Work more structural with Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder

Problem?

What I don’t like about flash, flex etc is the fact that it was a pain in the ass to convert a design to custom components.

When I tested the flex 4 beta version called Gumbo I noticed alot of nice features to make it more easier for making custom components. But still it took alot of efford to do the job. Adobe came with a solution called flash catalyst. Catalyst is THE tool for RIA designers.

How does it work?

First you create your design in illustrator or photoshop

Next you import your artwork into catalyst and convert your artwork into components. Yes I ‘m not kidding you can convert text to textfield and rectangles to buttons… Pretty cool ey!?

Once you converted the artwork into components you can add interactivity and prepare the design to a final stage. Once the design is finished you have a working flex application without writing or knowing any actionscript at all! When that’s done you pass the catalyst file to a developer who is able to add all the code in your design and finish the final application.

Demo?

Do you like more information?

I am a big fan of Lee Brimelow and on his website you can find two very nice tutorials which give you a visual idea of the concept and goal of this descissions made by adobe.Below I embedded the videos.

Introduction to catalyst

Introduction to Flash Builder

I think this is a very good enhancement on the adobe product family, it convinced me to use this strategy in my future projects

Lode