This book does a very good job of describing the decision making processes that go into using a particular piece of technology with Flex and how they apply this to their application which is actually titled "Rich Media X" (a blog/forum/user group app). If you want to see how or if you can integrate Drupal and Flex, this is probably a pretty good book. If you are looking for a book on a particular Flex framework like Cairngorm or what have you, it is not. What I think people are finding deceptive about this book is the "Flex Application Development", the AdvancED label, and the idea that you will be able to layout a Flex application from start to finish (and you will, just most likely not the application you had in mind). This book I see as being a great book to understand what is possible with Flex. I do not see this as a great book to learn Flex coding practices, coding frameworks, and anything else one might assume would be present in something titled Flex Application Development. If you go into this looking for meat and potatoes and coming away from this book full of Flex YOU WILL be disappointed. 5 stars for what it covers well, but take 1 star away for hungering for more. PRELIMS......Page 1 CONTENTS AT A GLANCE......Page 6 CONTENTS......Page 8 FOREWORD......Page 17 ABOUT THE AUTHORS......Page 18 ABOUT THE TECHNICAL REVIEWER......Page 20 ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE DESIGNER......Page 21 LAYOUT CONVENTIONS......Page 22 PLANNING THE RMX......Page 23 The Flash Platform and Web 2.0......Page 25 Just what is this Web 2.0?......Page 26 What’s Flash got to do with it?......Page 27 What is Flex?......Page 32 To Flex or not to Flex . . .......Page 34 Is it an application?......Page 35 Flexers are from Mars, Flashers are from Venus......Page 36 Summary......Page 38 DEFINING THE APPLICATION: INTRODUCING THE RMX......Page 41 The amazing Adobe communities......Page 42 The idea for the RMX is born......Page 43 Defining the goals and functionality......Page 44 Understanding the network......Page 45 Core features......Page 48 A word on GNU GPL......Page 54 Application platform......Page 55 Design and development tools......Page 58 Project management tools......Page 60 Summary......Page 62 A note on complexity......Page 65 Stages of planning......Page 67 Defining the business requirements......Page 68 Creating the wireframes......Page 69 Authoring the project specification......Page 73 Building the project plan......Page 78 Designs......Page 83 Technical documentation......Page 84 Testing and release......Page 85 General considerations......Page 88 Central navigational elements......Page 92 Planning parts of the RMX......Page 100 The jobs board......Page 101 The event calendar......Page 107 The group control panel vs. the network control panel......Page 111 Summary......Page 114 BUILDING THE RMX CORE FUNCTIONS......Page 115 Setting up the development environment......Page 117 Source control, SVN, and Subclipse......Page 118 Project structure and namespaces......Page 119 New project template......Page 121 The main application class......Page 122 Data transfer objects......Page 124 Variable and method naming......Page 127 Commenting source control commits......Page 128 Preparing code for documentation......Page 129 Summary......Page 132 STYLING FLEX......Page 135 CSS 101: A primer......Page 136 Tag selectors......Page 139 Class selectors......Page 141 Inline CSS styling......Page 142 The tag......Page 143 The setStyle method......Page 144 The Embed metadata tag......Page 145 Asset libraries......Page 146 Component-unique properties......Page 148 Scale 9 formatting feature......Page 151 Runtime CSS......Page 157 The Flex Style Explorer......Page 159 Styling considerations and the RMX......Page 160 Hand cursors on Accordion headers......Page 161 Custom ItemRenderers with rollover skins......Page 163 Summary......Page 165 Data sources......Page 167 Databases......Page 168 Sharing permalinks......Page 169 Sharing by e-mail......Page 170 Sharing and embedding video......Page 174 Using RSS......Page 176 Summary......Page 185 Pagination......Page 187 Creating the database......Page 189 Building the Products class......Page 190 Building a Flex interface for Products.php......Page 196 Search integration......Page 203 Modularization......Page 206 Enhancing the code......Page 208 History management......Page 210 Summary......Page 216 Why use DTOs?......Page 219 Setting up a DTO......Page 220 The tag......Page 221 The tag......Page 223 The tag......Page 225 Collecting the user input......Page 227 Validating user input......Page 230 More validation......Page 235 Confirming the password and e-mail address......Page 237 Validating the form on submission......Page 243 Managing remoting calls......Page 244 Security: Being careful with user-supplied content......Page 248 Summary......Page 253 Building the communications control panel......Page 255 In the beginning there was ActionScript......Page 258 Summary......Page 281 Video boot camp......Page 283 Key video compression concepts......Page 284 Cue points......Page 287 VideoDisplay component......Page 289 Playing a single static video......Page 290 Adding a time played/total time display......Page 292 Pause/Play button......Page 296 Stop button......Page 298 Volume control......Page 299 Download progress bar......Page 301 Playback progress bar......Page 302 Video scrubber......Page 303 Restricting the scrubber for progressive video players......Page 305 The RMX video player controls......Page 307 Playlists......Page 309 Adding playlist control buttons......Page 313 Restricting playlist controls during ad playback......Page 315 Limitations of the VideoDisplay class......Page 317 Summary......Page 318 Why advertising matters......Page 321 To open source or not to open source?......Page 322 What about instream ads?......Page 323 Setting up OpenAds......Page 324 Consuming OpenAds in Flex......Page 329 Really, how powerful is this solution?......Page 335 Beyond the banner......Page 336 Summary......Page 337 BUILDING OUT NEW FEATURES......Page 339 A blog?......Page 341 Introducing the RMX blog......Page 342 Installing Drupal......Page 343 Building the blog......Page 348 Customizing the look and feel of Drupal......Page 354 Summary......Page 356 Content management......Page 359 Drupal modules......Page 360 Generating services and Views......Page 361 Advanced DTOs......Page 366 Setting up custom events......Page 370 Connecting to the Drupal services......Page 372 The RMX base class......Page 376 Setting up the jobs browser......Page 377 Calling the jobs service......Page 380 Setting up the list view......Page 383 Handling the details pane......Page 387 The jobs filters......Page 389 Summary......Page 391 Examining the RMX calendar......Page 393 Filtering events......Page 394 Creating events......Page 396 Building the interface......Page 397 Have data, will travel......Page 406 Back-end integration......Page 408 Summary......Page 411 The future......Page 413 Audio-to-text......Page 415 Closed captioning in Flash......Page 416 Creating a Flex component in Flash......Page 420 Robust user-generated folksonomy......Page 427 Advertising......Page 428 Overlays......Page 429 Bug-me-later ads......Page 430 Payment models......Page 431 User group features......Page 432 Distribution......Page 433 Planning for AIR......Page 434 Planning for the Adobe Media Player......Page 436 Summary......Page 437 SPECIAL TOPICS......Page 439 Why are Flex SWF files big?......Page 441 Persistent framework caching......Page 442 Setting up an application to use RSLs......Page 443 Testing the caching......Page 447 Summary......Page 448 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION FOR FLEX......Page 451 Head content......Page 452 Body content......Page 454 XML......Page 455 SWF metadata......Page 457 Clean URLs......Page 458 Deep linking......Page 459 Using FXT......Page 460 Summary......Page 462 AS2 vs. AS3......Page 465 Introducing the SoundMixer......Page 470 Design planning......Page 471 The visualization......Page 473 Summary......Page 477 Designer/Developer workflow......Page 479 Skin Importer......Page 480 CSS outlines......Page 481 Code enhancements......Page 483 Component and SDK enhancements......Page 489 Flex and Flash integration......Page 491 Summary......Page 495 INDEX......Page 497
Many Flex books cover the basics—this book does something different, and goes far further. The authors, leading Flash platform developers at Almer/Blank, working with Adobe User Group communities, are the creators of the Rich Media Exchange (RMX), a social media network for Adobe developers. In covering just how the RMX was built, this book contains all the knowledge you need to build similar large-scale rich Internet applications with Adobe Flex.
From the inception of the idea through to deployment, the authors show the techniques needed to plan and build advanced applications. You'll learn how to use forms, styles, validators, video, sound analysis, and framework caching, ensuring you make the most of the features introduced in Flex 3.
Powerful applications require solid back ends. This book shows how to hook up a Flex application to PHP back-end systems such as Drupal and OpenAds. You'll learn how various parts of the RMX were built, including the blogs, event calendar, jobs board, and advertising system—elements that come together to really showcase the power of Flex.
The RMX is built by Adobe developers for Adobe developers—a rewarding community relationship that guarantees results. The same spirit is carried into this book, with the authors wanting and helping to take you to the next level of Flash application development.
This book provides a practical guide to planning and building a professional Flex 2 application from start to finish. Written by a team of expert developers, the book details, step-by-step, how the authors built the popular Rich Media X (RMX) application for Adobe user groups, step by step. Coverage provides all the information needed to implement several killer web 2.0 features in Flex, including a blog, wiki, events calendar, and more. It is packed with essential practical techniques in use at a professional production environment, which you can learn from and use in your own Flex applications. This book is for any Flex developer who has mastered the basics, but wants to take their skills to the top level. It is packed with essential practical techniques in use in a professional production environment which you can learn from and use in your own Flex 2 or Flex 3 applications
