Flux is a web site design application that looks and behaves as you would expect from a Leopard application. It makes excellent use of all the interface gimmicks Mac OS X allows for. Under the hood, Flux 1 was powerful, but no more so than for example Dreamweaver CS3. Version 2 adds a good deal more raw power to the program.
Is Dreamweaver CS4 the ultimate web site development tool? Should you use Panic’s Coda or MacRabbit’s Espresso and CSSEdit or Style Master to really tap into the many features a modern web site should be able to offer? Many web designers will advise you to use either Dreamweaver or one of the raw HTML editors if you want to have full control over your design and the scripts running on a page.
With Flux 2, however, you get a third choice, and it’s not a middle choice—it’s not something that is positioned in-between the ease of Dreamweaver and the power of raw editors. Flux 2 actually competes directly with Dreamweaver CS4. It has much improved PHP support, easier Ruby on Rails capabilities, easier Javascript and AJAX support, better debugging, and an easier beginner’s mode.
In one word, Flux 2 is easier to start with than Dreamweaver CS4, but it’s at least as powerful. What it lacks are workgroup capabilities, some high end usability debugging that Dreamweaver seems to support as the only application out there, and integrated Flash support. Flux also doesn’t allow you to connect to databases the way Dreamweaver does, although I must say I don’t think many Dreamweaver users will like the way this functionality has been implemented in Adobe’s product—it simply is too complicated to be enjoyed much.
Flux 2 lets you design a web page visually, by positioning page elements, boxes, divs, etc on the page. With version 1 you would have to learn how to attach a CSS style sheet to your page. With version 2 everything is much more clearer. The whole workflow has become intuitive, with more assistants and more inspector windows that help you design without thinking about the code.
It’s only when you start creating complex code that you need to delve into Javascript, jQuery, PHP, etc. But even simple things like some jQuery features can easily be programmed into a page with little or no knowledge of the jQuery scripting concept.
Dreamweaver CS4 does allow you to create Spry objects with no coding, but Dreamweaver doesn’t support any other Javascript libraries. Flux 2 does—including Spry. Flux 2 shares with Dreamweaver the ability to extend the program’s functionality through plug-ins. For example, a PHP plug-in ensures you can create code more easily in Flux than in Dreamweaver.
Flux 2 is also easier on the eyes. In version 1, the page element labels were visible whether you wanted them to be or not (at least, I didn’t find a way to turn them off). In Flux 2, these labels can be made semi-transparent or most of them can simply be turned on and off with the click on an icon. The labels that you show are more concise. For example, you can now see how margins and padding looks like—complete with measurements—or how an element is connected in the elements hierarchy on the page.
One thing Flux still isn’t good at is code editing. It’s slow and not very efficient. Here, Dreamweaver is still light years ahead, although one can wonder for how long? Flux 2 is a free upgrade for registered Flux 1 users.
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