Flash and XML: A Developer's Guide [Paperback]

Dov Jacobson (Author), Jesse Jacobson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201729202 | ISBN-13: 978-0201729207 | Publication Date: November 20, 2001 | Edition: 1st

Instead of just "gee-whiz" animation or cool user interfaces, Flash pros need to build truly useful sites that are viable for the long-term. That means interfacing Flash with dynamic content, backend databases, server-based applications, and even with other live users. The key to all these is XML. Now, there's a book that shows you exactly how to build enterprise Flash applications that integrate XML -- and leverage its full power. Flash and XML is structured in 19 progressive lessons. In each lesson, the authors teach a key principle of Flash enterprise integration by first explaining it, and then demonstrating it with working code. The book begins with an introduction to Flash and ActionScript that's ideal for working developers, and also serves as a useful refresher for Flash professionals. Next, the authors introduce XML, review the role of HTTP in Web development, and start writing PHP-based server code for accessing back-end data. Next, they show how to extend Flash and server-side systems to a third-tier, connecting with back-end databases via SQL.Every chapter's code samples build on what's come before, constructing a robust application that encompasses client-side Flash code, server-side XML, back-end remote database access, and even emulated "peer-to-peer" connections. For both Flash professionals (with or without XML experience) and software engineers involved in Web development (with or without Flash experience).

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This book is an exceptional training manual to bring a web developer or flash designer with scripting skills into an entirely new world of coding."
--Christopher Ian Smith,
XML Developer, RespondTV.com

"This is a 'must-read' for any Flash developer."
--John Paul Rawlins, Editor
FlashNewz.com

Flash and XML shows designers and developers how to integrate these powerful technologies and create dynamic web sites. With this thoroughly readable guide you take Flash to the next level, interfacing ActionScript with XML. Empower your Flash projects with dynamic content, backend databases, server-based applications, peer-to-peer, and more.

Flash and XML is a tutorial that brings you up to speed on both technologies, offering clear and concise explanations. In addition, this book presents a number of important web technologies, including PHP, MySQL, and sockets. It shows how to work with these technologies to create n-tier, interactive systems that access the full resources of the Internet.

Sample projects (trivia game, XML browser, simple chat) showcase the capabilities of Flash and XML together and demonstrate important concepts, approaches, and techniques.

The companion web site at http://www.FlashandXML.com contains all of the source code referenced in the book, as well as updates, discussion groups, and links to other resources.

Containing plentiful examples, experience-based techniques, and just enough theory, Flash and XML is a one-stop sourcebook that will guide you in the development of web sites that are not only animated, interactive, and powerful, but extremely useful as well.

Specific topics covered include:

• Flash architecture
• ActionScript techniques
• XML in detail--for Flash developers
• DTD specification
• Internet request and response: HTTP
• Server scripting with PHP
• Basic SQL syntax
• Designing MySQL databases
• From MySQL to Flash via XML and PHP
• Cookies
• Packet sniffers
• Escaping the Domain Perimeter
• XML Sockets and streaming data
• Multi-user communication in Flash

0201729202B01142002

About the Author

Dov Jacobson heads the Big Fun Development Corporation, a small studio that specializes in networked games. He served as vice president of interactive publishing at Turner Broadcasting and directed product development at Pansophic Systems. He is responsible for nearly two dozen commercial titles and four high-tech creative studios.

Jesse Jacobson sat down to the computer at age two. He has since learned how to use it. He has written code for many Big Fun titles. He also worked on research projects at Georgia Tech and the Technion in Israel. He currently studies at Dartmouth College.

0201729202AB11302001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (November 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201729202
• ISBN-13: 978-0201729207
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,379,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Content; Poor tutorials, January 2, 2002

By 

"typhoon22" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash and XML: A Developer's Guide (Paperback)

I have purchased many computer books over the last 12 years. This one was not one of the better written ones. I was very excited to get this book since I have worked with both XML and Flash, but have never tied them together. While the content of each chapter is sufficiently laid out, the material is not explained very well. The authors use a project("The Quiz") that is developed troughout the book. Problem is that the steps for creating the various stages are poorly written and takes several readings to understand what they are doing. The book does not come with a source code CD-ROM as described by Addison Wesley and the website for the book has problems when attempting to download the source. Very frustrating.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but decent, February 5, 2003

By 

Andrew Otwell "heyotwell" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flash and XML: A Developer's Guide (Paperback)

Note: this is a Flash 5 book. It contains no Flash MX content. There are significant changes to Flash in the MX version that make some of this book outdated.

This book would be ideal for someone who already knows a bit about each topic: actionscript, php, sql, but hasn't built anything with those languages yet. Maybe a Flash coder who's worked with a server-side programmer on a project, and now has to work alone?

It's decently written, with an occasional sense of humor. The writing is terse, and you won't get more than one explanation of each concept. The information comes thick and fast, with discussions of server protocols, mySQL, and PHP diving right in. Basic introductory material is brief or non-existant. In fact, if you don't already know something about PHP, you couldn't get any of this stuff to work, as you'll have to know how and where to put it on the server.

One very big problem is that there's almost no distinction between "code we're showing you to illustrate a concept" and "code that's part of the application we're building." The authors will often just toss a couple of lines of code into a page, and it turns out to be something that needs to get added deep within a script you've been writing. Miss that line and everything will break.

The Flash code is good, although I wondered why the authors occassionaly used the ancient setProperty syntax and "eq" operators from Flash 4.

You can get this book easily for about a third of the list price, and for that it's certainly worth it, if for nothing but a good introduction to the concepts here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing tome, September 1, 2004

By 

Jeffrey C. Dillon (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flash and XML: A Developer's Guide (Paperback)

I have to agree with other users who point out the book's awkward construction. It's sort of a mutant blend of a hands-on how-to book and a broader discussion of Flash and XML. As the authors ramble through the creation of an XML-based quiz engine, they abruptly propose different ways of addressing coding issues, then move on to the discussion of another coding aspect without telling you which of the two or three or four options you should have plugged in in order for the next set of code to work with it.

By mid-2004 this approach is even more awkward as you discover that some of the hands-on steps they tell you to carry out no longer work in Flash MX or Flash MX 2004; there's nothing on the cover or the introductory material to warn you that the authors wrote this for Flash 5.