Skip to main content
S
SafadiAdam
Participant
January 29, 2009
Answered

bi-derectional text and migration from Flex 3 to Flex 4

  • January 29, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 985 views
Hi guys, Can we migrate our application from Flex 3 to Flex 4 in order to support bi-directional text? I have been reviewing the new Text Layout Framework tutorial and I found out a set of new components that need to be used in order to support bi-di ext.

What about the classical Flex components that we used to use in our application? do I need to re-write my application with the TLF components in order to support bi-di? Can’t I just set some new properties and re-compile my application?

Please help
Thank You
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer GordonSmith
For Flex 4, in addition to developing new "Gumbo" components which have an improved skinning architecture and use TLF, the Flex team is also planning to make it possible to have a few TLF features such as bidirectional text in some or perhaps all of the Halo components from Flex 3. These components currently use a Player class known as TextField. A class called TLFTextField is being developed which uses TLF to implement the same APIs as TextField, and therefore can replace TextField in the Halo components.

This work is underway but not yet complete. Only a few components are currently working with this approach and there is no way at the moment to turn on bidirectionality. We are also starting to develop a UI-mirroring feature to allow the entire user interface -- not just the text -- to become right-to-left.

So what you need -- the ability to write Arabic and Hebrew applications using only legacy Halo components -- is planned for Flex 4.

Gordon Smith
Adobe Flex SDK Team

1 reply

C
ChrisWyman
Participating Frequently
January 30, 2009
Hi -

TLF does not currently have any dependency on the Flex 4 framework, so you can use it with Flex 3.2. TLF does depend on Flash Player 10, since it uses the new flash.text.engine package. We encourage developers to migrate forward to Flex 4 for other reasons, but (at least for now), TLF does not require it.

-Chris
S
SafadiAdamAuthor
Participant
January 30, 2009
Chris,
Thank you for your response, maybe did not explain myself well.
My question was we already have our product released, we cannot re-write it with the new TLF components, is there any way to support bi-directional text?

Even in the next releases we need to have our product generic and multi-lingual support.

According to TLF and Flex 4 documentations I think, we have to select a new development approach (TLF) in order to support bi-di.

Thank You
G
GordonSmithCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
February 10, 2009
For Flex 4, in addition to developing new "Gumbo" components which have an improved skinning architecture and use TLF, the Flex team is also planning to make it possible to have a few TLF features such as bidirectional text in some or perhaps all of the Halo components from Flex 3. These components currently use a Player class known as TextField. A class called TLFTextField is being developed which uses TLF to implement the same APIs as TextField, and therefore can replace TextField in the Halo components.

This work is underway but not yet complete. Only a few components are currently working with this approach and there is no way at the moment to turn on bidirectionality. We are also starting to develop a UI-mirroring feature to allow the entire user interface -- not just the text -- to become right-to-left.

So what you need -- the ability to write Arabic and Hebrew applications using only legacy Halo components -- is planned for Flex 4.

Gordon Smith
Adobe Flex SDK Team
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices