F. Stepanski said
Flex 3 from Adobe is another development tool that creates RIA with the SWF file type. Flex is more of a development tool than Adobe Flash and it provides developer with an easy way of creating interactive web sites than Flash since they dont have to deal with the timeline.
This book is a great introduction to anybody who wants to learn Adobe Flex with either a background using Flash or any other development tool. You actually dont have to have any previous programming or development experience to use and understand this book, but it would probably enhance your learning experience.
The book has 15 chapters and is broken down into four main sections such as the Flex interface, ActionScript, Components and Case Study's.
The author, Charles Brown, does a very good job in getting the reader to explain the more involved topics such as XML, ActionScript and components and data interaction.
Using Flex can be a little intimidating for user who have not used an Adobe-based interface before, but the author shows everything step-by-step for the reader of any level. I have used Flash for some time and was a little confused about the Flex interface and after reading over certain chapters in this book, everything came clear. I wish other Adobe Flash books were written as good as this Flex book.
I especially like the two chapters on Case Studies that cover how to create a sample website (Publishers Website). Its important to have real-life scenarios when learning new technologies. The author really showed how useful Flex can be when reviewing the sample website in putting together what was covered throughout the book. I wish more books used this in properly explaining techniques.
More advanced techniques such as interacting with databases with flex are covered as well. This is a complete beginner to intermediate book on Adobe Flex 3. I highly recommend it.
George W. Adams IV said
This book will walk you through enough material to get you started if you are a novice. But someone who has programmed at all before might find it annoying when it goes more into OOP than into Flex itself. For me, the most annoying part of the book was all the scrambled text. All to often, there would be an example with a scrambled example. Did no one bother to proofread this? I had to put the book down after a while, it got so bad.
Overall: I do not recommend this. The Developer's library is much better.
jbcurtin.com said
This is pretty much a how to book. Anyone can follow it from beginner to advanced. Although Advanced would want to just pass it up. If you are getting into RIA dev, this is the book for you. All its material can be found on the web. However this material is focused and gets the job done without having to visit Google. It explains well enough to get you started and I encourage you to do some research on your own. 4/5 because it is a collection of knowledge, however it is still nice to have the rare pieces of knowledge that it contains.
Biro Barna said
I totally loved this Flex book. I've read almost all the books on Flex and this is definitely one book that is worth your money. Even if you are a total beginner to Flex, it provides really useful information about the soft and it even takes you trough the installation process ( step by step ) and the examples are just great.
Great book, worth every penny.
Eric Lewis said
I have this book and got it after taking a Flex Class that Charles Brown taught. I have referred to the book numerous times to point me in the right direction for the application I am working on and also to help me better understand why something works the way it does.
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