Book review: Flash MX 2004 for RIAs

And so it begins. The first Flash MX 2004 books are beginning to hit the shelves. There seems to have been a noticeably longer wait between product and book release this time round. MX2004 shipped earlier than expected but I doubt that would catch the publishers napping. The delay is probably down to the difficulty of producing book about a product that is inheritly connected to just about every other web technology you care to mention.

TITLE: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Rich Internet Applications
AUTHOR: Phillip Kerman
PUBLISHER: New Riders
ISBN: 0-7357-1366-9
PAGES: 462 b&w
CD: No
PRICE:  $45.00 US / $67.99 CAN / £34.99 UK

Well, the inevitable stampede is coming but luckily for us one of the first out of the gate is by community veteran Philip Kerman. His previous book Actionscripting in Flash MX is very well regarded so this one had a lot to live up to. Thankfully it didnt disappoint.

The book is split into three broad sections: Development, Technology and Productivity.

The Development section makes the case for RIAs and explores the crucial difference between an embedded Flash application and a stateless HTML page. With the argument made for RIAs the discussion turns to the challenge of designing them. This goes from capturing user requirements to selecting the right tools and formats. The chapter is wrapped up with a sneak peak at the forthcoming Macromedia Central.

The mid section of the book is the largest of the three, and discusses Technology in great detail. Phillip has created a very useful technology map that attempts to show all the data connectivity available to the Flash player. In fact how you handle data is the key topic under discussion. Its presentation, formatting, type and methods of exchange are covered comprehensively. The section is finished off with two large chapters on working with Flash Communication Server.

One of the key benefits of upgrading to MX2004 is the improvement to workflow. As a result Productivity is discussed at length. This either takes the form of explaining new features (such as AS2 Components) or more generalised software engineering observations.

On the whole its a good introduction to Flash RIAs with sensible advice about designing and building these complex applications. Phillip and New Riders have done extremely well to ship the book this close to the release of the product, but they are the first of many who will tackle this new and exciting subject. Itll be interesting to see how it shapes up a year down the line.

 

About John Dalziel

John Dalziel is a founding member of FlashMagazine and regularly reports from community events in the UK. He has also written for Macromedia, New Riders, Actionscript.com and Ultrashock.com.

 

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