Web applications no longer need be powered by any one individual's data, and they don't need to be confined to the desktop. Developers can draw on a wealth of publicly available content, from providers such as Flickr, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Last.fm, and combine it for use in their own applications. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) makes it simple to bring previously web-only applications to the desktop, allowing them to run alongside traditional applications on an end user's computer.

In this book, you'll learn how to create mashup applications from the vast array of web services, feeds, and APIs using Adobe Flash and Flex together with HTML and JavaScript (Ajax). You'll be introduced to the various sources of information and the tools necessary to gather and reuse that information, and then you'll learn how to combine that content in a variety of ways.

You'll learn how to have desktop applications interact with online services such as Flickr, you'll learn how to use Amazon S3 for enterprise-level data storage, and you'll embrace technologies such as OpenID. In addition, you'll create abstract visualizations based on music sourced from Last.fm and consume Twitter content via RSS. You will also see how to use the Flash-native data format SWX along with PHP to create a Yahoo! weather widget.

The best way to show off a powerful new technology is to demonstrate real-world results with it, and that's exactly what Adobe and O'Reilly have done with Flex 3.

Through it's Flex Cookbook website, Adobe invited users of the Flex 3 beta to post their own solutions for working with this technology, using O'Reilly's popular problem-solution-discussion format. Website monitors (and authors) Joshua Noble and Todd Anderson chose the most useful solutions for Flex 3 Cookbook.

This highly practical book contains more than 200 proven recipes for developing interactive Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 sites, including several contributed by Noble, Anderson, and other Flex experts. You'll find everything from Flex basics and working with menus and controls, to methods for compiling, deploying, and configuring Flex applications.

If you're interested in recording and streaming media using Flash Media Server 3 (FMS3) and Adobe's Real-Time Messaging Protocol, this 267-page PDF-only book is the perfect primer. web developers familiar with Flash Media Server 2 or Flash Communication Server 1.5 will quickly discover that FMS3 is a different animal. Each chapter in this step-by-step guide focuses on a specific aspect of the server and how to develop FMS3 applications with ActionScript 3.0 

If you're interested in recording and streaming media using Flash Media Server 3 (FMS3) and Adobe's Real-Time Messaging Protocol, this 267-page PDF-only book is the perfect primer. web developers familiar with Flash Media Server 2 or Flash Communication Server 1.5 will quickly discover that FMS3 is a different animal. Each chapter in this step-by-step guide focuses on a specific aspect of the server and how to develop FMS3 applications with ActionScript 3.0.

And this book, the 2nd edition of the critically-acclaimed Foundation Flash 8 Video, shows you how to make the most of video in Flash CS3. The authors start with the basics of creating video ready for use on the web using popular applications such as Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, creating FLV (Flash video) using both Flash and other applications such as Sorenson Squeeze, and importing that video into Flash.

With that out the way, then turn their attention to essential practical techniques such as creating and customizing video players, applying blends and filters to Flash Video, effective use of video alpha channel and masks, captioning, cue points, interactivity using the Camera object, going full screen, and much more.

All Flex applications look the same—a blue-gray background and silver-skinned components—right? That doesn't have to be the case, though. This book shows you how to ensure that your Flex 2 and 3 projects stand out from the crowd and provide your users with an application that is both visually stunning and beautifully functional.

Flex Builder coupled with the Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) is a powerful combination, providing all the tools you need to create compelling, vibrant interfaces. This book guides you through creating applications with Flex Builder, designing layouts in Fireworks, creating custom skins for your components in Photoshop and Illustrator, and using CSS to enhance the appearance of your rich Internet applications (RIAs).

You'll learn how to efficiently use and style states, enabling you to switch between "pages", thus adding real depth to your applications. Youll also learn how to build web forms that are intuitive to use, helping your users provide the information youre after.