Flex Solutions: Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and 3 Developers

Flex Solutions: Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and 3 Developers by Marco Casario is a must have book. Why? Many simple, objective code snippets from which one can build many useful Flex applications. The simplicity of code examples can be also easily extended in real projects. The book is devided into problem oriented parts: Flex Basics, Using Components, Working with Data, Validating and Formatting Data, Managing Complex Data, Working with Remote Data, Compiling and Deploying Flex Applications, Designing and Programming the Look and Feel of Flex Applications, Flex Security and more. Each chapter consists of number of problems which are completely solved. Marco, as it can be read in About the Author note, has been passionate about Informatics since he was a child. I have realized that fact during reading the Flex Solutions book. I have used code examples from the book in my Flex projects and doing so let me save time on looking for solutions in other sources. If you want to learn more about Flex, this book is for you. If you look for a book with quick-fire solutions to common problems and best practice techniques, this book is for you. If you want to improve your Flex skills for Rich Internet Application development, this book is for you. And if you do not know Flex but want to learn what can be done with it and how, just guess: this book is also for you. I like very much problem solving approach in learning and therefore I recommend this book.

I have been working with Flex off and on and still have some questions about things. I am not a codewhore; there is still a little spring left in my derriere. I like to get things done. In that regard, this book has been a real help in terms of finding solutions to common problems or issues related to the Flex framework. It does not delve deeply into Actionscript 3.0 and design patterns, but rather how to work specifically with MXML, Flex components and events. It has been really easy to find things and the author explains some more of the complex ways to work with Flex in a very practical manner that builds confidence. Flex is deceptively simple-looking from the design view, but can get rather complex under the hood. The Expert tips sections are very helpful in that they acknowledge more abstract ways to work that you will probably be using over some of the more simple code illustrations. For advanced actionscripting, check out "Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns". If you are trying to wrap your head around Flex and don't know where to start, "The Essential Guide to Flex 2 with ActionScript 3.0" is a good choice. Additionally, there are a number of actionscipt books out there, and I would advise going to a bookstore to really get a feel for it. Some programming books assume no knowledge and other books assume you're coming from another language, etc.

This is the perfect resource to have on your desktop while developing. When I bought it I was searching for a book different from the Flex Documentation released by Adobe. In fact I bought other Flex books that seemed like a copy (or something like that) of the Adobe Flex Livedocs. The book (almost 1000 pages of Flex code) covers subjects of interest for developers with any level of Flex expertise. Within each chapter (14 in total), several problems are tackled and a lot of pages are devoted to each problem, with this format: the problem, what's involved, How to build it, and Expert tips. The book has been updated to cover some of the new Flex 3 features such as the AdvancedDataGrid, the new charting components features and AIR development. This could also be a book you'd use to learn Flex from scratch, but you'll better appreciate it if you'll use it on a regular basis as you continue to expand your Flex knowledge. A great time saver and required resource for Flex develoeprs. Highly recommended.

I'm a senior web developer (Ajax and Java plus some knowledge of Actionscript 3) and I was interested in getting more familiar with the use of the Flex framwork for my incresing RIA development needs (a lot of which in enterprise environment). In my opinion the best way to learn a new language or tool is to see how experts use it, and to have a collection of practical, real world examples. This book illustrates a noteworthy series of real problems and code examples on how to solve them: almost 1000 pages of awesome useful information and over 100 hacks that address common problems a Flex programmer has to face everyday. That's why I would also recommend it for Flex and Flash engineers as an every day reference manual. What I really appreciated are the "Expert Tips" that the author gives at the end of each solution proposed. This way each solution is deepened and dealt with in an increasingly technical manner, better oriented to advanced Flex programmers. Another good point is that this book does not replicate the online documentation published by Adobe.

I just received my copy of Flex Solutions and it has already been an invaluable asset on Flex projects. I am pretty new to Flex, and this book is helping me get up to speed quickly. I want to thank the author for providing such a great book. There are even downloads for all of the solutions, and I've gone through a few of them so far, and they, too are very helpful This will serve as my Flex Bible!