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Gumbo

Written by: Pawel Rembisz in Product Reviews, Web Technology

Flex 4, code named ‘Gumbo’, is now under development and due to be released in early 2010.

The beta release is out now for all who are eager to try out the new features Gumbo offers.

If you are unfamiliar with Flex, check out my post on Flex 3 to get the gist of it.

Flex 4 is being developed with three main themes: Design in Mind, Developer Productivity and Framework Evolution. Here are some of the features of the Flex 4 themes:

Design in Mind

  • Improvements to MXML language to support more tool-ability (like Flash Catalyst) – includes new namespace MXML2009
  • What is this you wonder? Flash Catalyst converts a graphic design (ie: done in Photoshop for example) into components and object. It basically prepares the design for the developer.
  • New file format – FXG – which describes vector graphics in XML (this includes the new FXG namespace)
  • Component and skinning architecture
  • Improvements to states, effects, transitions and layouts

Developer Productivity

  • Improved Compiler Performance
  • 2-Way Binding
  • Automation support for Flex in AIR
  • CSS Improvements (multiple style names, descendant and child selectors, id selectors)

Framework Evolution

  • New Flash Player 10 features available
  • Bi-directional layouts and text support
  • New Video Component (mainly based on FMS – Flash Media Server)

Read more about the themes on the Adobe website.

With the beta release of Flex 4, Adobe also released the new Flex Builder under a new name: Flash Builder 4. Coinciding with the release of Flash Builder 4 is Flash Catalyst (mentioned above) a tool to help you easily transfer designs made in Photoshop to Flash Builder 4.

It is an exciting time to be developing RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) with Flex 4. Integration of server-side languages such as PHP can be done easily using ZendAMF which is automatically installed by Flash Builder 4 when first used in a project. AMFPHP can also be used but will require manual insertion, whereas ZendAMF automatically integrates it for you. The beauty of using Flash Builder is that it will also parse any functions used in classes. It will then take the functions and their parameters and save them as code hints for future use.

Keep an eye out for the final release of Flex 4 scheduled for early 2010!

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