This is an enchanced version of the Advanced Data Grid example from new Flex 3 Training from Source book, written by Adobe curriculum architect Matt Boles. As my students were working through the code, we added the following enhancements:

• Advanced Summary Renderer using a Canvas gradient with special thanks to Dirk Eismann for his slick gradient component
• Using a Canvas to use left and right for labels
• Some Flex CSS fun

View Example | Source Code

Screenshot:

When Mark Drew and I were getting live updates this week from Macworld and the iPhone came in at number #2 of 4 items Steve Jobs had on his list, we knew 2007 Macworld was going to be tough to top. My late Christmas present from Uncle Steve was going to be much later, especially since the major tectonic event was going to be movie rentals for download. With all the major movie studios involved in rental downloads ... there was no way Apple was to steal any thunder from that.

Here's how I was hoping the Macworld keynote went on Tuesday ... Steve Jobs at #4, "I would like to invite Kevin Lynch and Ted Patrick to announce Flash Player 9 for the iPhone. This will allow you to build RIA Web 2.0 apps for the iPhone. Adobe has a been good friend over the years to Apple and we can't be happier to partner with them on bringing a superior web experiences to the iPhone. Kevin and Ted why don't you demonstrate all the cool apps that have been built for the iPhone from companies like Ebay, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SlideRocket, Universal Mind, Effective UI, and Google. (They demo the apps and finish) It is great to see apps flowing beautifully across the iPhone, browser, and desktop. Congratulations to Adobe and Apple customers for this long overdue announcement. This is a really special day for Apple, even more amazing than Complete U2 for the iPod." We are also announcing 3G, multiple carriers, 16GB and 32GB hard drives, GPS, and voice recognition. The analysts go crazy and Apple and Adobe hit all time highs by Friday. I then wake up from my puddle of drool hearing that the major upgrades for the iPhone was bigger fonts and new backgrounds. :)

BTW, Apple's stock dropped 15% to 20% this week, apparently the market wasn't as impressed as some of the Mac Kool-aid drinkers. Let's hope by summer iPhone 2.0 becomes a reality and please remember your dear friends at Adobe by bringing the Flash Player 9 to the iPhone.

I certainly think that Buzzword is an amazing Rich Internet Application and according to Adobe's PR, "How will Buzzword be integrated with Adobe's other online document services? Buzzword will integrate with Adobe's document services in stages. The first step is to extend support for PDF output and gradually integrate with future releases of Acrobat Connect, Create Adobe PDF Online, and Adobe Document Center."

I would however like to see this as Flex 3 component, potentially even for purchase to integrate with Flex apps. Frankly, it would make one of the best Rich Text Editors out there. They do need to recoup their investment, but could share the RIA Flex technology wealth by charging for the component.