Features of Flex

Containers

Defines a region of the Flash Player drawing surface and controls the layout for everything in the container, including other containers and controls.

Accordion

Box

Canvas

ControlBar

DividedBox

Form

Grid

Link Bar

Panel

TabBar

TabNavigator

Tile

TitleWindow

ViewStack

Controls

Form-based controls that handle user interactions and display data that can be directly manipulated by the user.

Alert

Button

CheckBox

ComboBox

DataGrid

DateChooser

DateField

HorizontalList

HRule

HSlider

HScrollBar

Image

Label

Link

List

Loader

MediaController

MediaDisplay

MediaPlayback

Menu

MenuBar

NumericStepper

ProgressBar

RadioButton

ScrollBars

SimpleButton

Slider

Spacer

Text

TextArea

TextInput

TileList

ToolTip

Tree

VRule

VSlider

VScrollBar

Data modeling

Defines the representation of application data on the client.

• Data model for storing application data.
• Data binding for unidirectional or bidirectional binding. to UI controls, and predefined and custom data formatters.
• Data validation to validate data model.

Data communication services

Connects to server data using a set of communications services.

• Web services for SOAP messages transmitted over HTTP. Supports both RPC and document operations, and concurrent web service requests.
• HTTP service for accessing XML over HTTP and HTTPS.
• Remote Java objects let you call methods on local or remote objects (Java objects, JavaBeans, EJBs, JNDI objects) using SOAP or AMF protocols.

Behaviors

Enhances the user experience through animation, motion, sound, and effects.

A behavior is a trigger, typically a user action, paired with an effect:

• Effects include: Dissolve, Fade, Move, Pause, Resize, WipeDown, WipeLeft, WipeRight, WipeUp.
• Triggers include: focusIn, focusOut, hide, move, resize, mouseDown, mouseOver, mouseOut, mouseUp, show.

Event model

Occurrences that require a response from a Flex application. User events include a mouse click or a key press. System events include application initialization.

dragBegin

dragComplete

dragDrop

dragEnter

dragExit

focusIn

focusOut

initialize

keyDown

keyUp resize

mouseDown

mouseUp

move

show

and more

Style sheets

Standard mechanism for declaring styles.

Used for controlling color, font, sizing, and other attributes of Flex components.

Managers

Provides support for high-level application tasks.

• Drag and Drop Manager lets you move data from one place in an application to another.
• Cursor Manager lets you control the cursor image within your Flex application.
• History Manager lets users navigate through a Flex application using the web browser's Back and Forward navigation commands.
• ToolTipManager displays hints when the user moves the mouse over a Flex control.

Development tools

Used to develop Flex applications.

Debugger

ActionScript Profiler

Flex Builder

Deployment tools

Used to deploy your Flex applications.

Player detection

Content caching

Deferred instantiation