Flex, I Need Some Info And Help I need to know how to start

[shadowx 0]

Hi folks.Im currently trying to go freelance with another guy i know making websites, he is the designer, im the coder and i was viewing SM's tutorial on flex and i thought, damn! We could use that! And so my searching began.I really like the sleek and smoothness of the tutorial SM posted, im always making contact forms for clients and if i can provide something as jazzy as that itll really boost the business. But i hit a brick wall! I found out that the main IDE released by adobe is unsurprisingly ridiculously priced and way out of my range. So i got the SDK and thought, hum wheres the installer? Then of corse realized it was the framework to be used by another IDE and wasnt an IDE in itself, and thats where im stuck. I cant find an IDE to use!So if anyone knows of a good free flex IDE then link it!My next question is what exactly is flex? It looks like a cross between VB/actionscript and XML, i assume from various sources that it is compiled? So i would write it in the strange XML like code, have it compiled just like an ordinary flash item and then embedded in my HTML page?Any other advice is greatly welcomed, especially tutorials, i saw the video ones on the adobe site but i prefer text based ones so i can follow it at my own pace, and preferably a tutorial that gets in at the deep end and starts you building a form or something from the start, i get bored reading about it and learn a lot faster when im doing it :lol:So, any info? *looks in Saint Michael's direction*

[bluedragon 0]

Hi folks.
Im currently trying to go freelance with another guy i know making websites, he is the designer, im the coder and i was viewing SM's tutorial on flex and i thought, damn! We could use that! And so my searching began.

I really like the sleek and smoothness of the tutorial SM posted, im always making contact forms for clients and if i can provide something as jazzy as that itll really boost the business. But i hit a brick wall! I found out that the main IDE released by adobe is unsurprisingly ridiculously priced and way out of my range. So i got the SDK and thought, hum wheres the installer? Then of corse realized it was the framework to be used by another IDE and wasnt an IDE in itself, and thats where im stuck. I cant find an IDE to use!

So if anyone knows of a good free flex IDE then link it!

You can use Eclipse .. Most of the companies use it for this purpose only.. Its an OpenSource IDE that was built for Java but also supports many other languages. I've also used it and its quite easy. The SDK will automatically detect Eclipse and perform the install for it if it already exist on your system.

You can download it from http://www.eclipse.org/

I Hope you got the FLEX 3.0 and not the 2.0 because 2.0 had some issues which have been dealt with in the new version. I'd really like to ask you something, since you are also a FLEX developer, can you allow multiple user logins on a FLEX page ??

Just a thought ..

My next question is what exactly is flex? It looks like a cross between VB/actionscript and XML, i assume from various sources that it is compiled? So i would write it in the strange XML like code, have it compiled just like an ordinary flash item and then embedded in my HTML page?
Any other advice is greatly welcomed, especially tutorials, i saw the video ones on the adobe site but i prefer text based ones so i can follow it at my own pace, and preferably a tutorial that gets in at the deep end and starts you building a form or something from the start, i get bored reading about it and learn a lot faster when im doing it

So, any info? *looks in Saint Michael's direction*

ok.. Flash was built previously and allowed you to build swf code that could be built in the web page . FLEX also produces the SWF code but in a slight different manner. Here the MXML (not XML) is used to bring up object and then build the SWF code. Also the ActionScript part defines the functioning of the different objects. Like Buttons, Vboxes, HBoxes, DropDowns, Lists etc.

You should try some Video tutorials .. Lynda.com has some really good tutorials. Try getting them from somewhere

I've used that only. Though I should tell you that I am no expert on this thing but i tried my best for answering your questions
Hope this helps
Edited September 22, 2008 by bluedragon (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

Thanks, i haver actually downloaded eclipse and i found this blog which was supposed to tell me how to set it up with flex: http://archive.darronschall.com/weblog/archives/000182.html

But i dont actually know if its set up properly. What are the steps for setting it up? (what did you do?) Just download the eclipse ZIP and the SDK zip from adobe and extract them both in the same directory?

Im really confused by this one! ive downloaded about 6 different things now!

EDIT: I found another article that helped to install the plugins properly. But how the hell do i start a new flex project? Is it just a java project or should i have a special custom "flex" or "mxml" project title?

This is such a *BLEEP* up its ridiculous! i hope to god flex is worth this! Its been hours now. Please, anyone what the hell do i need to do?!

EDIT: (AGAIN) well that was a waste of time! ive scrapped using eclipse, its just annoying and im sticking with my current editor using XML syntax highlighting and the command line compiler that was with the flex SDK ZIP.... What a waste of time, if i had known this i wouldve had it set up in 5 minutes....So there ya go folks. Just get the SDK from adobe and use the compiler inside

Edited September 22, 2008 by shadowx (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

Hi folks.

 

Im currently trying to go freelance with another guy i know making websites, he is the designer, im the coder and i was viewing SM's tutorial on flex and i thought, damn! We could use that! And so my searching began.

 

I really like the sleek and smoothness of the tutorial SM posted, im always making contact forms for clients and if i can provide something as jazzy as that itll really boost the business. But i hit a brick wall! I found out that the main IDE released by adobe is unsurprisingly ridiculously priced and way out of my range. So i got the SDK and thought, hum wheres the installer? Then of corse realized it was the framework to be used by another IDE and wasnt an IDE in itself, and thats where im stuck. I cant find an IDE to use!

 

So if anyone knows of a good free flex IDE then link it!

 

My next question is what exactly is flex? It looks like a cross between VB/actionscript and XML, i assume from various sources that it is compiled? So i would write it in the strange XML like code, have it compiled just like an ordinary flash item and then embedded in my HTML page?

 

Any other advice is greatly welcomed, especially tutorials, i saw the video ones on the adobe site but i prefer text based ones so i can follow it at my own pace, and preferably a tutorial that gets in at the deep end and starts you building a form or something from the start, i get bored reading about it and learn a lot faster when im doing it

 

So, any info? *looks in Saint Michael's direction*

Yeah the price is ridiculous high, but it is quite worth it once you develop full blown website applications like the online version of photoshop and other stuff like that. I know that eclipse can use it but other then that I wasn't really looking for how to get that installed or that would have been crazy enough and reading that you tried a few sites and so I am taking a shot with this link

 

Well if you read my first tutorial , it is platform that combines ActionScript, HTML, XML, CSS, MXML, Java, PHP, ruby on rails and some other basic languages to use to program applications which compiled would be run in flashed. The best part is when you compile the html page is already generated for you so you don't have to recode anything after that, but of course I haven't really gotten to application flex application within html pages. However, I don't think it is that necessary since you pull off full functioning websites if your coding is top notc both in and out of flex.

 

As for Learning the websites are somewhat basic and most provide the source code which sad to say is mostly from Flex 2, that I have found. As for Book, I have like every flex book you can think of to get a grasp on flex for my limited programming mind ,

 

So for recommended reading I suggest the following books.

 

Flex 3 Cookbook

 

Adobe AIR Create Modify Reuse

 

Adobe AIR with Ajax Visual QuickPro Guide

 

The Essential Guide to Flex 3

 

Foundation Flex for Designers

 

That should start you off to get a basic understanding on how to work with flex and if you need anymore books lets me know.

 

 

 

You can use Eclipse .. Most of the companies use it for this purpose only.. Its an OpenSource IDE that was built for Java but also supports many other languages. I've also used it and its quite easy. The SDK will automatically detect Eclipse and perform the install for it if it already exist on your system.

 

You can download it from http://www.eclipse.org/

 

I Hope you got the FLEX 3.0 and not the 2.0 because 2.0 had some issues which have been dealt with in the new version. I'd really like to ask you something, since you are also a FLEX developer, can you allow multiple user logins on a FLEX page ??

 

Just a thought ..

ok.. Flash was built previously and allowed you to build swf code that could be built in the web page . FLEX also produces the SWF code but in a slight different manner. Here the MXML (not XML) is used to bring up object and then build the SWF code. Also the ActionScript part defines the functioning of the different objects. Like Buttons, Vboxes, HBoxes, DropDowns, Lists etc.

 

You should try some Video tutorials .. Lynda.com has some really good tutorials. Try getting them from somewhere

 

I've used that only. Though I should tell you that I am no expert on this thing but i tried my best for answering your questions

Hope this helps

Well word has it Flex 4 is on its ways so it should be interesting what comes out of that, but for now Flex 3 is the way to go. As for your about multiple logins I do believe it is possible I have seen a few login examples and so if your website backend is php or ASP then it should be possible.

 

 

 

Thanks, i haver actually downloaded eclipse and i found this blog which was supposed to tell me how to set it up with flex: http://archive.darronschall.com/weblog/archives/000182.html

 

But i dont actually know if its set up properly. What are the steps for setting it up? (what did you do?) Just download the eclipse ZIP and the SDK zip from adobe and extract them both in the same directory?

 

Im really confused by this one! ive downloaded about 6 different things now!

 

EDIT: I found another article that helped to install the plugins properly. But how the hell do i start a new flex project? Is it just a java project or should i have a special custom "flex" or "mxml" project title?

 

This is such a *BLEEP* up its ridiculous! i hope to god flex is worth this! Its been hours now. Please, anyone what the hell do i need to do?!

 

EDIT: (AGAIN) well that was a waste of time! ive scrapped using eclipse, its just annoying and im sticking with my current editor using XML syntax highlighting and the command line compiler that was with the flex SDK ZIP.... What a waste of time, if i had known this i wouldve had it set up in 5 minutes....So there ya go folks. Just get the SDK from adobe and use the compiler inside

link

 

Just in case you missed the link.

Edited September 22, 2008 by Saint_Michael (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

thanks SM, ive given up on eclipse and just writing it in my normal syntax highlighted editor with XML syntax and compiling it manually from the command line. Its going well so far, considering ive never used XML before and this is so similar to XML, im also not an object or event driven programmer but so far its real easy. Im just going to follow your form tutorial now. got a label that hides/shows a second child panel so i can have things such as "Email a question" "Report a bug" etc... Each showing a new panel which contains a different, specialized form. We will see what happens, but first impressions are very good!

[shadowx 0]

Mods: I have "bumped" this thread because to add an edit to the post above would be insubstantial and to create a whole new topic would just be spammy and trashy. Feel free to merge the posts if you need to, i just feel this is the best way to go about it as the following post is completely different content but on the same topic

 

And so i begin...

 

Ok its going well, ive made my form BUT there is a problem, it seems through viewing source codes i need to import a HTTPService library to send the data to a PHP script for processing :

<mx:HTTPService id="httpService" url="contact.php" useProxy="false" method="POST">

<mx:request xmlns="">

<FirstName>{fname.text}</FirstName>

<email>{email.text}</email>

<message>{message.text}</message>

</mx:request>

</mx:HTTPService>

 

 

 

<mx:Script>

<![CDATA[

import mx.rpc.http.HTTPService;

import mx.controls.Alert;

 

private function Send(event:Event):void {

HTTPService.Send();

}

 

]]>

</mx:Script>

 

(a mixture of edited code from another app and my own code)

 

But i dont have these libraries installed, i get this error when compiling:

 

cannot resolve multiname reference unambiguously

/quote]and then a file path like C\eclipse\framework\libs\rpc.swc The file there does exist but i can only imagine it doesnt contain the libraries for the http request or something?

 

Ive only started flex today so i really dont know but any advice is greatly appreciated! Is there a download i need to get for these additional libraries or is my code wrong? Or is there another way to send a HTTP request?

 

As i said i copied some of that code from a tutorial source code, the actual import block is:

 

<![CDATA[

import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;

import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;

import mx.rpc.http.HTTPService;

import mx.utils.StringUtil;

import mx.events.CloseEvent;

import mx.controls.Alert;

import mx.events.ListEvent;

import mx.managers.PopUpManager;

 

I just took what i think i need, the httprequest and alert functions.

[bluedragon 0]

Sorry ShadowX was busy with some things

First of all, Eclipse is quite easy. You just needed to switch from Java to FLEX environment. Its a tab one one of the top bars. I guess you missed it

It takes time to getting use to it, so I can really understand . But it is at the same time worth it since you get syntax highlighting and plus better error debugging options.

..................


Second thing. The code above.

You need a Remoting component for this to work properly.

http://www.amfphp.org/

Go there and read the instructions

Its quite easy to install and even has video instructions .. Plus you also get to use the remoting properly.

I must tell you that I haven't tried this myself. So best of Luck

Also just to add , If you were working on FLASH and then trying to send something to PHP you'll be needing FLASH remoting component. I guess the last they released were for version MX.