Flex learning path...

Question

Hi all I am current learning Flex 4 programming now and trying to get as much knowledge as I could from the books and adobe website. I have finished 5 days video training from Adobe website and almost done with a book. However, most of them only talk about basic stuffs. (like create skin, components, events..etc)

When I checked the samples from Adobe website and tried to understand the real application. I got stocked. see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/index.html?view=samples. I felt like jumping from 2ND grade to 10th grade. I am actually looking for a case study for a medium application instead of telling me how to use event, components, datagrid. Anyone here knows any good website or examples to study? Or want to share the experience about how you become a flex expert? Thanks for any helps!

Answer 1

I think the best way to learn is to actually try to build something, maybe a simple photo gallery or something. Then work on breaking everything down into simpler tasks, and figure out how to execute those tasks best. The key is figuring out how to break your project down into smaller tasks to help you from feeling overwhelmed. Lots of planning helps with any large project, if UML diagrams are your thing, that works, or just a notepad and lots of illegible scribbles, if that helps you think things through...

When you get stumped, google your problem, and if that doesn't work, ask for help on stack overflow.

Also, just keep reading, check out other stack overflow questions / answers, read blogs, read about the component lifecycle, follow awesome flex devs on twitter, and just always be open to learning new things. If you have one in your area, join a flex / flash developers group that has local talks / meet ups.

Hope that helps.

As far as sites I like go:

• code.google.com -> forums for the os libraries I use adobe.com
• opensource.adobe.com (read the source code to help you understand how things work)
• http://www.gskinner.com/blog/
• http://dispatchevent.org/
• http://flash.developerartofwar.com/
• http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/

and i'm sure there's a billion more awesome blogs out there....