Foundation PHP 5 for Flash (Foundation)
- Media: Book (Paperback, 684 pages)
- ISBN: 1590594665
- Publisher: friends of ED
- Release Date: Mar 1, 2005
Product Description
Our original Foundation PHP for Flash title was rightly regarded as a must-have title when it came to wanting to learn just how to make your Flash sites make use of backend technologies, that was published way back in the days of Flash 5 and PHP 4, and things move pretty fast in the world of web design! This latest, completely rewritten, edition again brings together three of the web's hottest technologies--Flash, the server-side language PHP, and the MySQL database system. We've brought things bang up to date, using ActionScript 2.0, PHP 5.0, and MySQL 4.1, the book 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 of the book you'll be 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 complicated 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, it moves on to more advanced subjects such as creating databases via the MySQL console and via phpMyAdmin, manipulating database data via 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.
An excellent book for flash and php developers
I have read and studied a lot of books on web development. So far this is the book where I found how the author explicitly and clearly explained every aspects of details. I should have purchased this book much much earlier. Now my flash and php mysql skills and knowledge had extremely improved. This is the best buy for me and I am now searching for other books by David Powers.
Submitted 7 Jun 2008
JUST FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOWS PHP BUT NOT FLASH BEGUINERS***READ THIS BEFORE PURCHASING
THE BOOK IS EASY TO FOLLOW BUT THE FLASH DESIGNS HAVE TO BE DOWNLOADED SO COMMONSENCE IS IF YOU DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING AND THE BOOK DONT TEACH YOU TO DO IT YOURSELF THEN YOU DINT LEARN ANYTHING,,,, YOU WILL LEARN PHP BUT I ALLREADY KNEW PHP SO I GOT THIS TO LEARN FLASH***THE PHP FOR FLASH PREVIOUST TO THIS IS BETTER SINCE YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR OWN FLASH BUTTONS STEP BY STEP SO YOU CAN LEARN, IF ITS TO LEARN FLASH I COULD GIVE A 0 STARS BUT FOR PHP I COULD GIVE 6 STARS OUT OF 5,,,,, ONE LAST THING IM JUST RATING THIS ACCORDING TO FLASH SO I GAVE 1 BECAUSE THE WEBSITE DONT PERMIT ME TO GIVE CERO
Submitted 12 Jan 2008
Great Overview of PHP and MySQL, with even some gotchas for your ActionScript
I came to this book with a basic knowledge of ASP and Microsoft SQL Server. Using back end technologies with Flash is quite a change from (X)HTML, and this book really helps you get your head around the change in logic needed to effectively use Flash with a back end.
I haven't quite finished the book, but everything I've read so far has been great. Highly recommended.
I haven't quite finished the book, but everything I've read so far has been great. Highly recommended.
Submitted 14 May 2007
Everything I was looking for
I'm a Flash developer transitioning into creating RICH applications and decided you use PHP for that technology. I wanted a book that would guide me from the ground up with integrating PHP into Flash. This book did the job!!!!
It showed me step by step how to create my own local Apache and MySQL servers with ease, and clearly explained the configuration woes a newcomer when face. Very impressive!!!
The book then guides you through several examples of using Flash and PHP together. In fact you'll end up with a pretty cool game on HangMan once you're done.
It showed me step by step how to create my own local Apache and MySQL servers with ease, and clearly explained the configuration woes a newcomer when face. Very impressive!!!
The book then guides you through several examples of using Flash and PHP together. In fact you'll end up with a pretty cool game on HangMan once you're done.
Submitted 6 Apr 2007
What a great book!
"Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" by David Powers is a great book, as I've come to expect from both David Powers and his publisher, Friends of ED.
The word "Foundation" in the title may lead you to think this is a beginner's book; it decidedly is not. As stated on the back cover, the book is aimed at the "reasonably experienced Flash user who has mastered the basics." I'd even say that it takes a mastery of more than just the basics to get the most out of this book. Without a very good knowledge of ActionScript, much of the material would be difficult to follow.
That being said, this book is not about ActionScript. It's not even really about Flash. It's a book about PHP -- and a very, very good book about PHP at that. It's also a book about MySQL. Prior to the most advanced chapters, the tie-in with Flash (and ActionScript) is said in one word: LoadVars. Once you get past that, you can pretty much forget about ActionScript for much of the book and focus on learning PHP and MySQL. Although the book does show by example how to get variables between your Flash user and LoadVars in ActionScript, you really do need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Flash in general and ActionScript in particular in order to make full use of those examples, and this is not the book for learning that part of it. In the more advanced chapters, more ActionScript comes into play, and it can get confusing if you're not already comfortable with it. (I'd liken diving into this book without knowing ActionScript or PHP to learning to speak Spanish and Italian at the same time: at some point, you're going to say "dónde" when you mean to say "dove.")
What this book does cover extremely well is everything that happens on the back end, outside of Flash. The chapters that introduce PHP do much more than just introduce it: they are an excellent tutorial in the language that would even be a great resource for people who just want to learn PHP without having anything to do with Flash. Concepts are explained clearly and completely, and the examples are extremely useful and illustrative. The same can be said for the MySQL chapters: You really do learn MySQL, and not just by breezing through one or two superficial examples as in most PHP books.
The nuts-and-bolts chapters are particularly brilliant. David Powers's walk-throughs on installing Apache, PHP and MySQL are legendary. You simply couldn't ask for a better guide! The appendices -- including 20 whole pages on various things that might go wrong and what to do about it -- are indispensable.
My only criticism is of the often convoluted examples. The author's style is to build up the examples iteratively, retracing and revising the code, step by step, over many pages as you learn new techniques. He will often walk you through the "obvious-but-wrong" way of doing something, then make changes little by little, introducing new concepts along the way. While this is perhaps a good way of learning, it sometimes feels like you're reaching over your head with your right hand to scratch your left ear.
As usual, the Friends of ED name on the cover means you're buying quality. Everything from the paper to the layout to the typography is top-of-the-line. While black-and-white printing usually doesn't work well for Flash books, it's perfectly fine for this book (remember, I told you that this isn't really a book about Flash). The author is very active in the Friends of ED readers' forum, so you can be certain that any questions you have about the examples (or about pretty much anything else for that matter) will be answered by the author himself in great detail if you address them on the forum.
So if you know ActionScript and want to learn how to put a database behind it, or if you're a skilled PHP programmer looking for another way to apply your knowledge, or even if you have no real interest in Flash but want to gain a deep understanding of PHP/MySQL, this is a great book for you. Be prepared to spend lots of time with it -- it's nearly 700 pages and it has zero fluff -- but it is time very well spent indeed.
The word "Foundation" in the title may lead you to think this is a beginner's book; it decidedly is not. As stated on the back cover, the book is aimed at the "reasonably experienced Flash user who has mastered the basics." I'd even say that it takes a mastery of more than just the basics to get the most out of this book. Without a very good knowledge of ActionScript, much of the material would be difficult to follow.
That being said, this book is not about ActionScript. It's not even really about Flash. It's a book about PHP -- and a very, very good book about PHP at that. It's also a book about MySQL. Prior to the most advanced chapters, the tie-in with Flash (and ActionScript) is said in one word: LoadVars. Once you get past that, you can pretty much forget about ActionScript for much of the book and focus on learning PHP and MySQL. Although the book does show by example how to get variables between your Flash user and LoadVars in ActionScript, you really do need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Flash in general and ActionScript in particular in order to make full use of those examples, and this is not the book for learning that part of it. In the more advanced chapters, more ActionScript comes into play, and it can get confusing if you're not already comfortable with it. (I'd liken diving into this book without knowing ActionScript or PHP to learning to speak Spanish and Italian at the same time: at some point, you're going to say "dónde" when you mean to say "dove.")
What this book does cover extremely well is everything that happens on the back end, outside of Flash. The chapters that introduce PHP do much more than just introduce it: they are an excellent tutorial in the language that would even be a great resource for people who just want to learn PHP without having anything to do with Flash. Concepts are explained clearly and completely, and the examples are extremely useful and illustrative. The same can be said for the MySQL chapters: You really do learn MySQL, and not just by breezing through one or two superficial examples as in most PHP books.
The nuts-and-bolts chapters are particularly brilliant. David Powers's walk-throughs on installing Apache, PHP and MySQL are legendary. You simply couldn't ask for a better guide! The appendices -- including 20 whole pages on various things that might go wrong and what to do about it -- are indispensable.
My only criticism is of the often convoluted examples. The author's style is to build up the examples iteratively, retracing and revising the code, step by step, over many pages as you learn new techniques. He will often walk you through the "obvious-but-wrong" way of doing something, then make changes little by little, introducing new concepts along the way. While this is perhaps a good way of learning, it sometimes feels like you're reaching over your head with your right hand to scratch your left ear.
As usual, the Friends of ED name on the cover means you're buying quality. Everything from the paper to the layout to the typography is top-of-the-line. While black-and-white printing usually doesn't work well for Flash books, it's perfectly fine for this book (remember, I told you that this isn't really a book about Flash). The author is very active in the Friends of ED readers' forum, so you can be certain that any questions you have about the examples (or about pretty much anything else for that matter) will be answered by the author himself in great detail if you address them on the forum.
So if you know ActionScript and want to learn how to put a database behind it, or if you're a skilled PHP programmer looking for another way to apply your knowledge, or even if you have no real interest in Flash but want to gain a deep understanding of PHP/MySQL, this is a great book for you. Be prepared to spend lots of time with it -- it's nearly 700 pages and it has zero fluff -- but it is time very well spent indeed.
Submitted 22 Sep 2006
