Gettin’ Dynamic Wit’ It
Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio is the more advanced Flash 5 book to choose if you have decided that interactivity and database connectivity is the thing for you.
      Clients now seem to expect some degree of advanced features in their web sites, no matter how small the budget and unambitious the project, and it is a good idea to encourage them away from the former corporate obsession for brochureware if you can. Those kind of clients quickly learned the web is not a series of brochures when their first steps onto it got them ho-hum returns on their investment dollars, and they will be looking to you to help them spend more wisely this time.

A Mass Of Acronyms.
Yet, you would be forgiven for wondering what would a designer know about relational database management systems, middleware, passing data between servers and clients, server scripting and all the acronyms like PHP, ASP, WDDX, XML and so on? Should a designer be expected to know anything about such things at all?
      The answer is, of course, that you need to know enough to get by, whether that means enough to find common ground with the backend programmers you call in, or enough to maximise your front-end designs for the backend that will be joined to them. Or, as I have found, enough to take charge when you have to, which generally means the smaller jobs and the limited budgets. And there are limited budget projects at even the biggest firms, from time to time.
      As with other Flash Studio books from Friends of ED, Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio covers a range of approaches and applications appropriate to your goal of adding interactivity and connectivity to your projects.

Some Revelations.
Range is one of this book’s strengths. In the section on Dynamic Generation the first chapter is Introducing Macromedia Generator. Later comes the third party product ASP Turbine, which I had not come across until now. Incidentally ASP Turbine has a sister called PHP Turbine, mentioned but not covered herein. After that comes UltraDev, whose developers have notoriously neglected to support the PHP server model in this current version of the otherwise excellent product.
      But in chapters before and after this section, within the Talking to Flash and Dynamic Data sections, the coverage of proprietary, closed and costly solutions like ColdFusion, SQL Server and ASP is leavened with truth-telling information on MySQL, PHP and Perl (although the latter’s lack of speed compared to PHP’s makes me ask why bother). Let’s hear it for Friends of ED on this one.
      Also praise-worthy is the quality of the writing and the projects contained within the majority of its chapters. If Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio does not provide a clear, concise education into how Flash dynamic content generation can benefit your creativity and commissions then nothing will.

Horsepuckey.
I want to add just one caveat to my otherwise positive comments about Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio. It comes with a fairly extensive CD-ROM, and when you open the back flap to look at you notice it is stamped PC Only. As a somewhat squeamish American colleague of mine would say, “Horsepuckey!” (Whatever that means.)

All Platforms.
There is nothing about the web, web design and web programming that is intrinsically Windows-only. There are some developer tools that are Windows-only, and a number of programmers of my acquaintance prefer to do all their work on that platform. I also know quite a few Linux and Unix-using developers, and some significant web programmers who do all their work with various Mac OS tools.
      And even if you are a Mac-using designer who also codes, chances are that your Mac will be connected to a Windows box or Unix server, locally or across the Internet. The CD contains code you can manipulate on your Mac or Linux machine, with exercises most of which you can follow on Mac or Linux, and most of them will also run on your server of choice. A Flash .fla or .swf made on one platform will work on another. The web was created precisely not to be a platform bigot.

Why Alienate?
So, Friends of ED, why try to alienate a percentage of Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio’s potential buyers by making such an insupportable declaration? Get real and remove the stamp on future editions of what is otherwise a pretty damned good book. I would not mind betting that some designers have already passed over this book for that reason. And if you have to, state somewhere in the book that some of the program trial versions on the CD are Windows only. But so what?

The Book:

• Title: Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio
• Authors: Philippe Archontakis et al
• Publisher: Friends of ED
• Published: 2001
• Pages: 1180
• Illustration: Monochrome
• CD-ROM: Yes
• ISBN: 1903450063

• The Web
• Object-oriented ActionScripting
• Interactive Information Presentation
• Interactive Information Retrieval
• Event-driven Effects
• Advanced Interactivity
• Developing a Dynamic Front End
• Flash and JavaScript Integration
• Flash and Text Files
• Talking to the Server
• Passing Data with Flash and ASP
• PHP
• Using CGI Scripts with Flash
• Perl Scripting
• Introducing ColdFusion and Flash
• Introducing Macromedia Generator
• Generator by Example
• Introducing ASP Flash Turbine 5.0
• Scripting with ASP Flash Turbine
• Introduction to Dreamweaver UltraDev
• Integrating UltraDev with Flash
• Introducing Databases
• Flash, Access and ASP
• Databases Another Way
• Flash and XML
• WDDX
• Flash Gaming
• Flash News Site