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389 Pages·2010·2.84 MB·English

by  Rob Huddleston

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Rob Huddleston
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Published by:
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-93002-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Acknowledgments
No technical book should be trusted that does not have a good
tech editor backing up the author, but in the case of this book,
I can say without question that it could not even have been
written without the tech editor, Phil Nickinson. Phil is the
editor at AndroidCentral.com, the online resource for all
things Android and a site that all readers should bookmark
and visit regularly. He is a pretty busy guy, between blogging,
responding to forum posts, traveling to mobile device
launches, and most importantly, taking care of his family.
Editing a book like this was not, I think, high on his list of
things to add to his plate, but he graciously agreed to do so
nonetheless. True, I suspect he only agreed because he and I
are cousins, but whatever the reason, I am in his debt. So my
thanks to Phil and also to Shannon for letting me monopolize
more of her husband’s time and to Mia for letting me make
her daddy busier. Phil also became a father again while we
worked on this book. Welcome to the family, Bella.
Speaking of family, I am as always thankful to Kelley,
Jessica, and Xander for their love and continued support for
my writing and odd schedule. Thanks as well to my mom and
dad for your support and for always being willing to hop on a
plane to visit and help out with the grandkids.
The people at Wiley continue to be a wonderful group with
whom to work. I’ve now had the pleasure to work with
Stephanie McComb on two books, and I look forward to even
more going forward. Thanks for being so kind and supportive,
and for lunch. Kelly Henthorne did a great job editing, and
Debbie Abshier and David Sechrist pulled everything
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together to produce the beautiful book you hold in your
hands.
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Credits
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Stephanie McComb
Editorial Director
Robyn B. Siesky
Vice President & Executive Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President & Executive Publisher
Barry Pruett
Business Manager
Amy Knies
Marketing Manager
Sandy Smith
Production Editor, Copy Editing, Layout, Design,
Proofreading, and Indexing
Abshier House
Cover Image
Michael E. Trent
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About the Author
Rob Huddleston has been developing Web pages and
applications since 1994 and has been an instructor since 1999,
teaching Web and graphic design to thousands of students.
His clients have included the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the
States of California and Nevada, and many other federal, city,
and county agencies; the United States Army and Air Force;
Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Bank of America,
Wells Fargo, Safeway, and Coca-Cola; software companies
including Adobe, Oracle, Intuit, and Autodesk; the University
of California, San Francisco State University, and the
University of Southern California; and hundreds of small
businesses and nonprofit agencies, both in the United States
and abroad.
Rob is an adjunct professor in the Interactive Media program
at the Art Institute of California, Sacramento. He is an Adobe
Certified Instructor, Certified Expert, and Certified
Developer, serves as an Adobe User Group Manager, and has
been named as an Adobe Community Professional for his
volunteer work answering user questions in online forums. He
also helps users as an expert moderator on Adobe’s
Community Help system. Rob lives in Northern California
with his wife and two children.
Rob is the author of XML: Your visual blueprint™ for
building expert websites using XML, CSS, XHTML, and
XSLT; HTML, XHTML and CSS: Your visual blueprint™
for designing effective websites; Master VISUALLY:
Dreamweaver CS4 and Flash CS4 Professional; ActionScript
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3: Your visual blueprint™ for creating interactive projects in
Flash CS4 Professional; the Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Bible,
and Teach Yourself VISUALLY Web Design. You can visit
Rob’s blog at www.robhuddleston.com or follow him on
Twitter at twitter.com/robhuddles.
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Introduction
Adobe MAX is a conference sponsored by Adobe every year
to bring together developers and designers who work with
Adobe technologies and enable them to learn new techniques,
network with one another, and, in general, get excited about
the company and its products. Of course, the attendees of a
conference like MAX are almost by definition geeks: These
are folks who pay thousands of dollars and in some cases
travel halfway around the world to attend. Like all large
conferences, MAX kicks off every year with a lavishly
produced keynote address, and being a conference populated
primarily by geeks, you should not be surprised to discover
that many attending the keynote use social media networks
like Twitter to breathlessly report every announcement.
I have attended MAX, with a few exceptions, each year since
2005, and have noticed an interesting shift amongst the
attendees during the keynote. Even two years ago, the crowd
would have been lit by an almost unearthly blue glow from all
of the people with open laptops. This year, however, few
laptops were to be seen. This did not signal a shift away from
social media use, but instead a shift in the devices being used.
I would suspect that more people actually tweeted during the
keynote than in the past, simply because more people use
Twitter today than two years ago. The difference was that
almost everyone in the theater was using a mobile phone.
MAX itself has recognized this shift: There is no question that
the primary focus of the event is mobile development. A great
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