The first book to completely demystify leading-edge component development with the Adobe Flex 3 platform ° How to build components for Flex and AIR applications using ActionScript 3.0 and Adobe's powerful MXML user interface markup language ° Covers expert techniques most books ignore, including component metadata, error handling, documentation, and creating Flex components in Flash using the Flex Component Kit ° By Mike Jones, world-renowned Flex development consultant and speaker Summary Adobe Flex 3 offers a powerful new framework that web developers can use to quickly produce richer, more immersive, higher-value solutions. To help developers build the most powerful next-generation web applications, Adobe structured the Flex framework around components, and allowed developers to extend Flex's capabilities with their own components. However, few Flex developers know how to create these custom components. Developing Flex Components is the first book to completely demystify that process. Renowned Flex developer and speaker Mike Jones begins by presenting a quick overview of Flex and Flex Builder aimed at ActionScript 3.0 Flash developers. Jones explains the anatomy of a Flex component, including both visual and non-visual components, and introduces the components that come with the Flex framework. Next, one step at a time, he walks through building new Flex components that leverage the platform's powerful capabilities and can be incorporated into both Flex and AIR applications. Jones covers topics that are rarely addressed in Flex books, including component metadata, events and error handling, data binding, skinning, styling, and creating Flex components in Flash using the Flex Component Kit. He also presents a full chapter on writing and maintaining component documentation, as well as an appendix of additional resources for Flex component developers.  

Table of Contents:
Preface xvii   PART I: OVERVIEW AND INSTALLATION Chapter 1  Getting Started     3 Flex     3    What Is Flex?     4    Flex SDK     4 Flex Development Versus Flash Authoring     5    Flash Builder Has No Drawing Tools or Timeline     5    Flex SWFs Are Massive    6    Flash Builder Has No Symbol Library     6 Flash Builder     6    What Does This Actually Mean to You?     7    Wrapping the Flex SDK     7    Installing Flash Builder     7    Downloading Flash Builder     8    Starting the Installation of Flash Builder    8 Launching Flash Builder     12 Creating Your First Project     12 Summary     16   Chapter 2  The Flex 4 Components     17 Components: A Potted History     17 Using Flex Components     19 Component Family Tree     20    Control Components     23    Navigator Components     31    Layout Components     34    Charting Components    37    AIR-Specific Components     37 Summary     39   Chapter 3  Anatomy of a Component     41 Component Life Cycle    41 Understanding the Structure     43    Component Constructor     44 Inherit, Composite, or Rolling Your Own     51 UIComponent     51    Something for Nothing     52    UIComponent for MXML     53 IMXMLObject     55 Template Components    56    Deferring Instantiation     56 Summary     60   PART II: DEVELOPING COMPONENTS   Chapter 4  Creating Your First Component     63 MyFirstComponent    63    Creating the Class    65    Core Component Methods     66    Adding Some Form     66    Showing Yourself Off    68    Testing It Out     69    This Belongs to Me     70    Sibling Rivalry     73 MyFirstComponent (Revised)     74    Distilling MyFirstComponent (Halo)     74    Slimming Down with MXML (Halo)     76    Distilling MyFirstComponent Down (Spark)     80    Weapon of Choice     82 Summary     82   Chapter 5  Managing States     83 What Are States?     83 Flex’s View States     84 Creating States in MXML    86    Assigning States    87    stateGroups    87 Working with States in ActionScript     90    Overrides     91    Creating and Destroying View States    98 Adding States to Components     101    Worth Noting    103 Summary     103   Chapter 6  Effects and Transitions     105 Effects     105    Effect Types     105 Working with Effects     111    Declaring Effects     111    Triggering Effects     111    Orchestrating Effects     114    Working with MotionPath and Keyframe     117 Transitions     119 Summary     123   Chapter 7  Working with Metadata     125 What Is Metadata?     125 How Do I Use Metadata?     126 Working with Metadata     128    Exposing Information About Your Component     128    Describing Events     131    Exposing Styles and Effects     132    Embedding Assets     133    Binding Data     134    Setting Defaults     135    Working with Skins     137    Excluding Component Attributes     138    Altering and Deprecating Properties and Classes     139    Providing an Icon     140    And the Rest     140 Metadata in MXML     140 Creating Your Own Metadata Tags     141    Are Metadata Tags Classes?     141 Summary     145   Chapter 8  Events and Event Handling     147 Why Events?     147    Subscribers Versus Watchers     147    Asynchronicity     148    Event Flow     148 Dispatching Events     150    Adding Event Listeners     152 Custom Events     152    Extending the Event Class     153    Cloning Events     154    Dealing with Event Priority     155    Event Priority Constants     155 Countering Events     156    Event Propagation     157    Prevent Defaults     158 Summary     159   Chapter 9  Manipulating Data     161 Defining Component Data     161 Data Providers     161    KISS     162 Managing Data     163    Collections     165 Displaying Data     177    Data Renderers     177    Rendering the UI     178    Linking itemRenders to External Data     178 Summary     185   Chapter 10  Skinning and Styling     187 Spark Versus Halo     187 Spark Skin Life Cycle     187 Where Do I Start?     189 Working with SkinnableComponent     189    partAdded(), partRemoved()     189    getCurrentSkinState()     192 Creating Component Skins     193 FXG and MXMLG     194    Creating a Component Skin     194    Drawing Nonlinear Content     198 Spark Skins and Halo Components     200 Working with Properties and Styles     202 Using CSS     202    Custom Namespaces     202    Descendant Selectors     203    ID Selectors     204    Pseudo Selectors     204 Summary     205   Chapter 11  Creating Flex Components with Flash Professional CS5     207 Picking a Starting Point     207    Starting with Flash Professional     207    Starting with Flash Builder 4     209 Implementing States     212 Implementing Transitions     213 Controlling Component Resizing     215    Bounding Boxes     216    External Manipulation     216 Creating Component Visual Assets     218    Putting It All Together     219    Adding the Transition Animations     220 Properties and Methods     220 Metadata     221 Events     222 Externalizing Component Classes     223 Container Components     226 Summary     227   PART III: DISTRIBUTION   Chapter 12  The Flex Library Project     231 Packaging Your Component     231 SWC Format     231    library.swf     232    catalog.xml     232    Locale     233    Assets     234 Working with the Flex Library Project     234    Creating a Flex Library Project     234    What If It All Goes Wrong     242 compc     242 Summary     243   Chapter 13  Component Integration in Flash Builder 4     245 Why Integrate with Flash Builder?     245 What Can I Integrate With?     246    Panel Integration     246    Design View Extensions     253 Live Previews     261 Setting Default Styles     262 Summary     263   Chapter 14  Documentation     265 Why Should I Document Code?     265    Last to the Party, First to Leave     265    Documentation Is Boring     266    My Code Is Easy to Read     266    OK I Get It, Enough Already     266 Commenting Your Code     266    Basic Comment Types     267    ASDoc Comment Blocks     267    ASDoc Tags     268    HTML Formatting     272    Special Characters     273    Metadata Comments     274    Documenting MXML     274    Bypassing Documentation     275 Generating Your Documentation     276    Command-Line Document Generation     276    Generating Documentation in Flash Builder     277    Getting to Grips with Ant     281 Summary     288   Appendix A  Flex Resources     291 Blogs     291    Adobe Blogs     291    Independent Blogs     292    Resource Sites     292 Frameworks     293 Useful Tools and Extensions     293    Adobe Tools     294    Third-Party Tools     294 Logwatcher     294    Regular Expression Tools     294   Index     295