ActionScript Books

Getting Started with Flex 3

Getting Start with Flex 3 An Adobe Developer Library Pocket Guide for Developers
By Jack Herrington, Emily Kim
Compiled by Adobe Development Team
First Edition June 2008
Pages: 143
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52064-6 | ISBN 13: 9780596520649

Discover how easy RIA development can be with this one-of-a-kind handbook from the Adobe Developer Library. Several clear, step-by-step mini-tutorials teach you about web services, event handling, designing user interfaces with reusable components, and more. After finishing this guide, you'll be able to build Flash applications ranging from widgets to full-featured RIAs using the Flex SDK and Flex Builder 3.0. With Getting Started with Flex 3, you will:
Walk through sample RIA projects and see examples of amazing applications people have built with Flex
Work with ActionScript 3.0 and the MXML markup language
Build user interfaces using the controls and tools available with the framework
Get a tour of controls available commercially and through open source
Learn how Flex integrates with ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP, and J2EE in the server
Build Flex-based widgets that let you display real-time data
Use advanced controls to build 3D graphs, data dashboards, mapping applications, and more
You'll find complete code for video players, a slideshow, a chat client, and an RSS reader, just to name a few. You also get plenty of tips, tricks, and techniques to leverage your existing programming skills, whether you come from an open source or Visual Studio-intensive background.

Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook
Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers

Adobe Flex 2: Training from the Source By David Tucker, Marco Casario, Koen De Weggheleire, Rich Tretola
November 2008
Pages: 446
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52250-9 | ISBN 13: 9780596522506

The hands-on recipes in this cookbook help you solve a variety of tasks and scenarios often encountered when using Adobe AIR to build Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. Thoroughly vetted by Adobe's AIR development team, Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook addresses fundamentals, best practices, and more. If you want to learn the nuances of Adobe AIR to build innovative applications, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Thoroughly vetted by Adobe's AIR development team, Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook addresses fundamentals, best practices, and topics that web developers and application designers inquire about most. The hands-on recipes in this cookbook help you solve a variety of tasks and scenarios you may encounter using Adobe AIR to build Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. It's an ideal way to learn the nuances of Adobe AIR, with practical solutions you can use right away, and detailed explanations of why and how they work. These recipes will help you:
Build an AIR application with Flex, Flash, or HTML and Ajax
Create a database and connect it to your application
Put together native menus for PCs and Macs
Work with the Service Monitor Framework
Utilize the Adobe AIR Update Framework
Create branded desktop experiences with custom chrome and custom application icons
Distribute your AIR application with the Seamless Install Badge

And more. Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook includes dozens of recipes from rising stars in the AIR development community-David Tucker, Rich Tretola, Marco Casario, and Koen De Weggheleire-along with the best solutions posted by visitors to the Adobe AIR Cookbook community website hosted by Adobe and O'Reilly (www.adobe.com/go/air_cookbook). If you're ready to expand your skill set with Adobe AIR, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source

Adobe Flex 2: Training from the Source By Jeff Tapper, Mike Labriola, Matthow Boles, James Talbot, Foreword by Matt Chotin, Flex Product Manager
Published by Adobe Press.
ISBN-10: 0-321-52918-9;
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-52918-3;

Part of the Adobe Training from the Source series, the official curriculum from Adobe, developed by experienced trainers. Using project-based tutorials, this book/CD volume is designed to teach the techniques needed to create sophisticated, professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. This title covers the new development framework for Rich Internet Applications, Adobe Flex 3. In the course of the book, the reader will build several Web applications using Flex Builder and incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0.

Flex 3 Cookbook

Code-Recipes, Tips, and Tricks for RIA Developers
By Joshua Noble, Todd Anderson
First Edition May 2008
Pages: 704
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52985-6 | ISBN 13: 9780596529857
Press Release

This highly practical book contains more than 300 proven recipes for developing interactive Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 sites. You'll find everything from Flex basics and working with menus and controls, to methods for compiling, deploying, and configuring Flex applications. Each recipe features a discussion of how and why it works, and many of them offer sample code that you can put to use immediately.
Full Description

The best way to showcase a powerful new technology is to demonstrate its real-world results, and that's exactly what this new Cookbook does with Adobe Flex 3.

Wide ranging and highly practical, Flex 3 Cookbook contains more than 300 proven recipes for developing interactive Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0 sites. You'll find everything from Flex basics, to solutions for working with visual components and data access, to tips on application development, unit testing, and using Adobe AIR.

You also get ideas from the development community. Through its Flex Cookbook website (www.adobe.com/devnet/), Adobe invited Flex developers to post their own solutions for working with this technology, and from hundreds of posts, the authors chose the best and most useful solutions to supplement Flex 3 Cookbook.

Each recipe inside provides a solution to a common problem, explains how and why it works, and offers sample code that you can put to use immediately. Topics include:

Containers and dialogues Working with Text Data driven components DataGrid and Advanced DataGrid ItemRenderers and Editors Images, bitmaps, videos, and sounds CSS, styling, and skinning States and effects Working with Collections, arrays, and DataProviders Using DataBinding Validation, formatting, and regular expressions Using Charts and data visualization Services and Data Access Using RSLs and Modules Working with Adobe AIR

Whether you're a committed Flex developer or still evaluating the technology, you'll discover how to get quick results with Flex 3 using the recipes in this Cookbook. It's an ideal way to jumpstart your next web application.

Essential ActionScript 3.0

Title: Essential ActionScript 3.0
First Edition: June 2007
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52694-6
ISBN 13: 9780596526948
Pages: 946

More than two years in the making, ActionScript 3.0 presents perhaps the most substantial upgrade to Flash's programming language ever. The enhancements to ActionScript's performance, feature set, ease of use, cleanliness, and sophistication are simply staggering. Revolutionary improvements abound. Essential ActionScript 3.0 is an update to Essential ActionScript 2.0, once again focusing on the core language and object-oriented programming with some coverage of the Flash Player API. Approximately half of the book focuses on the new features and functionality of ActionScript 3.0, while the rest focuses on changes between the 2 and 3 releases.

ActionScript 3.0 is a huge upgrade to Flash's programming language. The enhancements to ActionScript's performance, feature set, ease of use, cleanliness, and sophistication are considerable. Essential ActionScript 3.0 focuses on the core language and object-oriented programming, along with the Flash Player API. Essential ActionScript has become the #1 resource for the Flash and ActionScript development community, and the reason is the author, Colin Moock. Many people even refer to it simply as "The Colin Moock book."

And for good reason: No one is better at turning ActionScript inside out, learning its nuances and capabilities, and then explaining everything in such an accessible way. Colin Moock is not just a talented programmer and technologist; he's also a gifted teacher.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 is a radically overhauled update to Essential ActionScript 2.0. True to its roots, the book once again focuses on the core language and object-oriented programming, but also adds a deep look at the centerpiece of Flash Player's new API: display programming. Enjoy hundreds of brand new pages covering exciting new language features, such as the DOM-based event architecture, E4X, and namespaces--all brimming with real-world sample code.

The ActionScript 3.0 revolution is here, and Essential ActionScript 3.0's steady hand is waiting to guide you through it.

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns

Title: ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns
Subtitle: Object Oriented Programming Techniques
First Edition: July 2007
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52846-9
ISBN 13: 9780596528461
Pages: 532

If you're an experienced Flash or Flex developer ready to tackle sophisticated programming techniques with ActionScript 3.0, this hands-on introduction to design patterns takes you step by step through the process. You learn about various types of design patterns and construct small abstract examples before trying your hand at building full-fledged working applications outlined in the book.

Now that ActionScript is reengineered from top to bottom as a true object-oriented programming (OOP) language, reusable design patterns are an ideal way to solve common problems in Flash and Flex applications. If you're an experienced Flash or Flex developer ready to tackle sophisticated programming techniques with ActionScript 3.0, this hands-on introduction to design patterns is the book you need.

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns takes you step by step through the process, first by explaining how design patterns provide a clear road map for structuring code that actually makes OOP languages easier to learn and use. You then learn about various types of design patterns and construct small abstract examples before trying your hand at building full-fledged working applications outlined in the book. Topics in ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns include:
Key features of ActionScript 3.0 and why it became an OOP language
OOP characteristics, such as classes, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism
The benefits of using design patterns
Creational patterns, including Factory and Singleton patterns
Structural patterns, including Decorator, Adapter, and Composite patterns
Behavioral patterns, including Command, Observer, Strategy, and State patterns
Multiple design patterns, including Model-View-Controller and Symmetric Proxy designs
During the course of the book, you'll work with examples of increasing complexity, such as an e-business application with service options that users can select, an interface for selecting a class of products and individual products in each class, an action game application, a video record and playback application, and many more. Whether you're coming to Flash and Flex from Java or C++, or have experience with ActionScript 2.0, ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns will have you constructing truly elegant solutions for your Flash and Flex applications in no time.

Programming to Flex 2

Title: Programming Flex 2
By Chafic Kazoun, Joey Lott
First Edition: April 2007
ISBN 10: 0-596-52689-X
ISBN 13: 9780596526894
Pages: 502

You want to become a master of Flex? You don’t know where to start?
“Programming Flex2” by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott is the right book for that..
Inside this book you will find everything about MXML and ActionScript3, how to gain deeper knowledge in Flex 2 Framework and Flex Builder 2. You can find excellent introduction of core of the Flash Player, Action Script Virtual machine (AVM2) and Framework Fundamentals. Chapter 15 is like a window for understanding “…how Flex works at a more fundamental level” and basic MXML application startup event flow., relationship between the Flex framework and Flash Player., application domains and preloader.
The authors don’t miss anything that beginner or developer needs for building his application and explain many mechanisms for performing application layout rapidly and efficiency. Also they cover advanced components techniques like adding pop ups, managing the cursor, adding drag and drop behavior, customizing list-based components, focus management and keyboard controls. If you want to gain deeper imagination in the power of Flash Player in adding images, animations, video and audio you have to look at the Chapter 9, where you can find all necessary codes for loading, embedding and streaming video or audio in Flex applications.
The book is written in flexible manner and includes all the tools to manage all features of application. The book “Programming Flex 2” not only for beginners but also for Flex developer masters.�

Order “Programming Flex2” by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott just now! In the short time you will learn how to: build, deploy and debug rich internet applications, use the powerful MXML language to lay out applications, update your applications in real time, build custom UI components with MXML and ActionScript, connect to live data via XML, SOAP=based Web services and Remoting.

Programming Flex 2 discusses the Flex framework in context. The authors introduce features with practical and useful examples that tell the reader not only how, but also the reasons why to use a particular feature, when to use it, and when not to. This book is written for development professionals. While the book does not assume the audience has worked with Flash technologies previously, readers will benefit from the book most if they have previously built web-based, n-tiered applications.

This book is part of the official Adobe Developer Library series.

Is there an easier way to build and deliver rich internet applications (RIAs) other than the Flash IDE or Ajax? Absolutely. With Adobe Flex 2, the Flex 2 SDK, and this book, you have all you need to build RIAs. Programming Flex 2 offers you plenty of practical and useful examples that reveal how and why to use a particular feature of Flex 2, and when and when not to.

As part of the Adobe Developer Library, Programming Flex 2 is the authoritative guide to this new Adobe framework. You learn to use a markup language called MXML and a vast library of off-the-shelf and highly-configurable components to build Flash-based applications that combine the immediacy of the Web with the functionality and responsiveness of desktop applications. You also discover why -- with the Flash Player runtime environment and the powerful ActionScript 3.0 programming language -- the possibilities with Flex 2 are nearly limitless.

Topics include:

Managing Layout
Working with Components
Working with Media
Managing State
Using Transitions and Effects
Working with Data
Customizing Application Appearance
Client Data Communication and Remote Data Communication
Debugging Flex Framework Applications
Creating Custom Components
Flex may be easier to learn than the Flash IDE, but you still need a reliable guide to the framework. Programming Flex 2 not only serves as a reference, but provides valuable and practical insight into this new technology. As you learn how to build Flex applications, you'll also discover how Flex works. This book supplies all the information you need in one convenient place.

ActionScript 3 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training

ActionScript 3 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training
By Todd Perkins
ISBN: 0321293908

When Flash Player 9 released in June 2006, it introduced the new scripting language, ActionScript 3, which has already taken hold in the Adobe Flex application development community. In its latest release, Flash CS3 incorporates this new and much improved upon language into its development environment, giving Flash authors more flexibility than ever before. Now, they just need to learn how to use it and get started quickly. For the first time, the Flash experts at Lynda.com have poured their training expertise into this exciting book release. ActionScript 3 in Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training teaches readers all they need to know to get up and running with ActionScript 3 in Flash. It covers all the essentials and new features, including the brand new ActionScript debugger that allows users to step through a wide variety of properties in their code at runtime, with greater flexibility and feedback. Readers will also learn modern Web design and workflow techniques for developing their projects successfully with Flash using ActionScript 3. Accompanied by a CD-ROM loaded with classroom-proven exercises and QuickTime training videos, this book ensures readers will master the key features of ActionScript 3 in no time. Now that Flash is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, Web Standard, and Design Premium packages, there is an even greater need for the clear, step-by-step approach this book offers.

Introduction to Flex 2

PDF details
Title: Introduction to Flex 2
Subtitle: An O'Reilly PDF Short Cut for Those New to Adobe Flex 2
First Edition: February 2007
Series: Short Cut
Format: PDF
ISBN 10: 0-596-55003-0
ISBN 13: 9780596550035
Pages: 88

PDF description
This Short Cut is all about getting up and running with Adobe Flex 2; a perfect title would be "(Almost) Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know about Flex 2 But Were Afraid to Ask." It consists of conversational instruction, along with demonstrative examples, in order to give developers an efficient grounding in how to get their arms around using Flex 2. Especially helpful for those coming from the Flex/AS/Flash universe, but also designed for those coming from Java, .Net, and elsewhere.

Six small sections cover:

Quick background on Flex 2
What's new in ActionScript 3.0
How to use Flex right out of the box (so to speak)
"Making It Look Good": Design and UI issues
Extending Flex
Little-known features and capabilities

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers

By Joey Lott, Darron Schall, Keith Peters
First Edition October 2006
Pages: 586

Well before Ajax and Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation hit the scene, Macromedia offered the first method for building web pages with the responsiveness and functionality of desktop programs with its Flash-based "Rich Internet Applications". Now, new owner Adobe is taking Flash and its powerful capabilities beyond the Web and making it a full-fledged development environment.
Rather than focus on theory, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook concentrates on the practical application of ActionScript, with more than 300 solutions you can use to solve a wide range of common coding dilemmas. You'll find recipes that show you how to:

Detect the user's Flash Player version or their operating system
Build custom classes
Format dates and currency types
Work with strings
Build user interface components
Work with audio and video
Make remote procedure calls using Flash Remoting and web services
Load, send, and search XML data
And much, much more ...
Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code. Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future, along with possible design choices and ramifications. You'll even learn how to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flex 2 and Flash applications.

When you're not sure how ActionScript 3.0 works or how to approach a specific programming dilemma, you can simply pick up the book, flip to the relevant recipe(s), and quickly find the solution you're looking for.

Adobe Flex 2: Training from the Source

Adobe Flex 2: Training from the Source By Jeff Tapper, Matt Boles, James Talbot, Ben Elmore, Mike Labriola.
Published by Adobe Press.

Part of the Adobe Training from the Source series, the official curriculum from Adobe, developed by experienced trainers. Using project-based tutorials, this book/CD volume is designed to teach the techniques needed to create sophisticated, professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. This title covers the new development framework for Rich Internet Applications, Adobe Flex 2. In the course of the book, the reader will build several Web applications using Flex Builder and incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0.

Macromedia Flash 8 ActionScript: Training from the Source

Macromedia Flash 8 ActionScript: Training from the Source By: Jobe Makar and Danny atterson;
ISBN: 0321336194; Published: Jan 24, 2006; Copyright 2006; Dimensions 7 X 9; Pages: 536; Edition: 1st.

As any Flash developer worth his or her salt knows, you are not tapping all of the programs power unless you are taking advantage of its scripting language. Not to worry: With Flash 8 is improved scripting language (which includes a visual interface!) and this project-based guide you do not have to be a master programmer to do so. In these pages best-selling authors Derek Franklin and Jobe Makar with Danny Patterson, Member of Team Macromedia Flash, use hands-on lessons and simple, step-by-step instructions to translate real-life activities into scripts, in the process demonstrating that scripting is something you already instinctively know how to do. To that end, the authors have provided methodologies and techniques for building nearly 40 real-life Flash 8 ActionScript projects, including sample games, wireless applications, Web sites, and more�all of which will help you work faster and more efficiently. The companion CD contains all of the project files and images you will need to complete the books lessons. See Review

Essential ActionScript 2.0

Essential ActionScript 2.0 By: Colin Moock;
Pages: 500; Edition: 1st., Published 2004.

In September 2003, Macromedia released Flash MX 2004, and with it, ActionScript 2.0, a dramatically improved version of Flash is programming language. ActionScript 2.0 introduces a formal object-oriented programming syntax and methodology for creating Flash applications. From a developers perspective, the new OOP-based techniques in ActionScript 2.0 make applications more natural to plan and conceptualize, more stable, more reusable across projects, easier to maintain, change, and expand upon, and much more. In short, they enhance the entire development process