If you want to try your hand at developing rich Internet applications with Adobe's Flex 3, and already have experience with frameworks such as .NET or Java, this is the ideal book to get you started. Programming Flex 3 gives you a solid understanding of Flex 3's core concepts, and valuable insight into how, why, and when to use specific Flex features. Numerous examples and sample code demonstrate ways to build complete, functional applications for the Web, using the free Flex SDK, and RIAs for the desktop, using Adobe AIR. This book is an excellent companion to Adobe's Flex 3 reference documentation. With this book, you will:
Learn the underlying details of the Flex framework
Program with MXML and ActionScript
Arrange the layout and deal with UI components
Work with media
Manage state for applications and components
Use transitions and effects
Debug your Flex applications
Create custom components
Embed Flex applications in web browsers
Build AIR applications for the desktop
Flex 3 will put you at the forefront of the RIA revolution on both the Web and the desktop. Programming Flex 3 will help you get the most from this amazing and sophisticated technology.
Chapter 1 Introducing Flex
Understanding Flex Application Technologies
Using Flex Elements
Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime)
The Differences Between Traditional and Flex Web Applications
Understanding How Flex Applications Work
Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring
What’s New in Flex 3
Summary
Chapter 2 Building Applications with the Flex Framework
Using Flex Tool Sets
Creating Projects
Building Applications
Deploying Applications
Summary
Chapter 3 MXML
Understanding MXML Syntax and Structure
Making MXML Interactive
Summary
Chapter 4 ActionScript
Using ActionScript
MXML and ActionScript Correlations
Understanding ActionScript Syntax
Variables and Properties
Inheritance
Interfaces
Handling Events
Error Handling
Using XML
Reflection
Summary
Chapter 5 Framework Fundamentals
Understanding How Flex Applications Are Structured
Loading and Initializing Flex Applications
Understanding the Component Life Cycles
Loading One Flex Application into Another Flex Application
Differentiating Between Flash Player and the Flex Framework
Caching the Framework
Understanding Application Domains
Localization
Summary
Chapter 6 Managing Layout
Flex Layout Overview
Making Fluid Interfaces
Putting It All Together
Summary
Chapter 7 Working with UI Components
Understanding UI Components
Buttons
Value Selectors
Text Components
List-Based Controls
Pop-Up Controls
Navigators
Control Bars
Summary
Chapter 8 Customizing Application Appearance
Using Styles
Skinning Components
Customizing the Preloader
Themes
Runtime CSS
Summary
Chapter 9 Application Components
The Importance of Application Components
MXML Component Basics
Component Styles
Summary
Chapter 10 Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts
Chafic Kazoun is the founder and Chief Software architect at Atellis, and is widely considered one of the world's top experts on Flex (outside of the Adobe Flex engineering team). He has worked with Flash technologies since 1998 and with Flex since its inception, and he has a deep understanding of the internals of the Flex framework. He maintains a busy speaking and consulting schedule.
Joey Lott is the author or co-author of "Flash 8 Cookbook", "Programming Flash Communication Server", and "ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook" (all O'Reilly). Working in the Internet industry since 1996, Joey co-founded RightSpring, Inc., and consulted for YourMobile/Premium Wireless Services and Ads.com, before joining Schematic. He's been teaching Flash and ActionScript since 1999.
The animal on the cover of Programming Flex 3 is a krait snake. The krait (Bungaruscaeruleus) is one of the deadliest venomous snakes in the world. Its native habitat islimited to Asia, and it's nocturnal. The snake's bands are white or yellow on a blue/black body. A krait's head is narrow and it can grow to nearly three feet in length.Fairly common in the fields and jungles of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the krait isalso known to seek shelter in human encampments. It's fond of hiding out in sleepingbags, footwear, and piles of clothing or rags. Its venom contains a neuro-toxin thatcauses respiratory failure. Victims often feel little pain from the bite itself, but the deathrate of victims is 85 percent without administration of anti-venom, and nearly 50 percenteven when medication is available.
The 2006 film Snakes on a Plane features a snake smuggler named "Kraitler." The kraitalso makes an appearance in several Sherlock Holmes stories.
The cover image is from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover font is Adobe ITCGaramond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed;and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed.
This is great book for getting started with flex 3(which I am new to). It starts out in the first few chapters with the basic stuff, how to build a flex application, explains controls, events, etc. It has many chapters of more advanced stuff with coding samples & tricks. No complaints about the book I think it is well worth your time if your going to be working with flex and there is enough in this book to allow you to extend and expand upon it well beyond what is just presented.
5/27/2010
(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
1.0
Source Code Download?
By Lorinc
from Oxnard, CA
About Me Developer
Pros
Easy to understand
Cons
Not comprehensive enough
Best Uses
Novice
Student
Comments about oreilly Programming Flex 3:
This would be a good book for programmer to start development in Flex, but without downloadable source code examples/flex builder projects it's pretty useless.
11/27/2009
4.0
Great reading and content
By David Costelloe
from Burlington, Ontario Canada
About Me Developer
Pros
Easy to understand
Well-written
Cons
Best Uses
Novice
Student
Comments about oreilly Programming Flex 3:
For a first time user of Flex development I found this book to be very good to get me going and understanding the Flex framework.
10/26/2009
5.0
Very well written book
By Dave
from Ontario, Canada
About Me Developer
Pros
Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written
Cons
Best Uses
Intermediate
Comments about oreilly Programming Flex 3:
This book was the best technical book I have ever read. The chapters and ideas have such nice flow, I actually read the book from front to back in a few days. Excellent job guys.
7/1/2009
5.0
Programming Flex 3 Reader Reviews
By Tomasz Wiśniewski
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Programming Flex 3:
The book Flex 3 Programming does not focus only on Flex Framework programming. It also presents how to configure Flex Builder to Flex. The book contains 22 chapters, which take in a very professional way through the whole process of creating applications. The book is compendium of knowledge about the framework. The Flex 3 Programming explains very well the basics, as well as professional diagrams and helps to fill up the gaps on issues. The issues are prepared very carefully. The chapter 12 Managing State is a good example.. In the book there are only micro examples, it does not focus on the process of building a specific applications, because it was not the intention of authors. In my opinion only Chapter 11 of this book perhaps should be more developed.
The book Flex 3 Programming is a bestseller. However, I would not start my journey with Flex with this book. It does not teach programming in Flex, but it will be helpful to fill up the gaps on some issues. This book is for people who want to train and improve the work with Flex projects. Certainly it does not contain the exact solutions that have carried through the process of building applications. I consider the book Flex 3 Programming as very well. Table of contents will tell you whether this book is for you or not.
4/17/2009
4.0
Nice Beginner Book
By Rich
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Programming Flex 3:
I received this book with no prior AS3 experience or any working within Flash, although I have seen both in use a bit, so I wasn't totally new to the environment.
Chapter 1-3 & 5 really helped me to understand the Flex environment and how to work with it. They probably should have been in that order.
I got bogged down in Chapter 4, which is a great reference, but not something to dwell on when trying to learn.
Chapters 7-10 were great, but after getting bogged down earlier, I wasn't much in the mood to dwell on these. Other than that though, these chapters provided a bit of a knowledge base to work off of.
Chapter 11 seemed a bit out of place, but covers how Flash (yes I know we are talking Flex) and hence Flex are designed to work with media very easily. This could have been next to Chapter 13 for effects and transitions.
Chapter 12 is probably the most useful for understanding how to create an application overall in Flex.
Chapter 14-17 covered dealing with data and communication of data back and forth, which I didn't spend much time at all on.
Chapter 18-22 covered the basics of working with applications and dealing with them. Where Chapter 22 seemed to be the most useful.
I pretty much after getting bogged down in Chapter 4, read Chapter 5, skimmed the rest and jumped straight to the last chapter and it's example. I was able to get this working flawlessly.
Overall, this is a great book for learning Flex, however my one complaint is that it is geared towards working directly with FlexBuilder product from Adbobe, which I didn't bother using at all.
No complaints about the book other than that though and well worth your time and money if your going to be working in this environment and there is enough in this book to allow you to extend and expand upon it well beyond what is just presented.
Merchant response: The example source code downloads for this book are available at http://examples.oreilly.com/9780596516215/
You can usually find the examples for our books by going to the book's catalog page on our site and looking for the Examples link below the image of the book's cover.