Customer Reviews

Macromedia Flash MX: Creating Dynamic Applications

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Pity I didn't read the reviews here before buying this book. You will not learn anything from this book unless you are already at the level where you can "create dynamic applications" with flash mx. So what's the point of the book?!

Very nice actionscript coding techniques, BUT
Missing files, files named differently than the code that references them, installation files that don't work, scant information on how to setup the server-side stuff, and Actionscript that references labels that don't exist, etc...

The authors show great actionscripting techniques, but somebody in QA fell asleep on the job. If you buy this book, you might also consider buying a styrofoam brick.

I couldn't agree more with the reviews that have already been posted. This book assumes WAY too much knowledge and leaves large chunks unexplained (like the #include .as files that don't even get a mention...)

The layout is sloppy and poorly thought out - eg they have 2 pages of code and THEN they describe what is happening in the previous 2 pages, requiring you to be costantly flicking back and forth. Simply repeating each line of code with its explanation would have made it so much easier to read (authors should check out "OOP with Actionscript" to see how it SHOULD be done).

The code that is included is full of stuff like

gotoAndPlay("whatever");//used to be gotoAndStop

making it obvious that the author hasn't even bothered to clean up their code before slapping it in the book. When covering a complicated topic like this, having comments that reveal the "mistakes" that the author made along the way is confusing, annoying and inexcusable (not to mention very revealing about the amount of effort [or lack thereof] that went into this book).

Save your money

cheers

...you are a very experienced user in: dynamic Flash(!), serverside scriping, Access, webserver configurations, and moore.

The Introduction tells us that this is a book about Flash MX, and not about ASP.NET, Java, ColdFusion, or any other serverside language so the book dont cover how the serverside scripts where made. HEEELLOOO!! The title saids: Flash MX -Creating Dynamic Applications. What can you create of dynamic application with Flash MX if you dont know serverside scripting?

But, ok, lets look at the book from the point that it is a Flash and actionscripting book:

Again, in the Introduction, they tells us that they have made the code reusable as possible and that they have called this out by placing them in external .AS files. In chapter one, who should be the simpliest chapter, there are NO review of the code inside the two .as files included in the Flash file(Poll.fla). They only tells us what the #include "ServerData.as" part does, not what the loads of essential scripting inside this two .as files does. That is a big, big blunder from my point of view.

And this is just som examples of what you can expect trough this book, I haven't read the hole book yet, but I have study the book enough to tell you that this is true.

So, my conclusion is:

If you:

- are a experienced user of serverside scripting,

- and you know how to configure a webserver the hole way through,

- and you have a good knowlegde about XML,

- and you have done a lot of actionscripting

- and studied a lot of comment sourcecode,

...you can buy this book! But if you know all this, you dont need this book. You can figure it all out by yourself ;-/

PS. Sorry for my bad spelling, I'm not that good to write English.

This book is awful! I know the fundamentals of programming in Flash and ASP.NET so regardless, if you are advanced or know the basics this book is still AWFUL!!! Trust me do not buy it! The Poll in the first chapter does not even work. I went to peachpress to find the updates for the book and the Poll sill will not work. The book constantly points to the CD and the CD is missing the files the chapter is pointing to. The Poll.XML on the CD does not match that in the book, I mean come on! This was all before I even got through the 1st chapter! ...

... I am sure that some of these examples worked, but only in the head of the author who authored the chapter. I am so upset about this one; ...

According to the blurb, this book "is dedicated to the Macromedia Flash application developer who wants to build large scale, real-world applications." It also says that "each chapter focuses squarely on programming techniques."
Well, the code is frankly appalling and heavily flawed and the information on application architecture is useless, contradictory and in some cases highly suspect.
It is also an unashamed advert as (despite the claimed intended audience and that all it is is parsing XML) the book claims "it can be very difficult and time consuming to write Actionscript that understands all of these packets." (p.96, the ElectroServer) and then goes on to try and sell you the writer's product.
If I could get my money back, I would.

...you are a very experienced user in: dynamic Flash(!), serverside scriping, Access, webserver configurations, and moore.

The Introduction tells us that this is a book about Flash MX, and not about ASP.NET, Java, ColdFusion, or any other serverside language so the book dont cover how the serverside scripts where made. HEEELLOOO!! The title saids: Flash MX -Creating Dynamic Applications. What can you create of dynamic application with Flash MX if you dont know serverside scripting?

But, ok, lets look at the book from the point that it is a Flash and actionscripting book:

Again, in the Introduction, they tells us that they have made the code reusable as possible and that they have called this out by placing them in external .AS files. In chapter one, who should be the simpliest chapter, there are NO review of the code inside the two .as files included in the Flash file(Poll.fla). They only tells us what the #include "ServerData.as" part does, not what the loads of essential scripting inside this two .as files does. That is a big, big blunder from my point of view.

And this is just som examples of what you can expect trough this book, I haven't read the hole book yet, but I have study the book enough to tell you that this is true.

So, my conclusion is:

If you:

- are a experienced user of serverside scripting,

- and you know how to configure a webserver the hole way through,

- and you have a good knowlegde about XML,

- and you have done a lot of actionscripting

- and studied a lot of comment sourcecode,

...you can buy this book! But if you know all this, you dont need this book. You can figure it all out by yourself ;-/

PS. Sorry for my bad spelling, I'm not that good to write English.

This book assumes that you have a knowledge of Flash MX and dynamic database development. I regret buying this book. Also, files are missing from the CD so I had to write them (XML) myself. I think these guys just took some source code from existing applications and pasted them in the book and called themselves authors. I'm so tired of slackers! It's obvious that you guys didn't do your homework!!

i just like this book , when i started it , i couldnt start it , this books is really for professionals , bcse u have the codes and u should understand them . The is not a detailed explanation on the codes.
But its great and i recommend itm and by the way where are the xml files, we are obliged to write them again, theyre not on the cd??????????

I came into reading this book with very little Flash experience. All I'd done was simple timeline based flash movies. I chose to read this book to help get an understanding of Flash's capabilities and how to further the skills I had, enabling me to create dynamic content in my Flash movies.

I thought this book was unique in that it didn't get into the hows and whats of Flash, but straight into some very interesting example code. It also doesn't focus purely on Flash, but integrating flash with web application server products like ColdFusion and ASP.

While I'd never be able to create any of these examples on my own, it was quite cool being able to walk through each code example and see how everything works. Some of the Flash code was a bit hairy to follow, but they did attempt to explain it. Rather than learning what the code meant, I just read the comments stating what the code does and moved on. Unless you're experienced in flash, you won't be able to follow the code line for line. However, wading in example apps above your capabilities is a great place to learn.

Each chapter is a different example application, focusing on a dynamic backend. Some use ASP, some use ColdFusion, etc. So you can pick your middleware of choice and they'll be an example here for you where you can view both the Flash code, as well as the code it interfaces with to achieve dynamic content.

I wouldn't recommend this book as your soul source of Flash instruction, but it is a unique book rich with very usable example code. I didn't learn much Flash actionscript from this book, but I did come out of it with a good understanding of how Flash can be dynamic, using XML to communicate back and forth to your scripting language of choice. If that's what you're after, this might be a good book for you.