Customer Reviews

Advanced PHP for Flash

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book is good, but I think it is a little limited because it is a succession of cases, which do not correlate. Yoyr skills may be improved but not your knowledge. It is like learning a formula with the numbers already filled in , but not the formula with its symbols.

It's raining in Paris, which is sad.
But not as sad as the bad reviews here.
Apparently, some reviewers didn't take the time
to get familiar with the contents of the book
as stated here before buying it;
nowhere does it say the message board (Flash+PHP+mySQL)
is discussed in the Advanced book.
The sourcecode for that board was part of the "Foundation" book
and can be downloaded from the publishers site.
As to this one: it includes a working chat,
shows you how to build an e-commerce site
(including how to generate a pdf invoice from PHP),
talks about sessions (remembering user info with a handy shopping cart application),
how to let users upload files (jpg's for example to be pulled into Flash later..),
and many more.
Each and every php script has many usefull details
that you'll be able to integrate into your site;
and the Flash part takes full advantage of MX's new features
like loadVars, loading images etc...
Where is there another book integrating PHP and Flash
as closely as this one (and the Foundation one)?!
And best of all, if you ever get stuck,
the people on the support board are always ready to help.
So go ahead and get it.

Flash is becoming much more of an application/interface tool than ever before. This book does a good job of furthering the skills taught in the first book. While the book doesn't follow with a case study pertaining to all chapters, it does give you methods that you can pick and choose from, so that you don't necessarily need to read from beginning to end to get real and usable benefits.

I particulary enjoyed Chatper 5, which shows some very good ways of using MySQL with Flash: getting lists, details, and searching without having to load new pages or go back to previous pages...that's the good thing about Flash interfaces.

The book is a rather big step in difficulty from the first book, but worth it.

If you love flash but wanted to increase your knowledge to make flash into a full blown dynamic site, then this is the book for you, it takes flash from the neat little animations that we all first learnt how to do, to a completely new level, with coding using php/mySQL and javascript, XML and more to make complete ecommerce sites , email servers , chat rooms, xml buttons that can be used in multiples sidutaions, ftp with flash, search engine with a full database coding for a complete cookbook (that if you wanted to, you could convert into a full blown serach directory, and much much... This book goes beyond what almost all flash users thought possible to do with flash.
I highly recommend it.

1. too many errors

2. the codes don't work.. and you don't get support from the team that put them together... you will have to be overly nice to even here... "Oh! we will get back to you" from them

3. Full e-commerce app? what is an e-commerce system without a checkout feature? they basically leave out all the meat and expect you to work at the same projects you bought the book for on your own

basically, looks more like a couple of tutorials taken from the internet and thrown together in the form of a book in a hurry to capture the market before a better one does.

LEAVE IT ON THE SHELF!!

I bought the first book in this series (Foundation PHP for Flash) and loved it so I was really excited when it was announced on the forum that there was going to be a sequel. I haven't been disappointed.

It covers some advanced topics like sessions and sockets and then goes onto two great (and huge) case studies (a chat room and an e-commerce site). The book finishes with a section which highlights some of the sites that reader of the first book made, which is really cool (and is providing a lot of the topics of conversation on the forum at phpforflash.com).

There is an odd pattern at the bottom of the pages which makes the bottom of the book look like a newspaper when looked edge on, but that's a minor thing - it just looks a bit strange, that's all.

The content of the book is great though - kudos to you Mr Webster (and friends)

I bought this book after working with and really appreciating the first book in this line - Foundation PHP for Flash. The first book was extremely helpful in building a foundation in working with Flash > PHP > database applications.

This advanced book takes many of the concepts of the first book into deeper application and shows how to work XML into the equation as well in one of my favorite chapters PHP & XML. I can't give a higher recommendation regarding the helpfulness of these books. Well done and thanks!

... the scripts don't work. The downloaded scripts are different to the ones outlined in the book (neither work) and the after sale support is non-existant.

The first book of the series was great... This rarely works and this book is no exception...

This book will give you what you need to get PHP & Flash working together. I really like this book because what they teach you is usuable in the real world. I have learned alot from this book.

Thanks guys!