Flex 3 is the next generation of a technology that revolutionized web applications. It is the next evolutionary step of Flash, which has grown from a web animation medium to a powerful enterprise web design and development platform. With nearly 98% of all web browsers, and a growing number of mobile devices, running Flash Player, a knowledge of Flex is indispensible for any serious web developer.

This book will show you how to create powerful Rich Internet Applications using Flex 3. After learning how to install and becoming familiar with the basics of the Flex Builder 3 software, you will explore in depth how the Flash scripting language, ActionScript 3.0, interacts with Flex's powerful XML-like design language: MXML.

You'll learn how to construct your applications using layout and navigation containers, and how to move between various states using transitions. There is coverage of how best to plan your applications and use the Model-View-Controller pattern to keep various aspects of development separated and ease creation of potentially complicated projects.

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AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is Adobe’s open-source technology that lets Web developers and programmers create Rich Internet Applications that run outside of any Web browser. This Visual QuickPro Guide teaches everything you need to know to begin creating applications that combine the rich experience of a traditional desktop application with the power and reach of the Internet. The book uses a visual, step-by-step approach and covers all the fundamental AIR concepts, without the fluff, confusing segues, and technical jargon that bog down so many other computer books. Author Larry Ullman has a well-earned reputation for writing books that are accessible, easy-to-follow, and, above all, useful. This book focuses solely on developing AIR applications using HTML and JavaScript, although formal knowledge of JavaScript is not required. (more…)

Learn to program a Flash based Mp3 music player using Actionscript 3. The Features List (and roughly what's taught) includes…

-Dynamically load track locations from a text document (or simply write them in the Flash file). Easily update your player without republishing by simply editing file names (like "track1.mp3" ) in a text document.

-Use ID3 tags (embedded meta-data) in the MP3 file to display track name, artist, album and year. All this player requires is the location of your MP3 file, you do NOT have to specify the track info yourself.

-Change the audio balance by sliding between the left and right speakers. This is the first two types of sliders you'll learn to programm, the volume slider is the second.

-Minimize or Maximize the player (using that triangle in the bottom right). Switch the player to a more compact mode while not choosing tracks. You can decide how much you want to mask out.

- Spectrum bars animate based on highs and lows of the left and right speakers. Yes finally a player with working spectrum bars. You can adjust the visuals for this to look however you want.

-You always have the option to change the visual appearance of the player. Tint it, stretch it, brand it, do whatever you want to the player art.

-Drag it! The entire player can be repositioned by dragging the shell.

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Essential Skills–Made Easy!

Learn to program with Flex 3, the powerful tool for building multimedia-rich, interactive Flash applications for the Web. Flex 3: A Beginner's Guide is an easy-to-follow, fast-paced tutorial that allows you to fully grasp the fundamentals, including MXML, ActionScript, Flex Builder, states, transitions, and behaviors. You'll learn how to customize your applications with styles, skins, and themes; access remote data using the XML HTTP Service Request; profile and debug your applications; and manage media assets.

Designed for Easy Learning

• Key Skills & Concepts–Chapter-opening lists of specific skills covered in the chapter
• Ask the Experts–Q&A sections filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Try This–Short, hands-on exercises to practice your skills
• Notes–Bonus information related to the topic being covered
• Tips–Helpful reminders or alternate ways of doing things
• Cautions–Errors and pitfalls to avoid
• Annotated Syntax–Example code with commentary that describes the programming techniques being illustrated

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Learn to program with Flex 3, the powerful tool for building multimedia-rich, interactive Flash applications for the Web. Flex 3: A Beginner's Guide</em> is an easy-to-follow, fast-paced tutorial that allows you to fully grasp the fundamentals, including MXML, ActionScript, Flex Builder, states, transitions, and behaviors. You'll learn how to customize your applications with styles, skins, and themes; access remote data using the XML HTTP Service Request; profile and debug your applications; and manage media assets.

Designed for Easy Learning

• Key Skills & Concepts–Chapter-opening lists of specific skills covered in the chapter
• Ask the Experts–Q&A sections filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Try This–Short, hands-on exercises to practice your skills
• Notes–Bonus information related to the topic being covered
• Tips–Helpful reminders or alternate ways of doing things
• Cautions–Errors and pitfalls to avoid
• Annotated Syntax–Example code with commentary that describes the programming techniques being illustrated

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Learn How to Use XML to Create a Flash Based RSS Reader. Plus How to Export to Adobe Air!
Learn to parse RSS/XML files using ActionScript 3 and create your own custom readers for displaying the information.
You can connect up the reader with your own RSS feeds or Thousands more from other sites. Multiple Feeds are supported too.
The Flash reader can optionally display HTML tags, for example the reader to the right displays pictures because the source feed (Yahoo) includes image tags.
Example Flash files are provided for these two readers, but the design possibilities are limitless. You can choose how it can look to fit your site's style and brand.
This tutorial also includes a seperate movie file which describes how to update your version of Flash CS3 for creating an Adobe AIR Application. Ultimately the same RSS reader can be published as an installable application on your desktop.
This Lesson is compatible with Flash CS3

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From understanding the basics to creating advanced effects like explosions and smoke, ActionScript 3.0: Building Particle Systems covers each step involved in creating particles and building particle systems. Instructor Todd Perkins explains how to make a versatile particle class that controls particle movement, gravity, friction, spin, rotation, fading, scaling, and other movement effects. He also demonstrates how each unique particle system can be added to a real world application. Exercise files accompany the course.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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