ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), (Author), Lott Joey (Author), Schall Darron (Author), Peters Keith (Author)
Key Phrases: programming sound, rendering engine, loading variables, Flash Player, Solution Use, Flash Remoting (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Well before Ajax and Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation hit the scene, Macromedia offered the first method for building web pages with the responsiveness and functionality of desktop programs with its Flash-based "Rich Internet Applications". Now, new owner Adobe is taking Flash and its powerful capabilities beyond the Web and making it a full-fledged development environment.

Rather than focus on theory, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook concentrates on the practical application of ActionScript, with more than 300 solutions you can use to solve a wide range of common coding dilemmas. You'll find recipes that show you how to:

• Detect the user's Flash Player version or their operating system
• Build custom classes
• Format dates and currency types
• Work with strings
• Build user interface components
• Work with audio and video
• Make remote procedure calls using Flash Remoting and web services
• Load, send, and search XML data
• And much, much more ...

Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code. Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future, along with possible design choices and ramifications. You'll even learn how to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flex 2 and Flash applications.

When you're not sure how ActionScript 3.0 works or how to approach a specific programming dilemma, you can simply pick up the book, flip to the relevant recipe(s), and quickly find the solution you're looking for.

Adobe Developer Library is a co-publishing partnership between O'Reilly Media and Adobe Systems, Inc. and is designed to produce the number one information resources for developers who use Adobe technologies. Created in 2006, the Adobe Developer Library is the official source for comprehensive learning solutions to help developers create expressive and interactive web applications that can reach virtually anyone on any platform. With top-notch books and innovative online resources covering the latest in rich Internet application development, the Adobe Developer Library offers expert training and in-depth resources, straight from the source.

About the Author

JOEY LOTT is a consultant, ActionScript instructor, and expert Flash developer whose client list includes such giants as Warner Bros., Sony, and Disney. An author-ity on ColdFusion, Java, and ASP development, he has taught for Lynda.com, DigitalSunrise, DHIMA, and Hollywood's Movieola Education. He is also the coauthor of Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript Bible.

Keith lives in the vicinity of Boston, MA, in the USA with his wife Kazumi and their new daughter Kristine. He has been working with Flash since 1999, and has co-authored many books for friends of ED, including Flash MX Studio, Flash MX Most Wanted, and the ground-breaking Flash Math Creativity.
In 2001 he started the experimental Flash site, BIT-101 (www.bit-101.com), which strives for a new, cutting edge, open source experiment each day. The site recently won an award at the Flashforward 2003 Flash Film Festival in the Experimental category. In addition to the experiments on the site, there are several highly regarded Flash tutorials which have been translated into many languages and are now posted on web sites throughout the world. Keith is currently working full time doing freelance and contract Flash development and various writing projects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 586 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596526954
• ISBN-13: 978-0596526955
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,292 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast ramp up to Actionscript 3.0, April 11, 2007

By	C. Cowherd "Tricky" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was exactly what I was looking for: a reference-style book to quickly look up how to do something specific with ActionScript 3. It is for generally experienced developers that already know what they want to do and just need to see how it's done in with AS3 in the classic cookbook style.

There is no coverage of Flex or Flex Builder (perfect!). This is also not a tutorial book so you may need to look elsewhere if that is what you need.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes great, but sometimes redundant and too wordy, April 3, 2007

By	H. Paul Robertson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The authors for this book are all well-known, top-notch ActionScript developers and experienced authors. They've collected a nice set of tasks that are common enough that you are likely to want to know how to do them in ActionScript, but involved enough or cross-topic enough that you won't be likely to find them in the in-product documentation.

The book also has a very nice supplemental code library. This is sort of a mixed blessing; it's a download, so anyone can get it (not just people who pay for the book) and in several recipes the authors' solution is just to "use class X and method Y from the book's code library," without any explanation as to why the code works, or what it does under the covers. Depending on your coding style, you may or may not want that level of detail, but I'm the sort of person who does want it so it left me a little disappointed.

However, there's also a lot in this book that doesn't fit with my idea of what should be in the "cookbook" format book. In my mind, a "cookbook" is a book whose topics are more "edgy" or involved than what you might find in the core documentation. It should cover how to accomplish specific tasks that aren't easily figured out and aren't found elsewhere (again, especially not in the main documentation). It should also include "hacks" or workarounds to accomplishing things that aren't readily available using the built-in functionality of the language.

This book has plenty of those topics, but it also has a lot of topics that are covered well and in sufficient detail in the in-product help. To make things worse, often those topics are not just given a one-page-or-less "cookbook" treatment (which would be useful for those "I know I've seen it before but I can't quite remember what the syntax is" moments). Instead, they get the full four (or fourteen) page description, and you have to read through that description to extract the three lines of code that you actually need to put into your program.

In summary, I have mixed feelings about this book. When it's good, it really shines--the sections that go into more depth or into a more advanced topic than Adobe's ActionScript 3.0 documentation are really valuable. However, a significant part of the book is redundant with the documentation, doesn't cover it in as much detail as the built-in documentation, but covers it in so much detail that the benefits of the "cookbook" format are lost.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Handy Reference for ActionScript Programmers, January 15, 2007

By	Damian Taggart (Santa Fe, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Despite numerous typographical errors and several sections that reference outdated ActionScript 2 information, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook remains a very handy reference for developers who want quick, ready to implement solutions to common programming tasks and challenges.

This book is more of a desk reference for common tasks than an overall guide to the newest installment of Adobe's ECMA-based programming language. The sections devoted to the new features of ActionScript 3 are very useful and have thorough explanations with well documented code samples. I found the chapter on the new model for adding visual elements to a SWF via ActionScript using the Display List to be particularly helpful in my study of AS3.'

To sum up my thoughts on the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Definitely a worth the cover price for experienced ActionScript developers but maybe not the ideal resource for those developers that are just learning programming for the Flash Platform.