The Flash Anthology - Chapter 1
by Steven Grosvenor, Reader rating: 6.2
Steve is a Senior Systems Architect for a Managed Internet Security company in the United Kingdom, and cofounder of phireworx.com, a Fireworks resource site.
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Flash Anthology book here
• Contains over 60 ActionScript solutions.
• Includes FREE download access to ALL the code used in the
book.
• Will dramatically enhance your future Flash development
projects.
Sample of Chapter 1
Life without Flash would be uninteresting and mundane. Flash sites are to static HTML sites what a family-size, deep-crust pizza with all the toppings is to a piece of toast. Many of today’s big-impact sites are either full-blown Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) or a prudent blend of HTML and Flash. This careful melding of technologies, coupled with seamless integration, means the difference between an online experience that’s striking, and one that’s utterly forgettable.
Sites that use Flash as the sole medium for conveying their message, and sites that use several mini-Flash applications to punctuate static HTML, have a common underlying theme: they all harness the power of Flash to create lightweight vector- (or coordinate-) based interfaces, applications, and animations. Flash has become a powerful tool for the communication of ideas, its capabilities having inspired a large and passionate following of dedicated users.
Why Use Flash?
The new user can approach Flash from many different angles. Designers may well be impressed by Flash’s capabilities in the realms of interface design, aesthetics, and functionality. If you have a strong coding background, mathematical experimentation and the opportunity to learn new coding techniques may pique your interest. Regardless of which direction you approach it from, the technology offers something to every budding Flash developer.
Flash’s inherent ability to create super-compact, vector-based animations, coupled with a powerful scripting language (ActionScript), allows users to develop complex effects, transitions, and interfaces with relative ease—something that would take many more hours, or be completely impossible, using traditional HTML and DHTML coding methods.
Flash has enjoyed several incarnations since the early days before Macromedia acquired the now ubiquitous plug-in and authoring tool, and development continues today with the recent release of Flash MX 2004 Professional. The passing years have seen the use of Flash technology shift from black art to mainstream Web development practice, as each new version of the software provides users with additional capabilities, from animation, sound, and interactivity, to application server access and video inclusion.
If a complete Flash newbie were to purchase the latest copy of Flash and install it, he or she would likely be overwhelmed by the plethora of panels, drop-down menus, and user options available. Yet, after some experimentation, and a little time spent reading the manual and online tutorials, things would start to make sense. If you’re in this boat—if this is the first book you’ve purchased since your recent acquisition of Flash—congratulations! You’re in good company. If, on the other hand, you know your way around the application and its interface, and know what you want to do but are not exactly sure how to do it, then you, too, have come to the right place. Throughout this book, I’ll attempt to present methods and procedures that address the questions that are most commonly posed in online forums and newsgroups. Sure, there are thousands of examples I could show you, but the solutions I’ve included here are the pick of the crop. Once you understand how the examples in this book fit together, you’ll be able to apply them to many different instances and situations, and use them as building blocks for other Flash applications you may create.
Flash’s power springs from its dynamism and versatility. There are so many things you can do with it, from creating simple animations for inclusion in your Web applications, to building robust SQL and XML data-feeding super-applications. It can be difficult to identify a single point at which to start or stop. You could decide to create a low-bandwidth animated headline for your Website; you might choose to build the whole of your Website as a Flash application or series of Flash applications. The choice is entirely up to you. This book provides real-world examples and leading-edge techniques involving different aspects of Flash. After each example, modifications will be presented that will allow you to extend that example to suit your particular needs.
I’ll assume you’re using Flash MX or later, and that you have some understanding of the software. This book won’t walk you through the interface and tell you what it can do; instead, I expect you have a grip on the basics, and that you’re itching to start using the program to its full potential. Some of the examples in this book are specific to Flash MX 2004, demonstrating powerful techniques for getting the most out of that version in the shortest time, but the majority apply to Flash MX and above.
It’s time to buckle up and turn on the ignition. Let’s see what Flash has to offer!
