Book Description
AdvancED Flex 4 makes advanced Flex 4 concepts and techniques easy. Ajax, RIA, Web 2.0, mashups, mobile applications, the most sophisticated web tools, and the coolest interactive web applications are all covered with practical, visually oriented recipes.

• Completely updated for the new tools in Flex 4
• Demonstrates how to use Flex 4 to create robust and scalable enterprise-grade Rich Internet Applications.
• Teaches you to build high-performance web applications with interactivity that really engages your users.

What you’ll learn
Practiced beginners and intermediate users of Flex, especially those with a knowledge of other web development tools, will learn to leverage Flex 4’s new tools and capabilities to build truly advanced web applications.

• Get the most out of the new features introduced in Flex 4.
• Integrate Flex 4 with PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails.
• Leverage architectural and design patterns.
• Create mashups and collaborative applications using Flex 4.
• Build rich media applications using audio and video streaming and open source 3D libraries.
• Tune the performance of your Flex applications.

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Book Description
The most up-to-date and comprehensive introductory ASP.NET book you’ll find on any shelf, Beginning ASP.NET 4 in C# 2010 guides you through Microsoft’s latest technology for building dynamic web sites. This book will enable you to build dynamic web pages on the fly, and assumes only the most basic knowledge of C#.

The book provides exhaustive coverage of ASP.NET, guiding you from your first steps right up to the most advanced techniques, such as querying databases from within a web page and tuning your site for optimal performance. Within these pages, you’ll find tips for “best practices” and comprehensive discussions of key database and XML principles you need to know in order to be effective with ASP.NET. The book also emphasizes the invaluable coding techniques of object orientation and code behind, which will start you off on the track to building real-world web sites right from the beginning—rather than just faking it with simplified coding practices.

By the time you’ve finished the book, you will have mastered the core techniques and have all the knowledge you need to begin work as a professional ASP.NET developer.

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Book Description
Today’s market for mobile apps goes beyond the iPhone to include BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Phone, and smartphones powered by Android, webOS, and other platforms. If you’re an experienced web developer, this book shows you how to build a standard app core that you can extend to work with specific devices. You’ll learn the particulars and pitfalls of building mobile apps with HTML, CSS, and other standard web tools.

You’ll also explore platform variations, finicky mobile browsers, Ajax design patterns for mobile, and much more. Before you know it, you’ll be able to create mashups using Web 2.0 APIs in apps for the App Store, App World, OVI Store, Android Market, and other online retailers.

• Learn how to use your existing web skills to move into mobile development
• Discover key differences in mobile app design and navigation, including touch devices
• Use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax to create effective user interfaces in the mobile environment
• Learn about technologies such as HTML5, XHTML MP, and WebKit extensions
• Understand variations of platforms such as Symbian, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada, Android, and iOS for iPhone and iPad
• Bypass the browser to create offline apps and widgets using web technologies Continue Reading »

Book Description
The growing popularity of Web 2.0 applications is increasing user expectations for high-quality web site design, presentation, and functionality. It is into this climate that Microsoft is releasing Silverlight 4, the third and latest iteration of its cross-browser web presentation technology. Beginning Sliverlight 4 brings you to the cutting-edge of Web 2.0 application design and includes plenty of practical guidance to get you started straightaway.

Silverlight design tools have important differences compared to those used to create Ajax and JavaScript functionality. Robert Lair takes you on a tour of all the tools, including:

• Microsoft Expression Design, which plays an important part in creating Silverlight assets.
• Microsoft Expression Blend, which is used to build user interaction for Silverlight elements.
• Microsoft Visual Studio, which manages the interaction between designers and developers, providing the coding environment for “nuts and bolts” wiring.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll move on to gaining a more in-depth knowledge of some of the new features introduced with Silverlight 4, including H.264 protected content, right-click event handling, a new printing API, and support for the Managed Extensibility Framework. Continue Reading »

Book Description
When JUnit was first introduced a decade ago by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma, the Agile movement was in its infancy, “Test Driven Development” was unknown, and unit testing was just starting to move into the typical developer’s vocabulary. Today, most developers acknowledge the benefits of unit testing and rely on the increasingly sophisticated tools now available. The recently released JUnit 4.5 represents the state of the art in unit testing frameworks, and provides significant new features to improve the Java development process.

JUnit in Action, Second Edition is an up-to-date guide to unit testing Java applications (including Java EE applications) using the JUnit framework and its extensions. This book provides techniques for solving real-world problems such as testing AJAX applications, using mocks to achieve testing isolation, in-container testing for Java EE and database applications, and test automation.

Written to help readers exploit JUnit 4.5, the book covers recent innovations such as the new annotations that simplify test writing, improved exception handling, and the new assertion methods. You’ll also discover how to use JUnit extensions to test new application styles and frameworks including Ajax, OSGi, and HTML-based presentation layers.

Using a sample-driven approach, various unit testing strategies are covered, such as how to unit test EJBs, database applications, and web applications. Also addressed are testing strategies using freely available open source frameworks and tools, and how to unit test in isolation with Mock Objects. The book will also bring you up to speed on the latest thinking in TDD, BDD, Continuous Integration, and other practices related to unit testing. Continue Reading »