Ensemble Introduces Tofino, A Visual Studio Plug-In for Flex Applications

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ensemble (www.ensemble.com) today announced at Adobe MAX 2008 a new offering called Ensemble Tofino, a plug-in that enables .NET developers to create Flex front ends for their applications using Microsoft Visual Studio®. Using Ensemble Tofino, developers can create and edit MXML and ActionScript source files, and run and debug Flex applications, all within their native Visual Studio development environment. This release will be important to the many enterprise development teams that have standardized on Visual Studio as their primary integrated development environment (IDE). They will not have to switch between tools resulting in minimal loss of context, smaller memory footprint and more efficient use of time.

“We think that Ensemble Tofino will help .NET developers because it easily combines the advantages of the Flex framework with .NET server-side development, using a familiar user interface with no need to manually invoke the Flex compiler”

Flex is a free open source framework for building and maintaining Web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops and operating systems. Most Flex developers today utilize the Eclipse™ based Adobe® Flex® Builder™ tool, for developing, debugging and deploying rich Internet applications (RIAs). For developers committed to Visual Studio, Ensemble Tofino offers a .NET specific solution, making it possible to leverage the power of Flex within a .NET application environment.

“We think that Ensemble Tofino will help .NET developers because it easily combines the advantages of the Flex framework with .NET server-side development, using a familiar user interface with no need to manually invoke the Flex compiler,” said Ray Blaak, chief technology officer at Ensemble.

Tofino offers powerful intelligent coding and debugging features including the ability to create new projects using the Visual Studio wizard approach, run Flex applications from within Visual Studio, debug applications from within Visual Studio through breakpoints and stack value display, and report build errors in the Visual Studio error list. Tofino will be shipped to customers with the open source Flex framework included.

“We know there are many Visual Studio developers who want to use the Flex framework to create best-in-class applications, but want to work in tools that they are already familiar with,” said Greg DeMichillie, director of product management at Adobe. “We’re very excited about the introduction of Ensemble Tofino because it gives Visual Studio developers the ability to easily take advantage of the open source Flex framework for their enterprise applications.”

This is the first public-beta version of Ensemble Tofino and subsequent releases will further enhance the developer experience. More details about the product and a free download can be found at www.ensemble.com.

About Ensemble

Ensemble (www.ensemble.com) is an Adobe partner with expertise in requirements analysis, architecture, implementation, and deployment involving all Adobe technologies, in particular, solutions incorporating Adobe® LiveCycle®, Adobe® Flex®, Adobe® AIR™and Adobe® Acrobat®. We have extensive experience in developing industry-specific Adobe solutions for government, financial services, media and publishing and manufacturing, among others. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, we field people where they are required, anywhere in the world.