Two-part tutorial on Flash Catalyst and Flex 4

I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial will get you up and running in no time. They show you how to build a nicely designed Twitter search application starting with an Illustrator design comp. I have to say that I’m really excited about Flash Catalyst as it makes creating skins for Flex a piece of cake.

Lee


Commentary

  1. iGman says:

    Thanks man.

  2. Tigrish says:

    Super-duper Lee!

  3. TheGreyMan says:

    Hey, Lee. Glad to see you’re back online. What happened? Was a bit worried about you there for a while…

  4. leef says:

    I’m also very excited about Catalyst. Skinning might be a bit better = ]

  5. Spetz says:

    THis is great stuff. Adobe never emails me when things like FLash Builder and Catalyst hit the labs, even though I sign up to be notified. Oh well, still found out.

  6. Omar Fouad says:

    Good Job!

  7. Mcometa says:

    This is a winner! Thanks Lee!

  8. Just finished watching part one. All I can say is: holy CRAP!

    To be perfectly honest, I was expecting a mediocre implementation that would take a ton of tweaking and custom naming of layers between Illustrator and Flash Catalyst (my experience with Photoshop/Encore bore this nightmare out).

    This is nothing short of amazing (to me), and am blown away by what Adobe has accomplished.

  9. forrest says:

    Nice work!Lee

  10. Pradeek says:

    Nice default tweet selection for the tutorial :D

  11. zu says:

    Quick off the mark, as usual. Thanks for another great tute! :)

  12. kerouac9 says:

    This is an amazing piece of software that I stumbled across the beta for a few weeks back. Its amazing how easy it is to create applications from static graphic files, thanks for the heads up and brilliant tutes!

  13. Karol Podkowski says:

    Can’t wait for the Flex4 final release :) Shame we can’t buy Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst already and work with them more than 30 days :)

    Great work Lee!

  14. Jordi says:

    Lee did you mistakingly use ‘Flex 4′ instead of ‘Flash Builder 4′ in the topic’s title?

  15. Martin says:

    @Jordi: Flex 4 is the new version of the Flex framework, and not the new flex builder (called Flash builder form now on)

  16. Uni says:

    My boss is going to kill me.
    Flex 4 is coming out? Oh dear, Just got him to purchase Flex 3 Builder.
    arrgggh. My fault for not doing my homework.

  17. Karol Podkowski says:

    Mistake or not ? For me it’s ok because in part 2 there is more Flex4 than Flash Builder 4 …

  18. I put it in my blog. Thanks Lee.

  19. Janez Feldin says:

    I was wondering will there also be a free version of flash builder 4 for students, like flex 3? And also what about flash catalyst? :)

  20. He goes over using Flex 4 inside of Flash Builder 4. Still confusing? I was hoping for better Flash IDE integration. Is that still being worked on?

  21. Mcometa says:

    @Jordi

    Haven’t noticed that too! It’s Flex 4 instead of Flash Builder 4! To think that I’ve seen the video before TheFlashBlog went back. (was informed via Lee’s Tweet)

  22. Venkatnarayan says:

    Amazing Lee! I am so excited to work on the new Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder. Thanks for the Tuts man.

  23. Uni says:

    Pardon my ignorance, does that mean Flex Builder is being replaced by Flash Builder? Will you be able to upgrade from Flex Builder 3 to Flash Builder 4 or is it a whole new difference application?

  24. Curran says:

    Thanks Lee, great stuff! I really look forward to all of your posts, tutes and vids.

    It’s going to be amazing to see what Flash CS5 will be like!

  25. Johan says:

    Many thanks – excellent!

  26. Johan says:

    Lee am I correct in that only Photoshop and Illustrator will generate the fxp projects – not Fireworks?

    Given that Fireworks is positioned as “Rapidly prototype websites and application interfaces…” on the Adobe site seems strange not to give it fxp capability.

  27. Johan says:

    Sorry – I got it wrong – fxp is generated by Catalyst – so my question is can Fireworks be used as the graphics design tool and work in the same way as Illustrator – will there be round-tripping etc?

  28. Freddy says:

    nice tutorials lee!

    will there be something similar for Flash Authoring, at least at component skinning level?

  29. Johan says:

    Answered my own question. Works fine in Fireworks. Menu: Commands > Export to FXG – from there just like your examples. Cool :-)

  30. Henry Elwes says:

    What is the point of even having something called the Flex framework. ..Or AIR for that matter… Let everything be concentrated into one point and let Flash assimilate it under one name instead of throwing all these other names around. Makes it seem so damn flimsy. I agree the actual software is going in the right direction, but what’s the point of having more than one IDE from Adobe for making SWF’s. Flash Builder is great, but relying on Eclipse when all of this could’ve been integrated into one package, is horrible.

  31. LQDstudios says:

    Ok I have to ask because its really going to bug me… Why is it that I can’t import Catalyst projects, or Flex projects for that matter, into Flash in order to great Air applications? I really hope this is a goal for future fuctionality.

  32. lee says:

    @LQDstudios You can import them into Flash Builder and create your AIR projects there. Flash doesn’t import Flex framework projects.

  33. LQDstudios says:

    @lee – Thanks for the heads up on that… Still new to “FLEX” Flash Builder, Took me a bit to find the convert to AIR application tool.

  34. BillO says:

    Please explain why there are now three separate applications.

    Flash Professional CS4 – Creates SWF and AIR applications using ActionScript. Also provides tools to create user interfaces with coding.
    Flash Builder 4 – Creates SWF and AIR applications using ActionScript
    Flash Catalyst – Creates user interfaces without coding

    ActionScript is not always seamlessly integrated between Flash Professional and Flash Builder 4 projects.

    I would rather have one product that can produce SWF and AIR applications with one version of ActionScript.

  35. lee says:

    @Bilo The one part you are leaving out is the Flex framework. Flash CS4 can only build pure ActionScript projects where Flash Builder can do both.

  36. Sarah says:

    Does anyone know if Flash Catalyst files can be embedded in a Flash project?

    More specifically, a contact form created in Flash Catalyst to be placed inside of the Flash-based webpage file

    I just finished some lynda.com vids for Catalyst and am pretty excited about the possibilities… if it integrates with existing Flash files, life just got a little sweeter.

  37. lee says:

    @Sarah when you export from Flash Catalyst you are creating a Flash file which can be embedded into a webpage just like you do with any other Flash file. You cannot use Flash Catalyst files inside of Flash CS4 though. Hope that answers your question.

  38. Sarah says:

    Completely answers my question… and, Drat!

    Guess I needed to learn more AS anyway :)

    Thank You!

  39. Danny says:

    I would like for the layer comps in my photoshop file to each become a separate state in catalyst. How do I do this?

  40. Ben says:

    I came.

  41. Tim says:

    Nice!

  42. leef says:

    I think designing components & linking them to code should be even better than this.

  43. Junior says:

    I am really lost here with all of these platforms and acronymns being thrown around lately… Is AIR still a valid platform? Is Flash CS4 Professional not all inclusive to creating AS based applications? Is Flex going away? I really don’t understand any of this and find it very confusing…

    :/ frustrated…

  44. Jeannie says:

    Hi Lee,

    Your two part series is a great help understanding FC and FB. Thanks for your continued effort to support the Flash community.

    After working through twitSearch, I have an odd error:

    “Data binding will not be able to detect changes when using square bracket operator. For Array, please use ArrayCollection.getItemAt() instead.” (In RepeatedItem1.mxml)

    The error is at the line containing code:

    Any ideas how to resolve the error? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

  45. Jeannie says:

    I pulled the project back into my 4.0 SDK from a nightly build and the error is gone. It works great!

  46. Barry says:

    I get this error too. I have Flash Builder set to Flex SDK 4 yet i still get the error.

  1. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  2. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  3. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  4. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  5. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  6. Flash Tutorial linked here

    [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

  7. [... I just finished uploading two new tutorials on using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4. The first public betas of the these tools just went live tonight and these tutorial ...]

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