Flex 3 In Action

Chock full of examples, this easy-to-follow, hands-on tutorial goes beyond feature coverage and helps readers put Flex to work in real day-to-day tasks.

Flex 4 in Action is an easy-to-follow, hands-on Flex 4 tutorial. Revised and updated from the previous edition on Flex 3, this book is chock-full of examples, goes beyond feature coverage, and helps readers put Flex to work in real day-to-day tasks. This book helps Flex developers make their Flex applications stand out from the crowd. How comprehensive is Flex 4 in Action? Interesting themes, styles, and skins? It's in there. Working with databases? You got it. Interactive forms and validation? You bet. Charting techniques to help you visualize data? Bam! Many Flex books are overwhelming to new users-focusing on the complexities of the language and super-specialized subjects in the Flex ecosystem. Flex 4 in Action filters out the noise and dives into the core topics users need every day. Using numerous easy-to-understand examples, Flex 4 in Action provides a strong foundation that readers can build on as the complexity of their projects increases. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

How soon can you learn Adobe Flex 3? With this book's unique hands-on approach, you will be able to tinker with examples right away, and create your own Rich Internet Applications with Flex within the first few chapters. As you progress, you learn how to build a layout, add interactivity, work with data, and deploy your applications to either the Web or the desktop. Learning Flex 3 offers step-by-step instructions that are clear and concise, along with tips and tricks that author Alaric Cole has gathered after years of using Flex and teaching it to fellow developers at Yahoo! You'll understand how Flex works, how to use the MXML markup language and work with ActionScript, how to deploy RIAs to the desktop using Adobe AIR, and much more. Whether you're a beginner, or an experienced web developer coming to Flex from another platform, Learning Flex 3 is the ideal way to learn how to: Set up your environment with FlexBuilder and Eclipse Create a new Flex project Use the different design views in Flex Write code with MXML Lay out your Flex application Embed images and graphics Build a user interface Add interactivity with ActionScript Handle user input Move, display, and collect data Add custom components with MXML Add sound effects, filters, and transitions Style your applications with CSS, skins, and themes Deploy applications to the Web, or to the desktop using Adobe AIR Also included are brief explanations of objects, classes, components, properties, methods, types, and other Flex attributes. You will find that Learning Flex 3 is not only the most complete tutorial for Flex, it's also the quickest way to get going with the latest version of this powerful framework.

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.

Part of the Adobe Training from the Source series, the official curriculum from Adobe, developed by experienced trainers. Using project-based tutorials, this book/CD volume is designed to teach the techniques needed to create sophisticated, professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. In the course of the book, the reader will build several Web applications using Flex Builder incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0. This title covers the component framework for Rich Internet Applications, Adobe Flex 3.0. New Flex 3 features covered in this edition are: the advanced DataGrid, Data Connectivity Wizards, Modularizing the Flex application, and options for deploying your Flex project with AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime).

With constant innovation on the iOS, Android, and BlackBerry platforms, the mobile device landscape is complicated and changing rapidly. Adobe leads the way with Flex Mobile, a new technology that provides a single development environment that exports applications to any mobile platform, eliminating the need to write and re-write code. Flex Mobile in Action teaches how to use the powerful Flex Platform to create compelling mobile applications that can stretch across Apple iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices. It contains practical application development techniques such as accessing native device capabilities, choosing the right architectural patterns, and building data access models. It also covers the new Flex 4.6 with Flash Builder which builds on Flex 4.5 for the creation of outstanding mobile applications.

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.