Flex

From TechWiki

This is a consolidation of all Flex links and resources.

Contents 1 To Be Categorized 2 General Flex Resources 2.1 Sources 2.2 Education and Learning 2.3 General Commentary 3 IDEs 4 Frameworks and General Libraries 5 Drupal and Flex 6 Data Visualization 6.1 Charting/Graphing 6.2 Mapping Tools 6.3 Graph (Network) Visualization and Analysis 7 RDF and Related 7.1 Ontology Viewing and Analysis 8 Templates 9 Miscellaneous Components/Widgets

To Be Categorized

• FlexReports still in development

General Flex Resources

Sources

• Open source Flex: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Downloads
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex/web/# - official showcase for Flex components and frameworks; 320 as of last check (12/30/09); check periodically
• http://www.senocular.com/ - general Flash, Flex and AS3 blog; not a must-see
• Good listing of open source frameworks and options: http://osflash.org/open_source_flash_projects

Education and Learning

• Definitely have this book on your desk if you are using Flex: Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0
• Flex video learning series: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/
• http://www.flexer.info/ - FLEX{er} is a Web site where information regarding Flex & Actionscript programming languages is gathered starting from general info like books and resources and going to examples of actionscript for specific problems
• http://flexdevtips.blogspot.com/ - a blog with an assortment of custom flex components, tricks and tips; perhaps useful, but not go-to
• http://blog.flexexamples.com/ - a blog with an assortment of custom flex components, tricks and tips; perhaps useful, but not go-to

General Commentary

• Enterprise adoption: Does HTML5 stand a chance against Flash technologies?: http://srirangan.net/?p=244#more-244

IDEs

• Flex Builder 3: IDE from Adobe with standard ($249) and professional versions ($649); see http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/. Based on and uses Eclipse
• IBM ILOG Elixir 2.5 (see https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?source=swg-iiloget25)
• FlashDevelop: http://osflash.org/flashdevelop - FlashDevelop is a popular open source ActionScript 2/3 and web development environment. FlashDevelop seemlessly integrates with Adobe Flash IDE, Adobe Flex SDK, MTASC, haXe and swfmill
  • http://code.google.com/p/flashdevelop/
  • http://www.steamed-design.com/2009/07/free-flex-ide.html
• Flash Mini-Builder is a lightweight IDE created for developing programs written in ActionScript 3. It is itself written in ActionScript. See http://code.google.com/p/minibuilder/
  • blog: http://www.victordramba.com/?p=36
• Amethyst is SapphireSteel’s IDE for programming rich web-based and desktop applications using The Adobe Flash Platform including Flex and AIR; see http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Download-Amethyst-Adobe-Flex-IDE
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/311887/what-is-the-best-most-productive-flex-ide

Frameworks and General Libraries

• An open source framework for Flex developers initially created by Farata Systems. Includes clear.swc library and Eclipse plugins: Clear Data Builder, DTO2FX, FX2Ant, Log4Fx: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cleartoolkit/
• http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/ - ASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications, is a collection of Flash and Flex components, code libraries, toolkits and utilities developed by Yahoo! for ActionScript developers. These libraries available under the terms of the open source BSD license
• http://joshblog.net/2008/11/10/open-source-flex-project-wires-ui-library/ - its concept is similar to Yahoo! Pipes
  • http://code.google.com/p/flexwires/
• The hexagonlib is a multi-purpose library written with the aim to provide a versatile foundation of classes for game and application development with ActionScript 3: http://code.google.com/p/hexagon/. Mostly game oriented; not much documentation
• PEGAS The Graphic, Geometric, transitions and processing opensource framework based on VEGAS: http://code.google.com/p/pegas/ - many components, but very little documentation and no recent updates
• VEGAS is an AS2, AS3 and SSAS OpenSource Framework: http://code.google.com/p/vegas/ - based on maashaack
• http://code.google.com/p/maashaack/ - interesting framework with an interesting coding philosophy; probably worth a closer look
• openflux - Flex Components Made Easy: http://code.google.com/p/openflux/ - recommend incorporation of degrafa; framework tries to follow the MVC approach
  • http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/06/openflux
  • first look is not that strong or active
• Flest is an ActionScript3 / Flex application framework for building enterprise level RIA: http://code.google.com/p/flest/ - though the framework operates with such class roles as Model, Controller, Command and view State, at current stage it is not considered an MVC implementation. Technically Flex/AS3 RIA is a single-tier application that works as a front-end for whatever sits on the server side (dotNET, J2EE, PHP, etc). De-coupling RIA View from RIA Model does not seem practical in most cases
  • documentation fairly minimal and not updated since Aug 2007
• Gaia is an open-source front-end Flash Framework for AS3 and AS2 designed to dramatically reduce development time: http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/ - very active, very well documented; now supports FlexBuilder; a scaffolding framework for Flash
  • maybe worth a look
• The FlexLib project is a community effort to create open source user interface components for Adobe Flex 2 and 3: http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/ - current components: AdvancedForm, Base64Image, EnhancedButtonSkin, CanvasButton, ConvertibleTreeList, Draggable Slider, Fire, Highlighter, HorizontalAxisDataSelector IconLoader, ImageMap, PromptingTextArea, PromptingTextInput, Scrollable Menu Controls, SuperTabNavigator, Alternative Scrolling Canvases, Horizontal Accordion, TreeGrid, FlowBox, Docking ToolBar, Flex Scheduling Framework
• http://flexmojos.sonatype.org/: A collection of maven plugins to allow maven to compile, optimize, and test Flex SWF, Flex SWC, Air SWF, Air SWC and Air package
• FlexMonkey is a testing framework for Flex apps that provides for the capture, replay and verification of Flex UI functionality. FlexMonkey can record and playback Flex UI interactions, and generates ActionScript-based testing scripts that can easily be included within a continuous integration process
  • http://code.google.com/p/flexmonkey/
  • http://flexmonkey.gorillalogic.com/
• http://swizframework.org/: Swiz Framework, brutally simple micro-architecture for Rich Internet Application development with Adobe Flex
  • http://soenkerohde.com/
  • http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/
• fxSpy allow you to inspect and dynamically change most properties and styles of the visual components in your Flex application. You can - for example - try out a specific width or a background color for your component before changing it in your code
  • http://code.google.com/p/fxspy/
  • http://www.mieuxcoder.com/data/2007/12/FlexSpy-1.2/dashboard.html (example in use)
• PaperVision3D is a Flash 3D animation library
• OpenSocial Actionscript 3.0 Client Library enables you to make an Actionscript/Flash/Flex application with the OpenSocial APIs
  • http://blog.opensocial.org/2009/06/new-addition-to-opensocial-family.html
• http://www.jiglibflash.com/blog/ - JiglibFlash is a open source Actionscript 3D Physics Engine. It’s ported from the c++ open source physics engine jiglib; it also supports the FIVe3D library
• FIVe3D is an easy to use vector-based 3D library. It can be download from http://five3d.mathieu-badimon.com/

Drupal and Flex

• Using Drupal as a backend to Flex (http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/flash-cms-drupal-adobe-flex-backend)
• How to do create Drupal with Flash or Flex: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/drupal_flash.html
• Some Drupal modules: http://www.dinesh.co.za/fluxmvc-drupal-flex-mvc-framework/
  • http://drupal.org/project/amfphp
  • http://drupal.org/project/services
• http://boston2008.drupalcon.org/session/druplash-and-druplex-content-managed-flash-and-flex-sites-powered-drupal
• Flex Drupal node editor: http://www.reece-tech.com/druplex/flex/#
• http://pdf.edocr.com/af09c356f3dc578b71e5a828149f02cf826657c9.pdf
• Drupal/Flex Mindmap editor: http://drupal.org/project/graphmind

Data Visualization

Charting/Graphing

• Cloud Charts - looks pretty lame
• Gephi (had some Web start install issues; second install worked fine): http://gephi.org/support/demo/
  • Flash Gefx explorer: http://gexf.net/explorer/
  • http://gephi.org/community/gexf-graph-exchange-xml-format/
• http://flare.prefuse.org/
  • apps index: http://flare.prefuse.org/apps/index
• JuiceKit (limited number of charts??): http://www.juicekit.org/
• Axiis is a Data Visualization Framework for Flex. It has been designed to be a concise, expressive, and modular framework that let developers and designers create compelling data visualization solutions. Also, take a look at the nice window-in-window design on the saturnboy blog
• BirdEye is a community project to advance the design and development of a comprehensive open source information visualization and visual analytics library for Adobe Flex. The actionscript-based library enables users to create multi-dimensional data visualization interfaces for the analysis and presentation of information
  • http://birdeye.googlecode.com/svn/branches/ng/examples/demo/BirdEyeExplorer.html
  • http://code.google.com/p/birdeye/
  • http://birdeye.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ravis/RaVisExamples/example-binaries/EnhancedRavisGraph.html#
  • http://birdeye.googlecode.com/svn/branches/ng/examples/demo/BirdEyeExplorer.html
• Degrafa is a declarative graphics framework for creating rich user interfaces, data visualization, mapping, graphics editing and more; Axiis is based on Degrafa. Nice article here by James Whittaker looking at FXG and Degrafa
• AnyChart is a flexible Flash based solution that allows you to create interactive and great looking flash charts
• Chronoscope is useful to visualize thousands or millions of points of data. Very well designed and can be navigated with the keyboard or mouse. There's a Javascript API, a Google Visualization API or try it as a Google Gadget on Google Spreadsheets, iGoogle, or Open Social; not sure if there is a Flex option or not
• FusionCharts are animated flash charts for web apps. Looks like they work with most technologies
• Kap Labs Visualizer displays data as graphs to better visualize connections. Kap Lab's Visualizer provides ready-to-use yet highly customizable multi-layout data visualization for Adobe Flex and Air
• See http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/ for open source Flash charts

Mapping Tools

• OpenScales (mapping): OpenScales is a Open Source (LGPL) mapping framework based on ActionScript 3 and Flex. It has been designed for building Rich Internet Mapping Applications easily. Our last release is OpenScales 1.1, it has been released on 12/10/2009
• ClearMaps looks promising, but it is not fully developed:
  • GIS editor such as Quantum GIS (open source) (http://qgis.org/)
  • open source simplification tools and most don't do a good job at simplifying complex geometries with adjoining boundaries. The best free option (though not open source) is MapShaper (http://mapshaper.com/test/demo.html)
  • ClearMaps Builder utility makes use of Edwin Vanrijkom's Shapefile importer. All files in /tools/ClearMapsBuilder/src/org/vanrijkom/ are his. The full source and any available license is at: http://code.google.com/p/vanrijkom-flashlibs/
• Choropleth Map Component (Adobe Flex 3): http://srirangan.net/?p=209
  • see also the simpler predecessor: http://srirangan.net/?p=186
• http://www.flex888.com/lab/geoweb/flexviewer/index.html - an ESRI-developed map viewer, with a broad display of mapping options and views; the Web Mapping APIs allow you to develop rich, interactive applications using JavaScript, Flex, or Silverlight. You can embed your applications in Web pages or launch stand-alone Web applications from any Web page. Development with the APIs is free. Deployment is also free under certain conditions; see further http://www.esri.com/software/mapping_for_everyone/api/index.html
• InstantAtlas is a Flash/Flex based mapping system. It is from ESRI's GeoWise costs about $1200 for publisher, $1500 for designer. See http://www.instantatlas.com/downloads/PriceList%28USD%29.pdf
  • Jacksonville's Community Snapshot uses InstantAtlas
• DataViz is a project to support and improve public sector data visualisation, commissioned by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Good data visualisation can help users explore and understand the patterns and trends in data, and also communicate that understanding to others to help them make robust decisions based on the data being presented. This project supports public sector researchers improve the way that they visualise data, by providing good practice examples and case studies, practical and step-by-step guides on how to visualise data, and links to more detailed resources.The website is www.improving-visualisation.org/ , with a gallery of visualisation examples (currently 220 examples) at http://www.improving-visualisation.org/visuals, and case studies and guides at www.improving-visualisation.org/case-studies/. The parent of DataViz, OCSI, is a partner with GeoWise
• SPRING is a state-of-the-art GIS and remote sensing image processing system with an object-oriented data model which provides for the integration of raster and vector data representations in a single environment.
• MapServer is an open source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web. Originally developed in the mid-1990’s at the University of Minnesota, MapServer is released under an MIT-style license, and runs on all major platforms. Also see and a Adobe Flex WebGIS interface combined with MapServe (http://www.preps.gov.br/web/index.php/login/login and http://download.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2009/SPREP/2Thu/Parkside%20110A/1500/Thu%20110a%201500%20Sperb.ppt)
• FWTools is a set of Open Source GIS binaries for Windows (win32) and Linux (x86 32bit) systems produced by me, Frank Warmerdam (ie. FW). The kits are intended to be easy for end users to install and get going with. No fudzing with building from source, or having to collect lots of interrelated packages. FWTools includes OpenEV, GDAL, MapServer, PROJ.4 and OGDI as well as some supporting components
• A general access point (but, apparently, no Flex) is http://maptools.org/
• Geomajas is an open source, GWT-based option. See http://download.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2009/SPREP/3Fri/Parkside%20GO4/1300/fri%20g04%201400%20de%20Graef.ppt
• OpenZoom flex library for tile-based image viewers
• Advanced Flash Components' UMap
• Modest Maps is a BSD-licensed display and interaction library for tile-based maps in Flash (ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0) and Python. It provides a minimal, extensible, customizable, and free display library for discriminating designers and developers who want to use interactive maps in their own projects. Modest Maps provides a core set of features in a tight, clean package, with plenty of hooks for additional functionality
• http://www.flexmappers.com/mapserving/openscales.html; Openscales and demo
• ArcGIS Server and Flex API. What are the $$ and obligations?
• Open source MapGuide, though unclear if any Flex stuff
• Flex DataMap component (generally plots on a map; see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_datamap.html); also, see these demos (loads slow)
• Blank SVG maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blank_maps
• http://www.mindset-geometrics.com.ar/

Graph (Network) Visualization and Analysis

• http://mark-shepherd.com/blog/springgraph-flex-component/
• VizierFX is a Flex library for drawing network graphs. The graphs are laid out using GraphViz on the server side, then passed to VizierFX to perform the rendering. The library also provides the ability to run ActionScript code in response to events on the graph, such as mousing over a node or clicking on it
  • http://code.google.com/p/vizierfx/
• http://diagramic.com/ has an online Flex network graph demo; mostly small scale; pretty cool. Does not appear to be code available anywhere

RDF and Related

• SPARQLBrowser: http://ccgi.arutherford.plus.com/website/flex/dbPedia/sparqlQueryViewer/ (R-click to view/download source)
• SemanticFlash by Aldo Bucchi is not well developed
• Integrated Semantics is developing suites of open source Flex+AIR (and Flex+Browser) user interfaces for Alfresco, other open source enterprise software, and Adobe LiveCycle
  • http://www.integratedsemantics.com/products.html
• SMDM: Enhancing Enterprise-Wide Master Data Management Using Semantic Web Technologies (see http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/2/vldb09-1011.pdf) (build UI using Flex, but no samples or downloads available)
• RelFinder is a tool based on Adobe Flex that automatically reveals relationships within a set of known objects via arbitrary SPARQL endpoints and displays them as graph visualization. The relationships are found by an algorithm that can be applied to large RDF knowledge bases, such as DBpedia or the whole LOD-Cloud. Since the graph that visualizes the relationships can still become large, we added interactive features and filtering options to the user interface that enable a reduction of displayed nodes and facilitate understanding
  • http://relfinder.semanticweb.org/
• Origo - social client
  • http://www.origo-client.com/demo/client (demo/demo)
• http://labs.rgd.mcw.edu/ontology/browse.html Flex ontology browser prototype (pretty interesting)
• PubOnto prototype (some similarities to FlexViz): http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/brainarray/prototype/PubOnto/run/PubOnto.html#
• TopBraid Ensemble
• SPARQLMotion: http://composing-the-semantic-web.blogspot.com/2009/01/sparqlpedia-as-example-sparqlmotion-web.html, http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/scripting-language-set-semantic-web-835
• Biosmile Web Search (BWS) is a bio annotator and search facility; not apparently open source: http://bioservices.cse.yzu.edu.tw/BWS/
• Flexparts visualize Freebase's open database as if it were desktop applications. You can see them as realtime webbased widgets. Just query Freebase from within your browser and drag & drop the url from the address navigation bar on to your flexpart
• Flexparts comes from Semantic Brains,
• xploreplus is about enabling Semantic Web Standards in your Cognos BI environment

Ontology Viewing and Analysis

• http://www.thechiselgroup.org/flexviz
  • http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexviz/
  • http://keg.cs.uvic.ca/ncbo/flexviz/FlexoViz.html#
  • http://webhome.cs.uvic.ca/~seanf/files/demo_submission_flexviz.pdf alternative link

Templates

• Flex Grid Layout Container: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=layouts_09.html
  • coordy Flex layout AS: http://code.google.com/p/coordy/
    • http://sweatshop.somerandomdude.com/projects/coordy/examples.html
• Flex layout tutorial (ggod): http://www.fabianvercuiel.com/internet-websites-applications/layout-design-in-flex-for-html-developers/
• Bok visual layout editor: http://toki-woki.net/p/Boks/help.html; this one looks like the best for Blueprint (see below)
• http://www.aisleone.net/2007/design/designing-grid-systems-for-flash/

Miscellaneous Components/Widgets

• FlexPaper is an open source light weight document viewer component designed to work together with libraries such as PDF2SWF, making it possible to display PDF files in Adobe Flex and other Flash based applications. It gives developers the ability to skin and control the behavior on how documents are to be displayed which allows more seamless integration into various applications
  • see demo: http://flexpaper.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Example/flash/FlexPaperViewer.html
• http://code.google.com/p/flex-iframe/: The Flex-IFrame component allows developers to embed an html page inside a Flex application
• Many, many cool Flex tool options available at: http://www.netthreads.co.uk/ (incl SPARQL browser; see below), see esp. http://ccgi.arutherford.plus.com/blog/wordpress/projects/
• as3xls supports reading text, numbers, formulas, and dates from Excel version 2.x-2003 and writing text, numbers, and dates. Formulas also update to reflect changes in cells they reference
• http://ria.mnm.it/blog/projects/xsd-to-as3/: XSD to AS3 Class Generator quickly and easily generates AS3 classes taking an XML Schema and an XML document
• http://www.wittysparks.com/2009/12/06/few-best-custom-components-for-adobe-flex-part-1/ - listing of some various Flex components
• Flexmonster provides Pivot table Flex/Flash components rich internet application (RIA) development services
• http://snipplr.com/view/5124/as3-sending-and-recieving-data-using-a-get-request/ - sending and receiving data using a Get request with AS3
• haXe (pronounced as hex) is an open source programming language. While most other languages are bound to their own platform, haXe is a multiplatform language that targets the following platforms of Javascript, Flash (you can compile a haXe program to a .swf file; haXe offers very good performance and language features to develop Flash content), NekoVM, PHP and C++
• http://www.mtasc.org/#download - MTASC is an ActionScript 2 Open Source free compiler
• http://www.flextras.com/blog/ - Flex interface components for purchase