Thursday, December 07, 2006

Screenshots: Apollo Extensions for Flex Builder

We’re one step closer!! Today I got the chance to try out some great pre-release technology from Adobe. The Apollo Extensions for Flex Builder is a small installer that adds Apollo Application capabilities directly into Flex Builder. I tested the build on the Mac.

CAVEAT: Nothing you see here may eventually make it into a GMC build. This is just a heads up. I suspect some of you might want to jump on the first Apollo Public Beta when it is available.

For those of you who do not yet know Apollo, Apollo is an internal working name for a technology that takes Flex Applications outside the browser. You can also incorporate HTML alongside your SWF’s to build standalone applications that can interact with local system resources. Apollo applications are built using MXML, the declarative programming framework and language used by Adobe Flex.

Before doing this, there were several manual steps one had to go through in the Flex Builder in order to create an Apollo Application including importing the ApplicationWindow *.swc to the Flex Builder Environment and changing the namespaces manually in order to get Flex Builder to compile the MXML into an Apollo Application.

The install of the extensions is really simple. The 20 MB download for Mac extracts into the installer. Double clicking on it opens up the install dialog. On the third screen I recommend just hitting “next” and using the default location. Note that you must have Flex Builder installed prior to installing the Apollo Extensions.



A post mortem on the directory reveals a wealth of Apollo wizardry installed during the process. Just look at all the Apollo goodies I now have!

When I launch the Flex Builder and start a new project, I have the option of creating a new Apollo Project.
When selected, the option automatically imports the required libraries and sets up the stub project with the default skeleton code. The MXML looks as follows:

Additionally, under the components browser, there is a new category called Apollo with some extra goodies in it for Apollo Developers. You can use these in addition to the stock Flex components to mix and match and build your application.

I quickly whipped up a UBL (Universal Business Language) application as a standalone app to work with UBL. No – it is not finished yet but it shows the real power of Apollo. The real magic happens when you hit the run button. Instead of the Flex Application building a SWF experience inside an HTML page, it launches a standalone application. The screen shot below show the small application I built on the Mac OSX (intel).


This technology is going to change a lot. The application above took less than 15 minutes to create the GUI for. Others have built some really cool applications like the Ascension MP3 player (screen shot below).

This application, written by Apollo guru Mike Chambers, can load a local itunes library file and songs referenced on it, has several visualizers and controls for the audio files and can also search on the web for photos from Flickr based on the metadata in the audio files. I loaded up one of my own songs from Mix2r.com and the Ascension application read my name on the ID3 tags and searched Flickr and found this photo.

This is yet only the beginning of what is possible.

23 comments:

  1. Hot!!
    I can't wait..

    ReplyDelete
  2. ore on Apollo:

    I realized that some readers may not fully know Apollo yet so I wanted to make sure there is a real understanding of the significance of Apollo. Apollo is the code name for a new cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to use their existing web development skills in HTML, JavaScript, AJAX Flash and Flex, to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

    The Apollo Extensions for Flex Builder is a small installer that adds Apollo Application capabilities directly into Flex Builder.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The icon isn't bad. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Captcha broken? If you are not seeing the small image of the letters and numbers for the "word verification" on the right hand side, there seem to be issues with IE and FF only. Safari works great.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saw the overview of Apollo at AdobeMAX in October. This will be a great benefit to CF and Flex developers in the very near future.

    There are still issues with FLex 2 and Flex Builder 2 that need resolved, but the start looks good.

    Now if we could just turn our ColdFusion development work into Apollo apps without Flex, WOW that would be the extreme gift from Adobe.

    ReplyDelete
  6. anonymous, you wont need to use flex. Apollo is a runtime that you can build flash/flex apps AND/OR html/ajax apps. So you could develop a full apollo app without any flash/flex at all. I the filesystem libraries etc will all be accessible through actionscript and javascript which is one reason apollo is looking so good.

    Saw the demo at FOTB... it looks AMAZING. Mike demo'd html rendering in flash. Imagine loading a html page into a sprite object and being able to scale, rotate, blur etc as you would any other image in flash, but it's still a fully usable html page. (am finishing up a full post on what was presented at FOTB now).

    ReplyDelete
  7. So...I don't want to bust your bubble...but all this stuff is already possible with swifkit since the very beginning.
    Why are we so happy with an extension which might not even be for free?

    I'm probably not the sharpest tool in the shed, so please tell me which point I am missing.

    :)

    Marc

    ReplyDelete
  8. whoops...
    I am of course referring to the Appollo EXTENSION to Flex.
    Apollo itself sounds like a good deal to me.

    my bad,

    Marc

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ok. I am officially excited.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Apollo will be a free runtime (just like Flash player) and a free add on to the Flex SDK: http://thefalken.livejournal.com/38021.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just hate that I can't use Apollo yet... dangit! itchy tasty

    ReplyDelete
  12. ηœŸηš„δΈι”™!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Awesome. Good stuff for Flex users.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oohhhhh, sexy, I want to get my coding fingers on it right now. I'm just imagining the cool stuff i could develop with it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great site. I will bookmark for my sons to view as well!!!s

    ReplyDelete
  16. Really great web site...Thanks...Greetings!..n

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wowww...This is what i need..thanks...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Congrulations for this nice web design..Usefull..

    ReplyDelete
  19. sΓΌrΓΌcΓΌ kursu

    ReplyDelete
  20. Really great web site...Thanks...Greetings!...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Keep up the good work, very nice design.

    ReplyDelete

Do not spam this blog! Google and Yahoo DO NOT follow comment links for SEO. If you post an unrelated link advertising a company or service, you will be reported immediately for spam and your link deleted within 30 minutes. If you want to sponsor a post, please let us know by reaching out to duane dot nickull at gmail dot com.