Flexing some muscle

To get started, you will need to download a trial copy of the Flex Server and the Flex Builder tool. Both the tool and server are available from Macromedia's Web site.

The Flex server runs on a number of platforms, including IBM AIX, Windows, Linux, and Solaris. The Flex Builder tool runs on Windows, so it is not a bad idea to download the Windows version of the server as well so you can setup your development environment locally. It is also possible to use other IDE's to build Flex applications, including Eclipse, but we will stick to Macromedia's tools for this article.

The installation for the server and development tools is straightforward and if you do not have a Java application server running, you can elect to install JRun at the same time you are installing the server. Once you have installed these tools you can verify that your installation is working correctly by viewing the sample applications that come with the product.

In the Start menu under the Macromedia Flex program group there is a shortcut to these samples but you will need to make sure that your server is running before you attempt to view them. There is also a shortcut in the program group marked Start Integrated Flex Server.

Note: this server window will need to stay open while you are working with your Flex server. If you close it, you will also closedown the server.

Once you have started the integrated server, you can then view the sample applications, either from the shortcut in the Flex program group or directly from your browser by navigating to http://localhost:8700/samples/ which will open a page listing all of the sample applications. You can click on any of these samples to run the associated application. The RSL Sample Application is a fine example of Flex integration and demonstrates the use of three Flex applications in a single page. These applications include a blog viewer, a contact manager and a share portfolio manager, all rolled into one user interface.

Figure 1: Sample Flex applications