Hopefully by now you've heard all about Flex, the most recent addition to the Macromedia server product family. Hot on the tail of its release, Macromedia Training has released "Fast Track to Flex," a new course that introduces developers to developing rich Internet applications (RIAs) using the Macromedia Flex server.

If you don't already know it, Flex is a J2EE application that parses XML files (MXML files to be exact) and renders a Flash user interface based on the XML mark-up. Because the server renders Flash based on XML mark-up, no knowledge of Flash or the Flash authoring environment is required to use it. You don't have to have any knowledge of Flash or CF (or any other particular programming language) in order to take the class-the course prerequisite is that students be familiar with some basic object oriented programming ideas. Any CF developer used to using ColdFusion Components should do fine.

If you're familiar with ActionScript, JavaScript, Java, or any other programming language, so much the better. The course also assumes that students are comfortable with XML, but you don't need to be an XML expert - a simple understanding of tags and attributes and the rules of creating valid XML (every tag must have a closing tag, tags must be properly nested, and so on) is more than enough.

Like all other Macromedia Training offerings, the course units introduce students to new material via lecture, demonstrations, hands-on walkthroughs with the instructor, and independent labs. Fast Track to Flex is a two-day course broken-up into seven units:

• Introduction to the Course
• Introduction to Flex
• Interacting with Users
• Working with Flex Controls
• Working with External Data
• Managing Layouts
• Creating Navigation

What Does the Course Entail?
After being introduced to the class (format, objectives, topics, etc.), students are immediately introduced to Flex in Unit 2. In this unit they gain an understanding of the Flex Server Architecture, how Flash files are generated, how to configure the Flex Server, MXML, ActionScript, and they create their first simple Flex Application. The next unit introduces students to creating forms and form controls, how to bind form controls to each other, the user event model, using ActionScript to handle user events, and application architecture using Controller Classes.

Unit 4 introduces students to more of the form controls, embedding image objects in their Flex applications, creating custom form controls from Flash components, using formatting objects to format data input and output, supplying complex data to controls such as data grids, and to some common techniques for "skinning" controls with the Flex CSS API, ActionScript skins, and themes.

At this point, students know everything they need to know in order to build functional (and decent looking) RIA forms with Flex. The next unit teaches students the fundamentals of developing Flex applications that use the Model-View-Controller design pattern - a design pattern well-suited for Flex development. They also learn data validation and spend the majority of their time learning how to work with external data. Specifically, students learn how to work with XML data retrieved from a file on the server or from a URL, data retrieved from Web services, and data returned from Java Objects. They learn how to loop over and work with this complex data (XML, record sets, etc.), and how to configure the Flex Application Server to work with Java Objects and with Web services, and they spend a good deal of time learning how to work with data grid components (including the loading and use of complex data in data grids). The methods for working with external data sources (Web services, XML, and Java Objects) is done in the context of MVC best practices.

By this point, students will have a good understanding not only of how to build forms, but also how to integrate these forms with external data and how to do so with a "best practices" approach (using MVC to separate business logic from presentation layer and to reuse code).

The last two units of the Fast Track to Flex course deal primarily with the user interface again. Unit 6 introduces developers to the ins and outs of page layout containers. Students learn about panels and boxes (the two most simple and most common content layout containers) and the canvas and tile containers (more flexible and robust containers for content), and about positioning within containers. In addition, students also learn more about data validation and forms, and they explore and experiment with many of the visual effects (making things fade, zoom, move, and so on) that come with Flex.

Unit 7 deals with the user interface components that allow developers to layout the navigation for their applications. They learn how to do "forms based" navigation ("viewstack" development in Flex), and how to create and respond to interaction with link bars and tab bars and navigators (traditional menu-link and tab-based navigation). In addition, students learn how to create their own custom Flex components using MXML - very analogous to creating reusable UI/business logic objects in ColdFusion using Custom Tags.

Conclusion
Macromedia Training's newest course offering, Fast Track to Flex, is a very good place to start for any developer interested in building a solid foundation in Flex programming and in learning what Flex is really all about. This is one of those products that is definitely here to stay, and with the enhancements already promised in the next release as well as a little more time for companies to become better acquainted with its potential (not to mention the impending release of a Flex IDE), its presence in companies and the demand for Flex developers are sure to increase substantially.

If you or your employer are interested in evaluating Flex as a business solution; have already purchased Flex, and want to know how to begin developing RIAs using Flex; or just want to become more knowledgeable about what Flex really is and isn't as well as how to use it, then I highly recommend looking in to the Fast Track to Flex course.

Additional information about the class can be found at www.macromedia.com/support/training/instructor_led_curriculum/fast_track_flex.html, and you can find out which Macromedia Authorized Training Partner (MATP) facility offering the Fast Track to Flex class is closest to you at spectra15.macromedia.com/findaclass.cfm. Alternatively, you can contact your nearest MATP or e-mail training@macromedia.com for more information.