Flex Developer- Taking Advantage Of Flex 4 And Spark Architecture To Deliver Interactive Rias

By Author: Harry Barter
Total Articles: 21
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Flex SDK 4 is the latest offering from Adobe Flex and it uses the Spark architecture. The main principle of the Spark architecture is; clear separation of the components' visual elements from its logic. This separation empowers the Flex developer to design the visual elements of the component independent of the implementation of the logic powering the component. The Flex developer can easily create highly expressive and sturdy Flex components. The Spark architecture through its skinning model, allows the Flex developers to easily mould the visual and behavior of the Flex component, quickly and effortlessly.

Spark uses the skinning model and gives the Flex developer access to flexible layouts, latest graphics, superior states model and a new effects engine, which add more expression to the final offering. Spark architecture provides back door compatibility with earlier versions like Flex 3 and allows the Flex developer to work alongside with the designer to create amazing RIAs, quickly. This was not possible earlier. Every Spark component consists ...
... of two classes, a skin class, which is written in declarative MXML and a component, which is written in ActionScript. These two classes are associated together via the styling mechanism. The Spark architecture through its skinning model empowers the Flex developer a better control over the development process to create robust and more creative RIAs.

Flex 4 bring with it graphics library also known as MXML Graphics. It consists of rudimentary graphics, grouping containers, and support for complex transformations. The competence level of the MXML Graphics library is defined by FXG, an interchange format, which is used across many Adobe creative tools like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Flash Catalyst. The content drawn on the screen can be imported and easily edited with a favorite tool.

Flex 4 has superior animations engine, which provides improved effects and transitions that can be used by Spark components. This animation engine can be bought into play directly within Spark skin classes through state-based changes. Alternatively, effects can be directly applied to component parts.

Flex 4 layouts provide Flex developers with new functionality that includes robust 2D and 3D transformations. It allows them the greater flexibility and independence to utilize the Spark architecture offerings of assignable layout and implementation of custom layouts. These features successfully fulfill the Spark architecture goal of providing the Flex developer the greater control over the Flex development and design process.

Flex 4 and it Spark architecture allows the Flex developer to create small set of basic components, which can be easily customized. At same time the swappable layout algorithm in Flex 4 allows the Flex developers to quickly select the layout from the set of predefined layouts. This saves time and speeds up the Flex development process.

The Flex developers utilize well the Flex4 ability to flawlessly support 3D animations. This enables them to showcase elegant multimedia display and give the end users a delightful experience. The rich and expressive graphics increase the visualization of the information and help the users to quickly grasp the information. Thus Spark architecture makes Flex 4 a very handy tool for Flex developer.

The Flex developer at iFlexweb proficiently uses of the latest Adobe Flex offerings to seamlessly build Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) in the client's websites.