Reflex at 360|Flex
Reflex was finally demoed for the first time at the recent 360|Flex Conference. This new component framework is familiar to the Flex Framework in features and use though it is completely independent. Reflex extends the Flash Player through composition adding a robust layout, skinning, a component suite and an MXML workflow.
Probably the most unique aspect to the design of the Reflex system is a concept called Behaviors. A Behavior defines specific logic or interaction for a component, which is usually made up of several behaviors. As with component skins behaviors may be added and replaced at runtime and will utilize the styling features of the Flash Builder.
Through skinning and changing behavior a component can be completely redressed without extension. Below is an example of a list of data, moon phases and their cycle percentage:
With a new skin and a scrolling behavior the same component can look and act very differently. Just Drag the grip down the right side:
The file size of the SWF for the first example (with data embedded) is under 50KB. This means the second example is only bloated in size by the graphics at about 220KB.
The project is continuing to develop on GitHub. Watch for discussions and announcements on the reflex-platform google group. Our next step is to provide a roadmap to facilitate community contribution.
Update: The other demos from the conference built out by brother Jacob were just posted on his blog.
[...] showed some pretty cool demos. The coolest one Tyler made and is on his blog, so go check out the Phases of the Moon there. Here are some you can right-click to view the [...]
So basically you’re duplicating the functionality of the Flex Framework? Except only limited features from it, in order to keep file sizes down?
We’re providing an alternative to the Flex Framework, with what we consider to be a wider feature set. And minimizing complexity so the framework is more approachable for devs using it provides the added benefit of smaller file sizes.
David – We love/hate Flex. We want to keep the love parts and offer solutions for the hate parts (instead of just complaining). If you’ve ever had the occasion to curse a Flex component out, we’re basically trying to fix that. If not, give it time.
Awesome!
Looking forward to what’s coming! For example, what kind of “best practices” that will evolve on how/when/if-at-all to include flex framework in the future…
By the way, sourcecode for the moonphases demo would be great
Hey!
Nice example. Any chance to see the sources?
I’d like to make the source available, just needs some cleanup and packaging to make it easy to get up and running. Coming soon…
Thanks! I am definitely looking forward to this one.
Hope you guys (I mean all the reflex team) put all the examples into the project’s github.
I would like to see the source too, at least how you added scroll to list
NEED SAUCE.