AdvancED ActionScript Components: Mastering the Flash Component Architecture (Paperback)

by Antonio De Donatis (Author)
Key Phrases: simple stability, skins folder, relative space, Movie Clip, Robust Maturity, Common Complexity (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Macromedia's architecture is like a chest filled with precious jewels, and this book is quite simply the key to open it! One of the most important tools provided with Flash is the Macromedia Component Architecture: a framework of components written in ActionScript 2, based on established design patterns, that provides a wealth of functionality you can just bolt on to your Flash applications when desired. This can save you an enormous amount of time during application development and help you improve the quality of your code. Whats more, the source code is included, so if you cant find the component you need within the component architecture, you can just modify existing components to create your own! Expert Flash developer and author Antonio De Donatis gives you everything you need to master Flash components. In the first part, he shows you how the architecture works, how to create effective component-based applications, and how to create your own custom components from whats already provided. The second part shows how XML can be used to effectively describe and dynamically create not only single component instances, but whole applications based on any number of components. The last part of the book is a comprehensive reference to using all of the components already available in the Macromedia Component Architecture. It includes a specific chapter dedicated to each of the UI components like basic usage, component management, customization, and practical examples showing usage of each component. Summary of Contents:

• PART ONE INTRODUCING THE ARCHITECTURE
  • Chapter 1 OOP in Component Design
  • Chapter 2 Core Classes and Component Design
  • Chapter 3 Exploring the UI Components
  • Chapter 4 Building Component-based Applications
• PART TWO EXPLOITING THE ARCHITECTURE
  • Chapter 5 Architecture-based Development
  • Chapter 6 XML for Defining User Interfaces
  • Chapter 7 Extending the Application Framework
  • Chapter 8 Making Your XML Life Easier
  • Chapter 9 The Customization Process
• PART THREE CUSTOMIZING THE COMPONENTS
  • Chapter 10 The Accordion Component
  • Chapter 11 The Button Component
  • Chapter 12 The CheckBox and RadioButton Components
  • Chapter 13 The List, ComboBox, and DataGrid Components
  • Chapter 14 The DateChooser and DateField Components
  • Chapter 15 The Loader, ScrollPane, and ProgressBar Components
  • Chapter 16 The Menu and MenuBar Components
  • Chapter 17 The NumericStepper Component
  • Chapter 18 The TextArea, TextInput, and Label Components
  • Chapter 19 The Tree Component
  • Chapter 20 The Window and Alert Components
  • Chapter 21 Handling the Scrollbars
• PART FOUR APPENDIXES
  • Appendix A Locating the Source Code of the Component Architecture
  • Appendix B Transitions and Easing Classes

About the Author
A biography is not available for this author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: friends of ED; 1 edition (February 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590595939
• ISBN-13: 978-1590595930
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,752 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ActionScript Components: One of the best tech books I have seen, July 28, 2006

By	Mark Miller "Author, VoiceXML 10 Projects to ... (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't know Antonio De Donatis, but I wish I did.

As a Corporate Trainer of Internet Technologies for the past 10 years, I am always looking for well written and logically presented material for use in the classroom. ActionScript Components by Antonio De Donatis is one of the best I have ever seen in the ActionScript genre. On second thought, this is one of the best technical books I have ever seen, and I own hundreds.

My background is in XML, VoiceXML and Internet Technologies. I found this book on the friendsOfEd site, read the chapter on using XML and was astounded at the clarity and depth of knowledge. De Donatis is someone who knows his subject and knows how to impart information to his readers. I went to the local bookstore to see if the rest of the book could sustain that level of writing. The short answer: yes it does.

From explaining in layman terms how Object Oriented Programming works through delving into the creation and use of components, De Donatis knows his stuff. But better than that, he doesn't hide behind a bunch of geek speak. More than anything else, I kept saying to myself "That explanation is so clear, I wish I had written it myself."

Five star rating, highest there is, with no hesitation.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AdvancED is no joke..., March 28, 2007

By	Matt Przybylski (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wish I could tell you that I enjoyed reading this book, but that would not be an entirely true statement. I figured I should look into this title when I realized that I didn't know much about components or their underlying architectures. I won't lie; I don't use components, at all. I find them heavy in weight and hard to customize and I like the control that I receive when I make my own scrollbars, pull down menus, and loaders. That being said, I thought it was necessary to at least gain some inside knowledge on components because I don't want to totally ignore the subject (not to mention that I may run into a project someday that I'm forced to use them with).

Before I go any further, I have to state that I read this book before I learned a great deal about OOP, which looking back on it now was a big mistake. I cannot deny, however, that Antonio De Donatis knows what he is talking about, and looking back at it now and skimming through the pages, it makes a bit more sense, but I just don't have the time to re-read this book.
If you ever wanted to know every little detail about the components that are shipped with Flash, this is the book you want to pick up. You'll digest more information than you can handle on the subject and you'll be well on your way to developing extensible components not only from the ones shipped with Flash, but also making your own component frameworks and using those in your projects as well.

I gave this book 4 stars because I know deep down inside that this is a great book, it's just not for the faint of heart. The title says AdvancED ActionScript Components, and anyone who takes that title lightly will probably be upset with the book and seek a refund. However, if you know your way around components and you want to dig deeper, this is the one-stop-shop for everything you'll want to know about the subject.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth it!!, April 23, 2006

By	OC Brett - See all my reviews

As a java coder who has recently been writing Flash/Flex for rich database-driven UI products, this book has been a huge help. My understanding of the best way to use inheritance and the component architecture has improved a ton with this book. And the section on skinning has helped alot since the UI guys just give me pretty mockups, and then i need to actually make them look and work that way.

Well written and I really like the incremental approach he takes in teaching you the material with examples that you change bit by bit as you go.

Highly recommended.