Fri 13th sale – Flex 3 In Action for $13
Buy Flex 3 In Action for only $13 by using promo code “fri13″ when checking out at http://www.manning.com/ahmed/
Flex 4 in Action – 3 more chapters posted on MEAP
For those who subscribed to the Manning Early Access Program (aka MEAP) for Flex 4 In Action now have access to 3 more chapters.
Learn how to validate in real time user input in chapter 6, format raw data into human friendly formats in chapter 7, and get down to the nitty gritty fundamental building blocks of Flex—objects and classes—in chapter 16.
Flex 4 In Action author is featured at IBM developerWorks
Fx4iA author Dan Orlando has an article profiled as the main feature on the IBM developerWorks website:
Top 10 tips for successful Software as a Service
Discover 10 essential tips for creating Software as a Service (SaaS) applications that come in on time and under budget, yielding a positive return on investment. Use these tips to get an enlightened perspective on SaaS-based development.
Congratulations to Dan for achieving such a huge accomplishment!
Win prizes at Manning’s Pop Quiz promo
How the contest works
- There’s a new question every day. Complete the required fields and answer the question. You’ll be entered into the daily FREE ebook drawing.
- You’ll get one point just for answering the question and another point for getting the correct answer added to your total for the Grand Prize drawing
- We’ll reveal the correct answer–along with the daily winner of the free ebook–the next day
The Prizes
Grand Prize-Your choice of an Apple iPhone 3GS or an Amazon Kindle
The Grand Prize will be awarded to the contestant with the most total points.
Free Ebooks daily
Each day that you answer a question correctly, you’ll be eligible to win a free ebook of your choice. Two winners will be selected at random daily.
Daily Discounts
There’s a different special offer every day! Be sure to take advantage of the featured daily discounts throughout the Manning Pop Quiz.
Weds 50% off promotion
Manning Publications is having a one day (Weds) 50% off promotion for the upcoming Flex 4 In Action. This give you access to the early edition of the book (you get access to the draft chapters as they’re written, and then the final book when complete).
http://www.manning.com/ahmed2/
Enter promo code: twtr0729
Learning Flex 3 for today, and Flex 4 for tomorrow
Manning, the publisher of the Flex In Action series, provides a program called MEAP which is the Manning Early Access Program. It’s a fairly unique service which allows subscribers to gain access to the chapters of a book WHILE it’s being written – and when the book is done, you get the final version.
The cool thing is that you don’t have to wait for the final book, so you’re able to leverage the knowledge as it is created. At the same time, people find it neat to see a book take form as it goes the the writing process and various iterations of editing.
Anyhoo… the upcoming Flex 4 In Action is now available as part of the MEAP program, but the cool thing is that it gives you access to the eBook of the current Flex 3 In Action. So you can learn how to use today’s technology while getting ramped up for tomorrows.
Flex 4 In Action – the team
Well we’re off to a great start with the successor to Flex 3 In Action, appropriately titled Flex 4 In Action (Fx4iA for short).
Joining the crew this round is Mr. Flash Platformist, Dan Orlando. Dan’s been around the block and has had a long history with the Flash and Flex platform. No stranger to writing, Dan’s has his works published in PHP Architect magazine, Adobe Developer Connection, Flash and Flex Developer Magazine, Amazon Developer Connection, IBM Developer Works, PHPBuilder.com, and much more.
Another new member to the team is John C. Bland II, an Adobe Community Expert who is the founder of Katapult Media – a web development shop specializing in the Flash/Flex platform, along with PHP, .NET, and Java. Passionate about giving back to the community, John is also a veteran writer with various books and articles up his sleeve on topics such as Dreamweaver, AIR, ColdFusion, ActionScript, and Flash.
Returning for another round is myself, Tariq Ahmed. I’m an Adobe Community Expert who manages a team of RIA developers at a boutique software consulting shop known as Amcom Technology. I’m also the creator of Community Flex, a portal that aggregates news, and the best tips around the net on Flex.
We’re feverishly writing away on this upcoming book, so stay tuned!
Advanced Reusability in Flex
Just recently added to the Adobe Developer Center is Flex 3 In Action’s chapter on Advanced Reusability.
This chapter is a look into the various options you have in terms of sharing your code amongst various features in a project, across projects and applications, and from a deployment perspective.
Topics include:
- Runtime shared libraries
- Shared reusability
- The Module API
- Adding patches
- Refactoring
Other free chapters:
- Chapter 4 on display layout
- Chapter 23 on debugging and testing
3 Versions of the book with each purchase
All book purchases of Flex 3 In Action include the hardcopy, the Flex 3 In Action PDF (via download) , and the Flex 4 In Action PDF (via download when available). Inside each book is an insert that contains a code and URL that you can use to grab the PDF versions of the book.
Flex 3 in Action – Includes 2 Free eBooks
Most prefer the print version of a book – it’s nice to be able to sit down somewhere comfortable and read. But soft copies are equally as nice – allowing you to search for content, copy and paste code, etc…
Well with Flex 3 in Action, with each purchase not only do you (obviously) get the physical book, but you also get the PDF version of it, and you’ll get a the PDF of Flex 4 In Action when it becomes available.
Free chapters on layout, containers, debugging, and testing
We posted two chapters from Flex 3 in Action, Chapter 4 on Layout and Containers, and Chapter 23 on Debugging and Testing.
Chapter 4 includes topics such as:
- How to layout your Flex components
- Containers available for layout
- Absolute and automatic layout
- Using constraint based layout
- Variable/Dynamic vs. fixed sizing
- Using Repeaters for layout
Chapter 23 includes:
- Debugging applications
- Flex Builder’s debugger and profiler
- Third party tools
- Unit Testing
- Functional Testing
About
Flex In Action (FiA) is a book for coders who come from traditional web technologies, and progressively takes them on a journey of understanding. Flex can easily be frustrating to newcomers who are used to the ease of their current language, so FiA takes an approach of leveraging your existing skills by using examples that you can relate to in your current tech vs how it’s done in Flex. It gradually introduces topics on an as needed basis so that you only need to worry about learning one thing at a time. Plus various ways of doing the same thing are explained in depth so that you understand your options… and lastly, FiA makes learning Flex fun!
Available on Amazon for $31.49, includes PDF versions!
