Developing a Flex application is very different from developing an application in Macromedia Flash MX, even though in both environments the application is compiled into a SWF file. You create a Flex application in text files, which you can create and edit in a simple text editor or a more sophisticated development environment. You publish Flex application source files to a Java web application, and the files are compiled into a SWF file when a user requests the application-level MXML file. If you change the application's source code, it is recompiled into a SWF file the next time it is requested.
You create a Flash document file (an FLA binary file) in the Flash MX visual authoring environment, and save it as a SWF file before publishing it to a website; it is usually referenced inside an HTML page. Flash MX uses concepts such as the Timeline, animation frames, and layers for organizing and controlling an application's content over time. In Flex, you write the declarative parts of an application, such as user-interface components and connections to data sources, in MXML tags. You must use the tags in the proper hierarchy within the application, but there is no external notion of Timelines, frames, or layers. Just by using a few MXML tags, you can create a useful application with built-in behavior.
Although the development models for Flash MX and Flex are different, Flash MX is a powerful tool for creating custom components and visual assets that you can use in Flex applications. You can export files created in Flash MX in component package files called SWC files, which you can reference as custom tags in MXML files. You can also use the MXML <mx:Image> and <mx:Loader> tags to import SWF files into a Flex application.
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