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Robotlegs is a standout among the ActionScript 3 development frameworks available today. With it, Flash, Flex, and AIR developers can create well-architected, testable, and flexible Rich Internet Applications—fast. This concise guide shows you how the light footprint and focused scope of this open source framework not only solves your immediate coding problems, it helps you gain insight into AS3 architecture on a much deeper level.
The authors provide a walkthrough of specific features in two applications they've written in Robotlegs, complete with code for each application as a whole. You'll learn how to achieve a balance of flexibility and consistency in your own projects.
Solve 80% of your coding problems with 20% of the API
Gain code-base flexibility with automated Dependency Injection
Learn the anatomy of a Robotlegs application
Understand the relationships between models, services, control code, and views in the framework's MVCS architecture
See how the Robotlegs’ approach facilitates Test Driven Development (TDD)
Pick up practical methods for architecting Robotlegs solutions
Get expert insights to power-up your existing Robotlegs code
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Joel Hooks is a Flash Platform developer with experience in Actionscript 3, Flex, and Python. Joel spent the first 13 years of his professional career as a 3d animator and graphic designer working on computer-based training applications from that perspective. His interest in programming goes as far back as "TELL TURTLE" and he has always been interested in the technological challenges related to developing software making work a little bit easier. With the introduction of Actionscript 3, Joel finally found a platform that allows him to architect useful tools while fully leveraging his experience as a visual artist. Joel is passionate about technology and enjoys exploring the landscape of frameworks, libraries, and tools that make his work constantly fun and challenging.
Joel currently resides in Fort Worth and works as a Flex consultant for Universal Mind providing clients with oodles of clean code and a focus on test driven development solutions. Joel can be found blogging on various Flex development topics at http://joelhooks.com.
Outside of developing software tools Joel owns a photography studio http://visualempathy.com with his wife who also collaborates on the raising and nurturing of his four home-educated children aged 13 to 4.
Lindsey Fallow (aka Stray) has spent the past decade exploring science and technology as a writer, software developer, and television personality. Following an undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering, she fronted a science show for 8-12 year-olds on Disney, and went on to become a reporter & Associate Producer for Tomorrow's World (the BBC's #1 prime-time UK science and technology show) from 1998-2002. She's stood on the top of the Golden Gate bridge, fed sharks, filmed brain surgery, flown in military planes, and been bitten by a baby tiger, but is the most excited by far when her 16-year-old stepson 'gets' new math concepts.
A Flash developer since Flash 4, Stray blogs on ActionScript, test driven development and the programmer's brain at xxcoder.net. She is a core contributor to the Robotlegs framework, and actively pushing the ActionScript community to aspire to excellence through the try{harder} collaborative-learning format.
Great, clear overview of the framework, dependency injection and MVCS in general.
Details the use cases for the various framework classes along with the rational for how they work and how to avoid common pitfalls along the way. Also discusses how to use just parts of Robotlegs in your project rather than the whole framework, something I'd read about but wasn't 100% clear on. A couple of fully sourced examples complete the offering, illustrating how to pull all of the ideas together as both an AS3 or Flex based project.
The book is written in a nice accessible tone and definitely worth a read for seasoned and new Robotlegs users alike (though you will have to be comfortable with AS3 before you start). To be honest I expected a weightier book, but it's lightness plays to it's advantage as a quick and easy reference on core Robotlegs features and functionality. My only real criticism is that the diagrams could have been clearer.
A great guide to how to think your way through a project based on Robotlegs, but this book is also sneaking in a lot of general AS3 OO architecture guidance under the radar. The rich examples and source code go well beyond what most books offer in the way of sample apps - there's plenty to learn here outside of Robotlegs too.
The TDD chapter gives good concrete pointers on testing Robotlegs based apps - backed up by comprehensive tests for the source code examples.
The writing style is chatty, but also really clear - you'll whizz through the 120 pages in no time. Oddly this book is suitable for complete newcomers to Robotlegs and programmers who've used it for a while - lots of depth to the insights, so don't rule it out just because you've built Robotlegs apps already.
The book might be enhanced with an API guide - but the table of contents alone will give you a quick reference guide to working with Robotlegs - covering the 'why' as well as the 'what and how'.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:4.5 out of 5 stars 2 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Quintessential Guide to De-Spaghettifying your Flex Applications20 Sep 2011
By David Cadwallader - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recently inherited a very large code base, which was mostly a hodgepodge of spaghetti code, full of tightly-coupled untestable components. Luckily, around the same time I discovered Robotlegs. To say that this framework saved my sanity is an understatement. The framework is great for new projects and major refactorings, alike... allowing you to "build walls" around complex functional areas, and gradually knead the framework in.
I started off using examples from the Robotlegs API and community forums, but this book gave me the extra "oomph" to tighten up my design, and learn a lot of powerful tricks that save me time every day.
I strongly recommend this book to any Flex/Actionscript developer looking to create clean, testable and low-maintenance code.
4.0 out of 5 starsRobotlegs review5 Nov 2011
By kschaffe - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was very helpful introducing me to the Robotlegs framework. I needed to learn it for work and this is where I started. I gave it 4 stars because it seemed to lack good examples. I plan to read it again, now that I have some experience implementing Robotlegs in a couple projects.
