Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004 [Paperback]

Tom Green (Author), Jordan L. Chilcott (Author), Chris Flick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735713766 | ISBN-13: 978-0735713765 | Publication Date: October 30, 2003

Each of the applications in Macromedia's just-released Studio MX 2004 product suite--Dreamweaver MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, and FreeHand MX--is, in its own right, a powerhouse in some aspect of Web development. Put them together, and you'll be conquering the world with your dynamic, data-driven sites! All you need is this guide to pull it all together. Written by a trio of Web experts, this volume uses the creation of a fictitious community center to give you a solid overview of how you can use the integrated workflow of Macromedia's Studio MX product suite to create your own dazzling sites. You'll start by learning about the principles that govern the creation of database-driven sites and the planning that ensures their successful deployment. Then the fun begins! The remainder of the book shows you how to use the tools at your fingertips--along with Contribute, Flash Remoting, and Flash Communications Server--to build real-world applications.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Each of the applications in Macromedia's just-released Studio MX 2004 product suite--Dreamweaver MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, and FreeHand MX--is, in its own right, a powerhouse in some aspect of Web development. Put them together, and you'll be conquering the world with your dynamic, data-driven sites! All you need is this guide to pull it all together. Written by a trio of Web experts, this volume uses the creation of a fictitious community center to give you a solid overview of how you can use the integrated workflow of Macromedia's Studio MX product suite to create your own dazzling sites. You'll start by learning about the principles that govern the creation of database-driven sites and the planning that ensures their successful deployment. Then the fun begins! The remainder of the book shows you how to use the tools at your fingertips--along with Contribute, Flash Remoting, and Flash Communications Server--to build real-world applications.

About the Author

Tom Green is a self-employed digital media professional who is an educator, author, lecturer, and passionate advocate for the Toronto New Media community. Tom collaborated with Chilcott and Flick on Building Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX in 2002. Jordan L. Chilcott develops eCommerce, Multimedia and Intra/Extranet solutions for various corporations. He also moderates the Dreamweaver Talk List, sharing his knowledge, tips/tricks and experiences. Chris S. Flick currently is the art director and web master at a prominent consulting firm in Northern Virginia where his main responsibility is to help the clients in his firm establish a worldwide, international presence on the web.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press (October 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735713766
• ISBN-13: 978-0735713765
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Having been involved with Post Secondary education for over a decade and an active member of the international, national and local New Media Communities, I have jammed a lot of experience into a relatively short time frame. Ten books in eight years, a ton of speaking engagements , Adobe Education Leader, Adobe Community Professional, Community MX partner and other activities are a good example of that one. The biggest honor so far has been my being lumped in with a group of 10 influential Flash Designers that Adobe pulled together to celebrate the 10'th anniversary of Flash.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Who proofread this?, April 22, 2004

By 

PAUL RICHARD (BLOOMFIELD, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004 (Paperback)

Although I am learning a lot from this book, it is a struggle. The step by step instructions are not always clear and sometimes omit important information. Other times the text is just sloppy. For instance, the authors say to name a file, say, file1. Through the rest of the example they refer to the file as file_1. Saying a button is the second from the right on a vertical toolbar is another. It's a good thing you can download the project files from the publisher's website to see what they really are talking about. If I didn't already have experience with Dreamweaver 4 and Fireworks 4, I'd probably be really lost.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is set to become a classic., February 18, 2004

By 

Gordon Knapp (Manchester UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004 (Paperback)

Hands up those of you who have been to one those free Macromedia seminars where a team of speakers attempt to present all the wonders of Studio MX 2004 over a period of a few hours? Absolutely riveting stuff. Database driven Flash, Cold Fusion interaction, calendars and booking systems, streaming media, fantastic looking demo sites, css tricks, templates, Flash chat rooms. Now hands up those of you who could remember how to do any of it 10 minutes after leaving the conference centre. Frustrating isn't it?

Enter "Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004". This book is set to become a classic. It will change the way you work with "Studio MX 2004" forever. For a start you will find yourself using the entire package to it's full potential as opposed to just tinkering around the edges.

The book revolves around the building of a Web Site for the "Oakbridge Recreation Center". Excited yet? Stick around. This is not just any old Web Site. This is state of the art Cold Fusion / Flash / DMX / MySql masterpiece complete with a Virtual Tour of the facilities based on the visitors interests, an online booking facility and the piece de resistance .... an online meeting facility flexible enough to offer services ranging from a text input chat facility to streaming video and audio.

Scared yet? Don't be. The authors go out of their way to guide you step by step through the process using ample diagrams and screen grabs. Their writing style is up close and personal, almost as if they were sitting next to you having a chat. Their approach throughout is to let the software do all the hard work.

This book is a trip of discovery and along the way you will encounter Flash Remoting, The Flash Communication Server and the use of Flash MX 2004 components, dynamic templates, Dreamweaver's new CSS capabilities, the advantages of using Fireworks as your primary graphics tool and much much more. Just take a look through the Table Of Contents to get a feel for the scope of the book.

This book is aimed at the intermediate user. The guy who has used Dreamweaver and messed with a bit of Flash and is now ready for greater things. If you own Studio MX 2004 you NEED this book.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!!!, December 1, 2003

By 

"brian_radford" (Fraser Lake, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004 (Paperback)

"Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX 2004" is by far the best book I've read on building dynamic websites to date. Only one other book I know of goes into so much detail regarding the overall process of developing a website, "Building Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX", which is also written by the remarkable trio who wrote this book.

I really appreciated how the books focus on teaching its readers how to integrate Macromedia's latest tools with one another melded seamlessly into the dynamic workflow being presented throughout the book; As well as how it not only showed you "how" to do certain tasks related to the project (step-by-step), but goes that extra step and tells you "why" you should do it that way. Throughout the book the authors took a "let the software do the work" approach to their instruction, which made the whole development process seem a lot less daunting and quite efficient.

Although I'm usually quite thick skinned when I read a book, I actually found it refreshing the way the authors talked straight to you as an equal, and by the use of illustrations really helped get across the concepts that may have been over the less technical minded readers head. Overall the tone of the book was one that made you feel good about what you were learning and that it wasn't beyond your reach. Although if you are a novice this book would most definitely not be the place to start learning the ropes.

The real meat of this book came in the form of the topics that were covered during the course of the project. Some of the more exciting topics covered included the use of Flash Remoting, incorporating the Flash Communication Server through the use of Flash MX 2004 components, dynamic templates, and putting Dreamweaver's new CSS capabilities to the test. Add this to the great coverage of the dynamic development process and you'll find that you're hard pressed to find anything you don't like about the book...

Overall the bottom line is if you are a web professional looking for a book to fully explains the process of building dynamic web sites/applications, and how to use Macromedia's latest and greatest tools seamlessly together, this is a book you are going to want to add to your library.