| Learning Flex 3: Getting up to Speed with Rich Internet Applications (Adobe Developer Library) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 19 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15603
Category: Book
Author: Alaric Cole
Publisher: Adobe Dev Library
Studio: Adobe Dev Library
Manufacturer: Adobe Dev Library
Label: Adobe Dev Library
Format: Illustrated
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0596517327
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.76
EAN: 9780596517328
ASIN: 0596517327
Publication Date: June 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Great for beginners to programming and Flex January 1, 2009
Wow. What a great book. This was the best programming book I have ever read. It was a quick read and to the point. Very well written. Chapter 5 on 'learning the basics of scripting' was the most succinct explanation of objects, methods and classes that I have seen. Learning programming languages is hard and generates a lot of questions during the process. The author manages to intuitively answer those questions as they arise. Excellent work! Using color was a great choice as well.
 Excellent introduction to Flex December 31, 2008
I've been meaning for some time to dive into Flex; this book was perfect for my needs. Truth be told, I would have preferred a book for existing Java Swing and HTML/Ajax developers who want to know what Flex borrows from both disciplines, but since that might be a bit too narrow a focus, I'll take the general audience assumptions made by the book.
Though indeed, that would lead to my only quibble: I would have preferred a book that assumed a bit more HTML/CSS knowledge on the part of readers, but this didn't prove any kind of material annoyance.
For those wanting to understand the big picture of how a Flex app works and then see all the moving parts, this book works great. It does not go into great detail on any aspect of Flex, and in that sense may fall short for aspiring experts.
Overall, a great read.
Flex Your RIA Muscles December 23, 2008
I admit, I read the book twice. The first time I was excited about all the material unfolding before me and the way Alaric provided very workable code (in color - yeah!), but didn't appreciate how much was there. The book was easy to read and the examples worked flawlessly. Having the pages in color makes a big difference. Five stars for format.
The modern format does have some drawbacks of adding tons of cool notes, tips, and margin distractors, I believe, is over-played. I had to stop reading and study the side bars constantly as not to move on and miss them. They all had critical information that could have been served well in the body of the text. But, then it would look like a text book instead of a splash plate done in InDesign, whatever. I did appreciate that the book was layed out by a graphical designer and not a project manager or the color and PhotoShopped illustrations would have been dropped for blah greyscale.
The book got me to get into Flex and explore the many reference locations mentioned in the book. I went through a few online tutorials and realized Alaric book had more to tell me. I re-read the book and really got what he was saying. I did find a few typos and his style is caual, but I got more out of this book than many I have had the misfortune to waste money on. I will keep a copy of this book handy for a while until I get beyond this material and into Flex deeper. But compared to many of the technical books that cram the bookshelves of Big Box stores, this one is actually useful. Great job. You could easily use the projects of this book as a springboard into fully developed applications anyone would like to have.
I've started a set of basic Flex projects that demostrate how to write code that works for each of the componets, which would have taken months of extra work without Alaric's great examples.
Of course, anyone that is getting into Flex will appreciate knowing about Tour De Flex, an incredible Flex designed presentation of most of the features found in the framework with a super example associated with each topic. Thus, my work was for not, oh well. I'll let you find it on your own. You'll appreciated it more that way. Go Flex.
You might actually learn something. November 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
From the standpoint of someone who has little experience with internet applications of any sort outside of the obvious, I found ths book to be not only easy to read and navigate but a fantastic way to introduce myself to a useful program. The author wisely chooses a conversational tone throught the book which in my opinion creates an easier mode of learning and is one of the book's greatest strengths. I feel like I am being taught by a good friend rather than lectured by a mechanical disembodied voice.
To discredit this book for a lack of depth is irrelevant as it is clearly a beginners book designed to get your feet wet. And, furthermore, to give a 1 star rating because it is a "noob" book is simply moronic and misleading. That sort of childish downvoting should be saved for the next Nickleback release.
If you plan on using Flex 3, or are looking for a way to get your feet wet in the use of rich internet applications, get this book and enjoy it.
 Ok for a noob November 25, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book is written for someone that know next to nothing about programming. If that is your condition then by all means get this book otherwise I would avoid it.
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