I’m currently working on my next book, Effortless Flex 4 Development. This is an entirely new title for me and my first full-length book on Flex. It’ll be published by New Riders, which is a sister publisher to Peachpit Press, that I normally work with. Most of the books I’ve written have been in the Visual QuickStart/QuickPro Guide series, which has a scripted format. This book will not be, so you won’t see the step-by-step instructions everywhere (there will be some) or the two-column format. I just submitted the third chapter, so I’ve now written about 90 pages or so, approximately one-quarter of the book. Here’s the rough table of contents, for those that are interested.The book is structured in three roughly-equal parts. The first part discusses the absolute basics: the framework, the tools, creating basic applications, user interface elements, ActionScript, and events. The second part of the book focuses on data and client-server communications. This includes: the different data formats; displaying, formatting, and validating data in the client; and then retrieving data from the server. All of the server examples will use PHP and you’ll see the PHP code, the underlying database structure, and the MXML/ActionScript involved. The emphasis here will be on lots of real-world examples using all the different formats and likely actions (e.g., posting to PHP, retrieving XML from a server, using AMF, and so forth). The third part of the book rounds out the application development know-how. There are two primary threads in these chapters: UI improvements (menus, skins, styles, effects, etc.) and development process improvements (modularization, profiling, etc.)
So, with that in mind, here’s what I’m working with for starters. It’ll undoubtedly change and there are a few things I want to fit in somewhere, like accessibility. As always, any thoughts, questions, and suggestions are most welcome!
Introduction
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Part 1: The Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Building Flex Applications
A Survey of the Parts
Using Flash Builder
A Cheaper, Slower Alternative
Deploying Applications
Getting Help
Chapter 2: Basic User Interface Elements
Application Layouts
Simple Controls
Creating Forms
Chapter 3: The ActionScript You Need to Know
Data Binding
Syntax
Comments
Simple Data Types
Control Structures
Arrays
Creating Functions
Best practices
Chapter 4: Event Management
The Event Phases
User Events
Application Events
Handling Events with ActionScript
Preventing Events
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Part 2: Data and Communications
Chapter 5: Common Data Formats
XML
JSON
AMF
Chapter 6: Simple Local Data Interactions
Displaying Data
Formatting Data
Validating Data
Using Local Data Files
Chapter 7: Simple Remote Data Interactions
Sending and Retrieving Text (HTTPService)
Sending and Retrieving XML (HTTPService)
Sending and Retrieving JSON (HTTPService)
Chapter 8: Smarter Remote Data Interactions
WebServices/SOAP/WSDL
RemoteObjects/AMF
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Part 3: Application Development
Chapter 9: Modularization
Creating Custom Components
Using Modules
Using Runtime Shared Libraries
Chapter 10: Creating a Fuller Experience
Menus
Navigation
View States
Creating Histories
Deep Linking
Accessibility
Chapter 11: Windows and Popups
Alerts
Popups
ToolTips
Changing Window Behavior
Chapter 12: Improving the Appearance
Multimedia
Style Sheets
Skins
Chapter 13: Effects and More Events
Effects
Drag and Drop
Custom Events
Chapter 14: Testing and Deploying
Testing Techniques
Profiling an Application
Improving Performance
Network Monitoring
Customizing the Deployment