Note: Book is about Flash 5, not FlashMX or Flash Remoting
This isn't a criticism of the book, but pay attention that it's from 2001 and covers Flash 5, NOT the latest Flash MX and its available Flash Remoting technology which offers far easier server-side integration.Still, the info in the book still has value today to those who have not yet bought Flash MX. Indeed, even if you have Flash Mx, if your server is Perl, PHP, CF5, etc, then the approaches here will work since the new Flash Remoting only works on CFMX, ASP.NET, and select J2EE platforms.
Then again, MX users who do get the book should check out the newer LoadVars object as an alternative to the older but still supported LoadVariables. The approach to processing XML is also vastly improved in MX.
Of course, the book can't be faulted for having come out prior to MX. It's just that since the title doesn't say Flash 5, if you buy the book thinking it's about the latest and greatest ways of doing Flash/server integration, you'd likely be disappointed. Just offering this as a caution.
At Last , a book even a designer can understand.
As a graphics person, I've tried for months to understand scripting and databases with no success, I was just about to throw in the towel and literally go back to the drawing board when I found this book. The authors make these subjects easy to understand and the tutorials are excellent for bridging the graphic person's need to see the concepts in action. I've never written a review before, but this book has finally made me understand and given me the tools to move forward.
A sparse overview
When I buy a book, I want a little depth. This book is a decent summary of the Flash backend, but it's nothing you can't readily find on the web. I HIGHLY recommend a more specific approach--e.g Foundation PHP for Flash by Webster .
A complete and easy steps book
This book is awesome; it explains how to use Flash integration with the most common used server-side programming languages (PHP, ASP and Perl)...All separated by parts, and it explains some of the functions and methods of the programming languages, just for letting the reader who doesn't deal with certain server-side languages more confortable to understand it.
Really good book, it solved all my problems with database and server integration with Flash.
Absolutely Brilliant!
A massive treasure trove of information that has just saved me countless hours of messing around with Flash. I've read through the first 5 chapters and went through the included examples and that alone has been enough to make me feel comfortable selling backend integration to my clients now, and being able to deliver a Flash site that does more than just look and sound good. There's no ColdFusion here but at five grand for Cold Fusion Sevrver, I'll take the PHP/SQL,ASP,and Perl solutions detailed in this book any day of the week over a book trying to sell me on CF. I've got Flash MX too and the data transfer and handling model is still the same - you've got to know how Flash, the server, and the browser all integrate in the process, and this book puts all that knowledge well in hand. Thank you Sanders and Winstaley.
