Bumping this thread up. Almost all responses have been positive so far. Thanks Jude for patiently answering all those questions :-)
Alex, I believe you are on vacation (judging by your terse responses over the past few days) I hope you will be able to get things rolling with accepting the donation. Please let me know how I can help. Thanks, Om On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 1:25 AM, Maurice Amsellem < maurice.amsel...@systar.com> wrote: > Thank you Jude for the comprehensive answer. It's much clearer now. > > I will try the mxml import. > > Btw, I am surprised that you say Form does not have a visual > representation. Maybe we are not talking of the same thing. > > http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/spark/components/Form.html > > Maurice > ________________________________________ > De : jude [flexcapaci...@gmail.com] > Envoyé : vendredi 18 juillet 2014 09:29 > À : dev > Objet : Re: [POLL] Accept Radii8 Code Donation > > Comments inline... > > > On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 3:20 AM, Maurice Amsellem < > maurice.amsel...@systar.com> wrote: > > > Nice piece of work and clean UI. > > > > I have some questions to Judah that I didn't ask when he first announced > > Radii8 some time ago: > > > > How is this going to be used in an "real" application development > workflow > > ? > > > > I see a couple of scenarios. In *one* case, you would use this to get a > quick mockup or layout for your Flex project. For example, I had a form > with two inputs and a submit button. I opened Radiate and dragged an > HGroup, two labels and two inputs to the stage along with a submit button. > I set some properties and styles to get the look I was going for. I then > opened the code panel and copied the MXML code to my main Flex project. I > then closed Radiate without saving the document (or just closed the > document). I later received a new mockup from the client asking for an > updated form. I repeat the same process as before or import the code back > in but this time I saved the document and I can open it in Radiate later. > If I have a lot of panels or forms I could keep them saved and go back and > modify or retrieve them as needed. Sort of used as a library of visual > layouts. Right now, we can't use Flash Builders design view with Flex 4.13. > And to me, in some cases it may be more efficient to visually create the > mockup or layout than to write the code, run debug, and confirm all this is > not always the case. > > There's a basic MXML importer in it now. It's not robust but you can pass > in MXML and it will build the UI from it. So for people that want to type > code it wouldn't be difficult to make it render live as you type. This is > the *second* case, for example, there is a panel or view that has a code > editor that shows the generated code. For MXML if you type in that text > area right now nothing happens. It could be wired up to render the MXML > live in the design view as you type. FYI It does render the code live when > HTML code is active and you are showing a preview. > > In the code view are three tabs for MXML, HTML and Android XML. In the HTML > code, if you click the preview button it will create an iframe behind the > scenes and pass the generated HTML into it. This will give you the preview > obviously. BTW there is a Show Background Image option that shows a > snapshot of the actual design in the background of the HTML preview. > Anyway, if you type in the code editor (text area) it will update the HTML > preview live. The HTML should be a pixel perfect representation of the Flex > rendition but because HTML is the spawn of satan and it may not look the > same across browsers. So that is why you are able to modify the HTML on the > fly. You may find you need to add CSS style or property exceptions, > overrides or additions. The purpose of that panel would allow you to modify > the generated CSS. But we are talking about MXML. So to get back on track, > you would be able to type MXML or copy and paste it into the code editor > and have it render. That's the second use case. > > The *third* is to have a desktop version that points to an actual Flex > project application. You would have Flash Builder or another editor open. > It would pull in the project and list the applications or MXML documents. > When you clicked on the MXML file it would import it. You could then > modified the layout and saved the changes. Flash Builder would prompt you > to reopen the latest version of the file. In the same situation you could > setup sections that are the only places that can be edited. Similar to > Dreamweaver regions, you would delimit a section of MXML layout that can be > edited. All other code would remain unchanged. So something like this: > > <!--- DESIGN AREA: DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE--> > <s:Group id="area"><s:Graphic > ...</s:Graphic></s:Group> > <!--- DESIGN AREA: DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE--> > > The *forth* is to be able to pull in a SWF, live or in the debug or release > folder of a project, make changes to the layout and then create an edit > decision list from the changes. For example, I post a SWF online. A > designer views the SWF and sees there are changes that need to be made. She > opens Radiate desktop or online and the SWF is loaded into the program. She > changes the font size, the color and moves some images around. What seems > like a few small changes but actually maybe 30 different actual steps. She > has no access to the project MXML or needs to. After she's made > modifications she exports or emails the EDL to the developer. It contains a > list of only the final changes: > > > <moved> > <Button id="submitButton" x="50" y="50"/> > </moved> > <modified> > <Label id="headerLabel" fontSize="25"/> > </modifed> > > You would get that list of changes and apply them to the MXML yourself. > > The fifth use case is if you want to create an HTML website or webpage. You > do your design as usual or import MXML and then switch to the HTML tab. You > can copy the HTML code and use it where you need it. Or you can provide or > point to your own HTML page or template and put comments where the > generated code should go and it will insert the markup and CSS into those > designated locations. > > > > > > > 1) consider I have created my first UI using Radii8 and exported the > MXML > > code to Flex, > > I will then probably manually add some custom code (bindings, inline > > scripts, etc...). > > Then how do I get back to Radii8 to make a change ? > > > > This may have already been answered by the comments above. There is a > simple importer that imports MXML. It ignores information it does not > understand but it can export that information back out again. Or it can > create a list of changes that you've made after you've imported the MXML or > imported the debug SWF itself. > > > > > > 2) the component palette seem to include only a subset of Flex SDK > > components. > > Some key components/containers are missing: From, FormItem, DataGrid, > > Panel ,TitleWindow, ... > > And some components don't even exist (s:LinkButton ?) > > > > Is there a plan to support them ? > > > > Yes. The problem I had with some of them had to do with a few reasons. The > selection rectangle of some components were misaligned and I couldn't > figure out why. I later found a hidden Flex class that showed how to get > the correct selection size and location. This was in a recent update and I > had only used it on the components that were not working. It may work for > all components but I didn't get to it yet. The other reason is that some > components had to have data in their data provider to render correctly. > Another reason is that some components do not have a visual representation > such as Form. I would like to add a declarations view that show things like > Form, RadioButtonGroup and so on. The LinkButton was a component I thought > Flex would benefit from. Actually, there is an mx LinkButton component. But > I intended to create a hyperlink component that is the same as a hyper link > <http://www.google.com> in HTML except in this hyperlink you can go to a > URL or treat it as a s:Button with click events and so on. > > > > > > 3) what is the purpose of the HTML / Android export ? who is going to use > > it ? > > > > I would like to use it because sometimes I need to create an HTML or PHP > page from a Flex design or layout. I don't like the other HTML tools out > there and I do like HGroup, VGroup and TileGroup layouts. As a web > developer I sometimes have to do non Flex projects or do a static mobile > site, so it is part of that. You may never need it. Some of the same > reasons as Flex JS. >
