The Official Flex Team Blog

Just over one year after Flash Builder 4, Flex SDK 4 and Flash Catalyst CS 5.0 shipped, we are incredibly proud to announce Creative Suite 5.5 which includes Flash Builder 4.5, Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 and Flex SDK 4.5! Together, these three products bring developers and designers the premiere set of tooling workflows to rapidly design, develop and deploy rich applications on the web, desktop and now mobile smartphones and tablets!

Most notably, we are excited to introduce new capabilities in Flex to build applications for Google Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and Apple iOS. Flex SDK 4.5  adds new mobile components and capabilities into the core Flex framework to build performant, standalone applications running atop Adobe AIR. Additionally, Flash Builder 4.5 gives developers a full set of workflows to rapidly build, debug and deploy mobile applications built with Flex SDK 4.5 or pure ActionScript. You can learn all about the new mobile development features in Flex and Flash Builder 4.5 by reading Narciso (NJ) Jaramillo’s article on the Adobe Developer Center.

To get a high-level understanding of new Spark components added to Flex SDK 4.5 as well as broader improvements to the core Flex framework, check out Deepa Subramaniam’s overview. Similarly, grab a birds-eye view of all of the exciting development enhancements to Flash Builder 4.5 by reading Andrew Shorten’s introductory article here. And of course, take in all the new workflows enabled by Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 by reading Jacob Surber’s overview article here.

In addition to the exciting new mobile features and workflows added to Flex and Flash Builder, we focused on significantly improving productivity for developers and designers. For developers, we have made it much easier to write Flex and ActionScript code. Flash Builder 4.5 introduces dozens of new coding productivity features which rapidly accelerate the coding and testing of Flex and ActionScript projects. Whether you’re writing MXML or ActionScript, the new Flash Builder 4.5 coding features will make you write better code faster. To understand all of the new coding and productivity features in Flash Builder 4.5, regardless if you’re a Flex or pure-ActionScript developer, read Sameer Bhatt and Sreenivas Ramaswamy’s article on the ADC.

Additionally, we focused on building a robust bi-directional workflow between developers and designers. Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 introduces a new bi-directional workflow with Flash Builder 4.5 such that designers and developers can work together to create rich and visually expressive Flex components and applications. Check out Jacob Surber’s article to understand the new workflows introduced in Flash Catalyst CS 5.5.

It doesn’t stop there – we are proud to announce a new addition to our Flash Builder product family – Flash Builder for PHP! Co-developed in partnership with Adobe and Zend Technologies, Flash Builder for PHP provides the perfect development environment for building expressive applications with Flex and PHP for the web and mobile devices. To read up on all of the detailed workflows Flash Builder for PHP provides Flex and PHP developers, check out this overview article by Kevin Schroeder.

We are very excited with the wealth of new features and workflows available in this next release of the Flex product family. Please take advantage of all of these new features and workflows by pre-ordering the products today! To learn more about the pricing options for Flash Builder 4.5 (Standard Edition, Premium Edition, Standard PHP Edition and Premium PHP Edition) check out this handy Flash Builder Buying Guide. Additionally, you can pre-order Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 here.

We hope that you all have as much fun designing and developing applications with these new releases as we on the product teams did making them. And with that, go forth and build more apps!

Sincerely,

Flex, Flash Builder & Flash Catalyst Product Teams

The Flex team is thrilled that 360Flex Denver is right around the corner! This is going to be a fantastic event with a stellar lineup of speakers and sessions, including engineering and product management representatives from the Adobe Flex, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst teams. We will demonstrate the Flash Builder and Flex SDK 4.5 features and workflows for building mobile applications for deployment on Android, iOS and RIM devices, as well highlight the dozens of new coding productivity enhancements in Flash Builder that will significantly speed up ActionScript and MXML coding. Additionally, we will be showcasing the enhanced design workflows in Flash Catalyst ‘Panini’ including roundtripping with Flash Builder.

It doesn’t stop there….we have some new announcements to share about mobile platform support as well as publicly discussing the new (and improved) open source contribution model for the Flex SDK. Additionally, we will have sneaks of upcoming features slated for the next versions of the Flex product family.

Check out the 360Flex Denver schedule to make sure you know when Adobe members are speaking. Below are some must-see sessions that I’d highly recommend attending before they fill up:

• What’s New in Flash Builder 4.5, Andrew Shorten
• What’s New in Flex SDK 4.5, Deepa Subramaniam & Steven Shongrunden
• Multi-Density & Multi-Platform Development with Flex SDK 4.5, Narciso (NJ) Jaramillo
• Flash Builder Tips & Tricks, Sreenivas Ramaswamy
• Flex Performance Tips & Tricks, Evtim Georgiev
• Whats New in Flash Catalyst ‘Panini’, Jacob Surber & Peter Flynn

So, if you haven’t registered yet – get on it! You can get a special 20% discount by entering ‘AdobeRocks’ when you register. And, don’t forget, registration includes 4 hands-on sessions on Sunday which will deep dive into Flex 4 development, mobile development for Android and Blackberry Tablet OS as well as an introduction to Away3D.

See you in Denver!

Last year we announced that a number of positions on the Flex Product Management team were open – whilst we still have one position available, I wanted to confirm that the core team is now in place and that we’re actively planning for future releases of Flex SDK, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst.

New additions to the team are Adam Lehman, who joins as Flash Builder Product Manager and Jacob Surber, who has taken on responsibility for Flash Catalyst.

Many folks will know Adam as the Product Manager for ColdFusion – readers of Adam’s blog will be aware that he announced last week that he is moving to a new role at Adobe, and I’m happy to confirm that he brings his experience and passion to Flash Builder. In addition to blogging, you can also follow Adam on Twitter where he’s @adrocknaphobia.

Jacob has moved across from the XD team at Adobe, where he has spent the last couple of years using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder to prototype and implement user interface elements in a number of Adobe’s products, including the recently launched Acrobat X. Jacob truly understands and represents both the designer and developer viewpoint, which will be a big asset as we continue to refine the workflow between Catalyst and Builder. Follow him on Twitter where he’s @jacobsurber.

Regular readers need not fear about Deepa and myself – we’re still here, with Deepa leading Product Management for Flex SDK, whilst I take on a Group Product Manager role overseeing both Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder.

The entire team is heading out to user group meetings and upcoming events over the next couple of months (including FITC in Amsterdam and 360 Flex in Denver), as well as meeting with specific customers so as to get feedback on our plans for Flex for 2012 and beyond. If we don’t manage to meet with you in person then we’re always interested in your feedback and thoughts – you can get in touch with the team by sending us a comment on this blog or by joining our pre-release program.

At Adobe MAX last year we made public previews available of upcoming Flex SDK, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst releases . Since then we’ve continued to work on new features, as well as improve performance, fix bugs and respond to feedback received.

In addition to the public preview release, we also have a private pre-release program running that delivers updated builds to participants. We’re now ready to open that program up to some more people, so if you’re interested in trying out newer builds of Flex SDK, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst and are prepared to invest time providing our engineering teams with feedback, please complete the pre-release program survey.

Access to the pre-release will require you to agree to a non-disclosure agreement.

Thanks,

Andrew Shorten, Group Product Manager, Developer Tools
Deepa Subramaniam, Senior Product Manager, Flex SDK

Even though we’re hard at work on the upcoming releases of Flex SDK, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst, preview releases of which we made available just recently, the product management team is already working on plans for the next generation of the Flex framework and tooling.

To support this effort, we’re now looking to hire three new product managers to the team and we’re hoping that you could be the right person for one of those positions!

As a product manager you will play a critical role in defining product features and communicating requirements with multiple engineering teams, you will be responsible for approving engineering specifications and validating that completed features meet customer requirements, and you’ll be the person who drives consensus on product requirements and ensures decisions are made in a timely manner.

The positions we have open are as follows:

• Senior Product Manager, Flash Builder
• Senior Product Manager, Flash Catalyst
• Product Manager, Flash Platform SDK and Extensibility

Product management is an all-encompassing role that is both exciting and demanding – if you’re ready for a challenge and want to be a part of the team that defines the future of Flex, designer/developer workflows and developer tooling then we’d like to hear from you.

All positions will be based in San Francisco, CA.

To express your interest in one or more of these roles please send your resume to shorten at adobe.com, or apply using the Adobe career opportunity website.

Thanks,

Andrew Shorten, Group Product Manager, Developer Tools
Deepa Subramaniam, Senior Product Manager, Flex SDK

For the past 9 months the Flex team has been hard at work building the next versions of Flex, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst. We are proud to announce that you can now download preview releases of all three products from Adobe Labs. You may have also heard that we also released Adobe AIR 2.5, which extends AIR to run on a number of mobile platforms. Together, these releases open up a significant new opportunity for Flex developers to build applications that span the web, desktop and now mobile. Here’s a quick snapshot of the new major feature sets:

Flex SDK “Hero” provides new mobile features for building standalone applications for mobile devices, additional Spark components and capabilities as well as infrastructure improvements that target large-scale applications.

Flash Builder “Burrito” provides integrated workflows for building multi-screen applications, improved designer/developer workflows with Flash Catalyst, provides enhancements to core performance, and includes a wealth of new coding productivity improvements for Flex and ActionScript projects.

Flash Catalyst “Panini” provides improvements which enable bi-directional workflows between Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder, adds support for resizable applications and components, provides improvements to project-defined interactions, and includes a newly designed Components panel.

You can learn more about these exciting new releases by reading our intro articles written by our product managers:

Andrew Shorten’s What’s New in Flash Builder “Burrito”

Deepa Subramaniam’s What’s New in Flex SDK “Hero”

Narciso Jaramillo’s Mobile Development Using Flex SDK “Hero” and Flash Builder “Burrito”

Doug Winnie’s What’s New in Flash Catalyst “Panini”

You can download the preview releases for Flex SDK “Hero“, Flash Builder “Burrito” and Flash Catalyst “Panini“ right now on Adobe Labs. We’ve also included numerous samples and tutorials to help you get up and running more quickly, plus a set of videos that showcase larger features and workflows.

We are all very excited to provide you with an early opportunity to evaluate in-development features and to allow us to get your feedback. Please remember that they are preview releases, so they have not undergone the same level of testing as you will find in our finals, and therefore may contain a higher number of bugs. Please also note that they are not yet feature complete.  All that said, we hope you’ll enjoy working with the new features and are as excited as we are by the improvements we’re making. Please share your feedback with us through the Adobe forums (Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst and Flex SDK) as well as through JIRA, our public bugbase.

Enjoy!

Flex SDK, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst Product Teams

Some of you may have noticed that Adobe Open Source has been down for some time. The service is currently unavailable as we investigate a critical issue with our server infrastructure. We currently do not have an ETA on restoring service, but I will share more information as it becomes available. I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

Thank you for your patience,

Deepa Subramaniam

Senior Product Manager, Flex SDK

UPDATE: Service to opensource.adobe.com was reinstated Friday, 10/22 at 5 PM PST.

This is the last in the series of feature sneak videos, highlighting features currently under development for the upcoming release of Flash Builder, codenamed “Burrito”. In this video we’re showing you support for override/implement methods…

Whilst we’re done with the sneaks for now, the features highlighted only represent a portion of what we’re working on for Flash Builder “Burrito”. Stay tuned for more information about when we’ll be making “Burrito” available and what other features will be in the release…

Several months ago, we announced that the next version of Flex, codenamed “Hero”, will contain new features for developing mobile applications. At MAX, we’ll be highlighting these new features in a number of sessions.

However, we know that you might want to go further and actually try it out for yourself. So we’re also hosting a “Bring Your Own Laptop” (BYOL) lab, Build Your First Mobile Flex Application, where you can actually get hands-on with the new mobile development features and tooling workflows. Also, if you bring an Android 2.2 phone (and the USB cable to connect it to your laptop), you can even install and run the application on your device.

The Monday 10/25 5 pm session is full, but there’s still room in the Wednesday 10/27 1:30 pm and 4 pm sessions. So, if you’re interested, sign up on the MAX website, and we’ll see you there!

Continuing with our weekly sneaks of features under development for Flash Builder “Burrito”, this week we’re excited to show you how Quick Assist/Fix will make you more productive when coding ActionScript.

Flash Builder “Burrito” is an upcoming version of the product that is currently in development – the final feature sneak (for now) will be posted next week. Enjoy!