Customer Reviews

Professional Adobe Flex 3 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

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

 

 

As usual, Wrox sets the standard among self-study books, this time for Flex 3. A multitude of bite-sized exercises steps the reader through all the fundamentals of this exciting (and complex) RIA development tool.
I personally much prefer this to the "build-one-giant-project" approach used by Adobe's "Training from the Source" book, for example.

The one area I have found lacking so far has been regarding PHP database integration. The authors cover only RESTful web services with the Zend Framework. I would have preferred seeing some examples using the popular AMFPHP and WebORB technologies as well. (Installing the Zend Framework on a Linux server seems quite a bit more involved than these other approaches, perhaps especially so for shared server users, who may rarely if ever deal with Apache configuration issues.)

For more PHP data integration options, and an encyclopedic coverage of Flex, also check out the "Flex 3 Bible", and for some good overall tips and tricks, in addition I recommend "Flex 3 Cookbook".

If you are a professional Flex developer or someone just starting out, and you are looking for one book, this is the one. This is one of those books that you can read (and reference) over and over and learn something new each time you pick it up.

Generally, something that does many things well, doesn't do any one thing great....

This book does many things great.

How did the publisher do this? Well, by making the book 1300 pages and having 8 authors. I think of this book not as 'one big book' but more as a few smaller ones put together.

Even though I am an experienced developer, I enjoyed the 'intro' to AS and Flex bits. This is accomplished by having an easy reading - cut to the chase attitude. There are plenty of 'advanced' topics as well, and those are easy and straightforward as well.

Honestly, I don't know what else to say about this book. It's comprehensive, easy to read and is exploding with insight. Just check out the Table Of Contents and you'll see what I mean - really, check it out. Perhaps you will be surprised as I was at the range of topics it hits: from memory management with Eclipse to integration with REST/Zend, even Blaze/LCDS and FlexUint....sheesh, what doesn't it cover.


Hmm I should probably mention a weakness it has.....ahhhh... the book is heavy...? Seriously tho, I haven't had the time to read the whole thing ( did I mention it's 1300 pages ). I'm sure it has shortcomings, but over the last few weeks nothing has stood out to me as yet.

I have a been a software developer for many years and I used many different technologies. At first I was very skeptical about an almost 1500 page computer book (anybody still remember the horrible 1500 page Java books from the late 90s ?)

But this book is written by many different authors, and so far everything I have read is well written and quite dense, sometimes I had to read it twice to get it - I like it !

I think it is a great well rounded book on Flex, and I highly recommend it. But as another reviewer pointed out, the think is heavy ! Both physically as in content.

I've read several good Flex books (Flex Solutions, Training from the Source) and some not so good ones. This one is probably what I have wanted all along. After using Flex for 2 years I can still get valuable information out of the earlier chapters of the book. It really explains things in depth rather than just showing you how to make it work. If you are a beginner, this might not be your book although it does cover the more basic things. I think this is more for someone with at least a little experience that can appreciate understanding the how and why things work in Flex. It's a huge book with over 1300 pages. Admittedly some pages are filled with screen shots of Flex Builder and code but it doesn't feel like fluff to me.

When you chose to publish a 1300 pages/8 authors book this late in the Flex 3 lifecycle, it really tells something about your ambition.
My advice, don't pass on this book, even if the vision of the Flex 4 beta might second guest you.
You will learn a lot, even if you're an advanced flex developer, and I think I will continue to reopen this book until Flex 6 or 7 is on my computer.

For example, you can't find a more comprehensive and deep documentation about Cairngorm than the 3 chapters in this book. And this book also covers some advanced topics I only found on some experts' blogs like the correct use of dictionnaries.

And if the first part of the book is easy to pick, aiming at the beginner, I even found some really good insights in it.

I think I see this book as I saw the Action Script books by Colin Moock: a book one shouldn't bother not to have.

This is very comprehensive book covering many areas of Flex. Well Done! This would deserve 5 stars. But there are a few problems with the book (kindle):
1. It has many small mistakes that make it hard to read: e.g, referring to event handlers as events, wrong API method names (this was especially annoying because I am preparing for the flex certification where they ask all these things), etc.
2. The formatting of the kindle version is horrible: code samples are all underlined and it's impossible to read them because they are not wrapped - I have to read them with the smallest font horizontally but still missed some letters at the end of the line!!
Excellent content but the kindle version is not cool.

I can only say if I find this book at the begining of my Flex 3 learning, then I could have save lots of money from not buying other so many flex/AIR books which I bought. This is an exceptional book and it covers a lots of topics starting from beginner level to intermediary and finally to advanced level. A must read if you want to become a great flex developer!

Iam waiting for its revised version covering FLEX4. When it will release? Please don't delay much.

If you really follow Wrox publishers then you must be aware that for each technology they got books for various grades of proficiency (Beginner to Advance) where the advance usually refers to the Professional titles. Taking this fact into consideration, we were looking for titles for Flex 3 that can be used along with the Adobe training course material for our ACE Training Program (public and corporate), and we internally reviewed N number of titles before we picked this one as the ultimate. The reason been that, it catered to all levels of proficiency and pretty much speaks up experiences rather than the general technology know-how. Looking at the content itself, gives you an idea of how you would be glided though the various features of the Flex 3 SDK/Builder.

In fact I have been working with Flex for some 3+ number of years and what I realized was the structure of the content was inherited from day to day development experience with Flex 3 SDK. Well put and we have been using this title as our official course book for the ACE training program in India/Middle east. Both trainees and instructors love it. If you are to start or already working with Flex 3 SDK/Builder than you need to have this one with you all time, the authors coming from various backgrounds and been with great RIA consulting firms, like Andrew Trice with Cynergy Systems Inc., you are promised to learn stuff from the best minds in the industry.

Once again, technology, best practices and experiences clubbed in one book. What else can we ask for ? Go for it.

I' ll keep short on this one ...

This book is possibly the wide-ranging and best out there on topic and really worth baying it.
It covers comprehensively all topics regarding Flex-Development u can possibly come across in everyday work. I don't want to narrate every single area covered, but believe me, it's all within.

The only thing I don't like is that, it is kind a broad but not really deep(with exceptions). It show u a billion of single very nice tip's scattered all over 1400pages but it doesn't show u how to orchestrate that accumulated knowledge, following best-practices in some nice pro-application. Pity, but playing around and finding it for u'r self is anyway a way more fun :) it just takes more Time ;)

Despite of that, five starts and definitively worth baying it