You declare a Flex user interface by using tags that represent user-interface components. There are two general types of components: controls and containers. Controls are form elements, such as buttons, text fields, and list boxes. Containers are rectangular regions of the screen that contain controls and other containers. Every user-interface component has a corresponding ActionScript class that inherits common functionality from the mx.core.UIObject and mx.core.UIComponent base classes. User-interface components contain properties, methods, and events. For more information, see Using Flex Components in Developing Flex Applications.
At the root of a Macromedia Flex application is a single container, called the Application container, that represents the entire Flash Player drawing surface. This Application container holds all other containers, which can represent dialog boxes, panels, and forms.
A container has predefined rules to control the layout of its child containers and controls, including sizing and positioning. Flex defines layout rules to simplify the design and implementation of rich Internet applications, while also providing enough flexibility to let you create a diverse set of applications.
One advantage of having predefined layout rules is that your users will soon grow accustomed to them. That is, by standardizing the rules of user interaction, your users will not have to think about how to navigate the application, but can instead concentrate on the content that the application offers.
Another advantage is that you do not have to spend time defining navigation and layout rules as part of the design process. Instead, you can concentrate on the information that you want to deliver and the options that you want to provide for your users, and not worry about implementing all the details of user action and application response. In this way, Flex provides the structure that lets you quickly and easily develop an application with a rich set of features and interactions.
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