apache flex the way forward
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Apache FlexThe Way Forward
Justin McleanClass Software
Email: justin@classsoftware.comTwitter: @justinmcleanBlog: http://blog.classsoftware.com
Who am I?• Director of Class Software for 15 years
• Developing and creating web applications for 15 years
• Programming for 25 years
• Adobe certified developer and trainer in Flex and ColdFusion
• Adobe Community Professional
• Apache Flex PPMC member and committer
• 120
It’s been an interesting few months for Flex Developers
Adobe MAX 2011• Keynotes focused on HTML and Flash for
gaming and video
• Sessions included Flex and Flash roadmaps for the next several versions
• New Flex features show in sessions (e.g. new spark components) and sneak peaks
• No mention of any upcoming announcements (including the community summit)
November Announcement• Adobe announces restructure and lays
off 750 staff
• Adobe press release apocalypse!
• “Flash is dead”/”Apple was right” response from most of the IT media
• Adobe clarified some points in various blog posts over the next week
November Outcome• No future Flash Player for mobile
browsers (Android) after 11.1
• Mobile focus will be on AIR for app stores
• Flex proposal to Apache Software Foundation
• Future versions of Flash Builder will have Flex support
• Flex 4.6 SDK and FP 11.1 releases
Apache Donation• Flex SDK (including automation and data
visualisation)
• Actionscript and MXML compilers
• New spark components
• BlazeDS
• Flex testing tools
• New generation compiler (Falcon)
Flex Summit• Invite only of customers and community
members (mainly US)
• Broadcast online and wider community questions (thanks to Spoon)
• Adobe will no longer sign framework RSLs
• Flash Catalyst dropped
• Design view in Flash Builder dropped
• Falcon timeline late 2012 then Falcon JS
Apache Flex
• Proposal was accepted
• Initial committers and PPMC set up
• Mailing list setup
• Incubator site setup
• New Flex logo voted on
Flex White Paper
• Clarifies Adobe position on the future of Flex
• Give good reasons to continuing to use Flex
Flex Tour
• Tour of user groups by Adobe evangelists
• Spoon helping out to add some community involvement
• US and Europe tour underway
• South America and Asia/Pacific dates to be announced
Flash White Paper
• Flash as a gaming and video platform
• Sets out roadmap of next 3 versions of the Flash Player
• Flash Player “Next” due early 2013 will have AS improvements/changes
• Flash and Chrome on Linux
Why has this happened?• iOS would never support Flash in a browser
• Unable to keep up with growing number of platforms
• Most frameworks are open source
• Previous Flex open source model was broken
• Adobe was unable to work out a way to make money out of Flex
Summary• Adobe to focus on Flash tooling, gaming and
video
• Adobe to use AIR to target mobile
• 11.1 last Flash Player on Android mobile browser
• CS5.5 last version of Flash Catalyst
• 4.6 SDK is the last official version of the Flex SDK
• No design view in next version Flash Builder
• No signed framework RSLs
Flex is now Apache Flex!
What is Apache?
Apache Software Foundation
• US non profit organisation
• Run by volunteers
• Individuals not companies
• 100 software projects
• Apache web server
• ANT, Axis2, Derby, Maven, Struts, Solr, Subversion, Tomcat, Xerces
Mission
• Provides free open source software
• Licence business friendly
• Provides project infrastructure
• Legal protection
Apache Way
• Collaborative software development
• Open discussion and development
• Merit driven
• Consensus driven
Apache Way in Practice
• Email list and archive
• Not on the mailing list it doesn't happen
• Lazy consensus
• Scratch your own itch
• Prove yourself
• Commit then review for low risk changes
Roles
• Users
• Contributors
• Committers
• PPMC/PMC
• Mentors
• Members
What is the Spoon Project?
The Spoon Project
• Initially a friendly fork of the Flex SDK
• Initial focus was on making the Flex SDK unit testable
• Put in lots hard work to convince Adobe this was a good idea
• Just about to get full steam when Adobe PR apocalypse happens!
Spoon Involvement
• Several Spoon members are committers and PPMC members of Apache Flex
• Spoon will fill in gaps between Adobe and Apache
• Helping getting community involved in Adobe events
• Organising some upcoming events
Old Spoon
Apache Donation
Future Spoon
Apache Flex Progress
Current Status• Incubation site and wiki set up
• Flex SDK framework has been donated
• Still waiting legal clarence on other donations
• Mailing list set up and has heavy traffic
• SVN set up and working (with history)
• JIRA setup and working
• JIRA import of existing Adobe bug base has issues
New Flex Logo
Can I build the SDK?• Check out trunk as new Flash builder
project
• Download Adobe OS 4.6 Flex SDK
• Copy everything except the frameworks directory
• Run (via ANT) framework_build.xml
• Real process waiting on code donation from Adobe
Javascript/HTML5 output
• Falcon JS compiler and timeframes
• May be delivered early to Apache
• Goshawk
• What about other virtual machines?
Unit Testing
• FlexUnit and Mockolate donation to Apache Flex
• Discussed changes to SDK to enable easier unit testing
• Still waiting on donation of Mustela (Adobe’s functional testing framework for the SDK)
But I use Git!
• Apache uses SVN
• Can use git-svn
• GIT mirror at http://git.apache.com
• A couple of GitHub copies
• No pull requests accepted. JIRA and patches need to be submitted.
ANT-RID
• Current build script use ANT
• Mavin
• Gradel
Locales
• Modified build script to work for multiple locales
• Locale only needs to be edited in one spot
• Locale name appears in SDK description
• en_AU and en_GB locales added
Flash Player Versions
• Build script changes to target different flash player build
• Works for Flash player 10.2,10.3,11.0,11.1 and 11.2
• Some mobile features may not work or work slowly in earlier versions of the FP
UIComponent
• Is a huge beast!
• Break up into multiple components
• Make behaviours optional
• Performance considerations
RSL security
• Adobe will not sign Apache RSLs
• With SDK easier to patch RSLs become more useful (no need for monkey patches)
• How to make RSLs secure?
Whiteboard Area• Place for committers to put ideas and
works in progress
• Tink’s navigators Coverflow, Carousel, TimeMachine, DataAccordion etciView and mobile dropdown list
• S9tpepper’s String g11n validators
• Frishy’s fast grouping datagrid
• Mschmalle’s mobile popups
Get Involved• Sign up to the mailing list
• Contribute to mailing list
• Vote on issues
• Sign up to JIRA
• Submit JIRA bugs, ideas, wishes and patches
• Review JIRA bugs and patches
• Designers are welcome it’s not just about code
But I’m not a Committer• Anyone can sign up and email the mailing list
• Anyone can create and comment on JIRA issues
• Find a friendly committer to help you or ask on the list
• You don’t have to be a committer to contribute
• If you contribute you may be invited to become a committer
Still Unresolved
• JIRA and code donation taking longer than expected
• Incubation and first parity release
• Flex name legal issues
• Automation legal issues
• Falcon and FalconJS timeframe
Flex Developers• Brush up on ANT
• Download and compile your own SDK
• Look at the source code! (try not to cringe)
• Take a peek at SVN history and comments
• Get familiar FlexUnit and Mockolate
• Consider other IDEs
• Take a look at other technologies/frameworks out there
Future of Flex• Active community with lots of ideas
• Community now decides what direction Flex goes in. It’s up to us!
• Adobe is committed to Flash as a platform
• Adobe are still involved and providing resources and developers
• Spoon Project is helping the community
• Far easier to submit and fix bugs
Links• Apache Flex site
http://incubator.apache.org/flex/
• Mailing list sign uphttp://incubator.apache.org/flex/mailing-lists.html
• Apache Flex mail archiveshttp://markmail.org/search/+list:org.apache.incubator.flex-dev
• Apache Flex JIRAhttps://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FLEX
• Apache Flex SVN viewerhttp://svn.apache.org/viewvc/incubator/flex/trunk/
Links
• Apache Software Foundationhttp://www.apache.org/
• Spoon Projecthttp://www.spoon.as/
Adobe White Papers
• Adobe Flex white paper:http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/whitepapers/roadmap.html
• Adobe Flash white paper and roadmap:http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/whitepapers/roadmap.html
Ask now, see me after the session,follow me on twitter @justinmcleanor email me at justin@classsoftware.com.
Code and slides can be found athttp://blog.classsoftware.com
Questions?
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