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MACROMEDIA FLEX-GETTING STARTED WITH FLEX Getting Started

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  • Page 1 Getting Started with Flex...
  • Page 2 If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: About Flex Documentation ......5 Using this manual ..........5 Accessing the Flex documentation .
  • Page 4 Contents...

  • Page 5: Introduction: About Flex Documentation

    INTRODUCTION About Flex Documentation Getting Started with Flex provides an introduction to Macromedia Flex. This book is intended for application developers who are new to Flex and require an overview of Flex features and capabilities. Contents Using this manual ............5 Accessing the Flex documentation .

  • Page 6: Accessing The Flex Documentation

    Flex API. Viewing online documentation All Flex documentation is available online in HTML and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Go to the documentation home page for Flex on the Macromedia website: www.macromedia.com/go/flex15_documentation. Introduction: About Flex Documentation...

  • Page 7: Chapter 1: Introducing Flex

    About Flex Flex defines a development and runtime environment that lets developers familiar with server- side technologies build rich front ends for applications that take advantage of Macromedia Flash Player. While executing in Flash Player, your application can interact with server-side functionality, such as databases, web services, Java objects, and other server-side services.
  • Page 8 Using Flex in an n-tier application model By definition, enterprise applications are multitiered, where each tier brings specific benefits to the application design. A tiered architecture provides natural access points for integration with existing and future systems. Each tier serves a specific purpose, and lets you divide the functionality of a business application into discrete components that you can implement independently from each other.
  • Page 9 Flex adds new functionality and options to the n-tier model. The following figure shows the same five tiers for a Flex application: Flash Player running Client and presentation tiers Flex applications running on the client HTTP/SOAP/AMF Flex server Business and integration tiers EJBs Java Beans Web services...
  • Page 10 Flex offers the following additional benefits to your web applications: Standards-based architecture Macromedia designed Flex, ActionScript, and MXML, the Flex scripting language, to existing standards. MXML is XML-compliant, implements styles based on the Cascading Style Sheets, level 1(CSS1) specification, and implements an event model based on a subset of the W3C DOM Level 3 Events specification.
  • Page 11 By standardizing on Flash Player as the client environment, you are guaranteed a consistent user experience on all platforms and browsers. For more information, see “Developing applications for Macromedia Flash Player” on page Client data collecting Collecting user input is one of the most common uses for web applications.

  • Page 12: Developing Applications

    Direct user feedback Complex tasks must provide feedback to users when the user makes input errors or enters invalid information. Support for a feedback mechanism should also require a minimum of server-side interactions so as not to use network bandwidth. Because your applications execute in Flash Player on the client, the Flex feedback mechanism requires little or no server-side logic.
  • Page 13 You define your data models using MXML or ActionScript as part of a Flex application. The following figure shows a form created in Flex that uses a data model: Server Data model HTTP/SOAP/AMF Data binding is the process of tying the data in one object to another object. The data model supports bidirectional data binding for writing data from Flex controls to the data model, or for reading data into controls from the model.
  • Page 14 Typical application development steps You typically develop a Flex application using the following steps: Within a text editor or integrated development environment (IDE), such as Macromedia Flex Builder, Eclipse, or IntelliJ, insert the MXML root tags into an MXML file.

  • Page 15: The Flex Programming Model

    Relationship of the Flex class hierarchy to MXML and ActionScript Macromedia implemented Flex as an ActionScript class library. That class library contains components (containers and controls), manager classes, data-service classes, and classes for all other features.
  • Page 16 <?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- ?xml tag must start in line 1 column 1 --> <!-- MXML root element tag. --> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <!-- Flex controls exist in a container. Define a Panel container. --> <mx:Panel title="My Application"> <!-- TextInput control for user input. -->...
  • Page 17 <?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- ?xml tag must start in line 1 column 1 --> <!-- MXML root element tag. --> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <!-- Flex controls exist in a container. Define a Panel container. --> <mx:Panel title="My Application"> <!-- TextInput control for user input. -->...
  • Page 18 ]]> </mx:Script> <!-- MXML root element tag --> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <!-- Flex controls exist in a container. Define a Panel container. --> <mx:Panel title="My Application"> <!-- TextInput control for user input. --> <mx:TextInput id="myInput" width="150" text=""...

  • Page 19: Features Of Flex

    Features of Flex The following table lists details about the Flex feature set. Subsequent chapters in this book describes these features in detail. Feature Description Details Containers Defines a region of the Accordion Link Bar Flash Player drawing Panel surface and controls the Canvas TabBar layout for everything in...

  • Page 20: Where To Next

    Feature Description Details Behaviors Enhances the user A behavior is a trigger, typically a user action, paired with experience through an effect: animation, motion, • Effects include: Dissolve, Fade, Move, Pause, Resize, sound, and effects. WipeDown, WipeLeft, WipeRight, WipeUp. • Triggers include: focusIn, focusOut, hide, move, resize, mouseDown, mouseOver, mouseOut, mouseUp, show.
  • Page 21 • For more information on the Flex data model, see Chapter 31, “Managing Data in Flex,” in Developing Flex Applications. • For information on debugging, see Chapter 36, “Debugging Flex Applications,” in Developing Flex Applications. Where to next...
  • Page 22 Chapter 1: Introducing Flex...

  • Page 23: Chapter 2: Using Mxml

    CHAPTER 2 Using MXML MXML is an XML language that you use to lay out user-interface components for Macromedia Flex applications. You also use MXML to declaratively define nonvisual aspects of an application, such as access to server-side data sources and data bindings between user-interface components and server-side data sources.
  • Page 24 Flex application. The tag represents a Label control, a very <mx:Label> simple user interface component that displays text. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:Label text="Hello World!" color="#6601D7" fontSize="24" /> </mx:Panel>...
  • Page 25 The first line of the document specifies an optional declaration of the XML version. It is good practice to include encoding information that specifies how the MXML file is encoded. Many editors let you select from a range of file encoding options. On North American operating systems, ISO-8859-1 is the dominant encoding format, and most programs use that format by default.
  • Page 26 The following example shows an application that contains a List control on the left side of the user interface and a TabNavigator container on the right side: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:HBox>...
  • Page 27 Button control contains a simple event handler that sets the click value of the TextArea control’s property to the text Hello World. text <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:TextArea id="textarea1"/> <mx:Button label="Submit" click="textarea1.text='Hello World';"/> </mx:Panel>...
  • Page 28 The following example shows the code for a version of the application in which the event handler is contained in an ActionScript function in an tag: <mx:Script> <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ function hello(){ textarea1.text="Hello World"; ]]> </mx:Script> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10"...
  • Page 29 ZIP code that a user enters in a TextInput control to a web service input parameter. It binds the current temperature value contained in the web service result to a TextArea control. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <!-- Define the web service connection (the specified WSDL URL is not functional). -->...
  • Page 30 TextInput fields. Validation is triggered automatically when data binding occurs. If validation fails, the user receives immediate visual feedback. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > Chapter 2: Using MXML...
  • Page 31 You can also create your own formatters. The following example shows an application that uses the standard ZipCodeFormatter component to format the value of a variable: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <!-- Declare a ZipCodeFormatter and define parameters. --> <mx:ZipCodeFormatter id="ZipCodeDisplay" formatString="#####-####" /> <mx:Script>...
  • Page 32 The following example defines a class selector and a type selector in the tag. Both the <mx:Style> class selector and the type selector are applied to the Button control: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Style> .myclass { color: Red } /* class selector */ Button { font-size: 18pt} /* type selector */ </mx:Style>...
  • Page 33 Zoom effect. The Zoom effect executes when the mouseOverEffect user moves the mouse pointer over the Button control. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:Button id="myButton" mouseOverEffect="Zoom" /> </mx:Panel>...
  • Page 34 For example, the property in the xmlns following tag indicates that tags in the MXML namespace use the prefix mx:. <mx:Application> The Universal Resource Identifier (URI) for the MXML namespace is http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml. <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" > Chapter 2: Using MXML...

  • Page 35: Basic Mxml Syntax

    The following example shows an application that contains a custom tag called CustomBox. The namespace value indicates that an MXML component called CustomBox containers.boxes.* is in the containers/boxes directory. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" xmlns:my="containers.boxes.*"> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <my:CustomBox/> </mx:Panel>...
  • Page 36 You can set the values of properties using tag attributes or child tags. Macromedia recommends that you assign scalar values and simple binding expressions as attributes and that you assign complex types as child tags. Each of a component’s properties is one of the following types: •...
  • Page 37 Arrays of scalar values When a class has a property that takes an Array as its value, you can represent the property in MXML using child tags. The component in the following example has a property dataProvider that contains an Array of numbers: <mx:List>...
  • Page 38 If the value of the property is a subclass of Address (such as DomesticAddress), shippingAddress you can declare the property value as the following example shows: <e:PurchaseOrder quantity="3" xmlns:e="example"> <e:shippingAddress> <e:DomesticAddress name="Fred" street="123 Elm St."/> </e:shippingAddress> </e:PurchaseOrder> If the property is explicitly typed as like the property in the following example, you Object...
  • Page 39 The following example shows how you specify an anonymous object as the value of the property: dataProvider <mynamespace:MyComponent> <mynamespace:dataProvider> <mx:Array> <mx:Object label="One" data="1" /> <mx:Object label="Two" data="2" /> </mx:Array> </mynamespace:dataProvider> </mynamespace:MyComponent> Properties that contain XML data If a component contains a property that takes XML data, the value of the property is an XML fragment to which you can apply a namespace.
  • Page 40 ActionScript. In the following example, results from a web service request are traced in the writeToLog function: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:VBox> <mx:TextInput id="myText" text="Hello World!" /> <mx:Button id="mybutton" label="Get Weather" click="writeToLog();"/> </mx:VBox>...

  • Page 41: How Mxml Relates To Standards

    MXML tag syntax MXML has the following syntax requirements: • property is not required on any tag. • property is not allowed on the root tag. • Boolean properties only take values. true false • tag requires both properties. <mx:Binding> source destination •...
  • Page 42 HTTP responses. Graphics standards Flex provides MXML tags for using JPEG, GIF, and PNG images in an application. Flex also provides tags for importing Macromedia SWF files and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files into an application. Cascading Style Sheets standards MXML styles are defined and used according to the W3C Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard.

  • Page 43: Chapter 3: Using Actionscript

    CHAPTER 3 Using ActionScript Macromedia Flex developers can use ActionScript to extend the functionality of their Flex applications. ActionScript provides flow control and object manipulation features that are not available in strict MXML. This chapter introduces ActionScript and explains how to use ActionScript in an MXML application.
  • Page 44 ActionScript supports syntax constructs that are not permitted in JavaScript (for example, the actions and slash syntax) to support previous releases. tellTarget ifFrameLoaded However, Macromedia does not recommend the use of these syntax constructs; instead, use ActionScript elements that are like those in JavaScript (for example, with _framesloaded and dot syntax).
  • Page 45 • Create new components in ActionScript. • Create new components in the Flash authoring environment (SWC files). Flex ActionScript packages Flex includes a standard set of ActionScript classes and packages that define the Flex components and provide helper classes. These packages are in the Flex application WAR file under flex_app_root/WEB-INF/flex/system_classes.

  • Page 46: Using Actionscript In Flex Applications

    SWF file. For more information, see “Techniques for separating ActionScript from MXML” on page Note: In general, Macromedia recommends that you import ActionScript class files when possible rather than use blocks in your MXML files or include snippets of ActionScript code from <mx:Script>...
  • Page 47 <mx:Script> prevents the compiler from interpreting the contents of the script block as XML, and allows the ActionScript to be properly generated. As a result, Macromedia recommends that you write all your open and close tags as the following example shows: <mx:Script>...
  • Page 48 You can define multiple script blocks in your MXML files, but you should try to keep them in one location to improve readability. The following example declares a variable and a function: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ var z:Number;...
  • Page 49 + b; The following example imports the contents of the IncludedFile.as file. This file is located in the same directory as the MXML file. <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Script source="IncludedFile.as" /> <mx:TextInput id="ta1st" text="3"/> <mx:TextInput id="ta2nd" text="3"/> <mx:TextArea id="taMain"/>...
  • Page 50 // All statements inside { } are guarded by IF. The use of curly braces ({ }) allows multiple statements because you can add multiple statements inside the braces. Macromedia recommends against using the directive if you use a large number of #include included ActionScript files.
  • Page 51 <mx:Script> attribute: source • Absolute URLs, such as http://www.macromedia.com or file:///C|/site_flashteam/foo.gif. • Site-relative URLs, such as /scripts/myscript.as. A URL that begins with a slash is resolved relative to the context root of the application. The default application root is /flex_app_root.
  • Page 52 You can also use the wildcard character (*) to import all the classes in a given package. For example, the following statement imports all classes in the MyPackage.Util package: import MyPackage.Util.*; Flex searches the ActionScript classpath for imported files and packages. If you import a class but do not use it in your application, the class is not included in the resulting SWF file’s bytecode.

  • Page 53: Creating Actionscript Components

    You can reference your custom Button control from a Flex application file, such as MyApp.mxml, as the following example shows: <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" xmlns:cmp="myControls.*" > <cmp:MyButton label="Jack" /> </mx:Application> In this example, you first define the namespace that defines the location of your custom component in the application’s directory structure.

  • Page 54: Techniques For Separating Actionscript From Mxml

    One MXML document (ActionScript event handling logic in MXML tag) The following code shows the ActionScript event handling logic inside the MXML tag’s click event: <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:HBox> <mx:Label text="Temperature in Farenheit:"/>...
  • Page 55 The logic for the function is inside an block in the MXML document, and is called <mx:Script> from the MXML tag’s event, as the following code shows: click <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml"> <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ function calculate() { celsius.text=(farenheit.text-32)/1.8; ]]> </mx:Script>...
  • Page 56 <mx:Application> <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" initialize="converter.setupListener()"> <local:TempConverter id="converter" xmlns:local="*"/> <mx:Panel title="My Application" marginTop="10" marginBottom="10" marginLeft="10" marginRight="10" > <mx:HBox> <mx:Label text="Temperature in Farenheit:" /> <mx:TextInput id="farenheit" width="120" />...

  • Page 57: Chapter 4: Architecting Flex Applications

    HTML, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), and Macromedia ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). Unlike a set of static HTML pages or HTML templates created using JSP, ASP, or CFML, the files in a Flex application are compiled into a single binary SWF file.

  • Page 58: About The Flex Coding Process

    MXML file but a suffix of mxml.swf in standard HTML <object> tags, as the following example shows: <embed> <object classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000' codebase='http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/ swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0' width='600' height='600'> <param name='src' value='CreditCard.mxml.swf'> <embed pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' width='600' height='600 src='CreditCard.mxml.swf' /> </object> Chapter 4: Architecting Flex Applications...
  • Page 59 Moving to Flex from Macromedia Flash MX Developing a Flex application is very different from developing an application in Macromedia Flash MX, even though in both environments the application is compiled into a SWF file. You create a Flex application in text files, which you can create and edit in a simple text editor or a more sophisticated development environment.
  • Page 60 About the Flex development environment You store Flex server code and application files in the directory structure of a standard web application on a J2EE-compliant application server. The MXML deployment model is similar to that of JavaServer Pages (JSPs). You create an MXML file in the text editor of your choice, and place it in a web application directory that is accessible from a web browser.
  • Page 61 The following table describes the Flex development tools: Tool Description Macromedia Flash Debug Player Flash Debug Player is a Flash Player that reports runtime errors, including errors for undeclared variables, uncaught runtime exceptions, and operating-system–specific networking errors. You can view errors in a trace window and send errors to a text file.

  • Page 62: Working With A Multitier Application Model

    The following table describes the query string parameters that you can use to get additional information: Query parameter Description Adds screen reader accessibility to all components that are ?accessible=true capable of accessibility. Available when is set to production-mode true false Generates ActionScript profiling information.
  • Page 63 User-interface components contain properties, methods, and events. For more information, see Chapter 1, “Using Flex Components,” in Developing Flex Applications. At the root of a Macromedia Flex application is a single container, called the Application container, that represents the entire Flash Player drawing surface. This Application container holds all other containers, which can represent dialog boxes, panels, and forms.
  • Page 64 Feature Description Data formatter Converts raw data to a formatted string. Formatters are triggered just before data is displayed in a text field. They can save you time by automating data formatting tasks, and by letting you easily change the formatting of fields within your applications.
  • Page 65 How you choose to access data in your Flex application impacts performance. Because a Flex application is cached on the browser after the first request, data access is responsible for significantly affecting performance while the application runs. Flex provides several solutions for data delivery to the client.
  • Page 66 Using events to connect application functionality ActionScript code executes asynchronously. This means that code in a Flex application continues executing without being blocked by the execution of other code. However, you need a way to deal with dependencies between the execution of different pieces of code in an application. There are times when you do not want a function to execute until some other function has already executed.

  • Page 67: Improving Application Start-Up Time And Performance

    This section describes some very simple things that you can take to improve application start-up time. For more information, see Chapter 27, “Improving Layout Performance,” in Developing Flex Applications. During the Flex product life cycle, Macromedia will provide additional information about performance on the Macromedia website (see www.macromedia.com/go/flex). Improving application start-up time and performance...
  • Page 68 If you do not set x and y positions, the Canvas container’s children lay out on top of each other at the default x, y coordinates (0,0). Macromedia recommends that developers use the relative layout containers initially, and move to using Canvas containers as warranted by performance testing.
  • Page 69 You could replace the previous layout with the following layout to achieve the same effect: <mx:VBox> <mx:Button label="Visa"/> <mx:Button label="MasterCard"/> <mx:Button label="Diner's Club"/> <mx:Button label="AmEx"/> </mx:VBox> Improving effect performance If animations in an application do not play smoothly, background processing might be interfering with the animation.

  • Page 70: Architecting An Application

    Displaying multiple pop-up windows Having more then six heavily populated pop-up windows open at the same time in a Flex application can affect performance. The performance of Flash Player is limited by how quickly it can redraw obscured windows. This is even more of an issue if each window has a complex hierarchy of components within it.
  • Page 71 The Flex Store application is included in the samples.war file, which you can extract into your application server. The following figure shows the catalog and shopping cart views of the Flex Store application: Developing an object model The object model defines how the various parts of the application map to individual objects. It is useful to think in terms of a model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, and consider whether a particular object is part of the model, view, or controller tier.
  • Page 72 Flex Store object model figure The following figure shows the object model for the Flex Store application and identifies each object as part of the model, view, or controller: FlexStore View ShoppingCart catalog Model Model CartView ProductDetail View View ProductThumbnail Thumbnail Checkout View...
  • Page 73 MXML component. For nonvisual objects, or to modify the behavior of a visual component, you can create an ActionScript component. For complex visual objects, you can create a SWC component in Macromedia Flash MX. For more information about MXML components, see Chapter 15, “Building an Application with Multiple MXML Files,”...
  • Page 74 Flex Store component figure The following figure shows the component type of each object in the object model of the Flex Store application. The Data Object boxes show which objects contain data object properties. FlexStore (MXML Application object) ShoppingCart catalog View (ActionScript component) <mx:Model>...
  • Page 75 The following example shows the catalog object declared in the FlexStore.mxml file: <mx:Model id="catalog"> {catalogWS.getList.result} </mx:Model> The following example shows a product definition in the catalog.xml file: <catalog> <name>USB Watch</name> <description>So, you need to tell the time of course, but you also need a way to carry your valuable data with you at all times (you know - your MP3 files, favorite images, your ThinkGeek shopping list).
  • Page 76 The CartView_script.as file also contains the following method definitions: • dataGridChange(selectedItem) • removeItem() The CartView.mxml component contains an tag for displaying ShoppingCart <mx:DataGrid> items along with several other user-interface components and an tag for <mx:NumberFormatter> displaying prices in a specific format. The component is declared in the ShoppingCart.mxml file using a tag.
  • Page 77 <mx:TileList id="myTile" dataProvider="{dataObject}" cellRenderer="ProductThumbnail" width="100%" height="100%" itemWidth="120" itemHeight="116" borderStyle="none" dragEnabled="true" change="selectedItem=dataObject[myTile.selectedIndex]; dispatchEvent({type:'change'}) "/> The component is declared in the ThumbnailView.mxml file using a tag. <ProductThumbnail> ThumbnailView The ThumbnailView object is defined in an MXML component because it is a visual object that you can create using MXML tags and a small amount of ActionScript code.
  • Page 78 The component contains the following property definitions in an tag: <mx:Script> • var shoppingCart • var dataObject property stores ShoppingCart data. shoppingCart The component contains MXML tags for displaying product details. It also contains an tag for selecting product quantity, and an tag for adding <mx:NumericStepper>...

  • Page 79: Summary Of Flex Application Features

    Summary of Flex application features The following table describes the features that you are most likely to use when building Flex applications: Feature Description User interface controls Controls are user-interface components, such as Button, TextArea, and ComboBox controls. You use MXML tags to add controls to an application.
  • Page 80 Feature Description Data services Data service objects let you interact with server-side data sources. You can work with data sources that are accessible using SOAP-compliant web services, Java objects, or HTTP GET or POST requests. For more information, see Chapter 31, “Managing Data in Flex,” in Developing Flex Applications.
  • Page 81 Feature Description Behaviors Behaviors let you add animation or sound to applications in response to user or programmatic action. For more information, see Chapter 21, “Using Behaviors,” in Developing Flex Applications. Repeaters Repeaters let you dynamically repeat any number of controls or containers specified in MXML tags, at runtime.
  • Page 82 Feature Description ActionScript profiling The ActionScript Profiler helps you identify performance problems in applications. It can show you where too many calls to a particular method might be occurring or where an object’s instantiation might be taking too long. For more information, see Chapter 37, “Profiling ActionScript,” in Developing Flex Applications.

  • Page 83: Index

    INDEX ActionScript CartView object 72, 75 about 43 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 32 class import 51 catalog object 72, 74 classpath 52 characters, special 46 compared to ECMAScript 44 Checkout object 78 compared to JavaScript 44 classes classpath 52 compiling 45 classpath, in ActionScript and SWC files 52 creating components 53 ColdFusion, moving to Flex 59...
  • Page 84 data binding 13 data models 13 data binding development environment 60 about 13 development process 14 MXML syntax 28 development tools 60 data formatters 31 features 19 data models Flash Debug Player and 10 about 13 Flash Player and 10 in MXML 30 J2EE servers and 9 using 12...
  • Page 85 style property of tag 39 syntax 35 graphics, standards in MXML 42 tag syntax 41 tags 36 URLs 24 HTML, moving to Flex 58 using 16 HTTP services, standards in MXML 42 using ActionScript with 27 XML data 39 XML namespaces 34 id property 47 MXML components identifiers 40...
  • Page 86 Product Thumbnail object 72, 73 ProductDetail object 77 zooming, applications 67 ProductThumbnail object 76 properties, setting in MXML 36 query parameters 62 relative paths 51 Script tag about 47 class import 51 external file reference 51 in MXML 48 include directive 50 including ActionScript files 48 package import 51 source attribute of 49...

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