Summary Of Flex Application Features - MACROMEDIA FLEX-GETTING STARTED WITH FLEX Getting Started

Summary of Flex application features

The following table describes the features that you are most likely to use when building Flex
applications:
Feature
User interface controls
User interface containers
MXML components
ActionScript components
SWC components
Data binding
Data models
Description
Controls are user-interface components, such as Button, TextArea, and
ComboBox controls. You use MXML tags to add controls to an
application.
For more information, see Chapter 2, "Using Controls," in Developing
Flex Applications.
Containers are user-interface components that let you control the
layout characteristics of the user-interface components that they
contain. You can use containers to control child sizing and positioning,
or to control navigation among multiple child containers. You use
MXML tags to add containers to an application.
For more information, see Chapter 4, "Introducing Containers," in
Developing Flex Applications.
MXML components are Flex components written in MXML files. They
provide an easy way to extend an existing Flex component and
encapsulate the appearance and behavior of a component in a custom
MXML tag. You use MXML tags to add MXML components to an
application.
For more information, see Chapter 15, "Building an Application with
Multiple MXML Files," in Developing Flex Applications.
ActionScript components are Flex components written in ActionScript
classes. They are a good choice for nonvisual components. You can
use MXML tags to add ActionScript components to an application.
For more information, see Chapter 18, "Creating ActionScript
Components," in Developing Flex Applications.
SWC components are created in the Flash MX authoring environment
and exported in SWC files for use in Flex applications. They are a good
choice for complex visual objects. You use MXML tags to add SWC
components to an application.
For more information, see Developing Flex Applications.
The data binding feature provides a simple syntax for automatically
copying the value of a property of one client-side object to a property of
another object at runtime.
For more information, see Chapter 32, "Binding and Storing Data in
Flex," in Developing Flex Applications.
Data models let you store application-specific data. They are used for
data validation and can contain client-side business logic. You can
define data models in ActionScript classes or MXML tags.
For more information, see Chapter 32, "Binding and Storing Data in
Flex," in Developing Flex Applications.
Summary of Flex application features 79