After more than six months in beta, the Adobe Flex developer team has posted on their official blog the final version of the Flex 4 SDK and Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder). While the Flex SDK is available for all platforms, Flash Builder 4 is currently only supported on Windows and Mac OS X - Linux developers will need to continue running the alpha version of Flex Builder 3 available at Adobe Labs. The Flex SDK is free to download and use without cost, while Flash Builder is available as a trial download and requires purchase.
Among the Flex 4 SDK's main changes are the new components architecture, changes on skins creation and improvements on states. Amidst Flash Builder 4 changes, besides the name, the support for automated tests using FlexUnit stands out. Its new development workflow and improvements on productivity tools like refactoring, debugging and code generation are also highlights.
For more detailed informations about the new features, the suggestion is Andrew Shorten's post "What's new in Flash Builder 4", where he writes about the following topics:
- Focusing on new features
- Improving designer/developer workflow
- New workflow
- Adobe Flash Catalyst
- Enabling data-centric development
- Data/service modeling and binding made easy
- Advanced data management features
- Making developers more productive
- Taking testing to the next level
- Command-line building and deployment
- Making the most of Flash Builder 4
Deepa Subramaniam has also published about this on her post "What's new in Flex 4", in which she comments on:
- Spark and FXG
- Working with states
- Developer productivity
- Where to go from here
The "Tour de Flex" is also updated with its examples using the new SDK.
This article originally appeared on InfoQ Brazil, and has been translated into English by David Paniz.