This book is divided into two main sections. The first, a walkthrough of the main components of the framework, is very useful for a beginner. It examines the base classes of the framework and does a good job of explaining how the pieces fit together. When it comes to implementing the framework in a practical way, however, the author makes a terrible decision IMHO. Instead of dealing with the normal use case where the Flex application will be connecting to a remote service to send/retrieve data, he decided to use the example of an AIR application that only uses the SQLite (local) database. The author discusses his reasoning for this decision and indicates that it would add an unneeded layer of complexity to deal with the various server side technologies (php vs Java vs CF vs .net). IMO, it would've been a much better idea to use the Flex HTTPService class and then just generate static XML files that the server would return to the Flex app. That way, we would be able to learn more about the functionality of the ServiceLocator and the delegates. To make matters worse, the AIR app that the book walks you through building is a BLOG!!! Get it? This book teaches you the supremely useful ability to build a blog that resides only on your local machine, so you can create blog posts that nobody else can read. He could've at least picked an application that would make sense as an AIR app. Annotation Take advantage of Cairngorm, one of the leading Flex frameworks for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA) Cairngorm is a framework that encourages best practices for RIA development. It is the most popular and widely deployed Flex framework, yet very few books provide the depth and detail necessary to thoroughly understand and utilize it. This helpful resource fills that void by going beyond the basics of Cairngorm and showing you the details behind its design. Using a full-scale project throughout the book, the author shows you Cairngorm in a real-world situation. Youll examine the various parts of the framework and what those parts are designed to accomplish, plus youll learn how to implement each of the individual parts to create a complete project. Offers hard-to-find coverage of Cairngorm, the popular framework used for RIA development Features a real-world case throughout the book to walk you through the process of using Cairngorm in a large-scale project Explains the details behind Cairngorm and how you can best take advantage of this framework With this resource, youll get step-by-step guidance on how to best take advantage of all that Cairngorm has to offer
