The days of Flash as a creative luxury are long gone. After months of downsizing, Flash creativity has been on a huge rationalization program. It is no longer enough to present animation in millions of colors and a hundred transparencies. It is no longer sufficient to provide interactivity and dynamism for their own sake. The purpose of this collection is to show how designers have taken Flash and made it work for its supper. What we discover is a series of creations that place Flash at the hub of cutting edge web content. The end result is a snapshot of Flash as the ideal medium. In these amazing examples, we see the software pushed to its limits to create unbeatable applications—a collapsible family tree, an interactive video learning system, and a drawing tool, capable of running online! Beyond this, we dip into the back-end capabilities to look at how to improve Flash still further. Some staple XML and PHP routines are brought in to add a bit of spice, while Flash's mysterious sharedObject command is hunted down and tamed to create a hybrid Tamagotchi houseplant—perfectly suited to lure surfers back to your website!

This book provides the richest and most solid introduction to the exciting world of Flash applications, which are becoming increasingly popular as ways of presenting visually rich interfaces to useful data and services. Foundation Flash MX Applications supplies you with the knowledge, techniques, and skills that you need to help you plan, develop, and build Flash-based applications that you can deploy on the Web. In true Foundation series style, this book uses step-by-step exercises and a running case study to build skills that you can then apply to any Flash application you create. The emphasis in this book is on the generic skills and approaches that are essential in this field, rather than on shallow walk-throughs of trivial projects. You'll come away from this book with a deeper understanding of the issues (architectural, technical, process-related, design-oriented) that are key to developing successful Flash applications for the Web. This is the only book on the market that focuses on generic, transferable skills that are taught using a case study that'll really drive the learning home. If you want to really understand this subject, then this is the book for you. To get the most out of this book, we recommend that you already have a grasp of the Flash MX interface, as well as some ActionScript experience. Topics include: A full-length case study, creating a dynamic Flash message board application. Designing usable, scalable, and interactive Flash-based applications. Deploying XML for client/server communication. Using PHP as an intermediary between XML and back-end data storage. The MySQL database.

Speigel gets right down to business with instructing how to create three of the most sought-after Flash applications: 1. Full-featured Flash e-commerce site 2. multiplayer game and 3. online community with forum, real-time private messaging and search capabilities.

If you're serious about Flash design, and if you want to push your ideas to the very limits of possibility in Flash MX, then this book and CD are your indispensable companions. This package combines two vital elements: the most comprehensive and in-depth reference resource for Flash MX ActionScript Rich, and practical tutorials on using ActionScript effectively in your Flash movie design. We've packed in 20 chapters of tutorials, hundreds of detailed reference entries, and hundreds of example FLAs and SWFs. The CD reproduces and expands the complete ActionScript dictionary, providing you with a comprehensive and portable reference tool. To gain an idea of the CD's content, view our online demonstration. You can view all the dictionary's entries, but only the first 30 or so are functional. Our aim has been to make this book the best Flash MX ActionScript resource, bar none—the book that you'll keep on your desk and never exhaust.

* Learn the new, powerful features in the new release of Flash. Covers all new areas of extensibility: commands, tools, timeline effects, behaviors, and advanced topics. This book will allow you to streamline day-to-day development by showing you how to custom-build your own commands and tools. Plenty of useful examples are included throughout to demonstrate each area. * Two books in one: first part will actually get the person to understand and be able to use the Extensibility features, not just copy and paste the code in the book, but have a conceptual understanding of how it works and be able to create their own extensions. The second part of the book will be a complete reference guide, that one will want to keep around to look up commands, syntax, parameters, etc. * At this time, it’s the only book covering the subject, and this book actually covers extensibility in both Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004. * The reference content and example files will be available from the book’s companion site, www.flashextensibility.com – this site aims to be the premier site for designers and developers to go to for Flash extensibility material.

The CD that accompanies this book contains various resources including project files, Macromedia software demos, and finished files of completed Flash projects.

Supports the new version of Flash, due later this year; will be a huge market Provides professional best practices—strong emphasis on planning, documentation, and adhering to strict and clean coding from the outset Teaches you to create dynamic, reusable rich-client web applications and services