Part 1 Application basics

Introduction to Flex

Why are web applications so prolific?

Prolific, but at a price

The RIA solution

The RIA contenders

Flex vs. web applications

Becoming acquainted with Flex

What’s new in Flex 3

Summary

Getting started

Flex on the cheap

Get serious with Flex Builder

Exploring Flex Builder

Views and perspectives

Our first project—Hello World!

Using design mode

Built-in help

MXML and ActionScript in a nutshell

Summary

Working with ActionScript

Comments

Variables

Loops

Conditional statements (if statements and switches)

Arrays

ActionScript tidbits

Sneak peek at functions, classes, and packages

Simple data binding

Summary

Layout and containers

Absolute layout

Constraint-based layout

Automatic layout

Variable and fixed sizing

Containers

Dynamic layout with Repeaters

Summary

Displaying forms and capturing user input

The id attribute

Text controls

Date controls

Numeric controls

Buttons

Picklist controls

Accessing the control’s value

Summary

Validating user input

Overview of validation

Built-in validators

Real-time validation

Committed value validation

Pass-through validation

Scripted validation

Validation tidbits

Summary

Formatting data

Built-in formatters

Real-time formatting

Scripted formatting

Working with formatting errors

Summary

DataGrids, lists, and trees

List genealogy

The dataProvider and collections

Initializing collections

Populating collections

Interacting with lists

Summary

List customization

Label functions

Item renderers

Item editors

Combining an item editor and item renderer

Advanced item renderers

Filter functions

Summary

Part 2 Application flow and structure

Events

The event system

Sending and receiving events

Custom events

Summary

Application navigation

Feeding the data provider for menus and menu bars

Working with menus

Using a menu bar

Using view stacks

TabNavigator

Accordion

Summary

Introduction to pop-ups

Creating your first pop-up

Controlling the window location

Setting window transparency

Data integration with pop-ups

Using alerts

Summary

View states

Understanding view states

View states in Flex

Summary

Working with data services

What the heck is a WSDL document?

Reading WSDL

Using WebService components

Using HTTPService to retrieve results

Using the RemoteObject tag

Using the URLLoader

Using the Flex Import Web Service wizard

Summary

Working with XML

XML primer

XML components and classes

Loading external XML source data

Binding in XML

ECMAScript for XML (E4X)

Summary

Objects and classes

OO theory in 5 minutes

Playing with objects

Creating a class

Adding properties

Adding getter/setter methods

Creating methods for your class

Summary

Custom components

What are custom components?

How custom components work

Simple custom components

Passing parameters

Retrieving values

Creating composite components

Creating ActionScript components

Custom events

Namespaces and structure

Summary

Advanced reusability in Flex

SWC files

Runtime shared libraries

Modular Flex application development

Adding patches in your Flex application lifecycle

Refactoring

Summary

Part 3 The finishing touches

Customizing the experience

Styles

Embedding fonts

Images and icons

Skins

Summary

Working with effects

What is an effect?

Triggered effects

Programmatically applying an effect

Creating composite effects

Using out-of-the-box effects

Easing functions

Fonts and effects

Summary

Drag-and-drop

The drag-and-drop process

Drag-and-drop events

Components that support drag-and-drop

Enabling D&D on List-based components

Moving versus copying

Multi-item drag

Two-way drag-and-drop

Using D&D for user-controlled sorting

Enter the DragManager

Accepting or denying a drop

Applying your own drop

Adding D&D to non-List components

Customizing the drag-and-drop experience

Summary

Charting

Introduction to charting

Setting the stage with series and data

Creating charts

Stacking charts

Exploring chart types

Customizing charts

Summary

Debugging and testing

Debugging

Testing

Summary

Wrapping up a project

Printing

Customizing the wrapper

Deployment

Summary

 

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