====== FlexDesigner ======

Sorry, FlexibleMXML was started and quickly passed this project in functionality so this was discontinued.

Consider this page deprecated.

===== Goal =====

Make a graphical layout tool to create mxml documents.  This will give a cross platform, open source alternative to FlexBuilder.

===== How? =====
Trolltech has a tool called [[http://www.trolltech.com/trolltech/products/qt/features/designer/|QT Designer]] for laying out their cross platform C++ applications.  It outputs an XML format similar to mxml.  We will:

  - Create an XSLT to transfrom from QT's .ui format to mxml
  - Create AS2 and AS3 classes to mimic some QT specific behavior.
  - Create QT plugins to better approximate the look and feel of a flex application while in the QT designer.
  - Create tools to streamline the workflow between the designer and the developers normal environment.


Trolltech provides the designer under the GPL.

===== Examples =====

Some work has begun on the xslt as a proof of concept.  Following is a screenshot of an interface created in the QT designer, and the resulting swf after compiling the transformed mxml document.

{{http://www.flashyourspace.com/flexdesigner/test1.jpg?400}}

{{http://www.flashyourspace.com/flexdesigner/test1-swf.jpg?400}}

===== Newest Feature =====

Just learned a lot about XSLT, and got combo boxes working.  Sounds easy, but there needs to be some actionscript to populate the values so it wasn't.  Check this out:

<code xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" width="685" height="592" layout="absolute">
    <mx:Script><![CDATA[              
                [Bindable]
                public var comboBox_ds:Array = [
                
                {
                label:"Item1",
                data:4
                }
                    , 
                {
                label:"Item2",
                data:6
                }
                    , 
                {
                label:"Item3",
                data:8
                }
    
                ];
                ]]></mx:Script>
    <mx:Canvas borderStyle="outset" backgroundColor="#c0c0c0" width="671" height="571" x="10" y="20">
        <mx:ComboBox dataProvider="{comboBox_ds}" width="241" height="23" x="20" y="20"/>
    </mx:Canvas>
</mx:Application>
</code>

===== Current Hurdle =====

The layout managers in QT and Flex work significantly different.  While absolute position controls are simple to implement, it'll take a great deal of thought to get dynamic layouts working correctly.

===== Current Phase =====

The XSLT is the current focus of development since that's the heart of the entire project.

===== Example Data =====

Here is an example of QT's output.
[[http://www.flashyourspace.com/flexdesigner/test.ui]]

Here is an example of that output after run through our proof-of-concept XSLT
[[http://www.flashyourspace.com/flexdesigner/test.mxml]]