Customer Reviews

Flex 3 Bible

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 900+ page book is a seriously meticulous walk-through of all the essential aspects of developing Flex applications as of the Flex 3 release. After a tiny bit of history, the author wastes no time in getting right to the Eclipse IDE in it's Flex 3 incarnation. One indication of the thoroughness of this book is in the fact that he spends 7 pages entirely devoted to the "html-template" folder within a Flex project! And I don't know how many other Flex books out there (as I write this in 2008):

* Show you how to override the clone() function for event bubbling
* Describe the use of Flex 3 advanced layout constraints like constraintRows and constraintColumns
* Spend 6 pages showing you how to create skinning graphics in Flash CS3
* Describe the all-important facts surrounding switchable-container creation policy and deferred instantiation
* Show you how to use the BindableComboBox that comes with the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder
* Walk you through how to group flat data with the GroupingCollection and the Advanced DataGrid
* Show you how to install and configure a Flex-BlazeDS-Java application
* Show you how to configure and develop a Flex-Coldfusion application
* Show you how to create a Flex-ASP.NET application
* Show you how to create a Flex-PHP application

It is a testament to the depth of the Flex API and to the inherent complexity of ANY serious front-end development platform that I can say that even with this book, there are still some pretty important things that are not covered. There's no coverage of the History Manager or deep linking, no coverage of the ExternalInterface API, no coverage of how to use Cairngorm or other frameworks to keep a large application from becoming a tangled mess. But the book is already pretty darn thick, and it had to end somewhere. Basically, I think that with this book plus a good book devoted to ActionScript 3, the motivated novice-to-intermediate Flex developer would be good to go. Excellent book.

I've watched both of David's lynda.com video series (Flex 3 Essentials and Beyond the Basics, which are excellent by the way), and I am now reading this book. His depth of knowledge is apparent, yet his ability to convey the simplest to the most complex topics in an easy to understand and logical manner are what really separate his books/videos from the pack. He's not afraid to tackle the more complex subjects that many books state, "are beyond the scope of this book," with amazing clarity. In particular, his coverage of data services is unparalleled in current works. While there are many excellent books out there on Flex that whet your appetite, this one satisfies it. This book is structured so that you can read it cover to cover or jump to a specific section that interests you (it is excellently cross-referenced, within itself and to resources on the Internet), which makes it quite useful as both a learning tool and desk reference. I only wish was available in PDF format. Complete source code is available at the book's homepage. If you're looking to learn Flex, do yourself a favor and get this book and watch his Flex video series at lynda.com. Thanks David!

I purchased this book about a week ago and am very pleased with it. I actually sat at Borders with 3 different Flex 3 books and flipped through them all to see which ones would fit my needs. this was the cheapest of the 3, and also the most thorough. I'm a flex 2 developer who was looking for a good trainer on Flex3 as well as more advanced and indepth information on the framework itself. This book is great for just that. I don't know if I would recommend it to a new developer - probably a book sectioned by lessons and hands on stuff would be better for you, but if you are already a seasoned developer who is looking for MORE, this book will fit ur needs.

Only downside I did find with this book is it is FILLED with typos. Luckily they aren't in areas that are too damaging or cause the material to be overly confusing if you already know what you are doing.

Amanda

Today I finished this book, so now I can write the review I wanted to write after reading only a few chapters. Because early on, the reader begins to sense that this book is very well written. The author takes great care to cover all the relevant material, including a lot of interesting things you just won't pick up automatically by "just doing it". Here are my high points:

1) The writing is top notch--both in terms of grammar and conciseness, plus a seemingly sincere care for educating the reader. And virtually no typo's.

2) The book isn't bloated by excessive code listings. Instead, just a few lines of code or a very small complete code example gets the job done.

3) The coverage is very good.

The main thing I think we all want in a technical book of this size is at least some assurance that it's not going to be a waste of our time. I feel confident in giving you that assurance about this book. Admittedly, for me it's a relief to be done reading it, but I'm very glad I did.

I do professional Flex Development, and have a penchant for accumulating multiple books for subjects that interest me. I found this book to be a good overview of Flex. It adequately covers all the various aspects of Flex development, and even has coverage of using various back-ends for Flex.

I would recommend it for beginning to Intermediate Flex users as a good addition to their library's.

my Star Rating is between the 3 and 4...

This book is a good tool for quick lookups on some data.. Not kidding.. Great reference tool.

If your fairly new it isn't going to help you out at all. It isn't written for a beginner. I will say that I would like to see the next edition of this book have a few details about data. I read a lot about arrays and xml type information, but the hardest thing to figure out was getting to my data(really understanding what i was doing). I could see it in the debugger, but just didn't REALLY understand how to access it... I would like to see more info on that in the flex books in general. This book is NOT the only one missing that data..


For example.. When you build a data grid.. The books reads click here.. And you move on...

I would like to see it simplified...
Click data grid - > it makes an event and does other magic stuff...
To get to your data you access all data via:
event.target.selectedItem.HostName

Example:
Build data grid example... click on a row
trace(event.target.selectedItem.HostName);
Look at the console and you should see the hostname printed out.

That is a very raw example, but when I figured out how to do that.. I started to figure out how to work with the data I was getting back.. Now I am moving right along.. I can/could not find that info ANYwhere..

I would also like some examples on working to customize the datagrid... Like.. Making the background or text a color if a string matches abc.... Things like that.. I am just now learning action script, so I have no clue on how to do that.. Having simple examples to show me how to do little stuff like that would be great..

I know Flash well but Flex only a bit. This book covers everything one needs to know in a manner easily understandable. As for all these books it is recommended to have a basic knowledge of Actionscript 3.

This very thorough book on Flex 3 has almost everything you want, when it doesn't you are going to the documentation from Adobe. But when I am looking for something I don't know or understand this is the first book I pick up and start looking in.

I just started reading this book, it explains the topics clearly, a good book , very well writed, worth it's price.

Great Book, I bought this right after reading Visual Quickstart Guide for Actionscript 3 and it was perfect for me as a beginner to Flex. I highly recommend this book to any beginner who is familiar with ActionScript3.