Product Reviews

Currently the dominant Rich Internet Application platform, Adobe's Flex 3 lets you create browser applications by programming Flash graphics using the ActionScript language. While Flex development is simple in principle, the Flex framework itself is enormously complicated.

O'Reilly's Flex 3 Cookbook aims to cut through that complexity by providing lots of easy-to-follow 'recipes' which explain how to find the right classes and techniques for tasks ranging from database access to playing videos.

It is the perfect choice for the new Flex developer and also contains numerous handy tips for the more experienced user. Its 22 chapters are arranged by category - Containers, Text, Dragging and Dropping and so on - which makes it easy to 'dip in' and find relevant information quickly.

Perhaps its main deficiency is the section on Adobe's new AIR runtime (a version of Flex for creating desktop applications), which, at just 50 pages, is a bit too brief. On the whole, however, this is an excellent reference work for Flex developers.