Flex developers who want to develop rich Web apps and user experiences will now be able to leverage the Sencha suite of professional tools, which have been designed to enable faster and seamless transition to open Web technologies that are HTML5-based, in order to develop HTML5 Web apps and mobile-packaged applications.

In a release, Ted Patrick, Sencha director of developer relations, said, "Developing with Sencha frameworks enables Flex developers to leverage their core skills and build apps from classes, components, and JavaScript that deliver pixel-perfect rendering across all popular mobile and desktop platforms. In addition to our professional-grade tools, Sencha offers the training, support, and documentation that Flex developers need to tackle serious development projects."

The initiative from Sencha, which includes Sencha Designer, a robust application builder tool for mobile and desktop web applications, along with Sencha Touch, a JavaScript framework which supports development of HTML5 Web apps and mobile-packaged applications, will provide necessary resources, training, and support to Flex developers.

Brett Cortese, president & CEO of Universal Mind, said, "Sencha frameworks provide a solid transition for Flex developers who want to get productive with HTML5. We’re excited by the speed and efficiency we’ve gained by using Ext JS and Sencha Touch for our clients’ projects. We’re also glad to be a part of the strong partner community and ecosystem that Sencha has built."

The educational curriculum and tools from Sencha feature: a free webinar entitled “Moving from Flex to HTML5 and Sencha;” training events, which focus on HTML5 applications development; and a published white paper entitled “The Development Manager’s Quick Guide to HTML5.” The company is also including additional features into its products allowing users to connect with SOAP and SOA-based backends in addition to providing support for Adobe (News – Alert) Action Message Format (AMF) which makes it easy for developers to use the backends to convert their user interfaces to Sencha-based technology.

Craig Walker (News – Alert), CTO of Xero, said, "Sencha Touch is built from the ground up to leverage HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, enabling us to build rich Web applications that look and feel native right out of the box. Relying on the extensive set of UI widgets, layouts and animations in a well-designed and extensible framework, we were able to start building features immediately from day one rather than worrying about the underlying architecture. Plus, we were able to leverage our existing skills and use open Web technologies."