Are there any best practices when it comes to styling Flex applications ? I would like to give the html page designer as much flexibility as possible.
Any tips, pointers?
A:
Not quite sure I get your question, but here goes...
There is a basic templated html page that gets generated by Flex Builder. Is that the one that the HTML designer is going to get his/her hands on? If yes, then just make sure that between you the Flex app has enough real estate to be usable but is small enough to fit in with whatever else s/he wants to put on the page. Oh yeah, and watch out for an HTML design which will use the browser BACK button because you'll lose all your Flash state as the swf will get unloaded and reloaded with the page. In most regards this problem is no different to embedding any other asset in a web page.
If you are talking about the UI design of your flex app itself, then that's a different story. The Flex app is not HTML, it's Flash, so the "pages" of your flex application will have a different set of capabilities and therefore a different set of design optimisations to a regular HTML page. In that case make sure that your designer hasn't got a bad table-based hangover from regular HTML. Make sure s/he thinks more like a desktop application UI designer or an animator and less like a static web page designer. That goes for both the layout and the user's gestures.
HTH
Simon
2009-03-05 20:57:33
Thanks you have answered a part of my question or may be completely. Flex/Flash apps have a css like style for UI elements. Is there a best practice in structuring just these "flex" stylesheets so that the HTML designer has maximum flexibility in controlling how the flex app is laid out?
2009-03-07 18:51:10
Bluntly put, No, there is not best practice. You and the designer are going to have to collaborate to make a usable app. In reality there is no silver bullet that allows you to code it and him to style it.
Simon
2009-03-08 00:33:17