By Joey Lott
First Edition
July 2003
Pages: 896
Series: Cookbooks
ISBN 10: 0-596-00490-7 |
ISBN 13: 9780596004903
(Average of 10 Customer Reviews)
This book has been updated—the edition you're requesting is OUT OF PRINT. Please visit the catalog page of the latest edition.
The latest edition is also available on Safari Books Online.
ActionScript's sheer volume of capabilities can be daunting. The ActionScript Cookbook breaks it all down into tasks that are relevant, practical, and insightful. On top of hundreds of atomic recipes, it offers seven full chapters of larger sample applications. Appealing to all levels of ActionScript coders, this book offers concrete solutions to the most common ActionScript needs and problems. The ActionScript Cookbook is for people who want to hit the ground running.
Full Description
When you need to get the job done fast, you'll reach for this practical, nuts-n-bolts toolkit. Rather than focusing on ActionScript in the abstract, this Cookbook puts theory into practice with ready-made answers to common ActionScript problems. Flash MX developers can solve issues quickly, while learning practical techniques for resolving similar dilemmas in the future.
ActionScript has blossomed into a large and important language whose sheer volume of capabilities can be daunting. The ActionScript Cookbook breaks it all down into tasks that are relevant, practical, and insightful. Appealing to the budding coder as well as the experienced ActionScript jockeys, this book offers new perspectives and approaches to ActionScript development that will empower all developers.
This O'Reilly Cookbook complements ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition by providing quick solutions to common ActionScript problems. This book trades on our respected "Cookbook" approach, which provides a worked-out script for every problem addressed. You can use these "recipes" to solve an immediate problem, and then explore the issue further in The Definitive Guide when time permits.
The ActionScript Cookbook contains over 300 recipes on a myriad of topics. Here's a sampling of what you'll find:
Browse within this book
- Drawing shapes at runtime
- Controlling movie clips programmatically
- Accepting user input and manipulating text strings
- Accessing audio and video via Flash Communications Server
- Working with Flash Remoting to connect to back end databases
- Using record sets with data grids
- And, much, much more in over 20 recipe-laden chapters...
- Building a Flash Paint Application
- Creating a Video/Chat Message Server Application
- Creating an MP3 Jukebox
- Creating a personalizable MyPage Application
Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon
Featured customer reviews
Indispensable, July 07 2004
Rating:
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]
There's nothing quite like picking up a book that solves a design or coding problem or task. The ASCB is that book for ActionScript. From Events, Sounds, Drawing, and Objects to Flash Remoting, this book again and again offers real world solutions while simultaneously teaching principles and best practices.
I must agree with an earlier reviewer who stated that all of his/her other flash books made more sense after reading this book.
I keep this book and Moock's ActionScript the Definitive Guide within arm's reach whenever coding.
If you want to program in ActionScript, you must read this book.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, November 22 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Jolayne
[Respond | View]
This is from a designer-type.
Going from print to the web, Flash5 was easy for me to pick up. After a break of doing no Flash and coming back to it with Flash6 out for a few months, I was frustrated, uptight and bought every Flash6 book I could find by trusted authors in order to catch up, while at the same time trying to get a big flash site done for a client.
Nothing helped. I kept getting more and more frustrated. Everytime I saw the words "call-backs", "this", "method" or "object", I would get knots in my stomach.
Actionscript Cookbook not only helped me get the website done, but his Actionscript Cookbook finally got me to understand Flash6 concepts. Flash5-free at last, no more knots in my stomach. I can now read and understand all the other books I bought! Now that Flash7 is out, I'll be buying every title that comes out by Joey Lott. He is the consummate teacher, and includes explains what you need to know, and why you need to know it, in concise, easy-to-understand verbiage.
In my opinion, Joey's Actionscript Cookbook and Colin Moock's Actionscript, the Definitive Guide, and are the best values out there for Flash6.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, November 13 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Lara Gaur
[Respond | View]
Like most O'Reilly classics, ActionScript Cookbook is great for learning and mastering Actionscipt for Flash MX along with C. Moock's ASDG. Joey Lott also has a website with lessons on OOP. Excellent!
ActionScript Cookbook Review, October 25 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Jeff Garza
[Respond | View]
Joey Lott's Actionscript Cookbook is a great desktop reference. The cookbook format allows me to solve problems quickly without having to wade through excessive details. I'm primarily a ColdFusion programmer that is learning Actionscript and Flash, so the concise, real-world examples and solutions have really helped me be more productive.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, September 30 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Mike
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This is a remarkable book in that before I picked it up I knew a bunch of Flash and ActionScript theory and had nearly no clue about how to create a Flash movie. And now I feel right at home creating a complicated dynamic Flash MX 2004 movie. Too bad that Flash MX 2004 introduced ActionScript 2.0 which is not covered in this book.
Still most of the ideas in the book remain valid: ideas such as the use of class libraries, the dominance of movie clip objects and the use of custom components.
I highly recommend this book!
ActionScript Cookbook Review, September 23 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Abdul Qabiz
[Respond | View]
This is really a good book, its compliments to ASDG by Colin Moock.
I am really inspired by the problems are solved in this book. A must be for Flash Developers.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, August 29 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Hien Nguyen
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For a technical cookbook, this book is a pleasure to read and easily qualifies as best in its genre. It is published as Flash MX is being replaced with its 2004 version, but it should be a good reference for a long time, at least until another edition updates it to Flash MX 2004. Its 28 chapters are well organized with clear titles and well defined sections, a big help when one is looking for the right recipe to an every day coding problem. Joey Lott is a teacher of ActionScript, among other subjects, and that experience comes through in his lucid writing and straight forward examples. I will always keep this handy on my desk to refer to when the need arises.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, August 19 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Joe Garraffo
[Respond | View]
I received this book 2 weeks ago and have not put it down. The author did a phenomenal job breaking down problems and could not have been any clearer on his solutions to the problem. This is not a how to book, rather it is the friend you're looking for at 3am when nobody else is awake. I have yet to run across something that I couldn’t find the answer to in the AS Cookbook! I highly recommend this book to any Flash/ActionScript developer. Thumbs up to Joey Lott & O'Reilly.
ActionScript Cookbook Review, August 14 2003
Rating:
Submitted by Carl-Alexandre Malartre
[Respond | View]
Sorry for the poor english
I've bought about 10 oreilly titles and I've read many more on Safari. Of these titles, the Cookbooks are the most useful and fun to get the job done.
ActionScript Cookbook is particularly well made Beginers and advanced people will find what they need to cook good ActionScript applications.
Saved me countless hours
ActionScript Cookbook Review, August 14 2003
Rating:
Submitted by craig ward
[Respond | View]
This Book is a great learning tool and a huge time saver. I've been using Macromedia Flash since Flash 3 and this book has given me the most useful examples that I've seen.
Media reviews
"Joey Lott’s ActionScript Cookbook is the best resource for Adobe’s ActionScript for the developer who wants to get things done from Page One....ActionScript Cookbook is really for the developer that eats code for breakfast. And with this book, those developers are set for lunch and dinner as well."
-- Regnard Kreisler C. Raquedan, Standard Web Standards
"Released in 2003, Joey Lott’s ActionScript Cookbook is the best resource for Adobe’s ActionScript for the developer who wants to get things done from Page One. I declare that based on the breadth of content the book covers. Name it, ActionScript Cookbook has it– illustration, data connectivity, multimedia and even full-fledged Flash applications."
-- Regnard Kreisler C. Raquedan, Adobe User Group - Philippines
"A worthy companion to the essential 'ActionScript for Flash MX' by Colin Moock, the 'ActionScript Cookbook' covers a surprisingly complete array of tasks for almost any project. The projects are organized into logical categories (Numbers and Math, Arrays, Dates and Times, FlashCom Server, etc.) and are copiously cross-referenced, to keep the recipes as concise as possible. The beauty of this approach is in its clarity and simplicity. Need to know how to dynamically set the color of a movie clip? Recipe 3.1 gives you the answer, short and sweet. Want to know how to return typed objects from ColdFusion into a Flash movie? Recipe 20.18 will get you there. Dynamically attach a scrollbar to a dynamic text box? Look at recipe 8.3. Each recipe states the problem to solve, offers a solution, and then discusses the 'how to' of the solution in detail. Simple. Straightforward. Effective...The 'ActionScript Cookbook' can help you find the most logical way to solve your problems, and help you find it faster. A professor of mine once posed a question, 'if you were stranded on another planet, what books would you need with you in order to do your job.' Whatever your other choices, I recommend you consider adding the 'ActionScript Cookbook' to your list. It's on my list."
--Brad Kozak, Author of "Macromedia Flash MX/FreeHand 10 Advanced: Training From the Source" and co-author of "Flash MX Audio Magic," August 2003
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