Cristian Spiescu

Rich Internet Applications (RIA; the Flash platform & related tools/frameworks included) represent the future of software development. For websites, online software and enterprise software. That's why it is important, now more than ever, to focus on RIAs that are scalable, robust and reusable.

I believe that UML modeling techniques and proper tools help a lot ActionScript / Flex / Flash developers to have better and more scalable architecture, better and reusable code, better and more robust applications for small, medium and large AS projects.

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The UML4AS Team is proud to announce the release of UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex 1.0.0.

UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex is a modeling tool that integrates within Eclipse based IDEs (including Flash Builder and FDT) and provides bi-directional code synchronization for .as and .mxml files. We call it developer friendly as its primary focus is the workflow and the productivity of the developers. Some examples of features oriented towards developer friendliness:
  • tight integration with Eclipse based IDEs
  • easy navigation from code <->class diagrams<->functionality diagrams (e.g. use case, activity, etc.)
  • CodeSync technology for code synchronization. Manage simultaneous modifications within model and code
  • fast background processing (similar to CTRL + S => incremental project build, within Eclipse)
  • and a lot more
This is the first production version. Since the public release of the first alpha versions, there have been added numerous new features (cf. UML4AS Release Notes). Among them we would like to mention the ability to manage Java source code, which has been recently added in the UML4AS + Java product. Users can now model their entire Java + ActionScript or Flex application.

Thanks UML4AS Users Community!
We would like to thank the growing UML4AS users community for the active and valuable feedback that they provide. Their input helps us, the UML4AS team, to improve the tool and to calibrate it on the needs of developers.

UML4AS Roadmap
We are looking towards a busy new year, 2012. We plan several major updates of UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex and a couple of new products within the Flower Modeling Platform (UML4AS is a part of the Flower Modeling Platform as well). We will be focusing on:
  • collaborative modeling
  • integration with other tools used in the development flow (like version control, issue tracking, code review)
  • model driven architecture (MDA), focused on combined projects: server backend + RIA frontend

For more information about UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex and other products, please see http://www.uml4as.com and/or follow us on twitter.