Denver RIA Developers Group inspiring the Flex community

- On www.totaltraining.com you can use 2 online tutorials about Flex.

- The book Flex Solutions by Marco Casario is a good one.

- The other one: Flex 2 with action Script 3.0 by Charles E. Brown will lead you throughout  development of an application.

I also liked Action Script 3 cookbook, and essential ActionScript.

Totaltraining looks good, never used it, ditto for the lynda.com stuff.

Also conferences like webManiacs and 360|Flex are pretty economical ways to get up to speed pretty quick.

Programming Flex 2 by O'Reilly is also a good read.

I always recommend starting with Flex.org. This site will get you started correctly. Use the Flex Builder trial, it will help you learn the language with all of its code hinting and error messages.

Once you are going, then look at lots of sample apps. Specifically, the Flex Component Explorer. This will show you lots of samples all at once. You can find a link to it from the Flex Start page in Flex Builder.

Once you've built an app or two, start to think about frameworks. That's a whole other post!

There is one Podcast that I know of by Jeff Houser, The Flex Show.

I've really enjoyed SYS-CON's "Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex & Java", especially since it is written for the more experienced developer. Make sure you bookmark the Flex 3 Style Explorer for any CSS/skin customization, and use FXSpy where you might have used Firebug for HTML/JavaScript debugging.

I've also learned a lot by trolling through the following blogs:

• Doug McCune
• Mac Martine
• Matt Chotin
• Peter Ent
• Quietly Scheming
• Ted on Flex
• Tink
• WS-Blog

Wonder if there's a way to have a blogroll or something on this site to capture other valuable resources?

Christiaan

Awesome links, Rob... thank you!  I really like that component explorer... very cool way to learn about all the various things that can be done!

I'm also extremely new to the Flex world, but am trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible as well.  Nam - there are also lengthy sets of video tutorials on Lynda.com and VTC.com.  I'm currently subscribing to both as I test things out, and I'd love to stay subscribed to both, but if & when I whittle it down to one, I think Lynda.com is looking like my personal fave.  Here's a cut & paste of what they have for Flex:

Another side note - if you decide to use the DVD tutorials from TotalTraining, I found the video to be absolutely unwatchable due to constant stuttering, stops & starts, and sync issues between audio and video playback.  Yep... that's from the DVD, not online streaming!  According to their website, they're having trouble making their video tutes work properly with Leopard (and then imply that perhaps the computer you're using is too old & slow!).  I've found a workaround which involves a bit of effort, but allows you to watch the videos:  Skip the install of their viewer application... instead, when you pop in the DVD, show invisibles in the Finder, then on the DVD navigate to TFX2RIA/VIDEO/, and in there you'll find a bunch of folders labeled by lesson number (L01, L02, L03, etc...), each containing the appropriate videos (flv format).  I just copied that "VIDEO" folder to my machine so that I could watch without the DVD, and without constantly showing/hiding invisible files.

Good luck... hope this helps someone!

Here are some links for ActionScript 3 and Flex. I'm still learning which is why I have all this information!

I don't think anyone mentioned this one:

Adobe Developer Connection ActionScript Technology Center http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/

They have tons of great articles, tutorials, heavy duty documentation, etc

The Joey Lott presentations on ActionScript 3 on Lynda are pretty good. But, he does use some conventions that drive me nuts (like the curly brace on the same line as the function name- EVIL).

And then there are the books- some of these were already briefly mentioned, but here they are with all the details so you can easily find them:

Essential ActionScript 3.0     by Colin Moock
Publisher: O'Reilly    Pub Date: June 15, 2007
Print ISBN-10: 0-596-52694-6     Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-652694-8
Pages: 946

Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns      by Joey Lott, Danny Patterson
Publisher: Adobe Press      Pub Date: November 02, 2006
Print ISBN-10: 0-321-42656-8     Print ISBN-13: 978-0-321-42656-7 

Programming Flex^TM 2     by Chafic Kazoun; Joey Lott
Publisher: O'Reilly     Pub Date: April 15, 2007
Print ISBN-10: 0-596-52689-X     Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-652689-4
Pages: 502 

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook     by Joey Lott; Keith Peters; Darron Schall
Publisher: O'Reilly     Pub Date: October 01, 2006
Print ISBN-10: 0-596-52695-4     Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-652695-5
Pages: 592

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns     by William B. Sanders; Chandima Cumaranatunge
Publisher: O'Reilly     Pub Date: July 01, 2007
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-652846-1
Pages: 532

There's also the LiveDocs site for ActionScript: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=Part6_ProgAS_1.html

Happy learning,
William

Nam: www.on3solutions.com is opening an Adobe Authorized Training Center in Denver. You can download a training class schedule at this URL: http://www.on3solutions.com/training. True, the classes aren't free, but, your time is valuable too.

I reccomend taking the http://www.on3solutions.com/training/course-pricing/flex-3-developing-rich-internet-applications class.

Please let me know if I can answer any questions about On3. Scott Guthmann

I've come across a really good printed magazine that comes with a CD called "Flash & Flex." The URL for the magazine is www.ffdmag.com.

- Mel

Did anyone mention Flex in a week? http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/

Jeremy Mitchell
jeremy@flexdevelopers.com