Flex, AIR and what matters to us designers
By now you know I am a designer, but you may wonder why I would even care about Flex and AIR. I do classify myself as a designer who codes, but still, I am indeed not a full fledged developer. When it comes to needing CF on my sites, I can do some coding, but not in any other language like PHP, or any what I call heavy lifting on the back end of my sites. Would I like to be a developer? Only if I can still design.
So I made a big deal about Flex to our members about being at the Flex and AIR event Monday the 25th, because Flex and AIR can literally change our lives. With an increase my skill set, I'll be more marketable, and with an increase in my worth, it'll change my quality of living. Why wouldn't I want to learn this?
We'll start with Flex and why us designers should care.
With every Flex application built, someone will need to make it look presentable and have the look of it fit in with the clients web site. This is where we come in with Flex skinning. Adobe has made Flex skinning easy to do with some downloadable (is that a word?) extensions on http://labs.adobe.com. They have one for Flash (which makes sense) Illustrator and Fireworks (which is awesome). As a matter of fact, if you don't already, you should have Labs bookmarked for all the great information they have on there. There is also a fantastic article on Thermo. Thermo was showcased at MAX Chicago, and made my jaw drop to the floor.
Thermo is (of course that is just a code name at the moment) a bridge between the design world and Flex. You can either design inside of Thermo or bring in a Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks file. Once you bring in, lets just use a layered Photoshop file for an example, you can target specific layers and turn them into working Flex elements. Plus, it isn't like Contribute or some program that doesn't let you touch the code, it's more like a WYSIWYG, Dreamweaver like program that lets you design, but also lets you see the code you have just created. What it allows you to create is working sliders, visually wiring together events and bindings, and much more. Wow! Thermo isn't even in Beta yet, so we have to be patient for a bit. Visit Thermo's page at Labs for more info.
There will be plenty of opportunities for us designers there, but what about AIR? So lets say Actionscript 3.0 is still a bit mystical for you just yet. (I know you are trying to learn it) Even for us Flash designers, turning to AS 3.0 for our code, even the simple stuff, has a learning curve. Even for AS developers, making the switch to Flex has been... shall we say, at times frustrating.
Flex allows you to use either AS 3.0, or MXML. If that means nothing to you, that's OK too. Just know that there are some subtle difference between Flex AS 3.0, and Flash 3.0. What this info makes me do besides turn to Colin Mook's AS book from O'Reily is make me understand that only really good developers will be embracing Flex, AND that they will need a good designer to make their Flex apps look good.
Now for us designers who code, AIR is very exciting. I have taken a class in both Flex and AIR, and I had no problem following along. (it's weird but I "get" OOP better than Javascript, AS 2.0 etc.) But the most exciting part to AIR for me, is the ability to design AIR apps in Dreamweaver...yes Dreamweaver.
With Dreamweaver CS3 and Javascript, you can make AIR applications. Yep, no kidding. So first thing, you go to Labs and download the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3. There is a ton of good support info, so don't worry, I won't explain it all in one blog entry. Just know that it is an amazing opportunity for us Dreamweaver geeks to explore something as cool as AIR.
So have I given you enough reason to lean more about these new Adobe technologies? I hope so. If you are in the area Monday night, and it isn't icy or snowing (like the last time)we'll make it worth your while. We are (from Adobe)doing a raffle of Flex 3 Pro (when it is released) and a copy of CS3 Web Premium. Of course there will be plenty of swag as well. Jim says he has so many shirts now he could start a tee shirt shop. See ya later
Dee
