Flex Myths

For some time now I’ve known about Flex , but never had the urge or the desire to use it. I suppose it was in part because it uses flash completely for the interface, preventing the oh-so-useful back button as well as static URLs that first turned me off to the idea of doing a site entirely in flash. But this weekend that all changed! First off many of my Flex myths were proven incorrect.

1. First, you don’t need Coldfusion on the backend to work with Flex. Flex can work with any web language.
2. You don’t actually need a web language, unless you’re talking to a database, or doing something requiring it.
3. You don’t need to install anything special on the server running the Flex application, aside from any database or web language that you’d use, but nothing specific for Flex.
4. The Adobe Flex Builder 2 application lets you create a site using a coder AND/OR designer layout which helps gets things running extremely fast. Reminds me of when I was learning HTML in dreamweaver and would create something then view the code for it.
5. The Flex Builder tool also automatically saves a swf/html file to run the application each time you save your work. This is excellent because you have compiled, compliant code each save. If there are errors it’ll tell you where in the file and some information about each error.

Lot of myths dispelled, but those initial doubts about the product remain. There is a surprisingly large Flex developer base that somehow just doesn’t make the rounds on Digg and other such sites, which is probably why less is known about it. Up next: my first Flex application!