Customer Reviews

Flash MX Application Design and Development

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is the single most disappointing technical book I have ever purchased.

It will be obvious to anyone that an editor has not properly reviewed this book. It would seem impossible to have missed such basic and numerous errors in the text. It is equally obvious that the final code, at least for the first lesson on the disk, was not even run once because it can't function. For example, there is a basic error in one of the calls to a java class that prevents the project from working. It is unlikely that anyone who purchased this book to learn flash would be able to fix this mistake. This may seem like a petty complaint but realize this is just one of hundreds of error that will make it impossible for you to complete the lessons.

Unless you already skilled in the subject that this book is teaching its unlikely you will be able to get much out of it. When your projects fail to run correctly you will never know if they are your errors or one of the myriad problems inherent in the book's text, images, or code. How are you supposed to learn?

Frankly, the quality of this book makes me angry. For the 45 dollars Newriders asks you to pay you should expect the book to have at least a basic level of quality. It does not. It makes me twice as angry because I can see in this book the awesome potential it could have had, instead of being a confusing and frustrating text.

The editors of this book should be ashamed.

As a general criticism the book is not well written as a teaching tool. There is no doubt in my mind that Mrs. Speigel knows flash cold but that does not make her a good instructional writer. I do not blame Mrs.Speigel for this nature of the book because it is her editor that should have improved the quality of the text by helping her understand what sections need a little more explanation. A little more explanation mixed with the "do this do that" text would have made this a better book.

Do not misunderstand me. I would by another book written by Mrs. Speigel. But do not buy this one. There is much more wrong here than a few missing data base files. There is an absolute lack of pride.

Once again the editors of this book should be ashamed.

Problems
Descriptions for installing backend are poor and confusing.
Database files are missing but provided on Newriders site.
Replacement files have no explanation for how they need to be installed or that they must be placed into specific folder before they can be installed.

Major problems
There are basic errors in the database update files from Newriders. If you are lucky enough to realize these files are missing and get then from Newriders they still will not work.
First there are illegal characters in the product database SQL statements so that they can't be added to the database tables.
The second, and my favorite, in the Forum SQL data statement the field Category is misspelled Gategory.
Good luck getting these to work!

List of Errors
pg16-17 Setting up timeline. Steps are jumbled with some missing and lead a different end product than is described.
pg21 figure 2.3 i s incorrect
pg24 figure 2.9 is a progress bar not a scroll bar.
pg24 figure 2.10 is not the completed face clip, it's the Bar Left Cap
pg31 figure 3.3 is what the time line should look like after step 2 not 3.
pg32 steps indicated the wrong location to find the helpAgent file
pg32 doesn't tell you where in the library to create the new speechBubble movie clip
pg36 the cart object in step 6 doesn't exist. i think it's called viewCart
pg 37 step 2 the cartItems movie clip doesn't exist
pg 38 step 14 the arrow is already a movie clip
pg 38 either the instructions are incomplete or both graphic on the page are incorrect. It's hard to say
At this point I have stopped keeping track. Originally I was making the list for the editor but it is simply too much work to document every mistake this book has.

If I could give this book less than one star I would. I was very excited about this book when I heard about it. The back cover promises to "Deconstruct" three web applications. What it really does if give you a list or error filled instructions with little information about why things are being done. This book reads more like a poorly created web tutorial than a book authored by a professional "award-winning designer". By page 31 I had already encountered over a dozen errors in the writing and illustrations.

This book was obviously not tested in any way. My favorite error so far is on page 20 and 21. In the right column of page 20 on step 2 it reads: "In the Linkage Properties dialog box (shown in Figure 2.3)..." If you look at figure 2.3 on page 21 you see a picture of a "Registration Agreement"... doesn't look like a property box to me...

These types of errors continue on up at least to page 31 where I decided this book was better as firewood than an instructional tool.

I skimmed forward through the book and discovered that there is absolutely no information about the server side content. You get a short text file on the CD that tells you where to download the Java Development Kit (JDK), Apache Tomcat, and MySQL. It's up to you to find the instructions on installing them. Good luck, you'll need it.

I was most interested in the Flash based chatroom that the "Mult-Player Tag Game" web application promised. Unfortunately there is so little described about the server end that I doubt anyone could create their own using this as a guide. This book seems to promise to teach about the interaction between a flash web application and a server but it only concentrates on the flash client leaving server side information out completely.

The server side components exist as a set of three java servlet web apps from the CD. All you get are the class files. There are no source files on the CD so that you can see what is really happening on the server end.

Do not buy this book. It promises much but only delivers errors and shallow content. ...

great learning tool my ... , this book has tons of errors, no errata, and no companion webpage. it was poorly written, and poorly edited, remind me never to buy another new riders book again. it doesn't matter how well you know flash, you shouldn't have to go through a book and fix all the errors to get something to work. from the publisher "she heard of a need for this type of book, where none existed." there are plenty of books out there that cover server side flash and flash app dev., if i were you reading this review, thinking about buying this book, i would go buy anything from the "friends of ed" series. they have excellent books, coldfusion for flash, php and advanced php for flash, flash and xml, dynamic content studio, i recommend any of those over this book. there are some others also, "reality coldfusionmx and flash mx integration", "server side flash," these are just a few well written books that are coming to mind.

There is virtually no explanation of setting up the backend. So guess what? You can't even view the finished files for the book - let alone anything you create. The readme file on the CD that is included is apparently full of file name errors and references (the files don't exist for the database, as another person mentioned) and is unusable for anyone except a web server guru. The book itself offers little more than a typing exercise in recreating these applications (with no explanation of live operation with the databases), offering little in the way of programming education and explanation of methodology. Additionally there are typos, illustration errors or omissions every few pages, with instructions that don't match the screen captures. I'm continuing to try to learn something from it - but it's a poorly reviewed and tested book and extremely frustrating to deal with.

Like the other guy - if anyone has any insight into getting the backend working, let me know too.

PS - The support site for the book is still "coming soon"! Big help...

Other reviewers are correct that the book is a bit shallow in its attempts to teach Flash MX application development, and seems to focus more on design. A fair amount of value can be culled from this book by learning from the author's project organization techniques and examining the actionscript in detail. It is interesting to see how a professional Flash developer storyboards, documents, organizes and codes their project. I particularly liked the TableDisplay component in the Flash Community project, but was disappointed that the book doesn't really cover the component's creation from beginning to end; rather, when you load her base.fla file, which you'll need to do, the component is already defined. I found that I needed to purchase another book (Flash MX Actionscript Bible) to explain what is necessary to create a reusable component. In addition, the lack of any real definition or development of the back-end processing, which the three projects in the book all depend upon heavily, seriously reduces this book's value. A lot of effort went into this book, with 500 pages and three projects, but it would have been better to drop one project and use the space to go deeper into theory and application development. Then it would truly have been worth it's jacket price. I love the way the book was published though, with a wide page format and a little color added and especially the high quality smooth paper.

The concept behind this book is fabulous--and it could yet be reworked into a useable resource. But, in it's current state, it's riddled with mistakes in the instruction and code examples (things which should have never left the editor's desk).

Did anybody read this book or test the examples?

Also, the monkey-see monkey-do method of teaching becomes a drag when you realize little effort will be made for the non-programmer who may want to know 'why' things are done a certain way.

There is definitely not enough information regarding how Flash works with servers and databases. In the book the backend system is a Java servlet, but there's no more than a couple paragraphs to elucidate what it is and how it works. Speigel also writes that using the Java servlets as a backend is no diferenct than using PHP, ASP, or Coldfusion, but no examples or resource links are provded anywhere.

And don't count on looking for updates and corrections at the book's website... is nothing but a splash page--oh yeah, it does say 'coming very very soon'. Great.

On a positive note, the book has given me a tangible story-board representation for how Flash applications can be built--the storyboard overview and project docs were helpful.

But, if you are like me, and you don't have a strong handle on ActionScript yet, avoid this book and the frustrations that come with it.

Purchasing this book is like being politely mugged. It takes away your money but promies it won't hurt you. Much.

This book is horrid. It sets the user up for a wonderful learning experience then utterly fails to deliver. The CD lacks source files referred to in the projects. If you try to work around the lack of source files, you find the instructions themselves are chock full of errors. To add insult to injury, the first project tries to force users to purchse a ... font designed by a friend of the author.

The worst part about this book is its alluring promise. Flash MX has wonderful XML features, but few understand how to use them. This book promises to teach users how to transform Flash from an animation tool to an impressive development environment -- then fails to deliver. Instead, it confuses the reader, presents countless errors, and offers broken "explanatory" links.

I can't recommend a "better" book because there are no other books currently available promising what this one fails to deliver. Hopefully, the next person to tackle the subject matter will actually complete the job rather than cruelly taunting her audience.

i was very excited about this book because of the flash e-commerce application, but the last two reviews are correct, there are several errors and discrepancies in the code and the images. it is very easy to correct the errors and find your way, but they can throw you off track and it is not exactly what you would expect from a 50$ book. i have not been able to find any reference to the db on the cd, i had to send an email to new riders. none of the websites associated with this project that are listed in the book are functional. the authors site is not up, and i could not find the errata on the new riders site. as was stated in previous reviews, there is no explanation of the backend, so unless you work with these technologies already you probably aren't going to have a clue what you are doing. you won't be able to finish the applications as they come, you'll have to re-create them using something you are more familiar with. if only we all had a pro java programmer friend! D: there are many books out there that focus on the backend also, which is why i bought this book, i figured it would be the same. it is a very thorough e-commerce application, i'm sure the author knows her stuff, but overall the book has been a disappointment and more of a hassle than its worth. i am keeping my hopes up for that brand new cfmx and fmx book by ben forta, that one should definitely be good.

I was left scratching my head after the first chapter. The screenshots do not even match up with the text on the same page! The author, reviewers (if there were any), publishers and editors should be ashamed. I've never seen a book that was so unsuitable for publication. I hope the author will review her work in the future.

I didn't like how the book opens in a non-traditional landscape way. They said it would make things easier to show code etc. (try a smaller font) 13 lines of code takes up 1/3 of the pages.

Spelling Mistakes take away from the books overall feel.

The thing that truly slamms this rating down to a 2 is the fact that i could not get the examples to work with HER CODE!!!

The book concentrates on three applications. All of which would be great to learn, and deploy (or at least 'tag-along' with the programmer) which is kinda how the book is presented.

The bottom line is that the book did not make it easy enough (or bug free enough) to get the reader to deploy the examples.

I will say however that the exmaples she made are awsome, and truly unique. Going out on the "java" limb and trying to get an application using Java as a back end was brave and heroic.

She should get together with her Java Programmer and write a book from soup to nuts on how to fully utilize Flash MX and Java to make the application she set out to make in the first place. (but this time let her Java buddy write explanations about his/her code).

It sorta left me wanting more orgainzation and more success out of it.

I will also say as a footnote that i have not checked the "new-riders" website for possible bug fixes to the code she sent. So i don't know if she did in-fact remedy the problems or not. (i imagine she has).