The last of the new Flex 3 classes to be discussed here is the newly-named 'Extending and Styling Components' class. I say 'newly-named' because it is essentially the Programming the Visual Experience class available in the Flex 2 courseware, but with some organizational changes and a small amount of new content. The rename is a good one, because the PVE course always included the most content on extending components in the Flex Framework, but there isn't a whole lot new that wasn't around before this new courseware.

As I said, the content is generally the same as in the PVE course, but there has been a lot of movement and reorganization. Some lessons have been combined, some elements have been given their own lesson, and even some content has been removed. But, on the whole, the changes are minor.

Here are some of the bigger differences in the new Flex 3 training materials:

1. The first two lessons, 'Enhancing the Application with Imagery and Layering' and 'Enhancing the Application with fonts, filters and blends' have been combined into one, big lesson called 'Embedding Images and Fonts'. Besides some basic text changes and rewording, the only major difference in the new content is the removal of the anti-aliasing settings in Flash fonts.
2. The end of lesson 3 (Filters and Blends) were added to the beginning of lesson 4. The rest of the content in lesson 4 is virtually identical.
3. All of the talk about Flash Templates and scale9 in the previous version of the 'Modifying the Look and Feel...' lesson have been replaced with text about the Flex Skin Design Extensions for CS3. This is a solid tutorial for this material, and is essential for anyone who wants to take advantage of this new functionality in Flex 3.
4. Creating popups is a new lesson that covers the PopupManager and TitleWindow, and how to use them in conjunction. Again, this is partly a reorganization of content that was previously available in the Flex 2 version of this course, with a small amount of new content. However, the lesson is only eight pages long, so this addition is anything but substantial.
5. I would guess the 'Passing Data' lesson from the PVE course was removed because all of that information is covered in the Rich Client Apps course. Here, it is unnecessary repetition, so it got axed.

Essentially, the rest of the content is the same. There are a few other elements removed, and a few small parts added, but nothing of any real consequence. So, if you know this course pretty well, adjusting to the new course shouldn't be that much of a strain. Oh, and don't worry... the neat, little hand-drawn images from the Flex 2 courseware are used again here. So, it has that going for it... which is nice...

My next step will be diving in the Cairngorm courseware, taking a look at what is going on there, and giving some insight into how to use it effectively in the classroom. Stay tuned...

In my last post, I discussed the differences between the Flex 2 training materials for the Developing Rich Client Applications class and the newly released Flex 3 training materials for the same class - what was good, what was bad, what was new, what was removed. My plan for this post was to discuss the new materials for the Building Dashboard Apps class, now called Building Charting & Dashboard Applications, and cover the differences from Flex 2. However, after reviewing the materials, I'm not really seeing any. For the most part, the content is virtually identical to the Flex 2 materials.

The problem with this, of course, is that all of the mistakes from the Flex 2 courseware are still present in the Flex 3 version. In a previous post, I talked about some of the issues with the Flex 2 training materials. Past those that I mentioned, there were also typos, incorrect variable references in text, and other issues which, although they didn't break any of the walkthroughs, did make the courseware appear to be a bit 'sloppy' at times. So, no review of the materials - if you know the Flex 2 version, you know the Flex 3 version... warts and all.

Hope they come out with a Second Printing that has some of these issues resolved. Next up is a review of the new class full of old content, Extending and Styling Components. Stay tuned...

Developing Rich Client Applications is the beginner's class that any new Flex developer should be required to take. It gives all of the necessary content for developing Flex applications - which cannot be emphasized enough after reviewing the Flex 3 training materials. It is a much tighter class, covering even more content, while trimming other, less important lessons.

If you want to see the new course outline, you can go here. Instructors familiar with this course will notice a few things that are different about this outline right off the bat. First off, there are a few lessons that have been removed entirely: Simple Controls, Layout using Containers, and Repeaters. Also, there are new lessons that have been added: An overview of the course, and Creating Data Entry Forms. First off, let's talk about what has been removed.

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Oh joy and w00t, I just got my hands on the new Flex 3 Training materials from Adobe. I'm going to start going over them immediately, but first I wanted to give an update on the new courses (if you don't already know them by now.)

The first thing you notice when looking at the new Flex 3 course lineup is the push for integration with LiveCycle Data Services. There are three classes dealing with LCDS and Flex 3; those are:

1. Flex 3 and LCDS: Integrating with ColdFusion 8
2. Flex 3 and LCDS: Integrating with Data and Messaging
3. LiveCycle ES: Integrating Flex with LiveCycle ES

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Ah, Laguardia. If you are a fan of sitting and waiting around with a thousand strangers, then come on down to the 'C' gates and have a blast. This is where I sit, writing this post as plane after plane is delayed or cancelled. I'm used to it by now, as I have been flying out to NY to do quite a bit of training over the last few months. This afternoon, I finished my most recent class, Developing Rich Client Applications. This is the same class that I taught last week as well, which made this experience a bit strange, especially when the same questions in the same sections were being asked. I had to resist saying "Didn't I answer this question already?", as the proximity of classes had me thinking class members were repeating themselves.

Speaking of repetition, there were certain issues that did come up in each class, as well as a few examples that, when expanded, seem to clarify things for the students. Check em out below if you are going to be teaching the class anytime soon.

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Had two classes this week: one I was attending for certification purposes (Building Dashboard Applications), and one I was instructing (Developing Rich Client Application.) I'll have a post about the second class in a few days, but let's talk first about Building Dashboard Applications.

Overall, it is a relatively short class. It is scheduled as a two-day class, but if you are dealing with a class that has programming experience, especially Flex experience, I can't see it taking more than a day and a half. The reason I say this is because I was just part of a class of students that had ZERO Flex experience, and we were done with the class materials just after 12pm on the second day. Granted, these students had programming experience, but the lack of Flex know-how required a few stops to explain some of the basic language aspects of MXML and AS that wouldn't have been necessary otherwise.

And, still, we finished four hours early.

So, if you are going to be teaching this class, don't get worried if you seem to be running fast. Even a relatively conservative pace should guarantee you finish early on Day 2.

As for the class itself, there were a few things I noticed that could be useful to other instructors in the future. Granted, this is from the aspect of someone taking part in a class in which no one had any Flex experience, but these should translate to any instance of the class.

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