Customer Reviews

Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished the book from cover to cover. It took me about 3 weeks with some evenings and a couple of full days.

To grasp everything, I commented all the code as I was going. I mean, comments that explain in detail my perception of what was happening. I thought that this allowed me to actually think about what I was doing rather than just taking a typing test.

Indeed, that is the trouble with this book, it is easy to not "pay attention" as everything you learn is by example with little up front theory. You could find yourself typing 100 lines of code and not actually realizing what you were typing.

If you get this book for learning Flex rather than looking up quick examples, you'll be happy.

There were a few code example problems (errors) that were easy to figure out and correct in lieu of any errata that I could find. There are times when they are a little short on explanation as well.

I still find myself having just a couple of basic questions about some of the examples.

This book is the perfect option for those curious about Flex and in need of an engaging hand holding session. While completion of this book will not ready the reader for the growing market of high paying flex gigs, it will provide the occasional developer with enough knowledge to start tinkering, and most importantly, feel comfortable in the development environment.

My best advice to the reader completing this course, is to ease through the exercises and realize that with the breadth of flex, there are concepts that you won't understand till later lessons. Simply read, follow instructions, and enjoy the hands on in depth tour of this product.

It would be impossible to cover all of Flex, MXML, and ActionScript in one text, let alone attempt to teach best practices and application design. Given broad subject matter though, it does a great job tapping into many areas. While the book lacks in depth, it gives a good enough overview for doors to open for the curious.

Most of the text is accurate providing clean examples that take the watchful reader from code to compile with no errors. Halfway into the book (starting around Chapter 11), small glitches creep into the material from missing semi-colons to missing starter lesson files. For the apt student, these are overcome with a little active thinking.

I would recommend this book to any entry level RIA developers and would even consider it as a text for intern programs and in-house training.

I'm a programmer who has been tasked with learning ActionScript and Flex for a new project. I first picked up Foundation ActionScript 3.0 with Flash CS3 and Flex (Foundation) in an effort to learn both. I found that book difficult to digest as someone who didn't have previous experience w/ Flash. I then purchased this book, and it has been immensely helpful. It has lots of concrete examples to aid your understanding of the concepts being taught.

The book is upfront about it not being an intro to ActionScript, however some understanding of ActionScript is helpful. ActionScript and Flex more even more closely linked then ActionScript and Flash, and I don't know that the book would be as helpful to me if I hadn't picked up AS before picking up this book. All of the examples require some use of AS, so if you don't have clue 1 regarding AS, you might be in the dark.

The book can move a bit slow at times, as there is a lot of material to cover. Personally, I didn't mind this because everything that is covered is absolutely relevant to developing Flex applications. The book also indirectly teaches good design methodologies as a result of the order in which the lessons run. This book is an excellent tool.

My goal in reading this book was to get up to speed as quickly as possible in building Flex applications. Sadly, the book did meet this goal.

As I worked through this book, three big flaws were very apparent:

First, although FlexBuilder has a nice WYSIWYG IDE, almost all of the exercise work is simply typing in source code directly. Why? Do the authors feel the "Design Mode" (graphical GUI builder) is useless? If so, it would be nice of them to explain why. Or did the authors build the tutorials before the IDE was available? If so, the book should be thoroughly overhauled. At best, the authors seem to treat the IDE as notepad with preview mode.

Second, although the authors work though many critical features, they never really explain them, expecting us, I suppose, to generalize from a few specific examples. Data binding is used throughout the tutorial, but there is hardly any attempt to explain how it works. Are there any best practices around it? Any design patterns involving transforming data? The authors are mute.

Third, a good tutorial is something that you can turn into a sort of reference book, as you look back upon how you built various things. Good tutorials have things like sidebars and foot notes that enrich the raw tutorial with detailed discussion. Not this book; it is basically a giant "diff" file that starts from scratch. You walk through an interminable series of incremental edits, and end up with a finished application.

The other reviews you see that rate this book with 2 or 1 stars are spot on. Trying to use this book to learn Flex is like assembling an Ikea bookcase and hoping to learn carpentry as a result.

I'm still slogging through this, one of the worst-written books in the history of technical writing. What makes it so awful is that instead just telling you about some code and what it does, they literally tell you in verbal terms what to write for each lline of code: The majority of the book is comprised of this sort of stuff:

"Step 11: While still in OrderConf.mxml, locate the Delivery Date form item. Change the <mx:Label> so the text property calls the format() method of the orderFormat DateFormatter on the deliveryDate property of the orderInfo data structure. Be sure to remove the manual date formatting from the last lesson. "

What planet is this author from? You don't tell people how to write lines of code using verbal language. You display a chunk of code and then explain what it does. Finding real information in this book is like panning for gold. I am writing only in hopes of sparing the many good people out there the pain I have been enduring reading this horrible book. Choose another. Any other.

Adobe Flex 3 Training from the Source is a kick-start guide to learning the revolutionary "web 2.0" capabilities this present and ever-growing technology provides. Authors Jeff Tapper, Michael Labriola, and Matthew Boles establish clear, step-by-step tutorials and application development that are clear and easy to absorb no matter the scope or scale of coding.

What's best in the 26 lessons is the gradual build-up of skills--each lesson carefully stretching previous chapter's elements and taking them to a new level of programming and extension. This build-up and repetition of skills helps to solidify concepts, syntax, and best practices while never becoming redundant.

Whether readers come from an existing Flash/ActionScript background, an application designer needing additional coding skills, or as a total newcomer to OOP concepts and Rich Internet Application development, Training from the Source is the finest start.

Without a doubt, this book steps up to the challenge of introducing and showcasing the amazing capabilities Flex 3 has to offer and opens a door to endless possibilities for all involved in the design, development and deployment of Internet-base applications.

I love Adobe "Training from the Source" series and has been following them since earlier versions of Flex. It include an easy to follow project and covers many areas of RIA development that I use at work. A great book for anyone interested in developing RIA using Adobe Flex!

This is a big book, but very easy to read quickly. It is a step by step instruction book, for total beginners to Flex and guides you through using the Flex Builder GUI designer in Eclipse.

Unlike a lot of GUI step-by-steppers it manages to pack a fair bit of information in its 500 odd pages because it doesn't pack itself with just screenshots. You don't have to do the lessons systematically - I didn't. But if you want to fire up Eclipse and look at some particular aspect of their code or work through a chapter, they have, very thoughtfully, included the before and after code of _each_ lesson on the CD. Despite being stripped down to the essentials I found the examples to be informative and good showcases for Flex capabilities - they are neither trivial, nor needlessly complex.

It's not very strong on ActionScript theory as it concentrates mostly on Flex. And it doesn't talk about databases. So you may want to pick up another book to supplement it.

FWIW I am quite impressed with Flex and its Eclipse designer.

Adobe Flex 3 Training from the source is a good book for beginners and has something that advance user could use. I am not a fan of tech books, but this does not read like one. The information is solid and covers a breath of knowledge. The authors use a grocery store website as their example. The design of the website is not inspiring, but this is a manual about programming not design. I found that the code is readable and the examples are focused. This is helpful when I am looking for examples for a perticular purpose. The index is well done so my searches are quick. The length is a little overwelming, but it is no differnt then any other tech book. I gave it four out of five stars.

I am presently working my way through this book and am not quite ready to do a full review. However, I came across a link that beginners (like me) will find very useful, as the book assumes that readers already are familiar with the basic concepts of an application platform such as Flex Builder.

When you have questions, google "adobe livedocs flex 3 help" (sorry amazon won't let me post a link), pick the first hit and poke around. You'll find everything the authors didn't feel like explaining, ie basic definitions, explanations of concepts, video tutorials and more.

I found the book to be a bit frustrating. Suffice it to say the book is written for experienced programmers already familiar with OOP/Java/XML/etc.

In my search for a book for beginners, I've seen this one strongly recommended: "The Essential Guide to Flex 2 with ActionScript 3.0". I like it so far.

Update: Better yet, try the new book The Essential Guide to Flex 3 (Essential Guide)