Artemis Alpha Released

Artemis is a community focused project aimed at bringing external libraries to the Flex / Flash environment. The goal of Artemis is to provide features in the Flex / Flash desktop application domain that are not currently available. The Artemis framework allows a developer to create their own custom libraries (currently written in java with plans to support other languages) that integrate with a Flex / Flash Apollo application. For Flex Developers:
Artemis provides a way for developers to collaborate on building extension to the Apollo framework. Nearly any java API can be encapsulated in an Artemis Library and exposed to an Apollo application through the Artemis framework. For Java Developers:
Throw away your Swing UIs. Artemis brings the UI capabilities of Flex to java developers. Look for samples coming to our web site that will compare ease of use and functionality between a Flex UI and a Swing UI. No more Grid Bags! I am currently testing Artemis and will post my experiences as soon as possible. Please post any comments on your experiences with Artemis here as well. UPDATE: I was able to run the screen shot application successfully on both Windows XP and Mac OSX 10.4.9. For Mac, you will need to get the Java 6 download from Apple’s ADC site which is free to join.

Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3

I just saw an amazing presentation on the new Flash Component Kit for Flash CS3 which shows Flash content as a full fledged citizen within Flex applications. Not only is it super easy to compile your Flash CS3 content for Flex, but Flex Builder will use the content seamlessly.

Key Features that I can remember:

• Ability to access Flash content natively within Flex using any Flex container
• Flash content can be used as a skin
• Ability to define events from within Flash content which can be accessed from Flex
• Bounding boxes to define the space the Flash content will occupy within the Flex application
• Flashframe labels can be accessed from Flex using state management
• and more that I can’t remember, anyone else who watched the Connect demo, please add comments.

Technology of the Year

Congratulations to the Adobe Flex team for winning InfoWorld’s Technology of the Year for 2007! I think the Apollo team has a great shot at 2008. dobe Flex 2.0 constitutes a big leap forward for this RIA platform, thanks to a new Eclipse-based IDE for drag-and-drop layout and code management, and a separate data services application for server-side messaging and data integration. Easy connections for Web services and Java objects bolster this very good choice for enterprise RIA scenarios.

Flex 3

Here is some information from some of the Adobe Team members reguarding Flex 3.

• Is Flex 3 being rushed out?
  • We are not rushing out Flex 3. The Flex 3 beta has not started and
    is some time away. Once we have a first public alpha or beta, it will
    still be a logn while until we ship. What you are seeing is not about
    us rushing the product, it is about us becoming much more open about
    what is coming down the road in the future. We started this with Adobe
    Labs (initially Macromedia Labs) but in this cycle in the next few
    months you will see up open up more so folks can see the roadmap and
    give us feedback. Keep in mind, we released the first public alpha of Flash at Max in
    October 2005. We had a small private alpha underway for a few months
    before that. But we didn’t ship Flex 2 until June 27 2006. Just
    because we are looking for testers and able to demo so features doesn’t
    mean we are about to ship. It just means we want to give you a view of
    the product before it is baked so you can give us feedback (and also for
    your planning). From when we had our first external testers to when we
    shipped Flex 2 ws almost 12 months. It may not be as long this time
    because it is not such an major architectural change, but we are going
    to let the product bake and stay focused on quality.
    • David Mendals - Adobe
• How will we transition from Flex 2 to 3?
  • Flex 2 was a major architectural release. We changed the VM, the
    language, the framework, and the tool in fundamental and non-compatible
    ways. Flex 3 will not be such a release. We are now able to leverage
    those years of work and build on it incrementally. I think we can add a
    ton of value in areas like productivity, designer developer workflow,
    approachability, etc; but this release will not be a rewrite and will
    not be something each of you needs to relearn and invest heavily to
    migrate to.
    • David Mendals - Adobe
• Why start talking about Flex 3 so early?
  • This release cycle is going to be very different and break the norm
    for how release cycles work at Adobe. We are changing and in the next
    few months this will become crystal clear as to our plans. We need to
    get more community involved in the release to shape the features and
    quality of Flex 3. Overall we are committed to delivering a first
    class framework and development toolset for our customers.
    Flex 3.0 is not right around the corner but will happen in 2007. My
    announcement on Flex 3 earlier this week was to state that we are
    committed to targeting Flash Player 9 for the release.
    • Ted Patrick - Adobe
• Will Flex 3 SDK remain free?
  • Flex SDK will remain FREE.
    • Ted Patrick - Adobe