Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Unleashed - Softcover

Vogeleer, David; Wilson, Eddie; Barber, Lou

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0672327619 ISBN 13: 9780672327612

Publisher: Sams, 2005

Synopsis

Macromedia Flash is a key technology for designing and delivering low-bandwidth animations, presentations, and web sites. More recently it has become development environment, complete with scripting capabilities and server-side connectivity. Flash has the ability to easily integrate with, and add interactivity to, complex media types with powerful and intuitive tools. Developers can rapidly develop high performance, accessible content using pre-assembled building blocks and expand their authoring capabilities with custom extensions from independent developers.

 

Macromedia Flash MX Unleashed covers these high-end topics, providing you with a solid and complete reference for building Flash websites and applications. Fundamentals are covered quickly in the first part of the book, with the majority of the content devoted to coverage of ActionScript and how Flash works with varied middleware. You'll also learn how to integrate Flash with several other technologies, including XML and PHP.

About this title

About the Author

David Vogeleer is a Flash ActionScript instructor who has been working in Flash since version 4. His focus has been on ActionScript and data integration. A co-author for Flash MXand Flash MX 2004 Unleashed, Vogeleer has published numerous articles about advanced usage of Flash. He has presented Flash talks at many venues, including Macromedia user groups, Microsoft user groups, and colleges. He is a certified Flash developer with years of experience in developing rich Internet applications.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Introduction

Macromedia Flash 8 is the latest in the Flash family of software. Flash was originally just a vector animation tool but is now one of the most advanced programs for creating rich Internet applications to provide powerful user experiences. Not only is the player that plays Flash content one of the most downloaded pieces of software—surpassing both Internet Explorer and Netscape as well as nearly all media players—but the content is so small in file size that anyone can create great user experiences for dial-up users.

This new version of Flash continues its hard-to-follow tradition of bringing new and exciting features for developers and designers who have been begging for dynamic PNG, GIF, and progressive JPEG support. New features include file upload and download right from the SWF, alpha channel support in video, and real-time dynamic filters and effects. And Macromedia didn't stop with content features—they streamlined panel management, bringing back tabs in panels as well as more robust preference controls, and brought back Normal mode (now Script Assist) in the Actions panel. This new version of Flash is definitely one to take notice of.

Along with the newest version of Flash comes the new edition of Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Unleashed. Throughout this book, you will find countless examples and explanations of some of the newest and most powerful tools Flash has to offer, including a complete overview of ActionScript 2.0, the new version of Flash's programming language. Also included in this book is a handy reference guide for ActionScript to help with faster workflow.

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Unleashed was created with the reader's needs in mind. Please don't hesitate to email me your experiences with this book as well as with Flash 8 at missing-link@mllabs.com.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sams
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0672327619
• ISBN 13: 9780672327612
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 840