This is live instructor-led online class. Students can be located anywhere in the world as long as they are connected to the Internet. During the class, each registered student will be using a screen-sharing tool for visuals and a free phone line for audio (non US-based students will have to use Skype). During the lecture part, students will watch the monitor of the instructor, and during the hands-on part instructor can quickly switch mode to see the screen of the student who needs help. Students can also ask questions using online chat room (see sample screenshot of a training session).

Due to bandwidth restrictions, this class can not accommodate more than 9 students.

Dates/time: November 3-7, 2008, 10AM – 5PM New York Time. The start time can be changed to make it more convinient based on the time zones of people registered to this course.

Instructor: Yakov Fain

Yakov Fain is a managing principal of Farata Systems, consulting, training and product company. He has authored several Java books, dozens of technical articles. Last year he co-authored the book , "Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java: Secrets of the Masters". Sun Microsystems has nominated and awarded Yakov with the title Java Champion. He leads the Princeton Java Users Group. Yakov teaches Java and Flex part time at New York University. He is an Adobe Certified Flex Instructor.

Prerequisites

Each student has to purchase the book “Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source ”. The online version of the book is also available at http://safari.peachpit.com/9780321529183 (paid or trial subscription is required).

To gain the most from this class, the student should understand principles of object-oriented programming and be familiar with XML

Course Objectives

After taking this course attendees will be able to

Build Flex user interfaces using Eclipse-based Flex Builder IDE
Handle events and data structures
Use remote XML data with GUI controls
Create custom UI components
Use custom events
Use controls, DataGrids, and ItemRenderers with Data Sets
Build attractive site navigation into the application
Create interactive forms with data validation
Access server side objects and applications
Populate your Flex application at runtime with data from an external web services
Transmit data from your Flex application to a web service (including file uploads)Create a Flex application that dynamically interacts with XML, web services, and Java-based server-side systems
Apply design patterns while developing UI and server-side communications
Use SOAP Web Services with Flex
Understand LiveCycle Data Services
Process XML with E4X
Create Flex/Java applications with open source BlazeDS component

Course Outline

   1. Understanding Rich Internet Applications
   2. Getting Started with Flex Builder
   3. Laying Out the User Interface (containers, layouts, view states)
   4. Using UI Controls
   5. Handling Events and Data Structures
   6. Using Remote XML Data with Controls using HTTPService and data binding
   7. XML Processing with E4X
   8. Creating Custom Components with MXML
   9. Using Controls and Repeaters with Datasets
  10. Creating Loosely-Coupled Components Using Custom Events
  11. Creating Custom Components with ActionScript 3.0
  12. Using DataGrids and Item Renderers,
  13. Implementing Navigation (TabNavigator, View Stack)
  14. Using Formatters and Validators
  15. Customizing the Look and Feel of a Flex 3 Application
  16. Creating Modular Applications
  17. Introduction to LiveCycle Data Services
  18. Getting data from SOAP Web Services
  19. Flex remoting with Java
  20. Flex Data Management Services
  21. Using Blasé DS for building CRUD applications

Cancellation policy

Cancellations requests made prior to October 10,2008 will receive 100% refund. No refunds will be given after this date.

For additional information please email at yfain@faratasystems.com

Feedback from the students who've taken this course in the past:

Hi Yakov,
 
I have attended several seminars and courses and I say that yours is the best. I am very anxious to apply the many things
that I have learned in the last five days. In a scale of 1 to 10 I give you a 10. You are the best.
 
I like the way you teach. Using adobe connect and skype is very convenient. The only thing I didn't like is waking up at
6 am to get ready for the class since I live in Las Vegas.
 
Best Regards,
Sonny

===

1.  Rate this course on the scale of 1 to 10 (ten is the better than 1)?  9
2. What you did not like in this course and would like me to improve?  Was a good course overall, connection issues were tough for some though which took away from discussion.
3. What did you like the most in this course?  It was great to have flexibility to take online and no traveling required.  Explanations provided by instructor (Yakov) were thorough and always made time to answer questions.  It was also refreshing that Yakov had a pretty good sense of humor.


Lee
===

1.Rate this course on the scale of 1 to 10 (ten is the better than 1): 9


2. What you did not like in this course and would like me to improve

* I was dropped from skype.
* I didn't care for the Adobe Connect interface. The modules like Chat & the main screen aren't resizable. The main screen only took up a portion of my computer screen. I would have liked to been able to expand it to fill my screen. .
* Would've rated the course 10 if not for these minor technical issues.
* You covered a lot so not sure how to improve the content...the only constructive thing I could suggest is that maybe on the last day we seen one of your real-world Flex projects in action (like that broker dashboard) and then have you go behind the scenes to show how you put it all together using the Flex pieces we learned in class. Maybe we would have seen some of your own Flex best practices along the way. Not sure you really have much time to go there with such a full lesson plan...but just a thought

3. What did you like the most in this course.

* Liked that we followed the book. The sample Lessons were great in their progression through simple to more complex topics. (And I liked that the examples in the book actually worked!). Plus I'll have a working project (FlexGrocer) that I'm now very familiar with to go back and reference at a later date.
* Liked that I could choose not to code and instead copy the completed files into my project for the current Lesson. Sometimes I preferred not to code each and every step in the Lesson, but rather wanted to just walk thru and review the finished code to understand the big picture.
* Liked that we had 5 days...we got to cover a lot.
* Liked how simple and intuitive many of the Flex conventions are (ViewStacks, Events, Charting, etc)

Regards,
Jeff