If you want to use Adobe Flex to build production-quality Rich Internet Applications for the enterprise, this groundbreaking book shows you exactly what's required. You'll learn efficient techniques and best practices, and compare several frameworks and tools available for RIA development -- well beyond anything you'll find in Flex tutorials and product documentation. Through many practical examples, the authors impart their considerable experience to help you overcome challenges during your project's life cycle. Enterprise Development with Flex also suggests proper tools and methodologies, guidelines for determining the skill sets required for the project, and much more. Choose among several frameworks to build Flex applications, including Cairngorm, PureMVC, Mate, and Clear Toolkit Apply selected design patterns with Flex Learn how to extend the Flex framework and build your own component library Develop a sample AIR application that automatically synchronizes local and remote databases to support your sales force Get solutions for leveraging AMF protocol and synchronizing Flex client data modifications with BlazeDS-based servers Determine the actual performance of your application and improve its efficiency

If you want to build your organization’s next web application with HTML5, this practical book will help you sort through the various frameworks, libraries, and development options that populate this stack. You’ll learn several of these approaches hands-on by writing multiple versions of a sample web app throughout the book, so you can determine the right strategy for your enterprise. What’s the best way to reach both mobile and desktop users? How about modularization, security, and test-driven development? With lots of working code samples, this book will help web application developers and software architects navigate the growing number of HTML5 and JavaScript choices available. The book’s sample apps are available at http://savesickchild.org. Mock up the book’s working app with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS Rebuild the sample app, first with jQuery and then Ext JS Work with different build tools, code generators, and package managers Build a modularized version of the app with RequireJS Apply test-driven development with the Jasmine framework Use WebSocket to build an online auction for the app Adapt the app for both PCs and mobile with responsive web design Create mobile versions with jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, and PhoneGap

If you want to use Adobe Flex to build production-quality Rich Internet Applications for the enterprise, this groundbreaking book shows you exactly what's required. You'll learn efficient techniques and best practices, and compare several frameworks and tools available for RIA development -- well beyond anything you'll find in Flex tutorials and product documentation. Through many practical examples, the authors impart their considerable experience to help you overcome challenges during your project's life cycle. Enterprise Development with Flex also suggests proper tools and methodologies, guidelines for determining the skill sets required for the project, and much more. Choose among several frameworks to build Flex applications, including Cairngorm, PureMVC, Mate, and Clear Toolkit Apply selected design patterns with Flex Learn how to extend the Flex framework and build your own component library Develop a sample AIR application that automatically synchronizes local and remote databases to support your sales force Get solutions for leveraging AMF protocol and synchronizing Flex client data modifications with BlazeDS-based servers Determine the actual performance of your application and improve its efficiency

How soon can you learn Adobe Flex 3? With this book's unique hands-on approach, you will be able to tinker with examples right away, and create your own Rich Internet Applications with Flex within the first few chapters. As you progress, you learn how to build a layout, add interactivity, work with data, and deploy your applications to either the Web or the desktop. Learning Flex 3 offers step-by-step instructions that are clear and concise, along with tips and tricks that author Alaric Cole has gathered after years of using Flex and teaching it to fellow developers at Yahoo! You'll understand how Flex works, how to use the MXML markup language and work with ActionScript, how to deploy RIAs to the desktop using Adobe AIR, and much more. Whether you're a beginner, or an experienced web developer coming to Flex from another platform, Learning Flex 3 is the ideal way to learn how to: Set up your environment with FlexBuilder and Eclipse Create a new Flex project Use the different design views in Flex Write code with MXML Lay out your Flex application Embed images and graphics Build a user interface Add interactivity with ActionScript Handle user input Move, display, and collect data Add custom components with MXML Add sound effects, filters, and transitions Style your applications with CSS, skins, and themes Deploy applications to the Web, or to the desktop using Adobe AIR Also included are brief explanations of objects, classes, components, properties, methods, types, and other Flex attributes. You will find that Learning Flex 3 is not only the most complete tutorial for Flex, it's also the quickest way to get going with the latest version of this powerful framework.

The Complete Insider’s Guide to Building State-of-the-Art Components with Adobe’s Flex 4 Platform Using Adobe’s Flex 4 framework, developers can build rich, immersive solutions more easily and quickly than ever. Much of Flex 4’s remarkable power is based on its component-based approach. Adobe provides many components “out of the box,” but you can accomplish even more by building your own. In Developing Flex 4 Components, world-renowned Flex and Flash developer Mike Jones thoroughly demystifies all facets of Flex component development, showing how to quickly create and deliver high-value components to the widest possible audience. Jones introduces the Flex 4 component architecture, reviews its built-in components, and shows how they can be extended or incorporated into new components. Next, he walks through developing components from scratch, covering issues ranging from events to skinning. Finally, he turns to distribution, introducing best practices for everything from integration to documentation. Jones draws on nearly 15 years’ experience developing with Flex and Flash. You’ll find extensive sample code, plus dozens of practical tips that are available nowhere else. After reading this book, you'll be able to · Set up your Flex and Flash Builder development environment · Understand key differences between Flex 3 and Flex 4 component frameworks · Learn how Flex components are typically structured, developed, and rendered · Leverage ActionScript and MXML to quickly create components · Implement view states, transitions, effects, and events · Manipulate and store complex data collections · Use Flex 4’s FXG and MXMLG to support skinning and styling · Create components with Flash Professional CS5’s drawing tools · Integrate components with Flash Builder · Package components for easy distribution with or without source code · Streamline implementation with manifests, design view extensions, and metadata If you’re an experienced Flash, Flex, or AIR developer, this book will help you create any component you can imagine–and deliver solutions others can only dream about.

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.

The best way to showcase a powerful new technology is to demonstrate its real-world results, and that's exactly what this new Cookbook does with Adobe Flex 3. Wide ranging and highly practical, Flex 3 Cookbook contains more than 300 proven recipes for developing interactive Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 sites. You'll find everything from Flex basics, to solutions for working with visual components and data access, to tips on application development, unit testing, and using Adobe AIR. You also get ideas from the development community. Through its Flex Cookbook website (www.adobe.com/devnet/), Adobe invited Flex developers to post their own solutions for working with this technology, and from hundreds of posts, the authors chose the best and most useful solutions to supplement Flex 3 Cookbook. Each recipe inside provides a solution to a common problem, explains how and why it works, and offers sample code that you can put to use immediately. Topics include: Containers and dialogues Working with Text Data driven components DataGrid and Advanced DataGrid ItemRenderers and Editors Images, bitmaps, videos, and sounds CSS, styling, and skinning States and effects Working with Collections, arrays, and DataProviders Using DataBinding Validation, formatting, and regular expressions Using Charts and data visualization Services and Data Access Using RSLs and Modules Working with Adobe AIR Whether you're a committed Flex developer or still evaluating the technology, you'll discover how to get quick results with Flex 3 using the recipes in this Cookbook. It's an ideal way to jumpstart your next web application.