Customer Reviews

Flash 5 Magic

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I thought Flash 4 Magic was great, but this version, which is a Totally different book, is in a category of it's own. But be warned, when the category listing says intermediate to Advanced, it means it. Of course that's what useres at that level want. If you want a beginners book, check out Friends of Ed foundational book or the Idiots book (I hate that title) but Mr. Karlins did a great job for the beginner.

You want the meat and potatoes of Flash, this is a great book. It uses Real World projects such as managing your assests, designing a shared library, and tons of ActionScript. Is this the "pretty" stuff, no, but it sure helps you get the job done.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of the pretty stuff too, but with the pretty comes setting up rotation and alpha transparency, animating mouse effects, randomized arrays. There is just so much in this book, I couldn't begin to tell it all. You will even implement databases and add content to an XML document. This is a very deep book and the tough subjects are not avoided.

You will not regret investing in your future by purchasing this book.Even if you are new with ActionScript you will be able to figure it out with this book. Not to say a total novice opening Flash for the first time would be comfortable.

*

If you are trying to learn to integrate Flash with middleware scripting, i.e. asp, cfm, jsp, or php, this book will drive you nuts. The examples DO NOT work and the authors DO NOT have a support site with corrected code.

The book sends you to URLs that don't exist, and requesting technical support from the included phone number sends you to an answering machine.

After discovering that no one was interested in supporting the information contained in this book, I emailed a couple of the other folks who left "5 Star" reviews and asked them, "were you able to get the example in chapter 13 to work?" (the first real example of asp integration). I received a reply... "There is no way that I could possibly check all the code for review".

To me, that's bad.

Don't believe the 5 Star reviews. I've actually READ the book, DONE the examples, and SPENT the time to discover the authors pushed this book out the door without debugging it.

It's up to you. You can take a chance and spend the time and money to discover for yourself, or you can pass this book by. If ANYONE can get this code to work as stated in the book, email me at hays@semp.net and I'll eat my Windows 2000 server!

*

This is strictly my opinion, thus it is not empirically verifiable, but I found this book to be extremely disappointing! To me, it seemed as if the authors of this book wrote it the night before it was due to the editors. Until I had read a few other books on Flash 5, I thought it was me. The book takes you through a tutorial on updating a flash movie, say "megansdiary_start.swf," and your updated flash movie should come out exactly like the author's included final flash movie for that tutorial, "megansdiary_final.swf." However, there are lines of syntax that the tutorials fail to mention need to be added to the *_start.swf in order for it to come out like the *_final.swf. Also, what the authors tell you to input into ActionScript for your *_start.swf differs from what they have input in their *_final.swf, not only in location, but in content as well. They might make the claim that I read the book wrong, but that's only because the authors are catering to themselves as readers, not as an intermediate, or let alone a beginner in Flash 5. If I were one of those authors, I would ask for all copies to be recalled to update it in an edited version or I would ask for all copies to just be recalled giving a refund, to avoid future embarassment. I can't believe I wasted [my money] on this book. Oh well, it has neat pictures!

The few bad reviews I've seen so far on this book are awfully nitpicky. What's the deal with Mr. validated XML--Flash doesn't care! Flash as an XML parser--or whatever--leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, that point is irrelevent where Flash is concerned and in any case, the examples in the book sure work for me. Besides the real point, IMHO, is that this book blows away all the other ActionScript books--at least in the depth department. Sure, if you want to learn ActionScript from the ground up, start elsewhere, but if you want to go beyond the basics, Flash 5 Magic is without peer.

A year ago, "Flash 4 Magic" really helped me get going in a career doing Flash design. I was feeling like an expert until I upgraded to version 5 and realized I had a lot more to learn about Actionscript. Now I'm working through Flash 5 Magic, and it's just what I needed. The projects are advanced and will give me plenty to chew on in real applications, using arrays, functions, XML & database integration, etc.. If you're looking for an advanced Flash book without the filler, you can't go wrong with this one.

After looking at all the 5 star reviews, I thought it was just me, but I guess it isn't. I was looking forward to a good explanation of using XML with Flash 5. Like all XML users the first thing I did was to verify the XML document in Emberton's project. It would not verify. I found a typo in the DTD, fixed the typo, and then attempted to verify it with the repaired DTD. Still no luck. Next, I went through the ActionScript code, and it seemed to be all right, but no one in their right mind could trust script using unverified XML documents. The explanation of how the process works is unclear, and if anyone thinks that providing a screen shot of the ActionScript with purple comments is an explanation, I can tell you unequivocally that it is not. I passed to the next XML example in the book by John Lenker.

Lenker must have held his breath when he prepared this example, hoping against hope that no one who had a clue about XML would read it. First, after a windy and uninformed "discussion" of how XML is formed, the author conveniently forgot to add a DTD section or a schema. Did the XML verify? Of course not! Then the kludge he put together as an "example" was similar to what Chris Smith did in his Flash/XML tutorial available free at Flashkit. However, Chris Smith's XML verified!

Lenker used a similar trick as Smith did in setting up his XML, but not quite as good. Instead of using "lastChild" to identify the root node of the XML document (as did Emberton), he used ".firstChild." That's fine, but to use that code, he had to keep his first two tags on the first line <?xml version...?><TopStories>. By doing do, he effectively knocks out a tag for the DTD or schema. This is not good advice for people who are writing Flash for clients! It will crash and burn, and you've just made someone who read this kludge look like an idiot.

No matter how lofty Lenker makes his pronouncements, he did not do his homework, and anyone who takes his stuff seriously is going to be burned. Go back and read XML: A Primer by St. Laurent (really) to get an idea of what XML is meant to be. I don't know where you're going to find a good explanation of how to use XML with Flash. Try Chris Smith's online tutorial at Flashkit. At least his XML document verifies.

The previous version of this book took the world of Flash development by storm. It was THE book to have for the aspiring Flash designer. But, like all magic, the luster wears off after everyone knows the tricks. Flash 5 Magic is an updated version with lots of new content, but it suffers from many of the same flaws. Much of the content is hard to follow unless you are a seasoned Flash developer. Also, the code is not error free, leaving the reader to scratch their head and wonder why. The sample files in this book are better prepared than any other Flash tome (with the exception the the New Masters book) making it a worthwhile purchase. Of course, expect all the other Flash developers to be able to offer the same tricks within a month...

I have been doing actionscripting in Flash 4 and it seems that since a lot of tags were deprecated (outdated) in Flash 5 so I have to learn new methods employing actionscript in Flash 5.

I am not a programmer but a web designer, employing programming knowledge in HTML including CSS and minimal javascript so my knowledge on the object-oriented model used in Flash 5 is minimal.

This book requires you to know javascript at least. It tells you to read the actionscript reference in case you don't know any, but even as I did read and tried to understand the reference so many times, the book wasn't as helpful. It leaves me in the dark because even though it explains what those custom functions are for, it does not explain why the order of the functions are in such a way such that you would require one to initialize first, etc. etc.

I'm thinking even if I'm an expert in javascript, I would not need this book because the methods employed would be the usual ones anyway.

So if you're a beginner in programming, you'll find that this book is not helpful at all, leaving you in the dark on the "whys" of the script. Or if you're expert programmer, you probably won't need this book because the methods employed are the usual stuff anyway.

ive steadily been building my library of actionscripting books since flash5 was released. for the most part, ive been sorely disappointed by books that still include flash4 syntax or ignore the most powerful new features of flash5. luckily, this book is the first that actually seems to have been written after the authors sat down with flash5 and explored its capabilities. the book dives right into detailed, complex flash actionscripting applications that assume you already know a good deal of javascript(read: its not for beginners). it's structured around modular mini-applications of actionscripting (how to detect collisions of objects, how to integrate flash with xml content,etc) that quickly and concisely illustrate key points and provide actual examples which the actionscripter can rework and reapply.

if you already know some javascript and flash and are looking to take your skills to the flash5 level, this book will make an excellent (and perhaps the ONLY) resource.

After finding Flash 4 Magic to be one of my more disappointing purchases of the previous year, I was hesitant to pick up this book. Fortunately, this one delivers. Flash 5 Magic not just a book on how to do basic graphics and making simple timeline based movies. This version gets in depth with Flash 5's Action Script and XML capabilities.

If you already code, don't really want another graphics how-to book, and want some good ideas, this is the book for you. On the other hand, If you are a beginner at Flash, or conversely, want some real in-depth and comprehensive info (like a Wrox or O'Rielly publication), you may have to wait a little longer. Don't wait too long though; those types of publications have been few and far between in the Flash world.