Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible [Paperback]

Robert Reinhardt (Author), Joey Lott (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764543547 | ISBN-13: 978-0764543548 | Publication Date: February 23, 2004

• Provides in-depth information to the more than one million Flash developers who want to take their animations to the next level using sophisticated interaction and data-driven content
• Flash ActionScript is an object-oriented scripting language used with Flash that allows the designer to control a movie in non-linear fashion, create sophisticated interactivity, control elements on the stage, collect and track input from the movie viewer, and exchange and manipulate data from external sources
• The most comprehensive Flash ActionScript guide available, cowritten by Robert Reinhardt, coauthor of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Bible (0-7645-4303-2)
• Published to coincide with the release of Flash "X," the newest version of this widely used Web development tool

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

If Flash MX 2004 ActionScript can do it, you can do it too...

ActionScript gives you exacting control in Flash applications. This comprehensive volume gives you a complete education in ActionScript 2.0, a new feature of Flash MX 2004. You’ll explore ActionScript syntax, best practices, and beginning, intermediate, and advanced topics. And since the best way to learn ActionScript is to practice writing it, you’ll find dozens of exercises that let you apply the concepts. Whether you’re a beginning programmer or a veteran of previous ActionScript incarnations, you’ll find a new world of possibilities within these pages.

Inside, you’ll find complete coverage of Flash MX 2004 ActionScript

• Understand basic ActionScript syntax and use the built-in commands, functions, and classes
• Explore how ActionScript works with related technologies, including Flash Remoting
• Gain more control over the print function
• Apply CSS formatting to HTML displays
• Discover how to create sophisticated interactivity in Flash applications, control elements on the Stage, and manipulate data from external sources
• Collect and track input from viewers of Flash movies
• Learn to use the MovieClip and Button classes and the Drawing API
• Make the most of user interface components included with Flash, and learn to create your own components
• Optimize and manage the download and presentation of content

Value-packed CD-ROM includes

• Trial versions of Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004, Flash Remoting MX, Flash Communication Server MX, and ColdFusion® MX Enterprise
• Complete ActionScripts and databases you can customize for your own use
• Completed files demonstrating the exercises found in the book

About the Author

Robert Reinhardt, Director of Multimedia Applications for The Content Project (www.contentproject.com), is internationally regarded as an expert on multimedia application development, particularly in Macromedia Flash. Robert is the lead author of the Flash Bible series and Flash ActionScript Bible (Wiley), as well as Macromedia MX: Building Rich Internet Applications (Macromedia Press). He has developed multimedia courses for educational facilities in Canada and the United States and has been a featured speaker at several Web conferences. Robert also provides multimedia consulting through his company, [theMAKERS].

Joey Lott has written several books on Flash and ActionScript. He lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 938 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764543547
• ISBN-13: 978-0764543548
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,290,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Wonderful Book!, May 13, 2004

By 

Raymond Brigleb (Portland, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible (Paperback)

Okay, I have to confess, when I see a member of Wiley's "Bible" series on the shelf, I cringe. These books seem to be about the ugliest ones in the store, and I'm fortunate to live near Powell's Technical Bookstore in Portland, Oregon... so I see a lot of them. They seem deliberately designed to be as huge as possible, almost wastefully so. I disapprove of the inclusion of a CD; this, too, seems wasteful. The whole design of these books is so hideous that one is bound to realize that it was produced by the same publisher as the "Idiots" books, the main distinction being that the Dummy books are designed to be small, and these are designed to be big.

However, this book is great. It tells you EVERYTHING about ActionScript 2.0 programming. The examples are excellent and work. They include lots of tiny but handy class libraries that you can start using right away. They cover everything, even components, with a breadth that astounds. This book has answered pretty much every question I've had about AS2 already!

Both of the authors are first-rate. I just don't have enough good things to say about this book! I was so surprised! Usually I go straight for the O'Reilly books, for a number of reasons, but since one of this book's authors is also the author of the ActionScript Cookbook (O'Reilly and Associates), which is fabulous also, I decided to give it a look.

I recommend this book for anyone and everyone learning ActionScript 2.0 at this time. Until O'Reilly updates its catalog, this book really is the Bible on the subject. Five stars!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I had hoped for, August 29, 2004

By 

Adam Smith (Watertown, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible (Paperback)

Noting the good reviews, I purchased this book 2 weeks ago. Despite one of the authors having worked for O'Reilly (on an excellent ActionScript Cookbook), this book has not attained O'Reilly quality.

The real problem I had with this book is the lack of indexing; I am of the opinion that a desk reference--particularly a thick one--can only be as good as its index. All the knowledge I needed may have been in the 891 pages of this book, but if it's not in the index, it's a moot point. Case in point, I wanted to see all the properties, events and methods of the MovieClip object at a glance, a reasonble thing to ask from a complete ActionScript reference. I looked for "MovieClip->properties", "Properties->MovieClip", but no entry for either! Some of what I wanted I found in the MovieClip and Button chapter by chance, but scattered, not concisely listed.

So I returned this book and bought both of Moock's recent offerings instead. The only reason I did not get Moock's books first is the fact that it cost twice as much since I really needed his ActionScript MX book AND the ActionScript 2.0 supplement. I wish he had simply updated the former book for MX 2004 and AS 2.0 rather than go the supplement route, but the extra cost is worth it and I'm glad to be free of the Bible.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not the best, February 22, 2005

By 

Absense of Form (Hong Kong S.A.R.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible (Paperback)

I have to say, this book is very comprehensive but if you already own the Flash MX actionsript bible, then this might not be worth your while since it is so similar. Except for the code being updated to Actionscript 2.0's format (whcih really isnt too much of a difference), I didn't find too many new things.
If you're new to actionscript, DONT GET THIS BOOK!!! This book is definitely not a first-stepper for any non-programmer, it is more like a 2nd book you'll want to get your hands on after you've taken your first steps in actionscript. After reading this book, you'll get a full thorough view of all the capabilities of actionscript, but it'll take perhaps half a year of doing projects in actionscript before you'll really appreciate the amount of info this book has. Oh, but the downside is, if you just take your time to read the help within Flash MX 2004, you'll pretty much get just as much detailed info about all the methods and stuff. But some people prefer to have a book in hand while others don't mind reading on screen... I'd say this is a good rference book, but dont expect it to teach you to code, more like expect it to help you grasp actionscript's power better and more...er..fully.