tools for designers and developers such as Flex, Aptana, Dreamweaver, Flash and more.
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