Flash Catalyst Development

Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new tool for Web designers that helps them participate more fully in Flex application development. Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding. Flash Catalyst aims to accelerate the development of rich user interfaces with Flash. It is intended to complement Adobe's Flex development tool, which the company has rebranded as Flash Builder. Catalyst provides a tool that will enable artists and designers to build interactive software experiences. Catalyst allows designers to assign certain kinds of user interface behaviors to individual pieces of artwork.

One of the key features of Catalyst is its ability to simplify development of data-driven software. It can analyze the data types in different code to generate bindings for connecting a Flash interface to the backend service. This makes it easier for designers to specify how data will be presented in the application. This feature leverages the Action Message Format, a binary protocol devised by Adobe for data interchange.

Catalyst generates MXML, the XML-based language that is used to describe Flex content. This is highly advantageous because it means that a designer can take a project that has been stubbed out in Catalyst and pass it directly to a programmer who can then edit the code by hand in Flash Builder.

• Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces.
• Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product
• Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution
• Work more efficiently with developers who use Adobe Flash Builder to create rich Internet applications (RIAs). Designers use Flash Catalyst to create the functional user experience then provide the project file to developers who use Flash Builder to add functionality and integrate with servers and services.