Since my original post on the subject, there are 2 additional tutorials for handling data in the Flex Quick Starts area of the Adobe Flex Development Center.
- Accessing XML data: ActionScript 3.0 used in Flex 2 leverages the ECMAScript for XML (E4X) specification to make available improved functionality for working with XML data. Because XML is a native data type in Flex, you write XML and assigning it to a variable. The tutorial explains how to access data values and assign data values with XML by using dot notation. Another example illustrates how to assemble and transform XML objects using the prependChild, appendChild, insertChildBefore, and insertChildAfter methods. (There was also a note about a known issue in Flex: when deleting an item from the data provider of a list control, the selectedIndex value is set to an incorrect value.) Another example illustrated various ways to query XML data right within ActionScript.
- Loading external data with HTTPService: This tutorial provides an example of using the HTTPService to obtain external data via HTTP calls. Data can be obtained from other domains, but they have to employ the proper use of a crossdomain.xml file. In this particular example, the resultFormat was set to "e4x", and the namespace was set to the atom namespace.
