Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0
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Don’t settle for Flex’s boring, standard user interface: set your Flex
applications apart with the breakthrough skinning and programming techniques found
in Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0. Leading Flex developers Juan Sanchez
and Andy McIntosh show how to build Flex and AIR applications that are stunningly
beautiful — and amazingly usable. You’ll learn how to apply state-of-the-art
branding and visual design techniques that add value to all your Flex applications,
no matter what they do or who you’re building them for.
Sanchez and McIntosh illuminate every aspect of creating superior visual experiences
with Flex 3.0 and AIR: thoughtful planning, design, and architecture; proven
user-interface principles; and efficient technical implementation. You’ll
learn how to alter the standard Flex interface using all the tools available
to you: skins, styling, transitions, effects, filters, graphics built with Adobe
creative tools, CSS, and ActionScript 3.0 programming.
The authors reveal the tradeoffs associated with each approach to Flex visual
experience design and help you choose the right techniques for your applications.
They explain each concept and technique in detail, using real-world examples,
and reinforce your understanding with step-by-step walkthroughs in a complete
case study project.
Today there are thousands of Flex and AIR developers, and new Flex and AIR
applications are introduced every day. If you want to write applications that
are a cut above the rest, this is the book that will show you how.
Table of Contents
Preface
Foreword
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Rich Internet Applications
Chapter 2: Adobe Flex and AIR
Part II: The Flex 3 Framework
Chapter 3: Dynamic Layout
Chapter 4: Styling
Chapter 5: Graphical Skinning
Chapter 6: Programmatic Skinning
Chapter 7: Lists and Navigation Controls
Chapter 8: Indicators and Cursors
Chapter 9: Fonts and Text
Chapter 10: Filters and Blends
Chapter 11: Effects and Transitions
Part III: Beyond Flex
Chapter 12: Flex and Flash Integration
Chapter 13: Customizing AIR Applications
Part IV: Exercises
Exercise 4.1: Loading a Style Sheet at Runtime
Exercise 5.1: Creating a Graphical Skin with Flash
Exercise 5.2: Creating a Graphical Skin with Illustrator
Exercise 5.3: Creating a Graphical Skin with Fireworks
Exercise 5.4: Creating a Graphical Skin with Photoshop
Exercise 6.1: Creating a Programmatic Skin
Exercise 7.1: Creating a Chat Dialog Window Using a List
Exercise 7.2: Creating a Photo Gallery Using a Tile List
Exercise 9.1: Embedding a Font in a SWF File Using Flash
Exercise 9.2: Packaging a CSS File with a Font as a SWF
Exercise 9.3: Creating a Style Sheet for HTML Text
Exercise 11.1: Applying a Custom Effect
Exercise 11.2: Creating a Transition Between Views States
Exercise 12.1: Creating a Graphical Skin Using the Flex Component Kit
Exercise 12.2: Using Flash Skin Templates
Exercise 12.3: Creating a Custom Container Using the Flex Component Kit
Exercise 12.4: Using MotionXML
Part V: References
Appendix A: Skinning and Styling Diagrams
Appendix B: Filters Cheat Sheet
Appendix C: Resources and Cool Stuff
Index
About the Authors
Juan Sanchez is an experience architect for EffectiveUI, a leading provider
of rich Internet applications, based in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from
California State University, Chico, with a B.A. in communication design. Juan’s
background is primarily in print design, branding, and advertising, however,
his skills quickly expanded into Web technologies like HTML, CSS, Flash, and
eventually Flex.
Equipped with a creative eye and logical mind, Juan walks the line between
designer and developer. Juan’s interests lie in user experience, usability,
designer/developer collaboration, and open source projects. As an active Flex
community member, Juan manages ScaleNine.com, a Web site dedicated to compiling
skins and themes for Flex. He is a regular speaker at user groups, corporate
workshops, and conferences, including 360|Flex and WebManiacs. Juan is also
a founding member of Degrafa, a declarative graphics framework for Flex.
Andy McIntosh was one of the first members of EffectiveUI, a Denver-based
rich internet application agency. As an experience architect, he specializes
in interaction design, custom component development, and programmatic skinning.
His recent focus has been on migrating enterprise applications to Flex/AIR based
solutions.
Andy attended The Art Institute of Colorado in Denver where he earned his Bachelors
degree in interactive media design. While in school, he discovered that merely
designing applications wasn’t enough–that he wanted to make them come
to life. A lifelong fan of Lego and gadgetry, he learned development by taking
applications apart and putting them back together. His attention to detail,
in both development and design, add a mark of quality to his work that is second
to none. In his own words, “Development is design, but with different tools.”
Blending his technical expertise with his formal training in visual design,
Andy has played a major role in successful projects for clients such as Adobe,
Workday, Scion, United Airlines, and others. Additionally, Andy is an advisor
for Degrafa, an open source declarative graphics framework for Flex.
He blogs useful findings and random thoughts at http://andymcintosh.com.
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