Rating: 
Summary: Grinning at every page
Review: If you're looking to learn how to use the graphic part of Flash, this book is not for you. If you're looking to understand how it works behind the scene, it's gold. This book is mostly about the ActionScript side of flash, methods for managing data using arrays and objects, it explains the differences between XML, AMF and SOAP, the different types of servers you can exchange data with, Flash Communication Server, Application Servers, Flash remoting, etc... It also has a lot of basic but important principles which advanced programmers often forget and beginners need to learn. Creating an application interface with buttons, text fields and combo boxes is simple enough. The tough part is figuring out how to manage the data in the background, plug it into the various available components and finally how to read and write this information from and to a server. That's what this book is about. Again, if you're looking to learn how to use the graphic part of Flash, this book is not for you. But when it comes to learning how to make it work behind the scene, I give it two thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: First to press, but lacking
Review: Like many people eager to jump into all the new features of MX 2004 like AS2 and the new componant architecture I have been scouring Amazon for months waiting for a book on it. The first one to press (this book) doesn't cover the new componant architecture or AS2 at all. All examples are in AS1, and IMHO not even that well thought out. If you think this is a book to help you get up to speed on what you didn't know about Flash MX 2004 you will be disapointed. There's little to nothing in this book you don't know if you knew Flash MX well. After reading the book and realising the Book is not inteded to cover Flash MX 2004 Pro, I realise that this could be helpful for WYSIWYG users of Flash, but the idea that this would appeal to Flash programmers (rich internet applications) is far fetched.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: Okay, so I usually don't bash books. I will do my best to continue that trend here. This book is written in a 'stream of conscious' style that becomes fairly rough to read after a few dozen pages. The author conveys genuine interest in the topic; however, the overview presented here is better suited for an executive who needs to understand a birds-eye view of the concepts rather than any real detail. Developers with knowledge of previous versions of Flash should not handle this book. It does not provide enough detail to enhance your experience with 2004. The author includes a section about 'Who this Book is not for', so I would like to add on to this list. This book is not for developers. This book is not for individuals looking to migrate into Flash MX 2004. This book is not for those that would like to understand what makes Flash 2004 different. Lastly, on a personal side note, I dislike strongly when books of this nature are not technically sound. My favorite part of the book occurs on page 88, when the author refers to using the localhost, an important networking concept for anyone that might be considering Internet Application development. The author implies that localhost and 192.168.1.1 are equivalent and then goes on to say 'Don't ask me why, but sometimes the second option works when localhost fails, even though they should be the same.' It saddens me that I paid money for misinformation that could have been caught by anyone who has ever even taken an intro to networking course. Save your money and your sanity. If I could return this book, it would already be back.
Rating:
Summary: One Word. Delicious.
Review: Okay.
I'm a designer.
I make pretty pictures.
I make pretty pictures do things. With this book I make pretty pictures do MORE things. What this book has done for me right from the first few pages is create a wider scope of creative possibilities all the while talking to me like a trusted friend. There's something to be said for a computer book that can be read like a novel and not a math book. Since the release of MX2004, I've been intrigued with ideas behind web services/flash remoting/flash comm. server and the creation of masterful web experiences utilizing these. Now, being of intermediate flash stature, I thought of this book as being perhaps a little overwhelming in the meat and potatoes department. But nothing is further from the truth. Everything is explained in explicit detail and care without being boorish and bland. It's quite interesting and compelling also. Learning about complex data, how to present it, exchange it and then from that, being able to make my own little application from scratch in all of maybe a few minutes, now that's exciting. Everything in this book makes sense. Everything in this book has a purpose. If you're interested in developing 'RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS', you need this book, if not, don't buy it. But remember, to develop something that has life, a purpose and that can inform and enhance an audience and it's experience, this is the reason I do what I do, and with this book, I'm on my way to achieving this.
Rating:
Summary: If you are a middleweight Flasher then this book is for you
Review: One thing upfront: you don't need to own Flash MX 2004 Professional to find this book useful. If you are still running Flash MX and are asking yourself if you will get some use out of this book then the answer is clearly YES!
Having said that a basic knowledge of Actionscript is recommended, this is not newbie material and it's not meant to be. I am an experienced Flash Programmer and I have found several golden nuggets of information in this book. Those alone made it worth the purchase price for me. Philipp's style of writing enjoyable and you can tell that he thoroughly enjoys the subject. The chapters on Flash Communication Server are brilliant and will have you drooling for more. I have been using Flashcom for a while yet I have gained a better understanding of the underlying technology and used several code snippets in my own apps already.
So if you are a Flash Designer and wannabe Flash Developer then buy this book today, you won't regret it ;-) Thumbs up from me!
Rating:
Summary: Give the author a break
Review: Personally, I expected much more from this book when I first ordered it, however I realize now that at the time the author was writing the book, Macromedia was still developing this app. With that realization in mind I think that this book does a good job in giving an overview of what is new and exciting with Flash 2004. It is apparent that with the first release of 2004, that Macromedia itself was not ready (hell, the documentation for the application is continually updated as we speak), so how is someone going to give in-depth, detailed information that was probably "vaporware" when he was writing it. I think the author should be praised for hitting the publishing date, no one else has. That being said, sure I expected more, but I do not think I wasted my money. This book gave me some very good insight on where to concentrate going forward and I think was a useful and productive investement.
Rating:
Summary: Another Bad Book from Kerman
Review: Skimmed this and it falls in with more flops from Kerman. If you want to learn about building application in flash stick to books by Branden Hall and Colin Moock. Kerman writes his titles for low skilled developers who will be building small apps. Also his books are ripe with code errors.
Rating:
Summary: Another Bad Book from Kerman
Review: Skimmed this and it falls in with more flops from Kerman. If you want to learn about building application in flash stick to books by Branden Hall and Colin Moock. Kerman writes his titles for low skilled developers who will be building small apps. Also his books are ripe with code errors.
Rating: 
Summary: This book helped me more than an other available
Review: The bottom line on this book, for me, is it saved me many hours with its explanations on how data exchange, XML and components can be used. My other choice was to keep slogging thru the Macromedia documentation and (continue to) spend hours and hours guessing how things should fit together. I certainly would like to see more examples and tutorials from any book about how to use screens and other features in Flash MX 2004 Pro. At the moment, this book is the best I have found to help me use Flash to develop data driven applications. I was pleased with the discussion of data exchange. While I have used data exchange in Flash, there were numerous tips which helped me. The discussion of data components, bindings and schemas was particularly enlightening to me. My applications work better from what I learned in this book. The books support website also had some useful code I was looking for on it. This book has a clear focus, but it is not going to help everyone. I am experienced developing data driven web pages, but I do not have a deep Flash background. This book is helping me to develop my Flash applications.
Rating:
Summary: Not happy..
Review: This book did not meet my expectations at all,
I own 30 other Flash books and this was the first real disappointment.
Not that it is badly written, I like the style,
it's just that the content doesn't get me what the title suggest;
the largest part of this book is about project managment, good practices, debugging etc,
instead I was hoping to find some real examples with sourcecode explained,
how to code RIAs, which components to use, what the new Classes are for and how to write my own for these RIAs;
this is sometimes touched, but never fully developed.
Also, the inclusion of 2 entire chapters on Flash Com might be very interesting for some;
I skipped these coz I don't know of any affordable hosting for a personal website which features this with their hosting plan..
No need to learn a technology if you can't use it (and forget localhost, what good is an app' on your local comp when it's s'posed to be on the internet..).
It's a nice read, just not usefull enough from a practical point of view.
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