Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex [Paperback]

Steven Webster (Author), Alistair McLeod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0321255666 | ISBN-13: 978-0321255662

With Flash Player on approximately 98 percent of computers connected to the Internet and Flash itself evolving from a simple animation tool to a robust rich-client development platform, there's been just one thing missing from Macromedia's product lineup: A way for server-side developers to easily integrate Flash development into their workflows. Enter Macromedia Flex: With it, you can do everything one can do with Flash--on the server using the Flex Presentation Server software and the new XML-based language MXML. This guide shows you how! If you've ever developed dynamic Web applications on J2EE and .NET architectures, or using technologies like JSP and ASP, you should have no problem transferring those skills to develop rich-client solutions with Flex. After introducing readers to rich-client applications, Flex, and its architecture and typical workflow, authors Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod explore the software feature by feature. Throughout, you'll find examples of the rich-client interfaces you can build with Flex as well as strategies for integrating your Flex apps with existing infrastructures.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

With Flash Player on approximately 98 percent of computers connected to the Internet and Flash itself evolving from a simple animation tool to a robust rich-client development platform, there's been just one thing missing from Macromedia's product lineup: A way for server-side developers to easily integrate Flash development into their workflows. Enter Macromedia Flex: With it, you can do everything one can do with Flash--on the server using the Flex Presentation Server software and the new XML-based language MXML. This guide shows you how! If you've ever developed dynamic Web applications on J2EE and .NET architectures, or using technologies like JSP and ASP, you should have no problem transferring those skills to develop rich-client solutions with Flex. After introducing readers to rich-client applications, Flex, and its architecture and typical workflow, authors Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod explore the software feature by feature. Throughout, you'll find examples of the rich-client interfaces you can build with Flex as well as strategies for integrating your Flex apps with existing infrastructures.

About the Author

Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod are the owners and founders of iteration: two, a leading European consulting firm that specializes in the development of rich-Internet applications. As such, they're widely recognized as two of the foremost authorities on Flash Remoting technology, and the application of enterprise development best practices such as design patterns, refactoring and unit-testing to rich-Internet application development. Steven is the author of Reality J2EE: Architecting for Macromedia Flash MX (Macromedia Press). Alistair and Steven co-authored "Design Patterns for Rich Internet Applications" for the ActionScript 2.0 Dictionary (Macromedia Press).

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Macromedia Press (June 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321255666
• ISBN-13: 978-0321255662
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,780,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and Comprehensive for Flex 1.0, March 2, 2005

By 

Michael P. Davis "DigitalSage" (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex (Paperback)

This is a great book. It is a thick volume, chock full of information on Macromedia's great Flex product... no screenshots, lengthy code listings, or other "fluff" some authors use to make their page count.

What it does have is detailed, step-by-step guide information on getting off of the ground with Flex, complete with a real world application example and downloadable code.

The only caveats I offer are:

1. This book is not for beginners. You should have previous experience in both object-oriented programming and HTML/XML prior to grabbing this one (though you don't necessarily need to be an expert).

2. If you don't know ActionScript 2.0, go ahead and buy a good ActionScript 2.0 book at the same time. I recommend Colin Moock's 'Essential ActionScript 2.0'.

3. This volume is for Flex 1.0. Flex 1.5 is already out, so the examples as printed in the book will take tweaking, though most of the tweaks are minor and well-documented on Macromedia's web site. As of this writing, the authors are updating the downloadable code examples to Flex 1.5.

4. If your looking for extensive coverage of Charts, you won't find it here (Flex 1.0 did not ship with Charting, though that is available in Flex 1.5). You'll have to figure those out independent of this book (as of this writing, this is the only book on Flex, so you'll have to rely on the docs that ship with Flex and what you can find on the web).

Bottom Line: Highly recommended if you want to learn the ins and outs of Flex.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'Must-Have' Foundation, July 9, 2004

By 

George Young (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex (Paperback)

It's a rare treat to have a collection of best practices on a new technology so early out of the gate. While the patterns themselves are not revolutionary, their application in this new context helps developers get off to a roaring start in building solid, scalable rich applications.

If you've been on the fence about diving into this new arena of rich internet applications, the book covers all the basic building blocks in the initial chapters.

From beginner to seasoned professional, this title hits it's mark.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book to add to your knowledge arsenal, October 4, 2004

By 

Tariq Ahmed "DopeJam.com | CFlex.net | FlexIn... (Tracy, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex (Paperback)

We decided we're going to give FLEX at shot at our company. I heard this book was good, but was somewhat skeptical that the first book of a subject would be any good, it generally takes time for best practices to come about with any technology.

However I was pleasantly surprised! This book is excellent on many fronts. One, it's not padded with 500 pages of useless background information on how the internet started. It gives just enough info at the start to set what your frame of mind (whether you are a cfm, php, jsp coder or a flash developer) should be from an application architecture point of view. It then goes right into a fully functional example, a blog reader.

The example is simple enough that not knowing flex doesn't leave you confused, but gives you context for what a flex application generally looks like. Though anyone who has done any kind of application server side coding will have no problems since MXML looks just like XML and Actionscript is similar to many OO languages. The next chapters then get into the basics and progress to the nitty gritty, and having that context really helps absorb the information as you have a frame of reference.

As I write this though (10/04/2004) FLEX 1.5 is about to come out and there are some differences - so the examples will generate warnings on FLEX 1.5, but those are easy to fix.