Adobe Flex 2 : Training from the Source

, by Tapper, Jeff; Boles, Matt; Talbot, James; Elmore, Ben; Labriola, Michael

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

ISBN: 9780321423160 | 032142316X
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 10/20/2006

Buy Used

Usually Ships in 2-4 Business Days

$40.42

Part of the Adobe Training from the Source series, the official curriculum from Adobe, developed by experienced trainers. Using project-based tutorials, this book/CD volume is designed to teach the techniques needed to create sophisticated, professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. This title covers the new development framework for Rich Internet Applications, Adobe Flex 2. In the course of the book, the reader will build several Web applications using Flex Builder and incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0.

Jeff Tapper is the Chief Technologist and CEO for Tapper, Nimer and Associates, Inc. He has been developing Internet-based applications since 1995 for a myriad of clients including Morgan Stanley, Doctations, Toys R Us, IBM, Dow Jones, American Express, M&T Bank, Verizon, and many others. He has been developing Flex applications since the earliest days of Flex 1. As an Instructor, Jeff is certified to teach all of Adobe’s courses on Flex, ColdFusion, and Flash development. He is also a frequent speaker at Adobe Development Conferences and user groups. Jeff Tapper and Mike Nimer formed Tapper, Nimer and Associates provide expert guidance to rich Internet application development and empower clients through mentoring.

James Talbot has been with Adobe (formerly Macromedia) for more than six years, on both the sales engineering and training teams, and has most recently been working with Flex and Flash Lite. He has traveled extensively throughout the world promoting Adobe products and certifying Adobe instructors as well as speaking at conferences. James has been an integral team member on high profile rich Internet application consulting assignments for companies such as AOL / Time Warner, JP Morgan, Fidelity, and TV Guide.
James is actively involved in the Adobe worldwide instructor and developer community, and contributes to developer certification exams as well as organizing and speaking at user groups. James is passionate about Flash on devices as well as rich Internet applications and he believes that both technologies will change the world for the better.

Matthew Boles is the Technical Lead for the Adobe Customer Training group and has been developing and teaching courses on Flex since the 1.0 release. Matthew has a diverse background in web development, computer networking, and teaching in both professional computer classes and the public schools. In addition to this book, Matthew co-authored
a version of the Certified ColdFusion Developer Study Guide. He has also developed official Allaire/Macromedia/
Adobe curricula in both ColdFusion and Flash development content areas.

Benjamin Elmore is the founder and principal partner of Twin Technologies, an enterprise consulting
company that specializes in delivering rich Internet applications for Fortune 500 companies. Ben has been working in the RIA/Web 2.0 spaces since its inception and has authored several books on a variety of technologies. Ben founded Twin Technologies with a core principle of embracing a shared knowledge base within the development community. When leading Twin Technologies, Ben travels to Africa and Turkey to speak on leadership on behalf of the EQUIP organization (www.iequip.org), whose goal is to raise a million Christian leaders over five years. A devoted family man, Ben lives with his wife Mary and their five children in upstate New York.

Michael Labriola, who has devoted a decade and a half to Internet technologies, is a Senior Consultant and Project Lead for Digital Primates, Inc. He spends his mornings teaching developers to work with Flex; his afternoons creating rich Internet applications that generate significant ROI for clients; and his nights dreaming up ways to use Flex that its designers never intended.

Introduction

xvi

Lesson 1 Understanding Rich Internet Applications

(12)

Understanding the Evolution of Computer Applications

(2)

Breaking away from the Page-based Architecture

(1)

Identifying the Advantages of Rich Internet Applications

(1)

Business Managers

(1)

IT Organizations

(1)

End Users

(1)

RIA Technologies

(6)

Asynchronous Javascript and XML (Ajax)

(1)

Flash

(1)

Laszlo

(1)

Flex

(2)

Windows Presentation Foundation/XAML/Expression

(1)

Lesson 2 Getting Started

(24)

Getting Started with Flex Application Development

(1)

Creating a Project and an MXML Application

(5)

Understanding the Flex Builder 2 Workbench

(2)

Running Your Application

(7)

Creating a Second Application Page and Working in Design Mode

(5)

Getting Ready for the Next Lesson

(3)

Lesson 3 Laying Out the Interface

(26)

Learning About Containers

(1)

Laying Out the E-commerce Application Using Design Mode

(6)

Working with Constraint-based Layouts

(5)

Working with View States

(4)

Controlling View States

(2)

Laying Out an Application in Source Mode

(8)

Adding and Controlling View States with MXML

(4)

Lesson 4 Using Simple Controls

(22)

Introducing Simple Controls

(1)

Using Flex Explorer to Learn About Simple Controls

(1)

Displaying Images

(4)

Building a Detail View

(3)

Using Data Binding to Link a Data Structure to a Simple Control

(2)

Using a Form Layout Container to Lay Out Simple Controls

(5)

Adding Radio Buttons and Date Fields to the Dashboard

(4)

Lesson 5 Handling Events and Data Structures

(22)

Introducing Handling Events and Complex Data Structures

(2)

Using the <mx:Model> Tag with a Creation Complete Event

(3)

Building a Custom ActionScript Class

(4)

Building a Method to Create an Object

(3)

Building Shopping Cart Classes

100

(6)

Exploring the Event Object

106

(2)

Lesson 6 Using Remote XML Data with Controls

108

(42)

Retrieving XML Data with HTTPService

110

(3)

Using ArrayCollections

111

(1)

Using Collections as Data Providers

112

(1)

Understanding Security Issues

112

(1)

Populating a List with Retrieved XML as an ArrayCollection of Objects

113

(3)

Populating a ComboBox Control and Programmatically Adding an Option

116

(3)

Using XML Data with a Tree Control

119

(11)

Understanding E4X operators

120

(3)

Populating a Tree Control with XML Data

123

(7)

Retrieving XML Data and Transforming it into an ArrayCollection of Custom Objects

130

(5)

Using Data Binding with Complex Data Structures

135

(2)

Sorting and Manipulating Shopping Cart Data

137

(10)

Adding a Remove Button

147

(3)

Lesson 7 Creating Components with MXML

150

(36)

Introducing MXML Components

152

(5)

Understanding the Basics on How to Create a Custom Component

153

(1)

Creating a Custom Component Step by Step

154

(1)

Using Custom Components in Application Architecture

155

(2)

Creating an Update/Delete Product Component and Instantiating It

157

(4)

Popping Up Product Information When Clicking the Update and Delete Buttons

161

(7)

Creating Another Value Object

168

(2)

Creating a Data Manager Component for All Three Applications

170

(7)

Using the New Data Manager Component

177

(4)

Implementing Add Product Functionality

181

(1)

Creating and Using a Component for the Dashboard Application

182

(4)

Lesson 8 Using Controls and Repeaters with Data Sets

186

(30)

Introducing Using Data Sets

188

(5)

Understanding HorizontalList and TileList Components

189

(1)

Implementing a labelFunction

190

(1)

Implementing an itemRenderer

191

(2)

Displaying the Categories Using a HorizontalList and an itemRenderer

193

(4)

Displaying Grocery Products Based on Category Selection

197

(12)

Using a Repeater to Loop Over a Data Set

197

(1)

Retrieving Data from Repeated Components

198

(2)

Addressing Components Built by a Repeater

200

(1)

Understanding Performance Differences Between TileList and Repeater

201

(1)

Displaying Grocery Items Based on Category

201

(8)

Coding States to Display Detailed Product Information

209

(2)

Placing Products in the Shopping Cart

211

(5)

Lesson 9 Using Custom Events

216

(26)

Understanding the Benefits of a Loosely Coupled Architecture

219

(1)

Dispatching Events

219

(2)

Declaring Events for a Component

221

(1)

Identifying the Need for Custom Event Classes

222

(1)

Building and Using the CategoryEvent

223

(4)

Creating and Using the ProductEvent Class

227

(9)

Using ProductEvent to Remove a Product from the Cart

231

(2)

Using ProductEvent to Add a Product to the Cart

233

(3)

Understanding Event Flow and Event Bubbling

236

(6)

Lesson 10 Creating Custom Components with ActionScript 3.0

242

(18)

Introducing Building a Component with ActionScript 3.0

244

(1)

Creating the Structure of the Class

244

(3)

Overriding the createChildren() Method

247

(7)

Creating a Button in ActionScript

248

(1)

Using the addChild() Method to Add the Button to your Component

248

(1)

Understanding chrome and rawChildren

249

(1)

Using addChild on rawChildren to Add Elements to the Chrome

250

(4)

Overriding the updateDisplayList() Method

254

(6)

Lesson 11 Using DataGrids and Item Renderers

260

(22)

Introducing DataGrids and Item Renderers

262

(1)

Adding a Generic DataGrid to ChartPod

262

(2)

Adding HTTPService Calls to Dashboard

264

(4)

Displaying the Shopping Cart with a DataGrid

268

(14)

Add Inline Editing Control for DataGridColumn

270

(1)

Create an MXML Item Renderer for Displaying the Product

271

(3)

Create an Inline MXML Item Renderer for Displaying the Remove Button

274

(5)

Update ShoppingCartItem with Set and Get Functions

279

(3)

Lesson 12 Using Drag and Drop

282

(24)

Introducing the Drag and Drop Manager

284

(1)

Dragging and Dropping Between Two DataGrids

285

(3)

Dragging and Dropping Between a DataGrid and a List

288

(5)

Using a Nondrag-Enabled Component in a Drag-and-Drop Operation

293

(6)

Dragging a Grocery Item to the Shopping Cart

299

(7)

Lesson 13 Implementing Navigation

306

(26)

Introducing Navigation

308

(3)

Using a TabNavigator in the Data-entry Application

311

(3)

Adding a Home Page and Checkout Page in the E-commerce Application

314

(4)

Creating the First Step of the Checkout Process Displayed by a ViewStack

318

(7)

Completing the Checkout Process Using the ViewStack

325

(7)

Lesson 14 Using Formatters and Validators

332

(20)

Introducing Formatters and Validators

334

(1)

Using a Formatter Class to Display Currency Information in the E-commerce Application

335

(3)

Using Validator Classes

338

(4)

Using Regular Expressions to Validate Data (Part 1)

342

(2)

Using Regular Expressions to Validate Data (Part 2)

344

(2)

Building a Custom Validator Class

346

(6)

Lesson 15 Using the History Manager

352

(12)

Introducing History Management

354

(2)

Implementing History Management within a Navigator Container

356

(1)

Building a Custom History Manager

357

(7)

Lesson 16 Customizing the Look and Feel of a Flex Application

364

(28)

Applying a Design with Styles and Skins

367

(1)

Applying Styles

367

(17)

Setting Styles Inline with Tag Attributes

369

(1)

Understanding Style Inheritance

370

(1)

Setting Styles with the <mx:Style> Tag

371

(3)

Setting Styles with CSS files

374

(10)

Skinning Components

384

(8)

Graphical Skins

385

(1)

Programmatic Skins

385

(7)

Lesson 17 Accessing Server-side Objects

392

(44)

Introducing Server-side Objects

395

(1)

Using the Event Model Remote Server Calls

396

(1)

Configuring an Application to Work Locally

396

(2)

Using a Web Service in the Dashboard

398

(7)

Handling Web Service Results

401

(2)

Calling Web Service Methods

403

(2)

Using a Web Service in the DataEntry Application

405

(6)

Uploading Files to the Server

411

(4)

Centralizing Web Service Access

415

(7)

Using Remote Object to Save an Order

422

(9)

Update Flex Compiler Command

424

(1)

Raise Order Confirmed Event in the Checkout Process

425

(1)

Create and Call Remote Object

426

(4)

Pass in ShoppingCart into Checkout Component

430

(1)

Change State of the Application Back to Welcome

430

(1)

Mapping ActionScript Objects to Server Objects

431

(5)

Lesson 18 Charting Data

436

(32)

Exploring Flex Charting Components

438

(2)

Available Charts

438

(1)

Chart Packaging

438

(1)

Parts of a Chart

438

(2)

Laying Out the Initial Charts

440

(1)

Populating Charts

441

(7)

Specifying the Charts Series

442

(6)

Adding Horizontal and Vertical Axes to Line and Column Charts

448

(6)

Adding Legends to the Charts

454

(2)

Limiting the Labels Shown on an Axis

456

(1)

Interacting with Charts

457

(1)

Mouse Over Events

457

(1)

Click Events

457

(1)

Adding Chart Events

458

(5)

Adding Animations to the Charts

463

(1)

Customizing the Look of Charts with Styles

464

(4)

Lesson 19 Introducing Adobe Flex Data Services

468

(16)

Introducing Flex Data Services (FDS)

470

(2)

Installing the Adobe FDS

472

(2)

Creating a Flex Builder Project with FDS

474

(4)

Using the Flex Proxy Service

478

(3)

Creating a Named Proxy Service Destination

481

(3)

Lesson 20 Pushing Data with Adobe Flex Data Services

484

(16)

Understanding Flex Message Services

486

(1)

Creating a New Project in Flex Builder

486

(4)

Understanding How the Flex Message Service Works

490

(1)

Enabling RemoteObject Calls to a ColdFusion Server

491

(2)

Configuring a Message Destination

493

(2)

Using the <mx:Consumer> Tag

495

(5)

Lesson 21 Synchronizing Data with Adobe Flex Data Services

500

(18)

Introducing the Data Management Service

502

(1)

Configuring Data Management Services

503

(4)

Creating the Data Management CFCs

507

(5)

Using Data Management Service Data in an MXML Application

512

(3)

Creating and Deleting with the Data Management Service

515

(2)

Where to Go from Here

517

(1)

Lesson 22 Creating Transitions and Behaviors

518

(10)

Introducing Behaviors and Transitions

520

(4)

Using Behaviors on Components

520

(2)

Using Transitions on View States

522

(2)

Implementing Effects on a Component

524

(2)

Adding Effects to View States

526

(2)

Lesson 23 Printing From Flex

528

(20)

Introducing Flex Printing

531

(1)

Printing for the First Time from Flex

531

(3)

Using the PrintDataGrid in a Nonvisible Container

534

(3)

Building the Printable View in a Separate Component

537

(4)

Scaling the Printed Output

541

(2)

Printing a Receipt from the Checkout Process

543

(5)

Lesson 24 Using Shared Objects

548

(12)

Introducing Shared Objects

550

(3)

Creating Shared Objects

551

(1)

Reading Shared Objects

552

(1)

Building a SharedObject to Store Shopping Cart Data

553

(3)

Reading Data from an Existing Shared Object

556

(4)

Lesson 25 Debugging Flex Applications

560

(22)

Introducing Debugging Techniques

562

(1)

Watching Server-Client Data Exchange

562

(3)

Learning More About the Debugger

565

(7)

Learning More Details About Setting Breakpoints

565

(1)

Inspecting Variables and Their Associated Values in the Debugger

566

(6)

Handling Errors with try-catch

572

(10)

Using the try-catch Syntax

573

(1)

Understanding the Error Types

574

(1)

Using Multiple catch Blocks

575

(1)

Example Using Only One catch Block

575

(1)

Example Showing Bad Practice of Using the Error Base Class in the First catch Block

576

(1)

Using the finally Statement

577

(1)

Using the throw Statement

578

(1)

Creating Your Own Error Classes

578

(4)

APPENDIX A Setup Instructions

582

(6)

Hardware Requirements

582

(1)

Software Requirements

583

(1)

Software Installation

583

(1)

Installing Flex Products

584

(1)

Installing Lesson Files

585

(1)

Installing the ColdFusion Extensions for Adobe Flex Builder 2

586

(1)

Starting Flex Data Services and ColdFusion

586

(1)

Installing Flash Debug Player

587

(1)

Index

588

Please wait while the item is added to your bag...

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Adobe Flex 2 : Training from the Source

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials