SAN JOSE, Calif.-- Adobe Systems Incorporated and salesforce.com today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe Flex Toolkit for Apex, a set of programming tools that combines the capabilities of Flex and salesforce.com's Apex platform to enable a new generation of powerful and engaging Internet business applications. Using the new Flex Toolkit for Apex, developers can create richer application experiences for their salesforce.com deployments and Apex applications. Developers can also make their Flex-based applications available on the AppExchange directory, and deploy them on-demand and with no additional software required. The toolkit enables applications to access Apex Web services APIs, enabling developers to quickly create end-to-end, rich and innovative Web applications. The new Flex Toolkit for Apex is available immediately at http://developer.salesforce.com. "The Flex Toolkit for Apex combines the innovation of the Apex platform with the power of Adobe Flex to let developers create new on-demand business applications that are more capable, easier to use and more compelling than their software-only alternatives," said Adam Gross, vice president, developer marketing, salesforce.com. "And, just as end users will be delighted with the applications they now can use, developers will be delighted with how easily and quickly they can be built and shared." "Centive's core AppExchange-certified on-demand sales compensation solution, Compel, was developed using Flex. The ability to use Flex within the Apex platform has allowed us to rapidly develop and deploy a new, visually compelling on-demand application that deepens the integration between Compel and salesforce.com," said Bob Conlin, Chief Marketing Officer for Centive. "We plan to leverage the Adobe Flex Toolkit for Apex to develop additional applications for the AppExchange that will enhance the value and end-user experience we seek to provide our customers." The Apex platform's embedded mashup features allow developers to insert services and content from the Web within the native Salesforce user interface. The Flex Toolkit builds on that capability to allow innovative and rich user experiences - including drag and drop, rich media and desktop app look and feel - to be embedded within Salesforce and Apex applications. The power of this combination is available to virtually any user of any Apex application through the ubiquitous, cross-platform features of the Adobe Flash Player, installed on more than 700 million Internet-connected PCs and devices worldwide. Because these Flex components of Apex applications are browser-based technology, they can be deployed without any additional software or infrastructure, and even packaged and redistributed on the AppExchange. The Flex components directly complement and enhance the quality, diversity and value of the applications that can be created, and make on-demand business applications more compelling than ever before. "Flex and Apex are a perfect match," said Jeff Whatcott, vice president of product marketing for the Enterprise and Developer Business Unit at Adobe. "Blending the leading rich Internet application framework with the leading on-demand application platform means better applications delivered with less effort. We're entering an era in which developers can deliver truly rich enterprise applications on-demand, across platforms, both in the browser and directly on the desktop using the forthcoming Apollo runtime." The Flex toolkit joins the comprehensive set of resources and programs salesforce.com offers to let companies of all sizes create, deploy and sell on-demand applications for any business requirement. These include the IdeaExchange for discussing feature and product requests, the Apex Developer Network, salesforce.com's community of over 35,000 developers at http://developer.salesforce.com, the Apex platform for creating apps, and the AppExchange directory and AppStore programs for helping companies sell.