Adobe Flex 4 Training From The Source (vol 1)

This combined book/CD package provides a series of step-by-step tutorials which explain the fundamental features of Adobe’s Flex 4 framework and aim to guide the user through the creation of a variety of different types of application.

The Flex 4 framework is the latest version of Adobe’s class libraries and tools for application development using the ActionScript language and Flash. Flex is a complex object-oriented framework which supplies numerous ready-to-use components as well as code for manipulating various types of data and structures such as strings, Dictionaries and XML. The Flex 4 framework is significantly different from its predecessor, Flex 3. For example, it has a new hierarchy of ‘skinnable’ visual components in addition to all the components supported by Flex 3.

Broadly speaking, this book assumes that the reader will be a moderately experienced programmer who is already familiar with an object oriented language, web development and server-side technologies of some type but is probably not very experienced at developing for Flex. The book starts with a gentle introduction to RIA development and creating simple Flex programs. It then goes on to explain more specialist topics such as creating and dispatching events, using formatters and validators and changing the appearance of the user interface using styles and skins.

It’s a nicely laid out book which makes it easy to read or browse through and the enclosed CD contains lots of ready-to-run code examples. Bear in mind though that this is an Adobe Press book and the authors assume that you must be using Adobe development tools. So no advice is given on development using third-party ActionScript editors such as FDT or FlashDevelop or my own company’s Visual Studio Flex IDE, Amethyst. Even the source code on the disc is supplied in the new Flash Builder ‘export format (fxp) so if you are using other development tools you may be unable to load the projects.

There is one other gap in the book’s coverage that you need to be aware of: Flex 3 classes and components are barely mentioned. For example, the Navigator controls such as Accordion (which are provided in Flex 4 but only in their Flex 3 implementations) are only dealt with in a brief section explaining how to get them to cooperate with Flex 4 components. Nor does it explain the important differences between Flex 3 and Flex 4 containers and the relationships of parent containers with the ‘children’ components which they contain.

Overall, then, this is a decent and accessible introduction to Flex 4 development which, however, makes the following assumptions: the reader has experience of an object oriented language and web server-based development, will be using Adobe development tools exclusively and won’t use Flex 3 components. If you are that type of reader, then this book may be for you. Bear in mind, however, that it only covers the basics of Flex 4. A second and more advanced, volume in the will be published later.