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| Learning Flex 3: Getting up to Speed with Rich Internet Applications (Adobe Developer Library) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alaric Cole
Publisher: Adobe Dev Library
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $22.24
You Save: $17.75 (44%)
New (42) Used (5) from $22.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 7708
Format: Illustrated
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
Condition: Brand new book. Shipped from our NYC store. Slight Shelf wear to cover. Pages are clean and unmarked.
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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 9 more reviews...
 Good choice to get your feet wet with Flex September 18, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The first thing that stood out is that it's in color! I love color, especially for technical material it adds a whole extra dimension to the medium and another vehicle by which to communicate. Obviously in code listings it makes the code easier to visually digest and mentally break down what you're seeing, and with screen caps color is so much more appealing.
The dimension of the book is wider that normal, which gives the book an extra wide gutter that the publisher is able to leverage. And leverage they do by making use of it for an assortment of side bars, notes, tips, and blurbs.
So aside from the aesthetics, content of course is the key. The book is aimed at beginners who don't necessarily have any sort of programming background - so the audience that this book would appeal to includes anyone interested in learning more about Flex and if it's the right fit for them; as a quick read (only 304 pages) you can blast through this book in a short amount of time.
Who might those people be? Developers wanting to test the waters with Flex because they had heard good things about it, Flash or Web media designers thinking about getting into the development side of things with Flex, and management level folks looking to explore new opportunities and want to get a barometer reading on what it would take to get into Flex, etc...
The writing style is fairly casual, and you feel like the author is talking to you (as opposed to the feeling of a manual). I think the author does a pretty good job at keeping things high level with enough meat to make the reader feel they're actually being productive as they work through the examples.
So I'd recommend this book to someone who wants to get their feet wet with Flex - someone who may not be fully committed to Flex at this point in time and doesn't want to invest a ton of time yet.
* Difficulty Level: Beginner
* Range of topics: Moderate
* Depth of topics: Light
* Development experience needed: None
* Reading Speed: Fast
* Writing Style: Casual
A great beginning to intermediate Flex 3 book August 11, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've worked with Flash and ActionScript for a few years, but I'm new to Flex so I purchased three Flex books and I found this one to be the best one. I like how the author has you build smaller applications that work by themselves but also adds more features to them as the book progresses.
There are some minor code issues, but he answered my questions on his website which is one of the best book websites I've seen [...]. All of the source files and the working applications can be viewed on his site.
I also really enjoy the layout of the new Learning series that O'Reilly has been putting out (similar to the Learning ActionScript 3 book). The color coding and pictures are a nice change from the majority of black and white technical books.
Since the focus of this book is Flex and MXML, newer programmers will need to supplement this book with an ActionScript book once they start to build more advanced applications.
Highly recommended for those who are new to Flex.
This is it! September 8, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have started to read several Flex books in the past. I say "started", because I quickly lost interest. Many times I found myself scratching my head saying "Why would anyone ever do that?"
This book has been an amazing adventure. The examples are relevant, the writing is entertaining without being off topic, and best of all, within the first 5 chapters I knew enough to make a basic Flex website.
If you have some web design experience with html, and css, then I highly recommend this book!
VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! July 29, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Are you just getting started in using Flex? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Alaric Cole, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that is designed for anyone new to software development.
Cole, begins by jumping right into the basics of using Flex and Flex Builder. Next, the author helps you get acquainted with Design mode and shows you how to build an application visually. Then, he looks at code that was generated from Design mode and shows you how to write your own. The author continues by showing you how to get going with this powerful and simple programming language. Next, he discusses what events are and how too use them in your application. Then, the author will show you some of the powerful features of Flex. He continues by explaining how to lay out your applications. Next, the author will discuss the Form container and show you how to create rich experiences with Forms and user input. Then, he shows you how to use data that's created within your MXML code, or even data that's spread across the web. The author continues by showing you how to structure your application by providing a set of user-selectable views. Next, he discusses the concept of view states, which let you easily design the flow of your applications. Then, the author shows you how incredibly easy it is to apply visual effects to your components with simple MXML. He continues by showing you how to customize every visual aspect of your Flex applications, making your applications truly custom and unique. Finally, the authors shows you how to take your applications and show them to the world.
This most excellent book provides a step-by-step tutorial through all aspects of Flex development, from familiarizing your self with the right tools to learning basic features of ActionScript and MXML, to sharing your completed work with others. More importantly, the author chose topics based on what he felt empowered you to begin development without overwhelming you.
Cream of the Crop for Learning Flex 3 August 11, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
No books cover everything but looking at the title of the book it is aimed at teaching people new to Flex 3. (Or people who didn't get a good foundation in another book on the topic.)
I have seen few books over the years that rise to the level of this book. It is great in both scope and in simplicity. You will learn to both create and understand the heart of Flex 3 with this book and with no personal gain for saying this, stop reading reviews and buy this book today!
(FYI... I am the author of ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial )
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