Flex Developer Guide is best resource to learn flex and prepare for Adobe Certified Flex Developer Exam.

Here is a link

Flex Visual component are created with the class hierarchy of several ActionScript class to provide more flexibility and add more features at the different level of hierarchy.

Following is a visual representation of class hierarchy of Flex Visual Components:

Object: Object is a Top/Root Level class of AactionScript class hierarchy. | More Info…

EventDispatcher: EventDispatcher class extends object class. EvenDispacher class allows any object on the display list to be an event target. | More Info

DisplayObject: Display Object class extends object and this is the base class for all objects which can be added in the DisplayList. Display object class allows some properties (x, y, width, height )for components/Objects like MovieClip, Button, TextField etc. | More Info

InteractiveObject: InteractiveObject extends DisplayObject and it is an abstract base class for all DisplayObject with which user can interact. InteractiveObject provides some common properties like doubleClickEnabled, focusRect, tabIndex etc… and Events like all mouse Events, Keyboard Events. | More Info

DisplayObjectContainer: DisplayObjectContainer extends InteractiveObject class and it is a base shell for all containers which adds display objects in the container shell. . DisplayObjectContainer provides some common properties like numChildren, tabChildren etc and methods like addChild(), removeChilld() method related to the child display object management. .. | More Info

FlexSprite: FlexSprite is a subclass of the Player’s Sprite class and the superclass of UIComponent. It overrides the toString() method to return a string indicating the location of the object within the hierarchy of DisplayObjects in the application. The Sprite class is a basic display list building block: a display list node that can display graphics and can also contain children. | More Info

UIComponent: UIComponent extends Sprite and it is a base class for all Interactive and non Interactive component. The UIComponent class is not used as an MXML tag, but is used as a base class for other classes. | More Info

All Visual Components like VBox, HBox, Canvas, Button etc. extends UIComponent.

Hope this article will help you. Any Comments?

My topic will be covering following points and much more.

• Flex and JavaScript Hand in Hand.
• Integration and communication between Flex and JavaScript.
• Flex and Ajax Bridge.
• Simple approaches to achieve most usable UI using Flex and JavaScript.
• Building word processor using flex and javascript.
• Drag and Drop management between Flex Component and JavaScript component.
• Some Examples
• Q and A

This session will bring up light on many good technique and challenges while working with flex and JavaScript.

See you @ 360Flex Atlanta.

Register for 360Flex Atlanta / Europe

Following are top Open Source Frameworks:

1. Cairngorm
   “The Cairngorm micro architecture is intended as a framework for Enterprise RIA developers. If you are writing a very simple application (such as a prototype application) or an application with only a single view, then you might consider a “Model 1″ solution that doesn’t strive for the same separation of model, view, and control that Cairngorm advocates. The benefits of the Cairngorm architecture are realized when developing complex RIA applications with multiple use-cases and views, with a team of developers, and with a multi-disciplinary development team that includes designers as well as creative and technical developers.” by Adobe
   Download Cairngorm.
2. PureMVC
   “PureMVC is a lightweight framework for creating applications in ActionScript 3, based upon the classic Model-View-Controller design meta-pattern.This free, open source framework does not depend on any Flash, Flex or Apollo classes, and is therefore suitable for architecting applications on any platform running AS3.” By PureMVC
   Download PureMVC
3. Model-Glue
   “The Model-Glue family of frameworks support Web application developers by making the construction of Object-Oriented Web and Rich Internet Applications a straightforward process.
   Through a simple implementation of Implicit Invocation and Model-View-Controller, they allow applications to be well organized without sacrificing flexibility.” By Model-Glue
   Download Model-Glue
   
4. Foundry
   
5. Guasax Flex Framework
   
6. ARP
   
7. Flest Framework
   
8. EasyMVC
   
9. Adobe FAST
10. Joeberkovitz’s framework

Here are some Q&A Discussed with James Gosling which are specifically for Adobe Flash / Flex / AIR.

How will JavaFX be positioned with regard to Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe AIR?
[James] : It certainly competes with both of those. I think we have a much broader and more capable API set. We’ve got a much stronger security story and cross-platform story and a really strong performance story. And I think our deliverable will be really nice.

As organizations think about building rich Internet applications or rich client applications, when should developers look at JavaFX over competing technologies?
[James] :Â “If you look at something like Flash, when you get to the much more advanced stuff — richer interfaces, more complex network protocols, more complex APIs — it really falls short.” We’ve had a platform for years that can build rich Internet applications that are extremely sophisticated.
Our issue hasn’t really been, can you build interesting rich Internet applications? But that it’s difficult. And most of our efforts really are around making a lot of it easier.

In RIA technology space Flash Platform and AJAX are leader and Microsoft (Silverlight) and SUN (JavaFX) are just coming in action.

I am sure that Flash/Flex Platform Community will have some reaction on this.

You can read full article here…

Find out more details here…
How to install subclipse in Flex Builder (eclipse).

Flex 3 Beta 2 will have the feature to generate server side Code for data exchange with ASP .NET, PHP, JAVA. Where you can simply select the database and select the table and you will have options to retrieve, create, update and delete record.

This will have the WSDL integration where you have to type WSDL URL in wizard and it will give you all methods exposed by the web service so you can use it.

CURD Generated code will use XML format for exchanging the data between Flex Application and CURD generated scripts.

On RAD (Rapid Application Development) way:
This feature will be very helpful for creating data driven Rich Internet Application Prototypes in quickly. It will be easy for any entry level developer to understand the Flex by creating small data driven applications.

Some Important Links for Flex 3:
DOWNLOAD FLEX BUILDER BETA 1
DOWNLOAD FLEX SDK BETA 1
LABS WIKI FLEX 3
Flex Bug Database
Flex Standards and Community Process

Lets do more Flexing……

Today is Ted Patrik has blogged about the most wanted enhancement in flex 3. which is reduceing swf file size by caching the Flex Framework and Componet in new Flex Player 9 update 3 (FrogStar).

If you create a new Flex Project using Flex Builder 2.0.1 (Compile with Flex SDK 2.0.1) then your basic .swf file size will be around 122 kb because by default flex SWF will embed the Flex Framework. .swf File size will increase dramatically as you use UI components in your project.

According to me this was a drawback for the flex applications where your swf file size likely to be 400 to 500 kb (if you use datagrid and charting components) that will be very heavy for loading.

According to Ted’s post Flex 3 and Flex Player 9 update 3 (FrogStar) will solve this problem.
Moving forward the Flex Framework will be cached within the Flash Player dramatically reducing the size of the output SWF files. Your application SWF files will only contain your code plus the Flex Preloader containing the caching/loading logic and will exclude by majority the Flex Framework. Simply put, the file size cost of using any additional component adds negligible size to your base SWF files Ted Patrik

For more Information read Ted’s Post..

Hmm…. now can’t wait more… for next release…