Advanced Flex Application Development

Many Flex books cover the basics―this book does something different, and goes far further. The authors, leading Flash platform developers at Almer/Blank, working with Adobe User Group communities, are the creators of the Rich Media Exchange (RMX), a social media network for Adobe developers. In covering just how the RMX was built, this book contains all the knowledge you need to build similar large-scale rich Internet applications with Adobe Flex.

From the inception of the idea through to deployment, the authors show the techniques needed to plan and build advanced applications. You'll learn how to use forms, styles, validators, video, sound analysis, and framework caching, ensuring you make the most of the features introduced in Flex 3.

Powerful applications require solid back ends. This book shows how to hook up a Flex application to PHP back-end systems such as Drupal and OpenAds. You'll learn how various parts of the RMX were built, including the blogs, event calendar, jobs board, and advertising system―elements that come together to really showcase the power of Flex.

The RMX is built by Adobe developers for Adobe developers―a rewarding community relationship that guarantees results. The same spirit is carried into this book, with the authors wanting and helping to take you to the next level of Flash application development.

Chris Charlton is a software architect at Almer/Blank and an Adobe Flex champion. He is a CSS and ActionScript expert who successfully cannonballed into web development in the late 1990s and has been programming since childhood. Always caught up with the latest in Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and XML, Chris authored premium articles for the largest Dreamweaver/Flash community, DMXzone.com, and produced WebDevDesign, a popular web design and development podcast featured on iTunes. Somehow, Chris finds time to run an authorized Adobe user group, LA AIR, focused around open source and Adobe technologies. As a community leader, Chris remains a resident faculty member of the Rich Media Institute and lends himself to speak at large industry events, like JobStock, NAB, and FITC Hollywood. Brain cycles from Chris are always web standards, the Flash platform, and accessibility.