Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex [Paperback]

Chafic Kazoun (Author), Joey Lott (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programming | Publication Date: September 26, 2008

If you want to try your hand at developing rich Internet applications with Adobe's Flex 3, and already have experience with frameworks such as .NET or Java, this is the ideal book to get you started. Programming Flex 3 gives you a solid understanding of Flex 3's core concepts, and valuable insight into how, why, and when to use specific Flex features. Numerous examples and sample code demonstrate ways to build complete, functional applications for the Web, using the free Flex SDK, and RIAs for the desktop, using Adobe AIR. This book is an excellent companion to Adobe's Flex 3 reference documentation. With this book, you will:

• Learn the underlying details of the Flex framework
• Program with MXML and ActionScript
• Arrange the layout and deal with UI components
• Work with media
• Manage state for applications and components
• Use transitions and effects
• Debug your Flex applications
• Create custom components
• Embed Flex applications in web browsers
• Build AIR applications for the desktop

Flex 3 will put you at the forefront of the RIA revolution on both the Web and the desktop. Programming Flex 3 will help you get the most from this amazing and sophisticated technology.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chafic Kazoun is the founder and Chief Software architect at Atellis, and is widely considered one of the world's top experts on Flex (outside of the Adobe Flex engineering team). He has worked with Flash technologies since 1998 and with Flex since its inception, and he has a deep understanding of the internals of the Flex framework. He maintains a busy speaking and consulting schedule.

Joey Lott is the author or co-author of "Flash 8 Cookbook", "Programming Flash Communication Server", and "ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook" (all O'Reilly). Working in the Internet industry since 1996, Joey co-founded RightSpring, Inc., and consulted for YourMobile/Premium Wireless Services and Ads.com, before joining Schematic. He's been teaching Flash and ActionScript since 1999.

Product Details

• Paperback: 664 pages
• Publisher: Adobe Developer Library; 1 edition (September 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596516215
• ISBN-13: 978-0596516215
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #800,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flex 3 book with it's own unique strengths, October 21, 2008

By 

Dean R. Pittsinger (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex (Paperback)

This book has many things to commend it, and in particular it is very strong on:
* The internal startup sequence of a Flex application
* Loading one Flex application into another Flex application
* Working with fonts
* Programmatic skinning
* Runtime CSS
* Building custom components

I think the book is weak on a few things as well, such as the Flex Builder IDE and remoting. In reference to remoting, the authors make the following surprising statement on page 471:
"Several of the remoting gateway products have added support for a Flex data component called RemoteObject. However, because we have found no practical use for RemoteObject, we are omitting any discussion of RemoteObject".
Well, I must report that I have found a practical use for it: namely, it's one of the central objects in Blaze DS and LCDS remoting. If you want to learn how to use it, you'll have to read Flex 3 Bible (12 pages on it), Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex & Java (referenced on 41 pages), or Adobe's help contents.

I believe these authors have a slight tendency to favor ActionScript and Flash APIs over MXML and Flex APIs, a preference that a reader can either choose to follow or not. I don't believe this book would be as good for novice Flex users as some of the others I have read. I think that when authors delve into relatively arcane, advanced features of an API before they get to the common simple things, it tends to make it harder for beginners. For example, here within the first 100 pages of a 600 page book they cover class introspection, loading one Flex application into another, application domains, and resource bundles... all before the novice reader has even been introduced to a simple CheckBox control. The order in which they cover topics is pretty much preserved from "Programming Flex 2", except for the fact that the chapter on application components has been moved forward quite a bit.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Flex (and one of best overall) Programming books, July 19, 2009

By 

Steven P "needs some coffee" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex (Paperback)

Just finished reading all 600+ pages. I have four other Flex books I've read/perused. This book is by far the best flex book WTR understanding and applying its architecture. Combine it with the "Flex 3 Bible" by Gassner and I think that's all you should need. Most programming books give you a a lot more hows, and a lot less whys. This book is all about why, not simple hows. Knowing why to do something will, long term, be of great benefit.

Also the writing in this books is exemplary. Very clear, not too wordy, not too concise, and very good use of illustrative examples. Really, really excellent. Few programming books of this length can I read and understand over the course of a day or two. Usually such books require a read thru, then re-reference. But because of the excellence of the writing, I did not find this the case here. Literally sat and read it front to back over the course of three days.

Looking at the other reviews, it appears some others have complained about examples, or thoroughness of a feature description. Again, this is a book about why you make programming decisions, not how to write the code -- get the Bible for this. IMHO, it does a pretty good job with the examples, but it is not the intent of the book. Finally, the authors end the book with a discussion of a full app they wrote accessing Flickr. The entire source code is available for download, and provides a very in-depth "example". Strongly suggest readers DL and read thru the code references the explanations the authors provide in the book.

I have read a lot of books about programming, and this is one of the best. Going back to some of my other Flex books, they seem simplistic now.

Finally, I've taken note of the two companies for which the authors work (from the book's jacket). If they contribute to these as well to these as they did the book, then might be a good investment -- notably Kazoun who is a co-founder and tech architect. Unusual investment strategy, but that's the high regard I hold for these two authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out and comprehensive, February 23, 2009

By 

Edward B. Mansouri (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex (Paperback)

It is clear the authors of Programming Flex 3 worked very hard to write a comprehensive, easy-to-read publication. Their examples are great - very simple such that they highlight the concepts being presented. I have been working with Flex for a couple years but reading this book definitely brought my game up a notch based on a more clear understanding of the Flex framework, authoring components, and several other key principles.

If I had to offer one critique, I'd have liked to see some more coverage of synchronous network communication with Flex (sockets, Flash Media Server, etc.), but the dedicated chapter on AIR more than makes up for this.