Programming Flex 2: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex

504 Pages·2007·3.83 MB·English

by  Chafic Kazoun

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Programming Flex™ 2
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Programming Flex 2
™
Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott
Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
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Programming Flex 2™
by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott
Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
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Developmental Editor: Audrey Doyle Interior Designer: David Futato
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Indexer: Reg Aubry
Printing History:
April 2007: First Edition.
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of
O’Reilly Media, Inc.Programming Flex 2, the image of a Krait Snake, and related trade dress are
trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors
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information contained herein.
This book uses RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding.
ISBN-10: 0-596-52689-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52689-4
[M]
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Table of Contents
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
1. Introducing Flex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Understanding Flex Application Technologies 1
Using Flex Elements 6
Working with Data Services (Loading Data at Runtime) 7
Understanding the Differences Between Traditional (HTML)
and Flex Web Applications 9
Understanding How Flex Applications Work 10
Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring 11
Understanding Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 12
Summary 12
2. Building Applications with the Flex Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Using Flex Tool Sets 13
Creating Projects 15
Building Applications 19
Deploying Applications 31
Flash Player Security 31
Understanding HTML Wrappers 33
Using SWFObject 34
Using Runtime Shared Libraries 35
Summary 42
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3. MXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Understanding MXML Syntax and Structure 43
Making MXML Interactive 50
Summary 52
4. ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using ActionScript 54
MXML and ActionScript Correlations 57
Understanding ActionScript Syntax 58
Variables and Properties 61
Inheritance 72
Interfaces 73
Handling Events 74
Error Handling 76
Using XML 78
Reflection 82
Summary 85
5. Framework Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Understanding the Flex Application Life Cycle 86
Differentiating Between Flash Player and Framework 88
Bootstrapping Flex Applications 89
Understanding Application Domains 92
Understanding the Preloader 94
Summary 95
6. Managing Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Flex Layout Overview 96
Making Fluid Interfaces 116
Putting It All Together 117
Summary 120
7. Working with UI Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Understanding UI Components 122
Buttons 128
Value Selectors 129
Text Components 130
List-Based Controls 131
Pop-Up Controls 140
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Navigators 143
Control Bars 147
Summary 149
8. Framework Utilities and Advanced Component Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Tool Tips 150
Pop-Ups 156
Cursor Management 162
Drag and Drop 164
Customizing List-Based Controls 172
Focus Management and Keyboard Control 183
Summary 188
9. Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Overview 189
Adding Media 191
Working with the Different Media Types 197
Summary 210
10. Managing State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Creating States 211
Applying States 212
Defining States Based on Existing States 213
Adding and Removing Components 214
Setting Properties 216
Setting Styles 217
Setting Event Handlers 218
Using ActionScript to Define States 218
Managing Object Creation Policies (Preloading Objects) 228
Handling State Events 230
When to Use States 231
Summary 231
11. Using Effects and Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Using Effects 232
Creating Custom Effects 244
Using Transitions 251
Creating Custom Transitions 256
Summary 257
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12. Working with Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Using Data Models 258
Data Binding 268
Enabling Data Binding for Custom Classes 277
Data Binding Examples 280
Building Data Binding Proxies 284
Summary 287
13. Validating and Formatting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Validating User Input 288
Formatting Data 308
Summary 314
14. Customizing Application Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Using Styles 316
Skinning Components 333
Customizing the Preloader 344
Themes 348
Runtime CSS 351
Summary 354
15. Client Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Local Connections 356
Persistent Data 360
Communicating with the Host Application 374
Summary 379
16. Remote Data Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Understanding Strategies for Data Communication 381
Working with Request/Response Data Communication 382
Web Services 395
Real-Time/Socket Connection 406
File Upload/Download 407
Summary 408
17. Application Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
The Flash Debug Player 409
Using FDB 413
Debugging with Flex Builder 2 414
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Remote Debugging 418
Logging Using trace() Within an Application 419
The Logging Framework 421
Debugging Remote Data 425
Summary 426
18. Application Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
The Importance of Application Components 428
MXML Component Basics 429
Component Styles 440
Summary 443
19. Building Custom Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Component Framework Overview 444
Component Life Cycle 446
Component Implementation 449
Adding Custom Properties and Events 457
Adding Styling Support 460
Summary 462
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
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