Adobe LCDS 3 really shines with its newly introduced model-driven development workflow. This article is not a review of its features, but rather an early feedback and some suggestions for future releases. Fire that guy who already reached his level of incompetency and said, “If one sal...

I try to go easy on frameworks in the classroom, because there could be lots of non-technical reasons for adopting this or that framework. I also know that people who created frameworks are seasoned developers with their vision of how things should be done. No disrespect here. But if t...

In this brief article I’d like to talk about one of the most important aspects of RIA in general and written in Flex in particular – the initial download process. You'll also see a screencast showing how designing each Flex application as a portal can make your RIA more modular and res...

Tim Bray, a Distinguished Engineer and Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems has been interviewed by InfoQ about the future of the Web. With all my respect to Sun’s engineers, I have to disagree with some of the statements Mr. Bray made.

This pattern is a hybrid of plug-in and event-driven architecture to integrate individual plug-ins together to come up with the Plug-in Integrator Pattern. This pattern leverages the benefits of both these well-known architectures to provide an optimal solution to build an enterprise-r...

Flex 2 was released in the Summer of 2006 and it was a mini-revolution in the RIA space. Almost nobody knew about Flex 1.5, but now almost everyone has at least heard about this software. Flex 3 was released in early 2008. It has a number of useful new features, but it was not a major ...

Eighteen months ago Flex 2 was released, which literally changed the way people think of rich Internet applications. Since then lots of things have happened in the Flex community. In 2007 Adobe announced that Flex will go open source, and now it has happened. All ActionScript 3 and Ja...

This is the first in a series of articles that will cover best practices of Flex development using the code of the soon-to-be-released open source class library theriabook. These components were developed by Flex and Java architects from Farata Systems. Over the past couple of years we...

Based on the calls I'm getting, it seems that people are confused by the word certified in the name of this program. So I'll try to provide some clarification here. But let me start by explaining what the title Adobe Certified Flex Instructor means. I'll start with my own story.

I assume that you are already sold on using Adobe Flex for developing the front end of your next rich Internet application. As of the end of 2007, it's the best choice you can make, really. But after spending almost two years working on real-world projects that involve Flex, I can see ...

On August 16, 2007 SYS-CON Media has launched Flex Developers Journal, an online technical publication for developers that are using or considering Adobe Flex as a technology for creating rich front ends for Web applications. While in the past SYS-CON was publishing Flex-related articl...

Development and Design are two sides of the same coin in the digital age, and it is very nice to consider in any case how well these two formerly separate worlds have come together over the past two decades. Adobe was at the forefront from the beginning, with its Postscript Fonts. Base...

One of the 'inflexion points' of the development of the Web, when commentators and analysts draw breath for long enough to chronicle its history, is certain to be the day that Google, through first Gmail and then Google Maps, opened the eyes of millions to the fact that the Web can be ...

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go! Ok, let me give you a chance to restore your heart rhythms. Each year I see a recurring situation. Software Company...

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go!

As many of you know, I do Macromedia seminars around the world. A fair number of participants are independent contractors. The number one question I get asked isn't about the latest programming techniques in Flash or how to develop dynamic pages in Dreamweaver. The number one question ...

When I took over this publication last September, I stated that I wanted to eventually change the tone of the publication so that the articles did not seem like 'textbook' exercises. Instead, I wanted to take on a more pragmatic approach by showing how many businesses are using the Mac...

As we go to print, we are finally seeing the realization of what must have been the worst kept secret beta in history: 'Blackstone.' As a matter of fact, at the New Orleans conference in November, Macromedia finally threw in the towel and gave everyone a beta copy of it.

It is the New Year, a time when we make resolutions and change (alright, I promise I won't talk about diets). It is also a time when we look back on the previous year. Publishing this journal is certainly no different.

I am writing this editorial the day after returning from the MAX 2004 Macromedia Conference in New Orleans, LA. As a veteran (or survivor) of many conferences, I can honestly say that this was one of the finest events I have ever attended.

In the October issue of this journal, we had a small error; John Bland's fine article entitled 'A Little OOP, CF Style' ended up with the classification of Flash ActionScript. Unfortunately it was not caught until the edition was in print. However, when I reviewed the article, I was st...

As a Web developer, trainer, and conference speaker, the question I am asked most frequently is, 'Where is this industry going?' My answer is one simple word: Flash!!!

I've been involved in the Web standards community almost as long as I've been working on the Web, and I've long felt that designing to W3C recommendations is the right thing to do. It's easy to evangelize standards like XHTML and CSS, but when it came time to put my money where my mout...

Since the launch of Dreamweaver MX 2004, I've had numerous opportunities to demonstrate its new features and power to both new and existing Dreamweaver users. As with any product demonstration, it doesn't take long before I'm singing the praises of Dreamweaver MX 2004's abilities to de...

When Macromedia first announced last year that it would be joining the old UCon and DevCon together, combining the best of the two events into 'Macromedia MAX 2003' - subsequently held in Salt Lake City in November - there were the inevitable rumblings in the user/developer community.

Macromedia and its developer community have a unique bond based on a mutual fascination with what the Internet could be, a desire to create great experiences, and a need to keep pushing the limits. The active dialogue that takes place between Macromedia and its customers pushes both si...

For many of us who comment regularly on the swirling, whirling Internet technologies space, 'Web publishing' has never been a particularly satisfactory term. If the metaphor of 'publishing' was the correct one for the business of making things public on the Web, then how about the rest...