Hi guys, I’m a fairly experienced AS3 developer who just hasn’t had the time (or, if I’m honest, drive) to learn Flex. I see it becoming an important thing and recently, a recruitment agency I work contracts for came to me with an offer to go on a Flex course. I’m just wondering if you guys think it’s any good and worth the cash. Here’s the curriculum…
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[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Developing Applications in Flex [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Introduction to the Flex UI controls [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Usage of Container components to define UI layouts [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Managing layout changes within an application with view states [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Adding interactivity with Transitions & Effects [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Navigating content with UI Navigators [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Styling interface controls with CSS, filters and blends [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Customising List based components with Item Renderers [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Using Events to initialise your application [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Exporting and deploying your application [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Extending the Flex Framework [/SIZE][/FONT]
[LIST]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Passing information around with Data binding [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Managing Custom Events - creating, dispatching and handling [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Adding hooks with Metadata including Styles, Events and Binding [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Creating custom components in MXML [/SIZE][/FONT]
[/LIST]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]ActionScript 3 and Flex [/SIZE][/FONT]
[LIST]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Creating custom components in ActionScript 3 [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The relationship between MXML and ActionScript [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Managing data with Collections - sorting, filtering and binding [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Validating content with Validators [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Loading and displaying data [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Manipulating XML data with E4X [/SIZE][/FONT]
[/LIST]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]From Flex to AIR [/SIZE][/FONT]
[LIST]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Introduction to the AIR specific APIs [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Manipulating the users file system [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Managing data with SQLite - creating, updating, deleting [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Native Drag and drop [/SIZE][/FONT]
[][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Packaging, deploying and updating an AIR application [/SIZE][/FONT]
[/LIST]
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The course lasts a total of 3 days plus an exam which, if I pass, makes me a “Certified Flex Developer” as the course is taking place at London’s Adobe office. I can’t remember the name, but apparantly the lecturer is one of the leading guys in the Flex community.
Anyways, the course costs £600 which, if I afterwards work 20 billable days for this recruitment company (which I may well do but not for definate), is refundable. They also mention that a similar course would cost around £1100 without the certification.
So what do you think? £600 is a lot of cash to me but not unaffordable. At the moment, I feel I should get into Flex but as I said, I can’t really be bothered! I think this might be a good kick up the arse as I can see Flex becoming more and more of a “requirement” than a “good to have” when it comes to getting contracts etc.
