Flex



Flex is a highly productive, open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops and operating systems. This site is focused on the development of the Flex SDK. If you are looking for more information on how to use Flex, you may wish to visit the Flex Developer Center


RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS

What is an RIA anyways? Well HTML applications are state-less. Application servers maintain state by using cookies and session variables to keep track of users, but all the logic is on the server. So while a user is looking at a page in their browser, the application is unable to do anything until the user commits an action that sends data from the page back to the server for processing. The code processes the data, and generates resulting HTML that the browser loads back in. A simple example would be a report or search tool that queries a sales/CRM database based on various criteria from the user such as deal time frame, product group, and sales executive. The user enters these values, clicks on a submit button, and the browser goes blank while it waits for a response from the server and loads the resulting HTML which would be a tabular list of records that match the criteria


Many Web Designers And Developers Use Adobe Flash Or Adobe Flex To Build RIAs. Adobe Flash Is An Authoring Environment For Creating Rich, Interactive Content For The Web That Is Deployed Using Adobe Flash Player. Adobe Flex Is A Cross-Platform Development Framework For Creating RIAs. Content Created With Flex Also Is Deployed Using Flash Player Or Adobe AIR. RIAs Created In Flex, Flash, And Even Ajax Can Be Taken To The Desktop Using The Adobe AIR Desktop Runtime


Flex


Setting up Flex Builder
  • Exploring Flex Builder and Flash Player
  • Using Flex Builder
  • Compiling and viewing the application
  • Setting up Flex Builder and your project files


Building a data-driven Flex applicatio
  • Introducing Flex components and controls
  • Laying out a form in Design mode
  • Introducing styling and skinning
  • Creating a user interface
  • Understanding data binding
  • Generating an email address using data binding
  • Requesting and retrieving XML data from the server
  • Adding data to your application


Organizing visual elements and code
  • Laying out components in containers
  • Adding scrollbars
  • Experimenting with container layouts
  • Implementing OOP concepts in Flex
  • Creating MXML custom components with Action Script properties


Understanding event-driven development
  • Implementing event handlers
  • Handling a user event
  • Understanding the event object and bubbling
  • Using the event object
  • Adding event listeners with Action Script
  • Using the addEventListener() method


Retrieving remote data
  • Introducing Array Collection and other data types
  • Populating an Array Collection with retrieved data
  • Introducing RPC
  • Retrieving and handling data using:
  • HTTP Service
  • Web Service
  • Remote Object


Creating a typed data model
  • Introducing the MVC pattern
  • Separating the model, view, and controller
  • Programming Action Script classes
  • Creating an Action Script class and instances
  • Implementing a value object and a typed data model
  • Creating an Array Collection of value objects
  • Generating value objects using Flash Builder data services


Extending events
  • Creating an event type and dispatching the event object
  • Creating an event type and dispatching the event object
  • Extending the Event class to pass data in the event object
  • Extending the Event class to pass data in the event object
  • Dispatching a value object from the custom component


Validating and formatting data
  • Using formatters
  • Formatting dates
  • Validating form data
  • Validating form data


Learning more about handling data
  • Implementing two-way binding
  • Using a two-way binding


Displaying data with the Data Group container
  • Representing data in default item renderers
  • Passing data to item renderers for display
  • Creating a custom item renderer
  • Displaying dynamic data in a custom item renderer


Displaying data with List-based control
  • Implementing a Spark item renderer in List-based controls
  • Implementing a Spark item renderer in List-based controls
  • Creating and formatting the Data Grid control
  • Using the Data Grid control
  • Creating item renderers and item editors
  • Creating and using item renderers and item editors


Creating and navigating "pages" in a UI
  • Understanding navigator containers
  • Navigating using navigator containers
  • Creating "pages" with Flex states
  • Creating and navigating application states
  • Laying out an application
  • Using constraints to control component layout
  • Creating a scalable UI


Animating components and states
  • Animating components with effects
  • Animating components with effects
  • Animating states with transitions
  • Applying transitions to view states


Controlling text display
  • Introducing the text controls
  • Using text controls
  • Using the Text Layout Framework
  • Using text layout features


Styling the visual display
  • Defining styles in CSS
  • Defining selector styles
  • Introducing advanced CSS selectors
  • Using advanced CSS selectors


Cairngorm Framework
Flex and Adobe AIR applications
  • Creating a production build
  • Creating a production build
  • Creating an Adobe AIR application
  • Deploying to the desktop
  • Read more.....
Adobe Flex Article