Advanced Flex 3

Whether you're a Flex 3 beginner or intermediate user, this book provides the necessary information to help you develop into an expert. Using a practical hands-on approach, it illustrates exactly how to create robust and scalable enterprise-grade rich Internet applications (RIAs). The book is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the architectural and design aspects of Flex 3 application development. It explains the internals of a Flex 3 application and advocates a few best practices to fine-tune your application to ensure maximum performance. It includes tutorials on creating custom components, data binding, and creating AIR-powered desktop applications. The second part concentrates on effectively integrating Flex 3 with server- and client-side technologies. Techniques for integration with Java and PHP are covered in detail, and content covering interaction with client-side technologies is also included. After reading the chapter on JavaScript integration, you will be ready to create applications that can use Ajax and Flex 3 together. The third and final part of the book is a unique and eclectic mix of some advanced topics like mash-ups, collaborative applications, 3D rendering, highly interactive visualization, and audio and video streaming. In summary, through reading this book, you will benefit from the wealth of information and years of experience the authors hold, and will then be ready to cruise with comfort in the world of Flex 3 application development on your own.

The best way to showcase a powerful new technology is to demonstrate its real-world results, and that's exactly what this new Cookbook does with Adobe Flex 3. Wide ranging and highly practical, Flex 3 Cookbook contains more than 300 proven recipes for developing interactive Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 sites. You'll find everything from Flex basics, to solutions for working with visual components and data access, to tips on application development, unit testing, and using Adobe AIR. You also get ideas from the development community. Through its Flex Cookbook website (www.adobe.com/devnet/), Adobe invited Flex developers to post their own solutions for working with this technology, and from hundreds of posts, the authors chose the best and most useful solutions to supplement Flex 3 Cookbook. Each recipe inside provides a solution to a common problem, explains how and why it works, and offers sample code that you can put to use immediately. Topics include: Containers and dialogues Working with Text Data driven components DataGrid and Advanced DataGrid ItemRenderers and Editors Images, bitmaps, videos, and sounds CSS, styling, and skinning States and effects Working with Collections, arrays, and DataProviders Using DataBinding Validation, formatting, and regular expressions Using Charts and data visualization Services and Data Access Using RSLs and Modules Working with Adobe AIR Whether you're a committed Flex developer or still evaluating the technology, you'll discover how to get quick results with Flex 3 using the recipes in this Cookbook. It's an ideal way to jumpstart your next web application.

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.

AdvancED Flex 4 makes advanced Flex 4 concepts and techniques easy. Ajax, RIA, Web 2.0, mashups, mobile applications, the most sophisticated web tools, and the coolest interactive web applications are all covered with practical, visually oriented recipes. Completely updated for tools new to Flex 4 Demonstrates how to use Flex 4 to create robust and scalable enterprise-grade rich Internet applications Teaches you to build high-performance web applications with interactivity that really engages your users

With Professional Adobe Flex 3, put your prior experience with Flash, ActionScript and XML-based languages to good use and learn how to use the Flex 3 platform to create Rich Internet Applications and AIR applications. Understand the potential of the Flex 3 platform through practical examples and hands-on advice on topics like desktop deployment, developing applications in MXML, creating custom flex components, charting, targeting AIR, and data interconnectivity.

Discover how easy RIA development can be with this one-of-a-kind handbook from the Adobe Developer Library. Several clear, step-by-step mini-tutorials teach you about web services, event handling, designing user interfaces with reusable components, and more. After finishing this guide, you'll be able to build Flash applications ranging from widgets to full-featured RIAs using the Flex SDK and Flex Builder 3.0. With Getting Started with Flex 3, you will: Walk through sample RIA projects and see examples of amazing applications people have built with Flex Work with ActionScript 3.0 and the MXML markup language Build user interfaces using the controls and tools available with the framework Get a tour of controls available commercially and through open source Learn how Flex integrates with ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP, and J2EE in the server Build Flex-based widgets that let you display real-time data Use advanced controls to build 3D graphs, data dashboards, mapping applications, and more You'll find complete code for video players, a slideshow, a chat client, and an RSS reader, just to name a few. You also get plenty of tips, tricks, and techniques to leverage your existing programming skills, whether you come from an open source or Visual Studio-intensive background.

Flex has revolutionized the development of rich Internet applications, giving developers the framework necessary to easily create ever more powerful applications. Components form an essential part of this framework, and once you understand how to fully use them, your productivity and creativity will be taken to a whole new level. Flex 3 Component Solutions will show just what you can achieve with components and exactly how to achieve it. You'll see just how simple it is to use components to create amazing interfaces for your applications be they media players, data visualizations, 3D graphics—the list is long. Finally, there'll be times when you'll want to or have no alternative but to create your own components. This book will show you how to do this for your own ends, or so you can contribute to the Flex component community by distributing them. Flex 3 Component Solutions is a tour de force of components, and all of these components are demonstrated using real-world Flex code that you can use as starting points for your own applications. Take what you learn for this book, and then go out and create your own amazing interfaces quickly and easily: reuse, re-purpose, redesign, and do it all faster and with greater quality control than you ever thought possible.

Keep ahead of the game and get up to speed with Flex 3, Flex Builder 3, and ActionScript 3.0, with this comprehensive guide. Expert Flash trainer Charles Brown first takes you through the basics of installation and the Flex Builder environment. He then teaches you all the essentials of MXML and ActionScript 3.0, such as containers, states, and events, before moving on to more advanced topics like interfacing Flex with ColdFusion and .NET, creating Flex components with Flash, and much more. No matter what level you were to start with, by the end of the book you'll be creating powerful Flex applications.