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Rating: 
Summary: Do NOT buy this book unless....
Review: ...you are a very experienced user in: dynamic Flash(!), serverside scriping, Access, webserver configurations, and moore.The Introduction tells us that this is a book about Flash MX, and not about ASP.NET, Java, ColdFusion, or any other serverside language so the book dont cover how the serverside scripts where made. HEEELLOOO!! The title saids: Flash MX -Creating Dynamic Applications. What can you create of dynamic application with Flash MX if you dont know serverside scripting? But, ok, lets look at the book from the point that it is a Flash and actionscripting book: Again, in the Introduction, they tells us that they have made the code reusable as possible and that they have called this out by placing them in external .AS files. In chapter one, who should be the simpliest chapter, there are NO review of the code inside the two .as files included in the Flash file(Poll.fla). They only tells us what the #include "ServerData.as" part does, not what the loads of essential scripting inside this two .as files does. That is a big, big blunder from my point of view. And this is just som examples of what you can expect trough this book, I haven't read the hole book yet, but I have study the book enough to tell you that this is true. So, my conclusion is: If you: - are a experienced user of serverside scripting, - and you know how to configure a webserver the hole way through, - and you have a good knowlegde about XML, - and you have done a lot of actionscripting - and studied a lot of comment sourcecode, ...you can buy this book! But if you know all this, you dont need this book. You can figure it all out by yourself ;-/ PS. Sorry for my bad spelling, I'm not that good to write English.
Rating:
Summary: Dont buy this book unless....
Review:
...you are a very experienced user in: dynamic Flash(!), serverside scriping, Access, webserver configurations, and moore.
The Introduction tells us that this is a book about Flash MX, and not about ASP.NET, Java, ColdFusion, or any other serverside language so the book dont cover how the serverside scripts where made. HEEELLOOO!! The title saids: Flash MX -Creating Dynamic Applications. What can you create of dynamic application with Flash MX if you dont know serverside scripting?
But, ok, lets look at the book from the point that it is a Flash and actionscripting book:
Again, in the Introduction, they tells us that they have made the code reusable as possible and that they have called this out by placing them in external .AS files. In chapter one, who should be the simpliest chapter, there are NO review of the code inside the two .as files included in the Flash file(Poll.fla). They only tells us what the #include "ServerData.as" part does, not what the loads of essential scripting inside this two .as files does. That is a big, big blunder from my point of view.
And this is just som examples of what you can expect trough this book, I haven't read the hole book yet, but I have study the book enough to tell you that this is true.
So, my conclusion is:
If you:
- are a experienced user of serverside scripting,
- and you know how to configure a webserver the hole way through,
- and you have a good knowlegde about XML,
- and you have done a lot of actionscripting
- and studied a lot of comment sourcecode,
...you can buy this book! But if you know all this, you dont need this book. You can figure it all out by yourself ;-/
PS. Sorry for my bad spelling, I'm not that good to write English.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor code, poor information, poorly done.
Review: According to the blurb, this book "is dedicated to the Macromedia Flash application developer who wants to build large scale, real-world applications." It also says that "each chapter focuses squarely on programming techniques."
Well, the code is frankly appalling and heavily flawed and the information on application architecture is useless, contradictory and in some cases highly suspect.
It is also an unashamed advert as (despite the claimed intended audience and that all it is is parsing XML) the book claims "it can be very difficult and time consuming to write Actionscript that understands all of these packets." (p.96, the ElectroServer) and then goes on to try and sell you the writer's product.
If I could get my money back, I would.
Rating:
Summary: I think anyone who buys this book should get a refund!
Review: I came into reading this book with very little Flash experience. All I'd done was simple timeline based flash movies. I chose to read this book to help get an understanding of Flash's capabilities and how to further the skills I had, enabling me to create dynamic content in my Flash movies. I thought this book was unique in that it didn't get into the hows and whats of Flash, but straight into some very interesting example code. It also doesn't focus purely on Flash, but integrating flash with web application server products like ColdFusion and ASP. While I'd never be able to create any of these examples on my own, it was quite cool being able to walk through each code example and see how everything works. Some of the Flash code was a bit hairy to follow, but they did attempt to explain it. Rather than learning what the code meant, I just read the comments stating what the code does and moved on. Unless you're experienced in flash, you won't be able to follow the code line for line. However, wading in example apps above your capabilities is a great place to learn. Each chapter is a different example application, focusing on a dynamic backend. Some use ASP, some use ColdFusion, etc. So you can pick your middleware of choice and they'll be an example here for you where you can view both the Flash code, as well as the code it interfaces with to achieve dynamic content. I wouldn't recommend this book as your soul source of Flash instruction, but it is a unique book rich with very usable example code. I didn't learn much Flash actionscript from this book, but I did come out of it with a good understanding of how Flash can be dynamic, using XML to communicate back and forth to your scripting language of choice. If that's what you're after, this might be a good book for you.
Rating:
Summary: useless, useless, useless
Review: Pity I didn't read the reviews here before buying this book. You will not learn anything from this book unless you are already at the level where you can "create dynamic applications" with flash mx. So what's the point of the book?!
Rating:
Summary: useless, useless, useless
Review: Pity I didn't read the reviews here before buying this book. You will not learn anything from this book unless you are already at the level where you can "create dynamic applications" with flash mx. So what's the point of the book?!
Rating:
Summary: Nice code, but you'll never see it run
Review: Very nice actionscript coding techniques, BUT
Missing files, files named differently than the code that references them, installation files that don't work, scant information on how to setup the server-side stuff, and Actionscript that references labels that don't exist, etc... The authors show great actionscripting techniques, but somebody in QA fell asleep on the job. If you buy this book, you might also consider buying a styrofoam brick.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a hidden treasure!!
Review: When I first seen the title of this book, I immediately knew it was what i've been searching for. It has real-world enterprise applications that will guarantee a great future for all the individuals who harness it. As one reviewer said, this book is very advance so don't think you'll grab the concept easy, especially if you're a newbie. Also the support on the book is great. I personally like the instant messenger application, which I feel is a hidden treasure only to be found by few. The techniques in that application aren't found anywhere else and it is very high-end integrated technology. I'm glad i found that treasure. Thanks Mike!
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