Flash® Builder™ 4 and Flex® 4 Bible

Chapter 3. Building a Basic Flex Application

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Creating a "Hello World" application

• Switching workspaces

• Creating a Flex project

• Understanding HTML templates

• Exporting a release build

• Deploying a Flex application on the Web

• Integrating Flex applications with Web pages in Dreamweaver CS4

In this chapter, I describe how to create and deploy a basic "Hello World" Flex application for the Web. After the application is built, I describe the fundamental nature of a Flex application, including the relationship between the application SWF file and the supporting HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files. I describe the contents of the HTML "wrapper" file that's generated for you in Flash Builder and its associated JavaScript library file.

Finally, I describe how to deploy the Flex application into a Web site in these ways:

• As a distinct application that opens in its own window

• As an applet that's displayed as part of an existing Web page

• As a desktop application deployed on Adobe AIR

By the end of this chapter, you should have a good sense of what a Flex application is and how it's delivered to the user.

Note

The code samples and screen shots in this chapter assume that you're using Flash Builder 4 to build the application. If you're using the Flex 4 SDK and your own text editor, the steps will be similar, but you won't have access to some of the code completion and other productivity tools I describe.

Creating a "Hello World" Application

In all programming languages, your first task is to write ...