Book Image

Flex 3 with Java

Book Image

Flex 3 with Java

Overview of this book

Flex 3 is a great technology for developing Rich Internet Applications for the Web as well as for the desktop. If you are a developer looking to design great-looking and sophisticated user interfaces that resemble desktop-based applications, and want to utilize an existing server technology such as Java to develop RIAs, this book is for you. Targeting developers who want to get started with Adobe Flex 3 programming, this simple and clear handbook introduces Flex technology quickly and straightforwardly. Utilizing your existing knowledge of Java, it gives you the insight and hands-on experience to program with Flex 3. This book provides comprehensive information on various aspects of Flex 3 and ActionScript 3.0. These include developing simple applications, handling events, creating custom components and events, using RPC services, integration with Java and BlazeDS, styling and formatting, and how to package and deploy Flex applications. You will start with downloading, installing and configuring Flex 3 SDK and Flex Builder 3 and learn basic concepts such as what MXML and ActionScript are, understanding UI components, controls, compilers, and more. Further you will develop simple applications and slowly advance into more depth where you will learn advanced concepts such as creating custom components, debugging, integrating with Java, using RPC services, styling, internationalizing, and deploying Flex applications, and more. One of the things you're really going to love about this book is that you will develop a full-blown e-commerce application using a combination of Flex 3, ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS 3.2, and Java. At the end of the book you will have the knowledge and experience needed to develop Rich Internet Applications.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Flex 3 with Java
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
8
Communicating with Server-side Java

ActionScript 3.0 language features


The ActionScript 3.0 language has been architecturally and conceptually improved in many ways since its previous 1.0 and 2.0 versions. ActionScript 3.0 not only delivers on object-oriented concepts, but it also makes it possible to write highly scalable and performing applications. In this section, we will discuss some of the important features of ActionScript 3.0 language that speed up the development.

Strict data typing

ActionScript 3.0 requires strict data typing of variables, arguments, function returns, and so on. Data typing was introduced in ActionScript 2.0, but it was optional. Now, ActionScript 3.0 enforces strict data typing. This enforcement improves error reporting and checking while you are coding. This also helps to reduce memory usage, since the type of information represents variables in the native machine's representation.

Runtime exceptions

ActionScript 3.0 introduces many improved and new runtime exceptions for common error conditions...