Monday, Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE), a provider of business and mobile software, announced the public beta of Adobe Flex 3 software, the cross platform, free open source framework for creating rich Internet applications.
The San Jose, California headquartered company said this functional release adds rich new UI capabilities, enhanced developer productivity, desktop deployment and enterprise testing and performance tools. The Flex 3 public beta also marks the first significant deliverable for the open source Flex project, beginning with the availability of nightly builds and a public bug database.
The company said Flex 3 provides with developers the power to extend the reach of their rich Internet applications (RIAs) beyond the browser to the desktop using the new Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), earlier code-named Apollo. Using the new Flex Builder3 and Adobe AIR software, now developers can build applications that run both in the browser and on the desktop.
The Flex 3 public beta kicks off the project by providing a full roadmap for Flex 3, including detailed feature specifications, nightly builds, and a public bug database where developers can log and track issues and feature requests.
Flex 3 includes major advancements in the area of designer and developer workflow, including powerful integration with Creative Suite 3 software design tools that allow for direct import of CS3 assets into Flex. Other design enhancements include deeper support for visual skinning and styling, full language intelligence support for CSS, and the Flex Builder 3 Design View, which lets developers edit design and layout for complex applications.
Abode said for the development environment, Flex 3 offers several code enhancements that boosts productivity.. Flex 3 includes memory and performance profiling, enabling developers to appraise the internal operations of their application running in the browser or on Adobe AIR. In addition, the class outline view and code search capabilities let developers find variables, methods and properties easily, even in large-scale development projects.
The company said that the public beta versions of the Flex Builder 3 and the Flex 3 SDK are available immediately as free downloads from Adobe Labs at labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex. The release of open source Flex under the Mozilla Public License will occur in conjunction with the final release of Flex 3, presently scheduled for the second half of 2007. Final pricing, the company said, would be revealed when the products become commercially available.
ADBE closed Friday's regular trading session at $43.04. In after hours ADBE declined $0.04 or 0.09 and traded at $43.00.
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