The Essential Guide to Flex 4

Flex 4 is the new version of Adobe’s revolutionary rich internet application development environment, and this book covers all the basic and advanced topics needed to master Flex 4. Whatever level the reader is in Flex development, they will gain a great deal from this book – it covers everything from installation and environment basics through language essentials, to advanced topics such as charting components and connecting to server-side environments such as ColdFusion and .NET.

Rather than being a mere beginner’s book or reference guide, this book provides a very thorough learning guide, including all the new features that come with Flex 4.

Charles E. Brown is one of the most noted authors and teachers in the computer industry today. His books on Flex 2 and Flex 3 have received outstanding reviews, and his earlier books about Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Access – VBS Programming were consistent best sellers.

In addition to his busy writing schedule, Charles conducts frequent seminars as an Adobe Certified Trainer. His topics include Flex, Dreamweaver, ActionScript programming, Captivate, and After Effects. He also does seminars about Java and web design, and he is frequently called in as a consultant for major websites.

Charles is also a noted classical organist, pianist, and guitarist. He has studied with such notables as Virgil Fox, Vladimir Horowitz, and Igor Stravinsky. It was because of his association with Stravinsky that he got to meet, and develop a friendship with, famed twentieth-century artist Pablo Picasso.

Charles can be contacted through his website, a continuous with in progress, at www.charlesebrown.net.

Flex 4 is the next generation of a technology that revolutionized web applications. With nearly 98% of all web browsers, and a growing number of mobile devices, running the latest version of the Flash Player, a knowledge of Flex is indispensible for any serious web developer.

This book will show you how to create powerful Rich Internet Applications using Flex 4. After learning how to install and becoming familiar with the basics of the Flex Builder 4 software, you will explore in depth how to develop applications using the Flex XML-like scripting language, MXML, and ActionScript 3.0.

You will learn how to construct your applications using layout and navigation containers, and how to use states and transitions to maximize the ability of your application to respond to a large number of scenarios.

Rich Internet Applications rely on data, and this book shows how to bring data from various sources into your Flex application. You will see how to use XML, PHP, and ColdFusion data sources, as well as using Adobe’s powerful Live Cycle Data Services for powerful interactions with Java environments.

Going further, applications built for the Flash platform can now exist and function beyond the traditional confines of the web browser. Adobe AIR allows you to take your applications to the desktop, and this book shows how to reapply your Flex skills to take advantage of this new environment.

Finally, you will see how Adobe’s new Catalyst (name as of this writing) will bring many of the capabilities of Flash to your applications.

The Essential Guide to Flex 4 takes you through all the powerful features of Flex using a series of stand-alone, practical exercises. The skills acquired throughout the book are then brought together in the form of a full-featured case study application showcasing essential techniques that can easily be applied to your own Flex Applications

• The fundamentals of the Flex environment
• Connecting your Flex application to a variety of data sources
• Interacting Flex with other Adobe programs

What you’ll learn

• Learn how to create powerful applications using Adobe Flex 4
• Use Flex Builder to design layouts using Flex containers, and see how to combine MXML and ActionScript 3.0
• Work your way through a full-featured case study, building a complete Flex application
• Connect Flex to XML, ColdFusion, and PHP environments and using Live Cycle Data Services and Java.
• Take your web applications to the desktop using Adobe AIR
• Using Flex alongside other Adobe programs to help build powerful applications

Who is this book for?

This book is for novice developers wanting to learn Flex from scratch, or Flex 3 users wanting to get to grips with the new version.

This book is part of friends of ED’s ‘Essential Guide’ series

The Essential Guide series takes a pragmatic approach to learning. We understand that you might not have the time or the inclination to read through a long book before you can get up and running, and we designed this series to give you the knowledge you want when you want it. The learning is always by example, with lots of code snippets that you can take with you and use in your own applications. The focus is on targeted learning for web professionals—providing the essential tools that the modern web developer needs. A book in this series won’t focus as much on the basics as a Foundation book, but it will take you further, introducing some advanced topics that are essential for using a particular technology in the real world.