From capturing RSS feeds to developing full-scale e-commerce solutions, this hands-on guide shows you how to dive right in and start developing rich Internet applications with Flash 8. Taking advantage of the seamless front-end/back-end coordination afforded by Flash, Flex, and Flex Builder, popular author Tom Green provides you with a blueprint for using these products together—along with components, MXML, ActionScript 3.0, and CSS—to streamline and simplify the rich application development process. After introducing you to the Flex Builder interface and the fundamentals of ActionScript 3.0, MXML, and the Flash Player Object Model, Tom users a series of increasingly complex projects to show you how to do everything from create data-driven applications to retrieve and display data, create form-based applications, produce charts and user interfaces, create visual objects dynamically, debug and publish applications, and more. Tons of tips and screen shots and a CD filled with project files and media make learning easy.