Adobe Flash Builder 4 (formely Flex Builder 4 ) and Adobe Flash Catalyst are out on Adobe Labs going to download and try them out before posting a proper review meanwhile more info on Ryan Stewart’s blog and Andrew Shorten’s Tutorial
Flash Builder 4 delivers a long list of new features, plus improvements to many existing features.There are three main themes to this release: developer productivity, designer-developer workflow, and data-centric application development. For an overview of the features included in this first public beta release, please read Tim Buntel’s What’s New in Flash Builder 4 article and watch the new feature videos. As always, the Flex 4 framework is included within Flash Builder, so please also read Matt Chotin’s What’s New in the Flex 4 SDK article.
Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™ is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.
- Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces.
- Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product
- Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution
- Work more efficiently with developers who use Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 to create rich Internet applications (RIAs). Designers use Flash Catalyst to create the functional user experience then provide the project file to developers who use Flash Builder to add functionality and integrate with servers and services.
Go get Flash Builder 4
Go get Flash Catalyst
Flash Builder 4 Standalone Installer
Flash Builder 4 Plugin for Eclipse
Flex Component Kit for Adobe Flash Professional CS4
Flex 4 Test Automation Plug-in
Flash Catalyst Beta
More Adobe Resources:
Learn about Flash Builder 4
Learn about Flex 4 SDK
Working with Flash Builder 4
Grupo W is looking for ActionScript / Flex Developers if you’re interested don’t hesitate and send your CV here’s the Job info:
Company: Grupo W
Location: Saltillo, Coah. Mexico
Position: Flash ActionScript / Flex developer
Information:
Mandatory technical skills:
• 3+ years experience in ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 for Flash applications integrated with server-side web applications and CMS
• Papervision knowledge
• Experience implementing OOP concepts with ActionScript
• Experience integrating streaming media
• Building integrated data-driven applications
• Source control
Communication skills:
• Outstanding problem-solving and communication skills
• Available to work in-house during work hours – Monday – Friday
• Team player and leadership skills
Ideal additional skills:
• SWF address
• AIR
• Experience in building social networking and community systems, which include context and video tagging, streaming media and other advanced online communication features
Desired additional skills:
• Experience in PHP/MySQL
• CMS experience
To Apply:
Please send a copy of your CV with portfolio and examples of sites directly to rcalderon@grupow.com
So it finally happened the IDE(Integrated development environment) known till now as Flex Builder it going to be renamed as Flash Builder , why ? To me it’s easy It makes a lot more sense, yes you can use the Flex Framework and yes you can use also build AIR apps and ActionScript 3.0 projects but at the end the result its the same your project gets compiled as an .swf file , so maybe this rename of the IDE should have happened earlier, it would have evited some confusion. This means that the Flex Framework it’s going to be renamed ? apparently no the flex framework stills and the Flex SDK stills the same but who better to explain it than Lee Brimelow and Duane “Chaos” Nickull check out their posts on the subject.
Hope this is the first step towards the process of integrating the Flash tools and not just renaming them. I haven’t used Flash IDE coding panel since who knows when, hope the Flash Builder and the Flash Professional IDES one day get along real well.
UPDATES:
Serge Jespers (Adobe Platform Evangelist ) explains in a little more detail why the renaming of Flex Builder to Flash Builder.
Keith Peters thoughts on Flash Builder
Ryan Stewart post Flex Builder “Gumbo” is Being Renamed Flash Builder
Lee Brimelow’s Flash Builder rebrand FAQ
Peter Elst Flex Builder gets rebranded to Flash Builder
Mihai Corlan (Adobe Platform Evangelist ) About the rebranding of Flex Builder into Flash Builder
Chuck Freedman The FlashFlex name game.
Adobe teams up with Facebook and releases new Adobe Developer Connection (Adobe Flash Platform and Facebook Platform ).
So if You where thinking on how to start developing Flash Applications for Facebook you will find this site very useful.
It includes various how to start videos , useful information and a brand new ActionScript 3.0 Facebook API:
Get the API
- For the latest ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform:
Go to Google code
Get started
Deliver rich, social experiences on the web
The Adobe Flash Platform and Facebook Platform provide the ideal solution for building rich, social experiences on the web. Flash is available on more than 98% of Internet-connected PCs, so people can immediately access the applications, content, and video that enable social interactions. The Facebook Platform is used by millions of people everyday to connect and share with the people in their lives. Together, both platforms allow you to:
* Share: Create rich interactions for users to share with friends.
* Have fun: Make games social; let users compete against their friends.
* Connect: Let users connect to your RIAs with Facebook Connect.
* Solve problems: Build RIAs that harness the power of community.
* Reach people: Reach millions of Facebook users through social distribution.
The new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform API, fully supported by Facebook and Adobe, makes it easy to build applications that combine the strengths of the Flash Platform and Facebook Platform.
Gumbo is the code name of the next version of Adobe Flex and new information about it has been made available on the Gumbo Page of the Flex Open Source site.
Some of the highlights on the next version of Flex include the following:
Themes of the Release
Design in mind
A framework for continuous and easier collaboration between designer and developer.
Developer Productivity
Improve compiler perfomance and add productivity enhancements.
Framework evolution.
Take advantage of the new Flash Player capabilities and add features required by common use-cases.
Ely Greenfield gives us a demo on designer and developer workflow.
And Matt Chotin provides a recorded preso outlining the plans for the next version of the Flex SDK (Gumbo).
Some of the things that Matt says on his preso are quite promising a new namespace added (MXML 2009) to the MXML language to support more toolability and make it easier to describe experience-oriented features such as states and transitions.
A new format that promotes the features available in the Flash Player and is usable by tools to describe various graphic assets, including skins (FXG) this format is already in use by the Fireworks CS4 Beta.
Component and skinning architecture for easy tool participation.
Improved existing experience-oriented features such as states, effects, and layout.
A final release it’s aimed to the second half of 2009.
Bidirectional layouts (mirroring) and text support.
New Video component.
And he also mentions that a new initiative is forming to build a ground-up lightweight/scalable framework for developing at other devices such as mobile phones but it’s a long term aimed to be released at the first half of 2010.
Here’s the link to Mike’s preso
Here’s a link to Gumbo’s White Paper: An Introduction to the Gumbo Component Architecture
Keep an eye on Gumbo’s Downloads page on Adobe’s Open Source site for releases of Gumbos Milestones.
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