Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8 (Paperback)

by Todd Yard (Author), Peter Elst (Author)
Key Phrases: actionscript layer, time sheet application, subscribers array, Component Inspector, Jane Doe, John Doe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
With the release of Macromedia Flash 8, Flash is now the most powerful and widely used client software for the web, and its the only one that runs on virtually every browser, on every platform. It also features ActionScript, a scripting language with great object-oriented support. As such, Flash is the ideal platform for producing sophisticated object-oriented web applications. Complex applications demand a solid understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques, regardless of the language and platform used, and this book will provide all you need. Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8 teaches the theory and practice of OOP with ActionScript. You do not need any extensive prior programming experience, you just need to want to go beyond the usual Flash interfaces. Authors, and working Flash developers, Peter Elst and Todd Yard take you through the complete development cycle of a series of related applications, using numerous step-by-step instructions. Youll be able to develop highly reusable applications and services that leverage the dynamic features in Flash. This book demonstrates professional OOP skills and techniques that are completely transferable to other programming languages and technologies, including Inheritance, Polymorphism, managing classes, component development, consuming web services, and much more. It also includes some cutting edge ActionScript programming techniques, and animation and effects classes. Summary of Contents:

PART ONE: OOP AND ACTIONSCRIPT

• Chapter 1: Introduction to OOP
• Chapter 2: Programming Concepts
• Chapter 3: ActionScript 2.0 Programming

• PART TWO: FLASH OOP GUIDELINES
• Chapter 4: Planning
• Chapter 5: Project Workflow
• Chapter 6: Best Practices

PART THREE: CORE OOP CONCEPTS

• Chapter 7: Encapsulation
• Chapter 8: Classes
• Chapter 9: Inheritance
• Chapter 10: Polymorphism
• Chapter 11: Interfaces
• Chapter 12: Design Patterns
• Chapter 13: Case Study: An OOP Media Player

PART FOUR: BUILDING AND EXTENDING A DYNAMIC FRAMEWORK

• Chapter 14: Framework Overview
• Chapter 15: Manager Classes
• Chapter 16: UI Widgets
• Chapter 17: OOP Animation and Effects

PART FIVE: DATA INTEGRATION

• Chapter 18: Interrelationships and Interactions Between Components
• Chapter 19: Communication Between Flash and the Browser
• Chapter 20: Server Communication (XML and Web Services)
• Chapter 21: Case Study: Time Sheet Application

About the Author
After studying theatre in London, then working for several years as an actor in the US, Todd was introduced to Flash in 2000 and was quickly taken by how it allowed for both stunning creativity and programmatic logic application&emdash;a truly left-brain, right brain approach to production&emdash;and has not looked back. He now freelances as a Flash developer in New York City, creating both silly animations and utilitarian applications. His personal work and experimentation can be found at his website, www.27Bobs.com.

Peter is a certified Flash MX 2004 developer, Team Macromedia volunteer for Flash and runs his own business named MindStudio, which mainly does multimedia development and consultancy.

Introduced to Macromedia Flash in late 1996, he started of doing interactive advertisement campaigns for one of Europe's largest online advertisement agencies. When Macromedia released its Generator software his interest moved more towards the backend side of things, fascinated by Flash and database integration &emdash; what many considered some very innovative technology at that time.

After attending the FlashForward 2001 conference in Amsterdam, Peter was so inspired that he decided to make the switch from HTML to full-fledged multimedia development, a decision he hasn't regretted since.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: friends of ED; 1 edition (February 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590596196
• ISBN-13: 978-1590596197
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #424,631 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for beginners in OOP, May 14, 2006

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

I finally decided to take the plunge into OOP after I realized that is where Flash is headed. With the advent of ActionScript 3.0 around the corner (or out now if you're already dabbling in it), you just know that everything is soon going to be class based. This book is a great start to your journey, as someone who originally started to read Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 2.0 will tell you. It is a LOT easier to read than EA2.0 as I'm not well versed on theory nor do I, at least at this point, really care that much about it. I'm one of those people who want to dive in and learn the syntax/usage, and then I'd like to figure out where it all stems from, not the other way around as it just makes it harder for me to learn that way.

The beginning chapters are great and teach you very much about the basics of OOP. If you're an experienced programmer, you honestly probably won't get much out of this book as this would all be stuff you already know. If you're a beginner, however, this is perfect for you. As a pro (and a con on some level) of this book, some of the pages explain how to set up the document before you work on it. This is good for people who are new to Flash, but in my eyes if you're new to Flash you shouldn't be reading an OOP book to start you into programming as this won't help you really learn the syntax. If you're using this book, it should be assumed you already know the basic Flash syntax and won't need to be told how to set the document size (pages 84-92 are basically wasted on setting up a document for coding one of the examples).

There is a chapter on design patterns that is really good and explains their functionality pretty well. One thing to note in this chapter is that it comes kind of early in the book and sometimes (at least for me) it was hard to grasp the whole concept of what the Model View Controller, for instance, was doing because I'm still not thinking in terms of OOP, rather procedural, so I had to go back and re-read some of the design pattern stuff a couple of times to fully understand it (and I'm not sure that I do still to this point, but that's outside of the scope of this book).

The one knock I have on the book, which really is a non-issue to be honest, but it's a bit funny to see all the editorial errors through these technical books. It makes you wonder if the editors really read the whole thing or just skim it.

I feel this book definitely gets me ready to move on to greener pastures, a la Essential ActionScript 2.0, which I should now be ready to dive into. I don't feel like I'm an OOP expert after reading this, but I don't think that was the main point of the book. Of course, I learn a lot slower than others because I have a design background and no programming background whatsoever, but the book was painless to read and I enjoyed it greatly.

Don't get me wrong if this review is sounding half negative, the book is essential to anyone getting started with OOP (as I am), and I highly recommend it. I just tend to point out everything I notice and sometimes I don't always write down all the positives so my reviews seem to lean towards the negative a bit more. In no way does this mean this book is bad, because it really isn't; it's a great book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, April 4, 2006

By	Eric E. Dolecki "Flash Developer/Designer" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There have been several OOP books as it relates to Flash development. There is the Moock AS2DG (a chapter or two if I remember), the Branden Hall/Sam Wann book, a few others, and then this one.

What makes this book really interesting is that its a wonderful read. There is a sincere sense of flow. It isn't a section followed by another, without glue to hold them together. Each part of the book works you through principles and concepts - with straightforward code examples - in a language most will understand.

It covers some great topics, like design patterns (not simply mvc), UML diagrams, manager classes, some cool ways of using new Flash 8 capabilities using OOP constructs, etc.

Yes, it does start out a little basic. But to those of us without CS degrees, we have probably picked up our knowledge through books, online articles, etc. Perhaps there was a detail here or there to pick up in those sections for everyone.

This is a GREAT book - pick it up even if you have other OOP/Flash books you have purchased. This will be a great addition to your tech library - trust me. Its one of the best books on the subject (without being overly technical) that I have seen. Its actually readable (you don't necessarily only want to use it for reference like other books).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take your Flash developing to the next level!, April 4, 2006

By	John Lindquist (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Before reading this book I thought that OOP meant writing a class and applying it to as many objects as I wanted. Was I ever wrong! This book not only gives you thorough explanations of what OOP is, it also provides detailed explanations on why you should use it. It's hard to explain the misconceptions that many people can pick up by trying to learn OOP by reading random articles around the web. This gently leads you through all the elements of OOP and clears up any of the misconceptions you may have previously had. It even teaches you programming techniques and design patterns such as how to separate the data and control from the style as well as how to manage multiple styles, colors, sounds, etc. with one class and dynamically apply them to whatever objects you want.

Elst and Yard develop a good foundation of planning, workflow, and best practices without preaching their way as the only way. It is nice to see them agree that there is more than one way to write code and whichever way works best for you is the best way. Once they dive in to teaching encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance through examples you will have a clear understanding of what these terms are and why they are so important. In fact, what I loved the most about this book is that it clearly teaches all the benefits of OOP instead of just teaching how to use OOP.

You will honestly come away from reading this book eager to create your own OOP packages or even components and you will have the knowledge and confidence to put them together. If you are looking to start developing Flash applications or advanced interactive websites, this book is worth every penny.