Customer Reviews

Foundation XML and E4X for Flash and Flex (Foundations)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gives exactly what it says it will. Lots of good info and practical applications of XML in the classic and new versions.

Easy to read. Lots of examples.

I use this book all the time when I am looking for methods of how to write applications using XML data returned from a web service. This is the hands down best programming book I own.

One doesn't need any previous XML knowledge to work with this book. XML itself is quite simple. What gets complicated is when you get past the basic tag structure and begin using DTD, DOM, XSLT and XPath. That is when your head starts to hurt. Fortunately, Flash's' implementation of XML eliminates the need for all those technologies (except DTD which is out-dated). The only XML technology needed for Flash would be XSD (XML Schema). And this book doesn't cover that.

I think a beginner in ActionScript, or Flash in general, would be fairly well lost, however, even though it is a "Foundation" book. Although the ActionScript isn't all THAT bad and I have only found 1 typo in the code examples. However, even for someone familiar with ActionScript, the explanations of the example code just skims the surface. I would suggest that a beginner finish a strictly AS book before starting this book. Possibly Foundation ActionScript 3.0. I just bought it, to update my skills from AS 2, so I can't really comment on it yet.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have read several of Sas Jacobs books and they all seem to suffer from the same problem: overly stressing really basic stuff, then skimming over more advanced code/concepts, especially as the book progresses.

For me, it was a good fit. I already know XML, and have experience in JAVA and ActionScript. Someone with less experience would probably have a tough go of this.

Oh yeah - I am disappointed that xmlsocket wasn't covered, too.

Very interesting read... Sas gets deep into talking about as3 xml. even though i wasnt too happy about not covering xmlsocket this book i would recommend this book to anyone who works a lot with xml. good job sas!

K