Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development [Paperback]

William B. Sanders (Author), Mark Winstanley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0764535986 | ISBN-13: 978-0764535987

Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases, and Dynamic Development fills an important gap in the Flash book market. With the emergence of e-commerce, no Web site is complete without a back end because the back end is the virtual sales connection. Likewise, complex games are dependent on access to huge sets of data that can be sent in small packages, but getting them in and out of Flash requires knowing how the data can be generated in Flash, how it can be sent out to the servers and how it gets information back from the servers and integrates it into the ongoing game.

While every book on Flash recognizes this new capacity to some extent, none of them have really showed developers how to get the data into and out of Flash and use it effectively. Server-Side Flash gives developers the tools to fully utilize Flash's capacity to communicate with the server side of the Web. PHP/MySQL have over half a million users, ASP has at least as many, and just about every professional Web page now contains at least some JavaScript. Find out how Flash communicates with these other languages and servers with coverage of the use of Macromedia's powerful database Flash product, Generator, and put its use in context with other Flash database techniques and applications.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The first book dedicated to connecting dynamic Flash content to back-end databases, with authoritative coverage of Flash and CGI, ASP, PHP/MySQL, JavaScript and Macromedia Generator!

From the Back Cover

Server-Side Flash^™S cripts, Databases, and Dynamic Development If you're a Flash developer, how do you learn to work with ASP, PHP, SQL, XML, and the rest of the server-side alphabet soup? This unique, results-oriented book provides the answers, delivering crystal-clear tutorials on today's most popular technologies for dynamic Web pages. William B. Sanders and Mark Winstanley show you step by step how to construct real-world interactive Flash applications to make your movies and animations truly dynamic. Case-study examples and 30 days of free Web hosting provide everything you need to take a walk on the server side.

• Start developing dynamic Flash applications
• Get up to speed on URL encoding and basic server integration
• Use Flash with CGI/Perl to set cookies and send e-mail
• Link Flash to Access databases through ASP (Active Server Pages)
• Create Flash pages that launch PHP scripts to write to and read from MySQL databases
• Use Flash to extract and display data from XML documents
• Discover the secrets of printing directly from Flash
• Format Flash data to create Generator objects
• Harness the interactive power of the Generator Server
• Unleash new ActionScript functions to build Flash gaming applications
• Set up a Flash front end and back end for an eBusiness site

For Both Macintosh & Windows CD-ROM Includes:

• PHP, MySQL, and Apache Server
• Macromedia Trial Software: Generator 2 Developer Edition, Flash 5, and others
• Source code and examples from the book
• Plus Free 30-day Web hosting from JLTNet.com and HosTek.com

System Requirements: Pentium PC or Mac Power PC; 64MB RAM; Adobe type Manager Version 4 or later with Type 1 fonts. See the "What's on the CD-ROM?" appendix for details and complete system requirements. www.hungryminds.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 458 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (July 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764535986
• ISBN-13: 978-0764535987
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,810,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Useful Book, August 3, 2001

By 

David Bernstein (Rye, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development (Paperback)

I bought this book not knowing what to expect, the description promised quite a bit of know-how was contained within. Pleased to say it was well worth it. Prior to getting this book, I'd gotten good with ActionScript and JavaScript but to hook Flash up with any back-end scripting for my clients I've always been calling other people to consult and half the time had to just go with HTML instead. I always had a fear of any of those 3-letter languages (CGI/ASP/PHP) since the few books I'd gotten on them were way to heavy on programming theory and usually lacking on real world examples, and definitely never had an example of how to connect those things to Flash! There's a good sampling of how to connect Flash to everything here, and working through the examples let me finally understand many concepts that previously had been just out of my grasp. You won't become a master database programmer, but so what, this is a Flash integration book, and if I was doing nothing but databases all day I'd be bored out of my mind. Flash is about mixing great visuals with programming and Server Side Flash has filled in a lot of the missing pieces in my Flash and programming knowledge-base.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, July 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development (Paperback)

Most books have very little about using the backend with Flash, but this book brings it all home. I've read several other books on Flash, and while some have some material on using Flash with servers and server side elements, none of them go into the depth and breadth as this one. First, it gives client-side users an excellent introduction to the server side, and it does so in a clear and practical manner. Second, it provides good introductions to several different server-side languages (CGI/Perl, PHP and ASP) and how they work with Flash. It is clearly an introduction to server-side languages and does a good job doing that with lots of examples that work.

I suppose you could go buy a half dozen other books on server-side languages and a book on ActionScript, but I don't see the point. The book is not an introduction to ActionScript and Flash. It simply shows how to use Flash and ActionScript to set up and use server-side languages, and as far as I'm concerned it does a better job than those books written by committees or re-writes of the Macromedia AcitonScript manual. So, if you want to get a great introduction to and experience using Flash with backends, this book is the place to start. It also has the best explanation of how to use XML with Flash I've seen along with in-depth discussions of other little-known facets of Flash. It also comes with free hosting service for learning this stuff.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific and easy to understand. Crystal Clear!, November 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development (Paperback)

This is an excellent book to get your feet wet with server side scripting for Macromedia's Flash. It's very easy to read, straight ahead. They don't assume you're an expert, so on that level, I suppose it's a great introductory book. The examples are practical. They do something that I particularly like in tutorial type books. They keep it simple, let you get the basic idea of what's going on and then you can take it from there.

Many of the tutorials I've read on Flashkit or We're Here Forums (many of them excellent) assume that you know too much or worse, seem to want to flaunt their expertise with a very disingenuous attempt at helping the "student". Anyway, it appears that way when there are so many steps in a lesson that you lose track of what your basic goal is.

Server Side Flash gives you a great introduction to Perl Script, ASP, XML and PHP MySQL so that you can decide for yourself which flavor you wish to delve into deeper.

If I have any complaints at all, it would be that there's not an official website for the book. Not that I know of anyway. I went to flashcore.com, where one of the authors either writes or "used to" write, but there's not a mention of the book anywhere.

Other than that, it really is a great book that will teach you the how to of server side flash and do it in a way that's easy to retain.