Foundation PHP 5 for Flash friends of ED, 2005
Are you a reasonably experienced Flash user who has certain mastered the basics, but wished you could take your SWFs further into the realm of dynamic data rich applications? Well, look no further. Foundation PHP 5 for Flash brings together three of the web's hottest technologies - Flash, the server-side language PHP, and the MySQL database system. It's bang up to date, using ActionScript 2.0, PHP 5.0, and MySQL 4.1, but has been designed to be version-neutral. In other words, you can be confident that you're working with the latest standards, but that your applications won't break if deployed on an older server. The book also provides a brief introduction to an alternative database system, SQLite, which is now automatically bundled with PHP 5 and requires no installation. At each stage in the learning you are given an overview of a new area of PHP/MySQL, introducing you to the syntax while showing how it compares to ActionScript, and how it integrates with Flash to produce increasingly complex applications. For example, earlier chapters cover things such as getting data from PHP to Flash and back again, variables, arrays, string manipulation, validating user input, and feedback forms. Later on, you move on to more advanced subjects such as creating databases with MySQL Monitor and phpMyAdmin, manipulating database data through a Flash interface, displaying data from an RSS feed in Flash, persisting data with sessions, and creating a full blown content management system. In addition, to get you up and running, the book features a detailed guide to setting up your environment - PHP, MySQL, and the Apache web server - along with extensive troubleshooting information. PHP is the language of choice on nearly 18 million domains, and MySQL has more than five million active users, including industry leaders like Google, the Associated Press, Sony, and NASA. They're open source and free; and with the help of this book, you'll see that they're easy and fun to learn. |
Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the Source Macromedia Press, 2004
The book follows strict ActionScript 2.0 data-typing, but the instructions are easy to follow, and accompanied by succinct explanations of the underlying theory and language structure. The logical layout means I often turn to this book as a reference, but I expect I'll no longer do that when something more substantial comes out, such as Colin Moock's "Essential ActionScript 2.0" or Sham Bhanghal's "Designer's ActionScript Reference". The book is targetted primarily at people with little or no experience of ActionScript, and it should certainly give them a strong foundation in all basic aspects of scripting for Flash. What it lacks in comparison with Sham Bhangal's "Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX 2004" is the sense of fun or the feeling that you're building something that eventually ties all together. Because each lesson involves one or more standalone projects, no clues are given as to how different elements might be made to interact in a complete application. Another disappointment was that the LoadVars and XML lessons work only with ASP. Nevertheless, it's a good, solid book that will appeal to many. |
The Web Professional's Handbook Glasshaus, 2003
Although the book is not a tutorial, it's not just a collection of tag references, either. Each section contains well-written background material, making it the sort of book that's useful to keep at hand and dip into in spare moments to brush up on what's now become a very technical and broad-ranging subject. Should you part with your hard-earned cash, though, and get this book? It's not an easy question to answer, as the people it will be most useful to probably already own several books covering the same subjects in more detail. On the other hand, do you really want to lug out a 1,000 page or more tome every time you need to look up an aspect of JavaScript? Is there room on your desktop for half a dozen books, or would you prefer everything to hand in just 400 pages? Particularly if you're travelling about, and need a quick reference book that's also a good read, then I think you'll find it money well spent. How does it compare with Jennifer Niederst's "Web Design in a Nutshell"? Both are excellent reference works, but this one goes much deeper into JavaScript and XML, making it more suitable for code warriors. Although they overlap in some areas, I'm happy to have both on my bookshelf. |
PHP and MySQL Web Development (2nd edition) Sams, 2003
The book begins with a "crash course in PHP", followed by the basics of MySQL. Then the rest of the book is devoted to a series of real projects - including building a user authentication system, a simple shopping cart, a mailing list manager, and a web forum. Most of the projects are unchanged from the first edition, but the code has been rewritten throughout to reflect the tightening up of PHP security by turning register_globals "off" by default. Two projects also make use of PEAR, the repository of PHP code and extensions that was integrated with the release of v4.3.0. No previous knowledge of either PHP or MySQL is needed, although complete beginners will need to take the first six chapters quite slowly. But by the time you've worked through all the projects, you should have built up a sound and practical knowledge of dynamic data-driven websites, strong enough to take you on to the final chapter. This is a brand new project that goes beyond HTML into the rapidly developing area of Web Services using XML and SOAP. It uses live data from Amazon, but is readily adaptable to other sources of raw XML data. As proof positive that it really works, the chapter formed the basis for providing the pricing information on this site. To save space, some of the scripts for the later projects are on the accompanying CD-ROM, so if you're tempted to buy the book second-hand, make sure it's not missing or damaged. The CD-ROM also contains the full text of the book in PDF format, making it easy to search. Highly recommended. |
Dreamweaver MX: Advanced PHP Web Development Glasshaus, 2003
The book is written by the same team that produced "Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development" (also reviewed on this site - and recommended for beginners). Although it's a sequel, it avoids the annoying habit of some series of constantly referring you back to the other volume, so you don't have to have read it to get the most out of this one. The authors do use some of Dreamweaver MX's PHP functionality, but most of the book is pure PHP, so readers need to be prepared to dive in and get hand-coding. That's very much a plus, because to get the most out of any dynamic technology, not just PHP, hand-coding is essential. Dreamweaver's automatic code generation is great, but it can only get you so far. Subjects covered include graphics (particularly useful for creating bar and pie charts from dynamic data), file handling, e-mail, and a fascinating insight into working with XML. For me, though, the highlight of the book is the Content Management System case study by Gareth Downes-Powell. It not only brought alive for me the power of custom classes in PHP, it gave me the confidence to start creating my own. Even if the book were twice the price, it would be worth buying it for this case study alone. |
Teach Yourself XML in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) Sams, 2002
One of the problems with XML is the proliferation of acronyms that make the beginner feel as though drowning in alphabet soup. Although Michael Morrison's writing style is rather repetitive at times, he manages successfully to guide you through the maze, tying together all the various strands. Cramming all this into 470 pages inevitably means it's impossible to go into great detail. But that's not a bad thing. I came away with a much better understanding of how all the various parts of XML fit together. It also helped highlight the common logic underlying them all. Each chapter has practical exercises that reinforce the learning process. What this book won't do is show you how to put all the various parts together into a major project, but it should give you most of the basic knowledge necessary to make taking that next step more a journey of discovery than a terrifying leap into the dark. |
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This is a book I wrote myself, so the review is by no means impartial. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I hope you do, too.
As someone already familiar with ActionScript 1, I've used this book to dip into, rather than follow the 20 lessons in strict sequence. I hadn't used Flash for a while, and wanted to get up to speed quickly with ActionScript 2.0 and things like version 2 components and the Shared Object. Although each lesson is meant to take one and a half to two hours, most of them are split into discrete sections that can be completed on their own; and the accompanying CD-ROM contains .fla files for each stage, so it's easy to pick up and leave at any point.
As the title suggests, this is a book for people who take web design seriously. It's intended to be a complete reference to client-side technologies in one book, covering XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, graphics, usability, accessibility, and web traffic analysis. Need to check what attributes a particular XHTML tag accepts and whether it's deprecated, or looking for a reminder of the correct JavaScript syntax? The answer's in here.
With the publication of this 2nd edition, a great book just got better. When the first edition came out, it was an instant bestseller, and deservedly so. It moves at a fast pace, but is thoroughly practical in its approach. Instead of going through boring "Hello World" routines, everything you learn is something you can probably find an immediate use for.
Only recently started out with PHP? Don't be put off by the "advanced" in the title. You'll certainly be advanced by the time you finish, but you don't need to be a PHP guru before you start. Anyone with a basic or intermediate knowledge of PHP wanting to take their skills to a higher level will find this an invaluable book. I was one of the technical reviewers, and working through each chapter I found my skills improving by leaps and bounds. The authors take time to explain how a particular technique works, so that it becomes part of your own knowledge, enabling you to move on and apply it to projects of your own. Far better than simply copying a routine because "that's the way it's done".
If you're completely new to XML, this primer by Michael Morrison will give you a thorough grounding in all the basic concepts of XML-related technologies. By the time you have worked through the book, you should know not only how to read an XML doctype or schema, but to create your own, as well as how to format XML pages using straightforward CSS or XML's own style language, XSLT. Along the way, you also look at namespaces, and what they mean, validation, parsing XML with SAX and the DOM, before dipping into more advanced subjects such as XLink, XPointer, WML, SVG and SMIL.