| Building Web Sites with
Macromedia Studio MX
by Tom Green, Chris Flick, Jordan L. Chilcott
Publisher: New Riders
Level: Beginner – Intermediate
Availability: Now
Review Written: Thursday, December 05, 2002
My perspective
I am a Senior MX Developer, author, professor, corporate
trainer, and freelancer in the Toronto, Ontario region in
Canada. My focus is making things work and bringing things
to life. I use many Macromedia tools such as Flash MX, ColdFusion
MX, and Dreamweaver MX, as well as many other tools, including
Adobe’s Illustrator and Photoshop. My goal has always been
to balance out good design with extraordinary code implementation.
I first saw this book at a Flash in TO (www.flashinto.com)
meeting in November of 2002. Having been a long time colleague
of Tom Green, I was very interested in the work he and his
co-authors had done. I asked him directly if this was an
advanced level book that would benefit me. He said no. I
didn’t buy the book. We were both in error.
If you are reading this article, and want the short review,
here it is … buy the book. If you are part of a web team,
manage a web team, or want a full explanation of the process
of building static and dynamic web applications, and how
to use Macromedia’s tools seamlessly together, this is the
book to buy.
For those of you who want the full breakdown, please read
on.
The Pros
Upon receiving this book for review, the first thing I did
was scan the table of contents. Then I skimmed each chapter
to get a better look. Well, I didn’t put the book down for
five hours! One thing kept leading to another, and before
I knew it, I was hooked. I spent a total of four days working
through the entire book. Now I feel more equipped to go
about my daily business.
The first two chapters introduce us to the whole process
of planning out a web project. Many developers (and clients)
believe the computer is all that is needed to complete any
project. This is not true in my experience. Everything starts
on paper then more paper. 99% of the site is actually conceptualized
on paper before I even touch the computer. This book offers
keen insight as to why that process is crucial to all your
endeavours.
Chapters four through eight break down the next stages
of your project. What is a mockup? Why use it? How do you
wire-frame a site? When is it appropriate to use dynamic
content? It’s all in this book in detail.
Chapters nine through eleven teach you everything you need
to know about images, artwork, and video, and basically
all multimedia in a simple manner. It is in these chapters
that the book gets down to it. The flow between applications
in Studio MX is now almost seamless; it’s made editing that
much easier. Previously, I hadn’t often used Fireworks or
Freehand, but doing the exercises in the book has moved
me to give these programs consideration. When used properly,
they are quite powerful, and this is still only the beginner
material!
I have to pause here for a moment and make a personal comment
about chapter twelve. I am so very pleased it was included.
It is about typography. I have seen a lot of projects that
are very good, but have lousy typography. The inclusion
of this chapter reiterates to me, as a serious developer,
just how well the authors understand the real process behind
generating projects of utmost excellence. By far, this is
my favourite chapter.
In chapters thirteen through nineteen the book gains some
momentum. The next few lessons are on building dynamic web
sites, creating animation, effective use of assets, optimization
techniques, navigation (the KEY element to any web site),
transitions, and much, much more. The chapter on video stood
out to me especially. I reviewed another book specifically
dealing with video and Flash MX, and was thoroughly disappointed
to see how much dependence was put on third party utilities.
I myself, teach about three paragraphs on video in Flash
MX. To be blunt, hands down, this chapter tells you the
best way to use video in your Flash MX projects.
Chapter twenty introduces one of my favourite tools, ColdFusion
MX. With a few simple steps, the sample project was dynamic
and connected. It was almost effortless.
The final chapter in this book goes beyond the sample project.
It covers final debugging, testing, and implementation,
a smart way to wrap up this experience.
The Cons
You may have noticed I didn’t mention chapter three. Chapter
three covers Sitespring, a project management tool, developed
by Macromedia. Personally, I have had exposure to this tool,
and I think it’s great. Unfortunately, Macromedia no longer
sells Sitespring. This was an unforeseen issue that has
occurred because the book was written without knowledge
of Macromedia’s intentions of discontinuing sales of this
product. I’m sure it will leave readers disappointed and/or
confused.
I was also somewhat let down to see that Flash Remoting
MX was not included. It is a built in part of ColdFusion
MX Server, is very powerful, and quite user-friendly, and
would have been a great addition to this book. Of course,
you can only include so much in one volume.
The Verdict
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. The book was thorough
on the topics it introduced. The code was solid. Everything
from the book’s website worked, as it should. It was easy
to read, and the whole book flowed very well from chapter
to chapter. Although it is not a reference manual that I
will refer to frequently, it was a great tutorial experience
that added to my knowledge base, and therefore my marketability.
Whether you are new to MX, or a pre-MX pro, this book definitely
holds value. It is not to be overlooked. I found myself
constantly wanting more. The authoring team generated such
an excitement for Studio MX that I was sorry to see each
chapter end.
Congratulations to Tom et al, on a great book. I anticipate
the possibility of a follow-up volume for advanced users.
review by:
Marcus J. Dickinson
MX Developer
Corporate Trainer
www.diariesofwar.com
Paperback: 792 pages
Publisher: New
Riders Publishing;
ISBN: 0735712727; 1st edition (November 5, 2002)
you
may comment or review in the forum here
|
