CODEWITHSUNDEEP
apache-flexframeworks
MonoThreaded
MonoThreaded

Reputation: 12033

Flex Switch. Transitioning from Adobe Flex 4 to Apache Flex 4+

I currently have a foot in Adobe Flex 4 concrete shoe and have been monitoring Apache Flex for some time. From a strategic perspective, it does not make sense to stick to a deprecated project and Apache is the way.

This question is meant for SO community members with first hand experience on making the switch.
1) Was it painful?
2) Was it worth it?
3) If you had to do it again, what would you do differently?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 236

Answers (2)

RIAstar
RIAstar

Reputation: 11912

1) Was it painful?

No it wasn't. I must mention that I no longer use FlashBuilder. Installing and using Apache Flex in IntelliJ Idea was as simple as unzipping the SDK (and some dependencies) and telling IntelliJ where to look for it.

I suspect it to be slightly more convoluted to integrate the Apache Flex SDK into FB. But the guys from Apache Flex created a script especially to fix that issue.

They have also created an installer which will do the unzipping and the downloading of possible dependencies and unzipping those, for you. I have never used it (I use GradleFx to take care of that, but it's already at version 2.5 and has been thoroughly tested by the community.

2) Was it worth it?

Yes, if only for the fact that when I find a bug in the framework, I can fix it myself and the fix may be integrated in the next release, which will not be three years from now (Adobe's release cycle), but rather 2 months from now. Adobe Flex was " open source " (meaning you could have a look at the source), Apache Flex is really open source (meaning you can contribute in any way you see fit).

3) If you had to do it again, what would you do differently?

I have a few "enterprise" applications running with Apache Flex and I have yet to encounter a significant issue (I have filed one or two regression bugs, but they are really trivial).

Upvotes: 5

JeffryHouser
JeffryHouser

Reputation: 39408

Switching from Adobe to Apache Flex should require no code changes. Setting up the SDK for use in an IDE can be problematic due to some parts of the Adobe Flex SDK--such as Flash/AIR binaries--are not distributable by Apache. Apache Flex created a installer that makes this process very simple though.

If using Adobe Flex is a concrete shoe for you, then Apache Flex probably will be too. There is work to have Flex target HTML/JS as an output, however it is in the early stages. Today, you're still tied to Adobe's flash platform.

Upvotes: 1

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