Advantages of Migrating Flex3 App to Flex4

Question

Hi guys,

What are the advantages of migrating a Flex 3 app (Java backend, BlazeDS, Spring, Hibernate) to Flex 4?

One of the biggest advantages of Flex 4 is design. Assuming that design / UI isn't a big driver for the business right now as compared to performance, what are the other factors we can highlight?

We have implemented Cairngorm and Swiz on the App (with a gradual "roll out" of Cairngorm planned for the future).

Any opinions?

Thanks, Sri

Answer 1

I can think of,

1. Better performance (use of FP10 Vector class)
2. Lightweight components
3. Easier to create custom components

Answer 2

Swiz AND the annoying car-horn? I absolutely love Swiz, but I assume that by 'gradual roll-out of cairngorm' you meant, 'long, slow and not fun roll-out of cairngorm.' :-)

Flex3 is very solid -- if you already have a code-base, there are few reasons to change over to flex4: pez said 'lightweight components', but the true load difference is probably negligible if not non-existant for the needs of most applications. (Either way, I assume he meant well-architected openFlux-like components.)

What kind of app are you building? An app with a bunch of form fields isn't a reason to make the plunge (unless your current code-base is relatively small).

The Vector class is great and all, but you can do everything you need with flex3.

Answer 3

Here's a link to a pretty good list of the "top 10" new features in Flex 4:

http://www.infoq.com/articles/top-10-flex4-changes

Some of my personal favorites:

1. Spark Component Architecture - lightweight containers, improved layout, better performance
2. Improvements to View States - no more AddChild / SetProperty nonsense
3. Skinning Enhancements and FXG / MXML graphics
4. Better Compiler Performance
5. Improved Text Support