Illustrator and Photoshop are widely used by Flex development companies to design a web application. Often Flex developers wish if there was an easy way out like Illustrator and Photoshop for Flex application development as well. Until now there was nothing happening in this direction but the recent RIA tools introduced by Adobe namely Adobe Flex 4 SDK, Adobe Flash Builder 4 and Adobe Flash Catalyst surely aim to synchronize developing with designing.

All three Adobe Flex 4 SDK, Adobe Flash Builder 4 and Adobe Flash Catalyst are currently available in Beta versions and will be soon seen on stalls. Most of Flex application developers would be aware of Adobe Flex 4 SDK and Adobe Flash Builder 4 but not Adobe Flash Catalyst, the new kid in the flex application development field.

Initially code named Thermo, catalyst allows Flex developer to jumpstart the project by importing either Photoshop or Illustrator and converting it into interactive Flash. It fastens the process of Flex application development as time consuming tasks like data-ready interface from scratch can be graphically developed within minutes using catalysts pallet of UI components like buttons, scrollbars, data lists etc. Completing fades and slides is also very easy.

Other features of Catalyst for Flex application development includes support to read Adobe’s new static XML graphics interchange format thus make it easy to import vector images and bitmap from Photoshop and Illustrator. Elements which get altered in Catalyst are still editable using Photoshop and Illustrator tools. A Flex developer can also include “design time data” to help designers visualize actual data formats.

“Though we have still not got the chance to test the beta versions of Flex 4 SDK, Flash Builder 4, and Flash Catalyst we are sure they will give a new dimension to Flex application development making it much more easier and flexible” said Operation Manager, iFlexweb.

Flex application development at iFlexweb is done systematically using the best of the technology. We strive to develop even better applications each time.