If you are a recruitment agent, I have probably directed you here. This page is devoted specifically to you my friend, because I have not yet given you my 30 minute “Why Flex is so good?” and “Why Flex is going to be HUGE!” lectures. Don’t worry if you think my sending you here is a ploy to get rid of you… IT ISN’T! I tend to get so over excited when describing how great Flex is, I jabber on about it for ages… so save yourself some time and just read this abridged version At the end of this article, you will become an AGENT OF FLEX!!

Alternatively, if you just browsed your way in here and are interested in my views on Adobe Flex compared to the other browsers technologies, read on ….

The official blurb from Adobe on their Flex download page is:

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems.

So what the heck does that mean? Read on, and I shall attempt to explain what it means to me….

Stuff you may have heard of?

Most people have heard of HTML Javascript, CSS and XML, probably the biggest standards to come out of the web development arena. You may also have heard of AJAX, but don’t worry if you haven’t. HTML (and/or XHTML) is used to define how your screen looks and where everything sits, i.e. where your pictures, buttons and text box thingies go. Javascript has the job of making all the bits on the screen talk to each other and CSS allows you to style them (e.g. border size, border thickness, text colour, etc.).

Without AJAX, your web page goes blank every time you press a button, then starts downloading/redrawing again.

Using AJAX, you can update your current page without necessarily having to load the whole thing again. You can find a more in depth description here. If you use Google Mail, you may have noticed that it behaves this way?

Finally, as long as you haven’t been ignoring the interweb thingy (aka “Internet”) for the last 10 years, you would almost certainly have heard of Flash. Even if you haven’t heard of it, you have used it, Flash is usually used to make the fun animations you often see on advertisements and snazzier web sites.

So what is this Flex stuff?

You are now (if you weren’t already) up to speed on the nerdy web talk of yesteryear, so we can start to talk about Flex in relation to these other technologies.

First of all, Flex looks a lot like Flash. It behaves a lot like Flash. It runs in Flash Player… but it isn’t Flash. When you create Flex applications, you have a definition language called MXML which feels a lot like HTML. It defines where all the images, text and other button thingies go on the screen, so it really seems like HTML or XHTML.

Secondly, all the bits and pieces talk to each other using an OOP language called ActionScript3, which actually seems a lot like Javascript^[1].

Thirdly, styling is performed using CSS, which unsuprisingly is very very similar to … CSS! In reality, browser CSS and Flex CSS are semantically different, but the syntactic standard is consistent, even if the vocabulary varies.

Last but not least… AJAX. Flex is designed in such a way that you are forced to employ AJAX style calls, which… let’s just say is a good thing^[2].

So why do I think it’s so good then?

These are points best listed:

1. Flex works the same, no matter what browser you are using^[3]. With Javascript no one seems to follow the same standard, each browser implements it differently meaning you have to write and test it on lots of browsers as well as operating systems.
2. Because of point 1, most Javascript projects consist of approximately 95% browser compatability testing. As you only need to write Flex programs once, you save a very large amount of that “95%”
3. Flex runs inside Flash Player, so it is semi-compiled. This means it’s faster than a comparative web application (once it has loaded).
4. Flex has some very neat but simple to implement transitions, which help make applications flow like a mountain stream.
5. Flex can use AMF. Basically, this means that accessing data can be really FAST!^[4]
6. Look at some of these examples… they’re amazing!

In Conclusion

Well you now know a little about Flex, so please call with any job offers I hope you can understand why I am so enthusiastic about the whole “Flex thing” and I warmly await your follow up call.

Thank you for reading and congratulations on your graduation as an “AGENT OF FLEX”!!

-

^ [1] It’s actually more like Java, but that kind of messes up the distinction. If you want to sound clever, then say it shares the properties of Javascript, but works more like Java … that should do it!

^ [2] Alright then, let’s not just say it’s good…. it’s good because it forces Flex to be a presentation layer in your system architecture, thus theoretically reducing hack attacks and encouraging good coding practice. Well you were curious right?

^ [3] You might be able to argue that point a little (i.e. native fonts alter boundaries), but ultimately it’s really true!

^ [4] Technically, I should use the term “lightweight” but essentially it means FAST! REALLY REALLY FAST!

2 Comments to “Agents of Flex”

1. FlexBandit » Blog Archive » The Agents of Flex Have Arrived! — August 22, 2008 @ 0:31
   

   [...] Agents of Flex [...]

2. James Kirk, Agile HR — August 27, 2008 @ 13:04
   

   Thanks Matt, most insightful and helpful for a recruiter

   James

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