AdvancED Flex Application Development: Building Rich Media X Review

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(More customer reviews)Is it worth buying? Yes, I think so. It's got something for everyone. But especially if you manage a user's group, are dealing with aggregating media and content, or doing something that relies on advertising and traffic. While they do not cover eCommerce in this book specifically, this is a really plus if you are building an eCommerce site in Flex. It outlines how to enhance a Flex-based online store. It covers SEO, OpenAds, and how to monetize your site. That information alone is worth the price of the book. RIAs are great, RIAs that make business better are a real step beyond.

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Adobe's Flex (currently in version 2 with version 3 following at the end of the year) is one of today's hottest technologies for building web applications, and this unique book provides a practical guide to planning and building a professional Flex application from start to finish (the application is Rich Media X, a popular Adobe user group community/social networking site.)Written by some of the world's foremost Flex experts, AdvancED Flex Application Development provides step-by-step instructions to implementing all the most essential web 2.0 application features. It is one of the first professional level Flex books available, and one of the first to feature PHP/MySQL integration with Flex, a very sought after skill. It will also be one of the first books available to support Flex 3.

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Google Web Toolkit Solutions: More Cool & Useful Stuff Review

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(More customer reviews)I've tried at length to obtain the source code used in the book. Geary leaves it to the user to acquire the addons that he uses in his examples. Yes I've tried going the Safari route. Without signing up for a "90 day free then we charge you big" trial, you won't have any luck. I also read the previous post where he mentioned that he obtained the code from the website. If you go there now, the code has been pulled so I'm back to being forced to sign up for Safari which I won't do. I did read through the examples and do what I could. Instead of this book, I'd recommend "Google Web Toolkit Applications" by Dewsbury. The examples may not be as advanced as these, but at least you can run them.

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Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java development framework for building Ajax-enabled web applications. Instead of the hodgepodge of technologies that developers typically use for Ajax–JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and XMLHttpRequest–GWT lets developers implement rich client applications with pure Java, using familiar idioms from the AWT, Swing, and SWT. GWT goes beyond most Ajax frameworks by making it easy to build desktop-like applications that run in the ubiquitous browser, where the richness of the user interface is limited only by the developer's imagination.

This book focuses on the more advanced aspects of GWT that you need to implement real-world applications with rich user interfaces but without the heavy lifting of JavaScript and other Ajax-related technologies. Each solution in this practical, hands-on book is more than a recipe. The sample programs are carefully explained in detail to help you quickly master advanced GWT techniques, such as implementing drag-and-drop, integrating JavaScript libraries, and using advanced event handling methodologies.

Solutions covered include
• Building custom GWT widgets, including both high-level composites and low-level components
• Implementing a viewport class that includes iPhone-style automated scrolling
• Integrating web services with GWT applications
• Incorporating the Script.aculo.us JavaScript framework into GWT applications
• Combining Hibernate and GWT to implement database-backed web applications
• Extending the GWT PopupPanel class to implement a draggable and resizable window
• Creating a drag-and-drop module, complete with drag sources and drop targets
• Deploying GWT applications to an external server
• Dynamically resizing flex tables
• Using GWT widgets in legacy applications developed with other frameworks, such as Struts and JavaServer Faces

Complete Sample Code Available at www.coolandusefulgwt.com

All of the code used in this book has been tested, both in hosted and web modes, and in an external version of Tomcat (version 5.5.17), under Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. For Windows and Linux, we used 1.4.60, and for the Mac we used 1.4.61. NOTE: There are three separate versions of the code. Please download the correct JAR file for the operating system you are using.


Foreword xiii
Preface xvi
Acknowledgments xviii
About the Authors xix

Solution 1: GWT Fundamentals and Beyond 1
Solution 2: JavaScript Integration 53
Solution 3: Custom Widget Implementation 71
Solution 4: Viewports and Maps 103
Solution 5: Access to Online Web Services 133
Solution 6: Drag and Drop 167
Solution 7: Simple Windows 199
Solution 8: Flex Tables 237
Solution 9: File Uploads 283
Solution 10: Hibernate Integration 303
Solution 11: Deployment to an External Server 325
Solution 12: GWT and Legacy Code 343
Index 371

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The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide: For Developers and Designers Using Flash: For Developers and Designers Using Flash CS4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was browsing at Borders at Park Ave and 57th, where they had exactly one copy of this. I'd heard of this book but hadn't seen it yet--it was announced over the summer but O'Reilly kept delaying publication so the book could be current with Flash CS4. I looked up a few items in the ToC and index, and went straight to the checkout queue. I had to have this book right away! even if Amazon could sell it to me cheaper!
Okay, why is the book good? I've spent more time with it now. I'll give you my three biggest reasons:
1) It's readable. It really is. It's friendly and accessible. Did you ever enjoy those juvenile histories and biographies and How-and-Why science books that started out with something like, "Hi! This is a fun book, and we're going to take you on a fun journey, step-by-step. This is a great subject to be interested in! Aren't you happy? Well, we are!!!"?
Well, did you like books like that? I did, and I've always resented scholarly and technical books that didn't introduce themselves along those lines. So many of them are written like resentful documentation: "Go away. We hate you. This is only for ugly, squirrelly, socially backward people like US."
This book is overtly addressed to users of ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, and those already using 3.0; to artists, designers, and developers of all stripes. It's all-inclusive. Like Rich Shupe's Learning ActionScript 3.0, it has a friendly, hand-holding attitude that goes through the length of the book.
2) A personal obsession: this book has a good section on how to write XML loaders that use HTML. This is a very poorly documented area of Flash. The ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook had a little bit on it, but the explanation was hard to follow and the code was buggy.
3) Another personal interest: SWF loaders and unloaders. This is the first book I've seen that tells you how to unload both the thing loaded and the "event listener" that keeps sitting there, using up processor time and space.
The book is also current with the less traditional Flash-related technologies, such as FlashDevelop and Flex.

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"No matter what your background, the pages that follow will provide you with some excellent knowledge, insight, and even a little bit of wisdom in the realm of Flash and ActionScript. Happy learning!" -- Branden Hall, from the Foreword Written by Flash insiders with extensive knowledge of the technology, this guide is designed specifically to help Flash designers and developers make the leap from ActionScript 2.0 to the new object-oriented ActionScript 3.0 quickly and painlessly. Formatted so you can find any topic easily, ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide explains:

Object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, such as packages and classes
ActionScript 3.0 features and player enhancements that improve performance
Workflow differences between ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 including tools, code editing, component sets, and image and font rendering
Where did it go? A guide to help you find familiar features in ActionScript 3.0, such as global functions, operators, properties, and statements
How do I? Step-by-step solutions for performing tasks with ActionScript 3.0, including input, sound, video, display, events, text, and more

Also included are overviews of Flash and ActionScript features and workflows. ActionScript 3.0 is a huge upgrade to Flash's programming language -- and this guide helps you upgrade your skills to match it.

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