Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[greg h]

Hi Kyle,

Excellent replies from all so far.  And obviously there is no substitute for
doing what you are already doing ... practice, practice, practice ... build,
build, build.  Who knows, maybe one day you will be able to explain to Matt
Chotin  things about Flex that even
he doesn't know  ;-)

Ok, you wrote "intermediate/advanced".  Keeping in mind that your subject
line is "Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?", here are a few
additional sources that I recommend:

CONFERENCES

Bar none, the most amazing resource for intermediate/advanced learning is to
attend conferences with either a heavy focus on or an exclusive focus on
Flex.  In my experience Adobe sends key employees who are members of the
Flex engineering team to regularly present at each of the following
conferences.  If you want to really learn then go where you can sit sessions
being presented by and meet Ely Greenfield,
Deepa 
Subramaniam,
Alex Harui , Sho
Kuwamotoand many others (too many to list here
;-)  Plus many amazing non-employee,
community leaders (like Doug McCune , Robin
Hilliard , et al) (again, far too many
to list here ;-)  Plus, meeting face-to-face fellow developers that you can
keep in touch with (and lean on) after the conference.  Again, for
intermediate/advanced learning these are THE MOTHERLOAD:

   - 360Flex.com 
   - MAX 
   - WebDU.co.au 
   - FlexManiacs 
   - WebOnThePiste.com 

Should any of these conferences be in your area, for intermediate/advanced
learning I highly encourage you to make every effort to attend.


USER GROUPS

Check here for user groups in your area:
http://flex.org/community/


INSTRUCTOR LED TRAINING

The course qualifies as intermediate/advanced:

Flex 2: Programming the Visual Experience
http://halcyonsolutions
.net/training/classes/Flex_2_Programming_the_Visual_Experience.htm


TRAINING DVD

This training DVD is a distilled down version of the instructor led course
cited above:

Total Training for
Adobe(r) Flex 2: Advanced Visual Programming
with Leo Schuman of Adobe
http://totaltraining.com/prod/adobe/flex2_avp.asp


ADOBE eSEMINARS

My experience is that Adobe has great eSeminars (although they could do more
to get the word out about the schedule).  One page you can watch is here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/events/


FRAMEWORKS

See if using a development framework or microarchitecture might be  fit on
your projects:

   - Cairngorm
   http://cairngormdocs.org/
   - ARP
   http://www.osflash.org/projects/arp
- MVCS
   http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/blueprint.html
- et al



BOOK -- FORTHCOMING

   - AdvancED Flex Application Development: Building Rich Media X
   (Advanced)

   
http://www.amazon.com/AdvancED-Flex-Application-Development-Building/dp/1590598962/



CERTIFICATION

If you want to challenge yourself against an objective measure regarding
just how well you know the Flex 2 body of knowledge, you can try becoming an
Adobe Certified Expert by prepping for and passing the Adobe Flex 2
Developer Exam.  Details here:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/flexteam/archives/2007/01/flex_developer.cfm


In closing, the nature of any community is pyramid shaped:  a broad base
covering elemental basics, tapering up to a narrow pinnacle dealing with
generally rare or advanced topics.  Thus there are always far more materials
covering the broad base than the rarified pinnacles ;-)

hth,

g

Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Jatin Nanda]

Books wise: -

- training from the source is not too bad
- total training dvd.

Personally though: -

1) Developers Guide (as Doug said)
2) Flex Quick Starts on adobe
3) blog.flexamples.com (i think that's the URL). This guy has some very very
simple exp. Its amazing what you can learn.

BTW - it may take a little time ;-)

On 31/08/2007, grimmwerks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>   I also think the Lynda vids are worthwhile.
>  
>

Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[grimmwerks]

I also think the Lynda vids are worthwhile.

Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Kyle Neath]

Doug: Heh, I think that's part of the thing that drove me here.  One of my
first projects in Flex had a lot to do with DataGrid.  After sitting there
for 20 seconds while my Grid rendered, I had tons of fun reading pretty much
every line in DataGrid and DataGridBase.  What came out of it was that I
didn't know what the hell was going on.  Flex code can be a great resource,
but I'm finding the issues I run into are not "how does it work" kind of
problems, but rather "why does it work" kind of problems.  Problems like
performance issues, or why a font would render in Firefox but not in IE (WTF
Flash, right?).  I just keep feeling like there's some core stuff I'm
missing that I *can't* learn by just doing.
But, I suppose I'll just keep chugging along.  I'm just really wishing there
were better places for help.  This list can be hit or miss for me (about 75%
of my messages go unanswered).  It'd be really nice if there were some
active forums or IRC channels.

-Kyle

Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Doug McCune]

Dive into the Framework source. IMO that's the best thing to study. Figure
out how Adobe made all the components in the Framework. Pick something that
you don't like about one of the framework components and try to change it.
Subclass the framework class you want to alter and hack away.

If you want some fun things to figure out try understanding how the
scrolling classes work (ListBase, DataGrid, etc), that should occupy you for
a while :)

An approach I took was listen for what kinds of components people are asking
for on flexcoders or on their blogs and try to make them. That's how nearly
all my components in flexlib started.

Doug

On 8/30/07, Peter Connolly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>   There's the Flex 2 Developer's Guide
> .  That's pretty
> comprehensive and I find a lot of answers in there.
>
> On 8/30/07, Kyle Neath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >   I feel like I'm coming to a point now where I get the basics of Flex.
> > I've got the whole component architecture down, I know the basics of
> > Actionscript. I can create my own components by extending UIComponent
> > and implementing the proper interfaces.
> >
> > But I still feel like there's so much I have to learn: and I'm not
> > sure where to look anymore. I've tried looking for books: but I
> > honestly haven't found one that isn't either a complete beginners
> > book, or isn't written for Flex 1/1.5. I've tried looking for online
> > communities around Flex, but haven't found anything really at all.
> >
> > Any advice on where to look next? Or should I just start tackling
> > projects and learn as I go?
> >
> > -Kyle
> >
>
>  
>

Re: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Peter Connolly]

There's the Flex 2 Developer's
Guide.
That's pretty comprehensive and I find a lot of answers in there.

On 8/30/07, Kyle Neath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>   I feel like I'm coming to a point now where I get the basics of Flex.
> I've got the whole component architecture down, I know the basics of
> Actionscript. I can create my own components by extending UIComponent
> and implementing the proper interfaces.
>
> But I still feel like there's so much I have to learn: and I'm not
> sure where to look anymore. I've tried looking for books: but I
> honestly haven't found one that isn't either a complete beginners
> book, or isn't written for Flex 1/1.5. I've tried looking for online
> communities around Flex, but haven't found anything really at all.
>
> Any advice on where to look next? Or should I just start tackling
> projects and learn as I go?
>
> -Kyle
>  
>

RE: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Battershall, Jeff]

I agree with the basic trial by fire approach, been doing it for years,
BUT if Flex is to make it all the way as an enterprise platform, there
does need to be several levels of formal training available.  What
commonly happens is you kind of hack your way around with it and try to
glean best practice approaches to things, but a lot of time gets wasted
because you don't know where to go for definitive answers.
 
The community is extremelyhelpful, though, and there's something to be
said for simply deciding to find answers and not resting until you do.
 
Jeff
 
-Original Message-
From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Blake Barrett
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 3:18 PM
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?



Just start tackling projects. You can never be sure that you
can't do something until you fail at it, until then you can do anything.
 
Blake



From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kyle Neath
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:13 AM
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?



I feel like I'm coming to a point now where I get the basics of
Flex.
I've got the whole component architecture down, I know the
basics of
Actionscript. I can create my own components by extending
UIComponent
and implementing the proper interfaces.

But I still feel like there's so much I have to learn: and I'm
not
sure where to look anymore. I've tried looking for books: but I
honestly haven't found one that isn't either a complete
beginners
book, or isn't written for Flex 1/1.5. I've tried looking for
online
communities around Flex, but haven't found anything really at
all.

Any advice on where to look next? Or should I just start
tackling
projects and learn as I go?

-Kyle


 

RE: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?

[Blake Barrett]

Just start tackling projects. You can never be sure that you can't do
something until you fail at it, until then you can do anything.
 
Blake



From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Kyle Neath
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:13 AM
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [flexcoders] Where to learn intermediate/advanced Flex?



I feel like I'm coming to a point now where I get the basics of Flex.
I've got the whole component architecture down, I know the basics of
Actionscript. I can create my own components by extending UIComponent
and implementing the proper interfaces.

But I still feel like there's so much I have to learn: and I'm not
sure where to look anymore. I've tried looking for books: but I
honestly haven't found one that isn't either a complete beginners
book, or isn't written for Flex 1/1.5. I've tried looking for online
communities around Flex, but haven't found anything really at all.

Any advice on where to look next? Or should I just start tackling
projects and learn as I go?

-Kyle