Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex

Description

With Flash Player on approximately 98 percent of computers connected to the Internet and Flash itself evolving from a simple animation tool to a robust rich-client development platform, there's been just one thing missing from Macromedia's product lineup: A way for server-side developers to easily integrate Flash development into their workflows. Enter Macromedia Flex: With it, you can do everything one can do with Flash--on the server using the Flex Presentation Server software and the new XML-based language MXML. This guide shows you how! If you've ever developed dynamic Web applications on J2EE and .NET architectures, or using technologies like JSP and ASP, you should have no problem transferring those skills to develop rich-client solutions with Flex. After introducing readers to rich-client applications, Flex, and its architecture and typical workflow, authors Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod explore the software feature by feature. Throughout, you'll find examples of the rich-client interfaces you can build with Flex as well as strategies for integrating your Flex apps with existing infrastructures.

Back Cover

With Flash Player on approximately 98 percent of computers connected to the Internet and Flash itself evolving from a simple animation tool to a robust rich-client development platform, there's been just one thing missing from Macromedia's product lineup: A way for server-side developers to easily integrate Flash development into their workflows. Enter Macromedia Flex: With it, you can do everything one can do with Flash--on the server using the Flex Presentation Server software and the new XML-based language MXML. This guide shows you how! If you've ever developed dynamic Web applications on J2EE and .NET architectures, or using technologies like JSP and ASP, you should have no problem transferring those skills to develop rich-client solutions with Flex. After introducing readers to rich-client applications, Flex, and its architecture and typical workflow, authors Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod explore the software feature by feature. Throughout, you'll find examples of the rich-client interfaces you can build with Flex as well as strategies for integrating your Flex apps with existing infrastructures.

Author

Steven Webster and Alistair McLeod are the owners and founders of iteration: two, a leading European consulting firm that specializes in the development of rich-Internet applications. As such, they're widely recognized as two of the foremost authorities on Flash Remoting technology, and the application of enterprise development best practices such as design patterns, refactoring and unit-testing to rich-Internet application development. Steven is the author of Reality J2EE: Architecting for Macromedia Flash MX (Macromedia Press). Alistair and Steven co-authored "Design Patterns for Rich Internet Applications" for the ActionScript 2.0 Dictionary (Macromedia Press).