Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 458 pages
• Published by: Hungry Minds July 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0764535986
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764535987
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.7 pounds

Book Description
Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases, and Dynamic Development fills an important gap in the Flash book market. With the emergence of e-commerce, no Web site is complete without a back end because the back end is the virtual sales connection. Likewise, complex games are dependent on access to huge sets of data that can be sent in small packages, but getting them in and out of Flash requires knowing how the data can be generated in Flash, how it can be sent out to the servers and how it gets information back from the servers and integrates it into the ongoing game.

While every book on Flash recognizes this new capacity to some extent, none of them have really showed developers how to get the data into and out of Flash and use it effectively. Server-Side Flash gives developers the tools to fully utilize Flash's capacity to communicate with the server side of the Web. PHP/MySQL have over half a million users, ASP has at least as many, and just about every professional Web page now contains at least some JavaScript. Find out how Flash communicates with these other languages and servers with coverage of the use of Macromedia's powerful database Flash product, Generator, and put its use in context with other Flash database techniques and applications.

Publisher Description
The first book dedicated to connecting dynamic Flash content to back-end databases, with authoritative coverage of Flash and CGI, ASP, PHP/MySQL, JavaScript and Macromedia Generator!

Reader Reviews
Ok, "server-side Flash" is sort of misleading: Flash doesn't actually run on the server in the way that "server-side Java" does, for example. This is basically the same idea as "Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio" by Friends of Ed. This book is a bit drier and emphasizes code over everything else, which is as it should be. You won't find the pointless filler that pumps "Dynamic Content Studio" to 1000+ pages, but you won't be paying for it in money or weight, either. Of the two, this should be your choice if only because it doesn't suffer from the "too many cooks" syndrome of the Friends of Ed series. You don't need to figure out 8 peoples' coding style here like you do in "Dynamic Content Studio." True, this is not a complete book about middleware technologies, and I wouldn't want to dive into a serious ecommerce project with nothing more than this book, but it's a solid introduction to a wide range of technologies.