Flash Article

On September 9th, Macromedia released Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004. This is the most aggressive release of Flash to date, eclipsing even the MX version. Flash MX 2004 contains more new features, more opportunities to take Flash in new directions, and more workflow optimizations for new users than any past release of Flash. That is good.

However, with change comes...well, change. Change adds uncertainty. In the weeks following the release, we all listened to the Flash community for perspective and guidance to see what we should do next. You, the Flash community, told us clearly that there are a few areas we needed attend to immediately:

• Bug fixes—there were a number of bugs reported in the release
• A centralized source for documentation and samples to guide you through using all the new features
• Help with project migration and backward compatibility

Macromedia has been listening! And to show that we do listen closely and do take the guidance our community offers very seriously, we are doing a lot about it. Over the next month, you will see a few major improvements to your experience of using the MX 2004 release.

Product Updaters

Leading the charge are product updaters for the English, French, and German products. All other languages already have the product updater built into the original install. The English updater fixes many of the bugs users complained about and provides a really solid experience in Flash MX 2004. The French and German products already have most of those bug fixes in the original install, but they update the product for a few minor administrative issues.

Flash Developer Center and Flash Help

Just as important, you will find a lot more guidance in the form of in-product help and a new Flash Developer Center. We have added 3 megabytes of new help content in the Flash Help panel. We've also added new tutorials and samples in the Developer Center. But probably most importantly, we have reorganized the Flash Developer Center structure to guide you in using the primary new features of Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004.

LiveDocs

We have also implemented something called LiveDocs. All Flash documentation from the product Help panel is now live on line in the Developer Center, and you can add your own comments and read others. Share code examples, clarifications, and limitations you find. LiveDocs been a big hit with the ColdFusion community, and we look forward to seeing it help the Flash community.

Updated Components

To help you migrate your projects to MX 2004, we are providing a lot of updated components. These components have been updated to work with MX 2004 and Flash Player 7 and will work with your existing MX projects when used in MX 2004. In particular we are providing updates of the components that shipped with Flash MX, Flash Communication Server components, and DRK components.

Ever wonder how closely Macromedia listens to you and the community of users? If we've missed anything, let us know. We think we've created the fixes, updates, and guidance most users asked for. But we know there's always a lot more we can do, so keep your eye on the Developer Center and all the great new stuff the we'll be announcing and describing there.

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About the author

Lucian Beebe is a Senior Product Manager for Flash at Macromedia. Lucian focuses on Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and drives the requirements for Flash. Lucian’s areas of particular focus are data connectivity and development tools support; making it easier to develop sophisticated software solutions with Flash as the front end client. A veteran of 13 years in the software development industry, Lucian brings perspective on large-scale and mission-critical software development, software development tools and process management.