Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide [Paperback]

Tom Muck (Author)

Book Description

Series: Definitive Guides | Publication Date: September 30, 2003

Flash Remoting MX lets developers easily integrate rich Macromedia Flash content with applications that are built using Macromedia ColdFusion MX, Microsoft .NET, Java, PHP, or SOAP-based web services. The result is complex client/server applications that more closely resemble desktop applications than traditional web pages. Gone is the click/wait/reload approach of HTML. Your web application uses Flash as the front end while Flash Remoting handles the communication behind the scenes with the application server. All the end user knows is that it's fast and flexible.

The potential uses for Flash Remoting are endless. Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide will help you understand this breakthrough technology and use it to build your own Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Build applications that connect to a database, file system, or other server-side technologies. Or, use Flash Remoting to create:

• online stores that feature catalogs and shopping cart systems
• sound and video clip libraries
• banner ads with built-in shopping carts, click-through tracking, and site search capabilities
• new controls that can be used in place of HTML
• extensions to Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and more
• front-ends to databases for administrators

The book begins with Flash Remoting basics: setup, installation and an introduction to its underlying concepts. Next, you'll explore the Flash's User Interface components as they relate to Flash Remoting. Then, you'll gain insights into Flash Remoting internals and the Remoting API. The book is rich with examples that you will be able to run on your own system.

The next section focuses on the server-side environment that you'll use for your applications. Individual chapters cover Flash Remoting with ColdFusion, Server-Side ActionScript, Java, ASP.NET, and PHP.

The last section covers more advanced Flash Remoting techniques, such as calling web services from Flash Remoting, extending objects and UI controls, best practices, and debugging. Plus there is a detailed chapter demonstrating a real-world application. The book concludes with a Flash Remoting API reference.

Developers who are looking to create Rich Internet Applications with Flash will find Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Muck is coauthor of six Macromedia-related books including O'Reilly's Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide, and the bestseller, Dreamweaver UltraDev 4: The Complete Reference. He is an extensibility expert focused on the integration of Macromedia products with ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, and other languages, applications, and technologies and is a founding member of Community MX (www.communitymx.com). When not in front of the computer, Tom works on his Hong Kong movie collection. Once an aspiring heavy-metal musician, Tom is now content in his old age to sit on the porch playing the blues on his harmonica and banging out Robert Johnson songs on his beat-up acoustic guitar.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600401X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596004019
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,846,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Make sure you know what you want!!, March 25, 2005

By 

Brian "eateroftheham" (Crown Point, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

This book covers PRE ACTIONSCRIPT 2.0 REMOTING!! It is very important you understand this. FlashMX 2004 (standard and professional) have components that handle most of this. The notion of flash remoting has really evolved now, and is a function of the Flash editor more than just a bunch of included actionscript files. New developers should definately spend some google time to ensure they understand what they are getting. All that aside, this is a great book for anyone wanting to learn Flash Remoting with Actionscript < 2.0. Tom Muck presents information thoroughly and it was not hard to pick up this version of flash remoting. This book would have been given 5 stars if it were not for 2 things, 1) its out of date in my opinion, MX2004 is the standard now, and 2) the book added weight and pages b/c of the ever present language "reference" that is available if you have the flash editor, and if you don't then you don't need the book.. It peevs me that editors/publisher constantly waste paper on organic information like language references.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book about a complex subject, April 27, 2004

By 

jim (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

I have to take issue with the 1 star review. The reviewer obviously had some hidden agenda, with statements like "Virtually anything that could be done with Remoting could be done without it" and "unless you're a hard core Flash nut bent on Macromedia domination front end and back this book is awful". If the reviewer had done his homework he would have seen that Flash Remoting is not only the fastest way to move data into a Flash movie (remoting packet sizes are much smaller than typical methods such as XML or web services), but it is also the most efficient use of the end-user's computing power. A Flash movie that uses components (such as a rich internet application) will bog down if you try to parse data and populate components. Using any other method of passing data to Flash (LoadVars, XML, Web services) the data has to be parsed. Using Flash Remoting, you don't have to parse the data -- it is ready to use. The book clearly explains the advantages and also explains how the results were obtained. The other reviewer obviously didn't read the book. The examples were clear and easy to read, and the text explained complex concepts much more clearly than any of the Flash Remoting documentation. This book gets 5 stars and sits on my desk next to ActionScript: The Definitive Guide.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flash MX 2004 and Pro code is online, February 1, 2004

By 

Bruce A., Epstein (Rocky Hill, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

The author's site includes updated information. The code presented in the book works "as is" in the latest version of Flash, I believe. The caveat is that Flash MX 2004 and Pro users must download some libraries from Macromedia's site.

In any case, detailed instructions for working in Flash MX 2004 and Pro are posted on the author's web site (flash-remoting.com). See especially the article on that site addressing the topic: http://flash-remoting.com/articles/fr2004pt1.cfm

Disclaimer: I'm the book's editor.

FWIW, the book was published before Flash MX 2004 and Flash Pro were released. Furthermore, for many months after the official release, Macromedia didn't upgrade the remoting components to ActionScript 2.0.

Any questions about the content or upgrading to Flash MX 2004 or Pro can be addressed to me, the author, or O'Reilly technical support.