Flex 4/Spark UI Design

How exactly do "most" Flex developers do this nowadays? I'm coming from Flex 3 with a lot of experience in Flex Builder 3, where "Design View" and doing basic visual customizations were a no-brainer. Does anyone even use Design View anymore? (Please don't tell me we're all hitting "run" to see what the UI looks like.) Do I need to buy Catalyst or Fireworks or something to make the Spark skinning process manageable? I'm having a terrible time getting design view to show anything remotely close to what I'd consider an accurate preview.
Basically it seems like porting a real (not a silly "example" demo component on some blog) Flex 2 or 3 app to 4 + Spark is practically impossible without basically starting from scratch on the UI.
Also, Spark has been out for a while now. I find it odd that I have a hard time finding even a single 'free' or example Spark skin (other than the ones included in FB which nobody can read the fonts on)--are there any free or example Spark skins out there at all?

Well the IDE used to be a little more solid when we had FB3 (i.e. no Spark components and an almost perfectly working Design View mode). On the upside we have proper refactoring now. I'm hoping FB 5 will be a clean up of some of the back peddling done in 4 in terms of stability and developer productivity.
I don't know if I'd say Adobe doesn't care, I think they're a much smaller company and they aren't making much income off the technology yet so it's hard to justify big expenses.
IMO they should just open source Livecycle (maybe Flex Builder too), and start selling support contracts to big companies. To do this they'd have to stop messing around with this flashy-UI and useless "effects/transitions", and start building a more robust business world oriented platform. The OSS business model seems to be working for Red Hat (not to mention Oracle) and I suspect Google has it in long term planning with all the OSS stuff they do. You lose the revenue of product sales, but you also get free developer support from the OSS community, and overall it's a good deal for everyone.
Another cool and possibly wildly successful possibility would be to officially support a Java syntax Flash compiler (like J2AS, although no idea how mature that is) within FB. There's 1 million+ potential developers added to your dev base right there. Some Java guys are pissy about learning another language and just complain that ActionScript is different, so they go for RIA-imitation tools like GWT just so they can stay in Java.
Silverlight has come far, but there's still a few things Flex has over SL - Flash platform installs for example (and of course Java devs lean towards Flex over SL big time). Contrast to the fragmented HTML5 world - the complete standard isn't even estimated to be completed until well after 2020 (never mind getting everything working correctly in all these new browsers and hand held devices) - talk about low ambitions!
Honestly, I'd be plenty happy (for now) if I could just make some decent progress with this freaking design mode issue and start being productive again.

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(SEO) Improving Search Engine Rankings with FB4/Flex 4 (spark)

Is FB4/Flex 4/spark components doing work to make Flash RIA sites searchable?

Hi,
We are not doing anything specific in Spark to enable more searchability, we are still waiting on the search engines to continue to improve their implementations to support loading content dynamically which will then expose the text that is on the screen. We do have some thoughts on things we can do with deep linking to help promote structure to the search engines in the future, but that would also require cooperation with the engines and isn't something we can do entirely on our own.
Matt

FB3 - Flex 4 (Gumbo) SDK - Design View Problem

Hi.
I have just downloaded and installed the nightly build of
Flex 4 SDK (Build 4.0.0.4005) for use with my Flex Builder
3.0.194161. When I create the simplest of flex applications as
shown below and set the Flex compiler to use the Flex 4 SDK. When I
try to switch to design view I get the following error:
' This component is based on Application, which is not a
visual component. Switch to source mode to edit it. '
If i change the flex comiler settings to use Flex 3 SDK it
works fine. I would like to start developing for the Flex 4 SDK.
Does anyone know of a solution to this problem?
Thanks
Barry.

close all project and then close the FB and restart FB.

Can Flex be used to design online questionnaire?

I am completely out of my depth here, but I am looking to purchase a program that can be used to design my own online questionnaire. I would like the following features:
1) abbility to generate followup questions (guided by input)
2) hyperlinking / "hover over" help to guide answering the questionnaire
3) Dropdown boxes / databases to provide choices for answers
4) Be able to generate reports from the answers given
5) add images and perhaps sound bites
Can Flex do this???

Michael,
Thank you for your input. I downloaded a trial of Captivate 4. It is indeed impressive. However, I do have some difficulty figuring out how to branch my questions, (exclude certain questions depending on prior answers).
Also, is there a way that would accomplish the following:
Q1: Do you have high blood pressure?
A: Yes
B:No
Q2: Is your blood pressure well controlled?
A:Yes
B: No
Can one generate a predesigned form or report (Certificate) that will read (amongst other responses) as follows:
"Mr Smith has hypertension that is poorly controlled".
If Q2 was answered as "yes", then the report will read:
"Mr Smith has hypertension that is well controlled."
Thanks
Jan

Flex 4 Spark controls text not displaying correctly on Solaris 10

For some reason Spark controls won't render text correctly on our sparc Solaris 10 worstation. As you can see the Cancel button and the "HELLO" label are mx controls. The rest are spark controls and only display a square with an x inside, Any ideas?
I've tried with both "_sans" and "_typewriter" font families.

It's supposed to look like this:
I'm not using unicode at all. I initially tried to use the default font (not specifying any) Then i tried using the device fonts "_sans" and "_typewriter" but i get the same problem. It works fine on windows. The weird thing is it only happens on Solaris 10 and only on Spark controls. I am using Flash Player 10r45_2 if that makes any difference.

Flex mobile : Spark List width autosize with the content

Hello,
On Android, the problem is that Spar List doesn't resize with the content,
<s:List id="list" dataProvider="{dpcol}"/>
Thanks for any help.

Your template contains an IE Conditional Comment that is adding 30px of top padding to #sidebar1. This padding may required in older versions of IE but not IE9.

To fix it, change [if IE] to [if lt IE 9]
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/
http://twitter.com/altweb

Flex 4 spark text area which expands to the correct height

Whats the best way to get a simple <s:RichText area which expands to the correct height of the text property?

<s:RichText text=" test test test test test test test test test test test testtest. test test test test test test test test test test test testtest. test test test test test test test test test test test testtest. test test test test test test test test test test test testtest.test test test test test test test test test test test testtest END." width="400" />
works for me. Don't specify a height and it will measure the text.
BTW, while setting s:TextArea heightInLines to NaN will get it to auto-size the height that is not the intended usuage. You should use s:RichEditableText which does support auto-sizing in either the width or height dimension if it is not specified.

Can i design UI part in flex with an existing JSP page

hello
my name is sandeep, i have one JSP page can i implement it in
FLEX 2.0 , as i am very much interested to design the UI part in
FLEX 2.0 , can i make it, the JSP page is a login page it contains
username and password textfields and onclicking the submit button
it has to validate the user and password is valid or not, and
onclicking reset button it has to clear the textfields. can u give
suggest how to implement this in FLEX 2.0 ,
thanks & regards
[email protected]
Text

i didn't got , as i am a fresher to this FLEX 2.0 , i
designed the UI part in flex, but when i click the submit button it
has to forward to the JSP page to check against the valid
user,password , sop how to forward the page to jsp(i mean from flex
to jsp) , if u can suggest me with an example, it will be easy for
me,
thanks for ur speedy reply, hopping to get the solution for
this issue,

Switching from Flash to Flash Catalyst/Flex

For the last few years I have been developing applications for project reporting. To explain this in simplest terms, my clients give me hundreds of reports and supporting documents, graphics, videos, etc. which I then condense and reorganize into a presentation/application in Flash. The project is then published as an .exe to be burned to CD ROM or DVD along with any supporting files and is then distributed to project stake holders, investors, etc.
I'm considering the possibility of a switch from Flash to Flash Catalyst/Flex and want to outline what my needs are, here in the forum, in hopes that others now using Catalyst/Flex can help me decide if this is an appropriate move.
Features needed:
1. Basic animation, transitions, etc.
2. Full Navigation (up to 3 levels) for up to 300 slides.
3. Keyboard navigation (PageUp/PageDown) to navigate sequentially through the entire presentation.
4. Linking into other applications and documents - Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.
5. Full Screen Mode
6. Slide Show Mode
7. Search Features
8. Slide sharing (via email)
9. Video and audio w/controls
10. Pan and Zoom w/controls (panning and zooming of graphics and .swf files)
11. Scrolling (scrolling of text, graphics and .swf files)
12. Interactive forms
Can anyone please comment specifically on these features and wether or not they are possible using Catalyst and/or Catalyst/Flex in combination.
Thank you all for any insight or suggestions.
John

With the exception of making fre-form animations (like a cartoon for example), everything you can do in Flash can be done in Flex considerably faster.
The downside is that Flex applications (especially ones designed in Catalyst) are generally larger, and consume more memory. Personally, I never publish anything made in Catalyst without optimizing it in Flash Builder first.
If the drop in operating performance isn't a deal breaker (most of the time you can't even notice it), then I would certainly consider moving to Flex going forward on new projects.

[Urgent]Please tell me if this project should be done in Flex or in Flash ActionScript ?

Hi,
I have a project and I need to know if I should do it using Flash Builder and Flex or just using Flash and ActionScript
(I Know Nothing About Flash Builder And Flex)
The project is:
Mp3 Player
- Streaming Mp3's
- Ads inside each song
- XML driven
- skins and color themes for it
- playlist
- drag and drop from outside the player(from normal html)
- Should communicate with Php files all the time for transferring ad Id's
Now please let me know if this will be better done with ActionScript or Flex
I'm also read in somewhere that the Flex empty file is about 200KB which made me a little scared to use it
So can you please tell me what size do you expect for such a player (Assets will not be embedded)
I need to tell my boss today my decision whether to use which one, So please help

For the file size, you could have done it yourself (3min of time).
platform : Flash Builder 4.5 on Mac
1) empty Flex Web project
below the result of loading it into a browser (the .swf file is 44kB); there are also some other .swz file providing the flex and spark framework but they are only loaded once on the client side and shared accross all web site needing it (stored in the flash cache, not the browser one)
2) empty Web ActionScript project
the .swf file is 4kB

Design View Replacement Found

If like me you want to develop Flex applications with a Design View so you can actually see what you're doing as you code, check out IntelliJ and the Flash Designer UI plugin. It supports Flex 4.8+ and features a design view that runs in an AIR application. For me this is better than Flash Builder's previous design view since it now means I can code on one monitor and see the changes (in real-time too!!) in the design view app on my other monitor - essentially reducing development time.

We haven't yet made the switch since we have no plans to use the new SDKs just yet. However today I found a way to enable Design View with the new SDKs, fully operational in Flash Builder 4.6. I had to remove the new SDKs from Flash Builder first, then edit the flex-sdk-description.xml file located in the SDK folder, changing the "version" value to "4.6.0". Then I re-added the SDK into Flash Builder and changed my existing project to the new SDK, and hey I had a fully operational Design View. I tried this with Flex SDK 4.9 and it works great. Worth a try if you want to be able to design applications using the latest SDKs.

What percentage of users have the Flex 4 framework SWZ cached in their Flash Player?

I am trying to make the case that using Flex 4 with RSLs is more sensible than developing pure AS3 applications with no Flex or Spark at all. In the former case, file sizes are comparable to the latter, save for about 2 MB worth of RSLs. However, it seems logical that the vast majority of users will already have these assets cached.
So I have three questions:
Are there any statistics on what percentage of users have these SWZ files cached already, and therefore won't need to download them at all?
Is there any way of determining, in my client-side code, when a user loads the file from the FP cache, as opposed to downloading it from my server?
Is there a performance difference, in terms of total load time, for loading a cached SWZ file, as opposed to simply embedding the framework and not using RSLs at all? Disregard bandwidth and downloading times.
I have heard that Adobe hasn't released any official statistics, but I'm wondering if anyone has done their own testing with server logging.

I don't know of any statistics. It might also depend on the demographics of
your users.
There is no way to determine for sure where the SWZ came from, but you could
probably guess by looking at getTimer() somewhere in your code.
Ignoring bandwidth and download, the SWZ has very little overhead, but it is
there.

Looking for a Professional Flex Firm

Hello,
I am the CTO of a stealth mode startup. We are currently
looking for the a firm to do the following at a respectable rate,
and in an agreeable amount of time.
1. Flex/AIR front end (Design and UI) * Wireframes already
created
2. Backend services/API layer development (In either
Java/PHP/Python)
3. Database Layout and creation (MySQL or Amazon Simple DB)
4. Scaling Amazon EC2 load balancing and Transcoding
5. Whole system must live in a Cloud and use Amazon Ec2 and
S3
Summary of project.
We are in the process of creating a B2C video distribution
center with the following b2b services: distribution, marketplace,
metrics gathering, dashboard creation, and content delivery. We
will certainly get more descriptive to those who offer their
services.
Thanks for your time.
John Drefahl
[email protected]

Hello,
I am the CTO of a stealth mode startup. We are currently
looking for the a firm to do the following at a respectable rate,
and in an agreeable amount of time.
1. Flex/AIR front end (Design and UI) * Wireframes already
created
2. Backend services/API layer development (In either
Java/PHP/Python)
3. Database Layout and creation (MySQL or Amazon Simple DB)
4. Scaling Amazon EC2 load balancing and Transcoding
5. Whole system must live in a Cloud and use Amazon Ec2 and
S3
Summary of project.
We are in the process of creating a B2C video distribution
center with the following b2b services: distribution, marketplace,
metrics gathering, dashboard creation, and content delivery. We
will certainly get more descriptive to those who offer their
services.
Thanks for your time.
John Drefahl
[email protected]

From a designer's point of view...

This hasn't seemed to be talked about much so I thought I would
see if I could get some dialogue generated on the subject.
When it comes to my graphic designers in the Flex workflow:
1. should I keep them in the Flash environment or move them to
the Flex environment?
2. where is the delineation between Flex & Flash (from a
design standpoint)?
3. to what level should things be designed/developed in Flash
vs. Flex?
a. does it make any sense to have my Flash designers doing
anything with the Flash drawing API (or other programmatic design
elements) or is there a Flex equivalent?
4. if I make the assumption to have Flash be used as a designer
for "interactive" elements and Flex for UI and other elements am I
on the right track?

Hi there -
There aren't really any cut and dry answers, but there have
been some posts
and blogs in the past that offer some opinions and can help
get you thinking
about the topic in more detail. Folks like Jesse Warden and
Mike Chambers
have talked about the division of labor between Flash and
Flex and the
designer/developer workflow that can add more color to this
topic. Some of
these postings apply to Flex 1.5, but I don't see too much of
a difference
with Flex 2.
Jesse Wardens' thoughts from over a year ago which might give
some guidance:
http://www.jessewarden.com/archives/2005/01/why_flash_devel.html
Mike Chambers wrote something when we released the alpha of
Flex 2 that
provides some ideas:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flex2_flash.html
And one posting that came up just this week:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flex_builder_flash.html
Best,
Deepa Subramaniam
Flex SDK Developer
"sswenson" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:e4g1tg$7gn$[email protected]..
>
<blockquote>quote:<br><hr><i>Originally
posted by:
>
<b><b>ElectricGrandpa</b></b></i>
> Yes, but the question was about Flash *Designers*, not
developers. I'm
> also
> interested in this topic.
>
> ElectricGrandpa has it correct. In particular I am
trying to decide how
> much
> workload should be kept in Flash and what is more
reasonable to have
> developed/designed in Flex. In deciding to use Flex it
is crucial to know
> how I
> need to re-organize my team so as to best use them and
their skills, where
> to
> apply additional training and where I may have gaps that
I need to fill.
>
> Should "look and feel" elements of my RIAs be designed
and developed in
> Flex
> or Flash? Should interactive content be kept in the
Flash realm and added
> programmatically to my RIAs? If so, where is a logical
line to draw
> between
> what Flash does best and where Flex can take over?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>

Flex 4 - No Longer Supports ComboBox Prompt?

I can't seem to find any documentation on the Flex 4 ComboBox's prompt? in Flex 3 there was a simple prompt property available at the -1 index - however I can't seem to find anything similiar in the Flex 4 / Spark Combobox?

James,
Unfortunately the prompt functionality did not make it into Flex 4 for the Spark ComboBox. Look for ComboBox and TextInput prompt support in a future release.
Jason

Flex 4/Spark UI Design

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