Flex Development- Understanding The Frameworks

By Author: aaricsage
Total Articles: 9
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The increased use of the Rich Internet Applications (RIA) in the website to spruce up the image and attract more visitors is increasing the popularity of the Flex technology. Though Flex developer community is still smaller compared to that of Java or Microsoft, it is growing at a steady rate. The new innovations in Flex development process has resulted in creation of many open source frameworks. The most important and commonly used frameworks are mentioned below:

1> Cairngorm :- It is the oldest and widely used Flex framework. Its layered MVC implementation helps in development of the RIA applications that support complex business logic. Cairngorm framework allows the project to be scaled down into small modules. Each module is developed by a team of Flex developers and many such teams work parallel, but independent of each other. This saves time and allows in rapid completion of complex business applications or projects.
Craingorm allows is development of complex RIA applications with multiple use-cases and views. It allows better management of the Flex development project through multi-disciplinary team involvement ...
... of both designers and developers.

2> Pure MVC :- PureMVC is a lightweight open source framework. This framework, unlike Cairngorm has no dependency on Flash, Flex or ActionScript. It follows MVC design pattern and this includes three layers: model, view and controller. This is actually an ActionScript 3 framework and provides RIA developers some very handy tools to develop Cross platform rich applications.

3> Model-Glue :- This is another simple MVC based Flex framework. This framework is quite lighter to the other frameworks like Cairngorm. Hence it is more suitable to create prototypes or in other words create simple Flex development applications.

4> Foundry :- The ServeBox Foundry is an ActionScript 3 / Java framework. It is designed for Flex 2 applications and has tools that address and resolve some of the issues that Flex2 faces: Model-View sync, Screen browsing, Access-Control Lists, etc. Foundry is used for creation for mid to large sized RIA s.

5> Guasax Flex Framework :- It is an programming type of framework that provides a well structured and scalable Flex applications. Guasax framework is based on the MVC pattern and provides the Flex developer the opportunity to use the XML file to configure the actions in the business logic. ARP

6> Ariaware :- RIA Platform or ARP is one of the oldest frameworks of the Flash Community and developed as ActionScript based framework. It is now evolved to Flash MX and hence can be used in Flex and AIR Its codes directly access Flash classes so that it's reported having better performance comparing to other Flex based frameworks.

7> Flest Framework :- Flest is an ActionScript3 / Flex application framework. It is light weight framework and used for creating enterprise level Rich Internet applications. This framework offers the developers a great amount of freedom to implement their decisions in the Flex development process. The frameworks offer the Flex developer high degree of efficiency, simplicity and practicality. Thus there are many frameworks available at the disposal of the developer which he or she can use to create customized and interactive RIAs, on large or small scale.

iFlexweb is a professional Flex development company with offerings for specialized RIA development services with a belief of bringing in innovation and technology for robust business development.