Getting on the Flex Highway How to get up to speed with Flex

Raghunath Rao Engineer, Flex Team Bangalore, India http://raghuonflex.wordpress.com/

Introduction to Flex

Global Local Experience evolution: Building the new frontier • • • • • • • •

HTML Deficiencies

Page metaphor Only 6 UI controls Browser inconsistencies Press n’ pray printing No offline operation Bitmaps from the server A/V plug-in hell 1998 2004 MAINFRAME RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS • • • • • • • •

Client/Server Benefits

Screen metaphor Extensible UI libraries Online/offline + synch WYSIWYG printing Data visualization Bitmap/vector graphics Text UI 1992 RICH

Why RIA?

“In Web1.0 Data was Dictator, In Web2.0 User is King and Data is Queen”

Anatomy of a Rich Internet Application Menus & NavigationControls Bi-Directional Audio & Video Data Visualization & Collaboration Real Time Data Push & Alerting Resizable Views/Effects/ Transitions Rich Data Entry Chat Mapping, Geo-Coding, Annotations & White boarding Data Synchronization & Conflict Resolution Offline

Product Configuration Where Flex is Used Line of Business Applications Data Visualization Rich Media Applications Complex, Multi-Step Processes Product Selection

How Flex works…

Flex Builder IDE Flex SDK

MXML ActionScript Flex Class Library Browser

Flash Player

Web Server Compile

What Do I need?

FREE Flash Player 9 FREE Flex Builder

Design View Code Hinting Debugging Component Skinning

Flex SDK Flex/Ajax Bridge FREE Flex Data Services

Messaging Service Data Management Service RPC Services

Demos

    Dashboard Application Flex Store Home Locator FlexBook   Demo 1 Demo 2

Getting on the Flex Highway How to get up to speed with Flex

flex.org

      One stop shop!

Run by the community http://flex.org

Online Compiler http://try.flex.org

Test Drives for Developers from other technologies Many More…

Adobe -Flex Developer Center

     http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/ Run by Adobe Quick Starts What to look out for?

 Quick starts  Tutorials Flex CookBook problems) (common coding

Handy Apps

  Flex Component Explorer Flex Style Explorer

Video Tutorials

 http://video.onflex.org/

Flex Training

 Online   http://www.totaltraining.com/ http://www.lynda.com/

Custom Components

 Flex Exchange    Run by Adobe Contribution from both Adobe and the Community Commercial, Free & Open Source components  3dChart Component  Auto Complete

Custom Components

  as3corelib      (on Google Code) Hashing Encryption JSON conversion Image Encoders Etc… Doug’s Snapshot Creator

Custom Components

 Others    Flexlib FlexBox (on Google Code) (by Mrinal) RIAForge (Open source projects built on Adobe technologies)  as3crypto library

Where do I go with my problems and get them solved?

    Public Bugbase Flex Coders on Yahoo Groups Regional Flex Groups  Flex-India on Google Groups Regional FUGs (Flex User Groups)

Blogs to Bookmark     Ely Greenfield Doug Mccune Alex Harui scalenine.com

Q&A