This book is divided into two main sections. The first, a walkthrough of the main components of the framework, is very useful for a beginner. It examines the base classes of the framework and does a good job of explaining how the pieces fit together.



When it comes to implementing the framework in a practical way, however, the author makes a terrible decision IMHO. Instead of dealing with the normal use case where the Flex application will be connecting to a remote service to send/retrieve data, he decided to use the example of an AIR application that only uses the SQLite (local) database. The author discusses his reasoning for this decision and indicates that it would add an unneeded layer of complexity to deal with the various server side technologies (php vs Java vs CF vs .net). IMO, it would've been a much better idea to use the Flex HTTPService class and then just generate static XML files that the server would return to the Flex app. That way, we would be able to learn more about the functionality of the ServiceLocator and the delegates.



To make matters worse, the AIR app that the book walks you through building is a BLOG!!! Get it? This book teaches you the supremely useful ability to build a blog that resides only on your local machine, so you can create blog posts that nobody else can read. He could've at least picked an application that would make sense as an AIR app.