Professional Adobe® Flex® 3

Introduction

Flex has, in recent years, become the leader in rich Internet applications (RIA) development technologies based on the Flash Platform. There is a growing excitement about Flex and the Flash platform in creating unique experiences on the Internet and on the desktop that were simply not possible in the same way just a few years ago. The book you are now holding in your hands is an extensive guide to understanding and mastering this technology.

The Flash Platform has become so encompassing in its capabilities, its technologies, and its reach into the world of web and desktop rich application development, that it can be very challenging keeping up with all the changes, while still finding a comprehensive reference on Flex development. The Adobe Flex documentation does a superb job as a language reference, and a starting point for general development techniques, but we felt that there was considerable room to expand upon and document usage of some of Flex's more advanced capabilities. At the same time, it was felt at the time that altogether too many books merely "scratched the surface" of exposing the technology, forcing developers to round out their knowledge through online tutorials and blogs. So, this book is also an attempt to bring a little more in-depth information to those topics that form the basis of the technology.

Lead author Joseph Balderson describes his reasons for embarking on this project:

In the summer of 2007, I was asked a question from one of my former ...