Flex Getting Started Guide

When I order software I typically try and find a download, inventory at a local store, or some other super quick way of ending up with the software. Unfortunately when I try and get software at the education rate sometimes I have to jump through hoops to prove my eligibility and usually the option of downloading software is not available. So in typical education fashion I ordered Flex Builder 2 after my trial had run out from an online education retailer, I had to wait a couple days but the book Getting Started with Flex 2 was well worth the wait.

I don't like reading books or reference material on my screen so even though Adobe has published some great content for Flex developers I don't see myself using any of it until I get my hands on a printed copy. This little Getting Started guide was much more than installation instructions and license agreement that I usually get with boxed software and actually proved to have tons of great information and workable examples.

Of course the book could not be comprehensive but being just 245 pages as opposed to the typical 600+ pages of the typical computer book I read it in just a few days and felt much better prepared to develop flex applications and pick some good projects and features that I wanted to work on. This book covered 20 topics fairly well and the following topics proved to be the most interesting and useful for me.

Ch4 Buildinga Flex Data Services Application
Ch5 Using Flex Charting Components
Ch9 Retrieve and Display Data
Ch10 Create a Constraint-based layout
Ch11 Use List-based Form Controls
Ch12 Use an Event Listener
Ch13 Use View States and Transitions
Ch17 Debugging an application
Ch18 Use Web Services

This book was very well written and because of its small size it was very quick to get to the point of each topic discussed. I would highly recommend to anyone looking at starting Flex Builder Development to buy the boxed version of the software so that you will have this great introductory and tutorial of a book.