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.

With Professional Adobe Flex 3, put your prior experience with Flash, ActionScript and XML-based languages to good use and learn how to use the Flex 3 platform to create Rich Internet Applications and AIR applications. Understand the potential of the Flex 3 platform through practical examples and hands-on advice on topics like desktop deployment, developing applications in MXML, creating custom flex components, charting, targeting AIR, and data interconnectivity.

Flex 4 is an open-source tool that allows developers to easily add life to web applications with dynamic user features, colorful transitions, and eye-catching animations. Flex also provides powerful data handling for industrial-strength applications. We think it should be just as much fun to learn Flex as it is to use it. And we know that fun learning gets better results. Hello! Flex 4 demonstrates how to get started without getting bogged down in technical detail or academic edge cases. In this book, User Friendly cartoon characters offer commentary and snide side comments, as the book moves quickly from Hello World into practical techniques. Each one is illustrated with a hands-on example. Along the way, readers will build a unique Flex application that mashes Yahoo Maps with Twitter to keep track of friends. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Unlike many Flex books that presume readers want to develop applications from scratch, Flex on Java is for developers in the real world-where Flex is one more technology being added to existing systems developed in Java, and where integration is the key indicator of success. Written for Java developers beginning to use Flex, Flex on Java shows how to use Flex alongside existing Java applications, and how to integrate Flex using familiar server-side technologies such as Spring, EJBs, JMS, and more. The authors, both Agile development experts, focus on Agile and test-driven development to enable readers to redesign applications that deliver more value and with zero defects. Throughout the book, readers will apply these techniques to refactoring a single application into a rich internet application using Flex and the BlazeDS framework. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Technological advances in the field of IT lead to the creation of new programs intended to merge the advantages of desktop-based programs with the advantages of Web-based programs in order to increase user accessibility and provide effective computer performance. Frameworks, Methodologies, and Tools for Developing Rich Internet Applications presents current research and analysis on the use of JavaScript and software development to establish new programs intended for the Web. With an in-depth look at computer and Web programming, this publication emphasizes the benefits and dynamic qualities of these emerging technologies. This book is an essential reference source for academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, and professionals interested in understanding and applying the advances in the combined fields of Web engineering and desktop programming in order to increase computer users’ visual experience and interactivity.

Flexible Rails is a unique, application-based guide for using Ruby on Rails 2 and Adobe Flex 3 to build rich Internet applications (RIAs). It is not an exhaustive Ruby on Rails or Flex reference. Instead, it is an extensive tutorial in which the reader builds multiple iterations of an interesting RIA using Flex and Rails together. Author Peter Armstrong walks readers through eleven iterations in which the sample application—pomodo—is variously built, refactored, debugged, sliced, diced and otherwise explored from every conceivable angle with respect to Ruby on Rails and Adobe Flex. The book unfolds both the application and the Flex-on-Rails approach side-by-side. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Evaluating any new technology can be a challenge. This Short Cut is designed to help web application developers (and their team managers) understand if Flex is the right technology for their company or client. Although the authors of this book have a strong understanding of the Flex framework, this isn't a sales pitch for Flex. The authors believe that Flex is a good tool to solve many business problems, but it is not a cure-all. After reading this material, you'll know what's good about Rich Internet Applications. You'll know the capabilities of Flex 3, how Flex works, and how much it costs. We'll tell you about the challenges you'll face in developing with Flex, and show you the steps you'll take to create and deploy a Flex 3 application.