After answering a couple beginner questions on a forum today, I decided it would be awesome to have a list containing the best resources for getting started with Adobe Flex. If you’re looking for useful information about building the next generation of RIAs with Flex, I encourage you to use this list as a launch pad because the links it contains should lead you to more and more knowledge throughout the web.

1. Adobe’s official Flex Quick Starts offer some simple code samples to get you started, and they’re categorized very nicely into the sort of tasks you’ll want to learn right away.

2. Additionally, Adobe offers free video training with a series called Learn Flex in a Week. If you’re willing to throw down some cash for video training, you might want to see the Flex online training available through Lynda.com. Another premium option is the Flex content available from Total Training. Finally, be sure to take a peek at the Flex category on Adobe TV for content aimed at a wide variety of skill levels.

3. If you find yourself doing a lot of work with Flex, the Flex Language Reference will be your new best friend. Even as your skills and knowledge increases, you’ll keep coming back to this ultimate guide for Flex and Flash Player’s APIs. Every component property, method, event, and style is at your fingertips, often with useful inline examples. You can access it directly under Flex Builder’s Help menu too, if you prefer.

4. The flexcoders mailing list is a great place to ask questions if you’re having some particularly difficult problems with Flex. You can also read the flexcoders archives through The Mail Archive for an easier reading and searching experience. Also consider subscribing to the flexcomponents mailing list to learn about building custom components for Flex. You shouldn’t post general Flex questions here because this list is specifically designed for discussion focused on components. Even if you aren’t into building components, I recommend watching the discussions there because many of the list’s experts share useful insights into many hidden aspects of the Flex framework.

5. The Flex Cookbook is a community-driven site that includes a lot of short and simple how-tos for Flex. The style is much like the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook. As an exciting bonus, the best contributions to the site will be considered for inclusion in the printed versions of the Flex Cookbook, published by O’Reilly.

6. Join a local Flex user group or consider starting your own. Typically, Adobe user groups meet once a month and include tutorials and presentations by local experts or special guests from the worldwide community. These guests tend to work with Flex in the trenches for companies large and small. From time to time, you might even get to meet a real Adobe employee who can offer excellent insights into the products they evangelize.

7. Play around with the sample applications from Adobe’s Flex DevNet. They also come with Flex Builder, and should appear on the Start Page, which you can reopen from the Help menu. The best part of these applications is that you can right-click on them and choose “View Source” to look at the complete source code. Additionally, and perhaps not as well known, you can download the source code for all the ActionScript 3.0 examples that appear in the Flex documentation in one big ZIP file from Adobe’s site too.

8. We’re starting to see some good stuff for Flex on bookstore shelves. Current and upcoming books that focus on Flex and ActionScript 3.0 include the following (in no particular order):

   • Learning Flex 4: Getting Up to Speed with Rich Internet Application Design and Development
     by Alaric Cole and Elijah Robison

   • Flex 4 in Action
     by Dan Orlando, Tariq Ahmed, John C. Bland II, and Joel Hooks

   • Flex Mobile in Action
     by Jonathan Campos

   • Adobe Flex 4.5 Fundamentals: Training from the Source
     by Michael Labriola and Jeff Tapper

   • AdvancED Flex 4
     by Shashank Tiwari, Elad Elrom, and Charlie Schulze

   • Developing Flex 4 Components: Using ActionScript & MXML to Extend Flex and AIR Applications
     by Mike Jones

   • Enterprise Development with Flex: Best Practices for RIA Developers
     by Yakov Fain, Victor Rasputnis, and Anatole Tartakovsky

   • Flex 4 Cookbook
     by Joshua Noble, Todd Anderson, Garth Braithwaite, Marco Casario, and Rich Tretola

   • Foundation ActionScript 3.0 for Flash and Flex
     by Darren Richardson and Paul Milbourne

   • Flash Builder 4 and Flex 4 Bible
     by David Gassner

   • ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook
     by Joey Lott, Darron Schall, and Keith Peters

   • Essential ActionScript 3.0
     by Colin Moock

   • Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns
     by Joey Lott and Danny Patterson

   • Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation
     by Keith Peters

   • ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns
     by William Sanders and Chandima Cumaranatunge

   • ActionScript 3 Bible
     by Roger Braunstein

   • Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0
     by Todd Yard, Peter Elst, and Sas Jacobs

9. Consider installing Tour de Flex, an AIR application that includes a plethora of examples for all the Flex components, effects, data access classes, AIR capabilities, and data visualization controls, along with several open source and commercial components built by the community, and even public “cloud” APIs that can be used in Flex-based mashups and other applications.

10. Finally, there’s Flex.org, the official developer portal for all things Flex. It offers a ton of links to blogs, consultants for hire, and job postings related to Flex. Flex.org is probably most known for its showcase page which highlights some of the best Flex content on the web.

If you’re looking to help get someone started with Flex, or someone asks you what they need to learn to build their first Flex application, please send them here. Remember, anyone you help as they’re struggling as a beginner may be able to help you in return someday in the future when they’re past the early hurdles. The best way to build a strong community is to contribute to it yourself and encourage others to participate too.

If you found this post useful, you might also want to check out my related post, 12 Great Ways to Learn ActionScript 3 in Flash. It includes links to more great content that should benefit Flex developers too.