Hello all. I'm a college student who has long been interested in web design.
I've owned my own domain for about three years now and use it as a personal
blog. Along the way I've become good enough with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to
produce attractive and functional webpages.

Although I designed my fathers company's website, which receives heavy
traffic, I'm by no means a professional. While I might not be looking for a
career in web development, what I would like to do is become proficient with
Macromedia's Flash.

I purchased Studio MX (student liceanse) about a year ago almost soley for
Dreamweaver. After playing around with Flash for the last few days and reading
up a little about it, I would really like to learn much more about it.
Specifically, I want to learn how to create dynamic, database driven websites.
I currently have enough knowledge about PHP and MySQL to create my own weblog.
I would like to do the same with Flash. I thought I would come here and ask
before I go out and purchase a book though because I am on a tight budget.

Is there any tips someone could give me in learning how to efficiently learn
to use Flash MX and then begin creating dynamic, database driven websites with
it?

Thank you very,

Your neighborhood Shrub

Hi Shrub!
All I can say is if I were you, I would get my feet wet first before diving in
completely! Start out with the Lessons and Tutorials that come with Flash. They
will teach you everything you "need" to know to at least wet your feet. ^^
Then, live at these boards. I visit them daily and almost always find answers
to my questions. Also, I found CommunityMX to be very helpful as well. Link
below:

Good luck to you and just hang in there! :P
..::Laters::..

[L=CommunityMX]http://www.communitymx.com/[/L]

Flash has a long and complex learning curve. It's an entire environment.
You can design anything from a small banner ad to an entire Web site with it.

Many people gravitate toward the artisitc and animation side of it, others
toward the programming and development end. Though it's not as robust as
Freehand, some even use it as a vector drawing program. And now with the
addition of video, it's starting to overlap QuickTime and Media Player, too.

You'll have to figure out which pieces you wish to tackle first, and then dive
in. It is worth buying a book or two to break the ice.

Thanks for the replies dzyn and Dan.

I've already read through the orange manual that came with Studio MX and
followed its tutorials. I guess what I'm looking to do is use Flash both for
design and development. I don't know if I'm artistic enough to create a site
like 2advanced or gabocorp but I'd like to be able to create an attractive site
with a database.

Is it possible to work with PHP in Flash? Also could someone recomend a book?
I went to my local Borders earlier and they had dozens of books on Flash w/
ColdFusion but if possible I'd like to learn how to use either perl or php.

Thanks for any help!

Perl or PHP with Flash is easy. I prefer PHP.

Just embed ActionScript like this in the "submit" button of a form.

on (release) {
mySendVars = new LoadVars();
myLoadVars = new LoadVars();
mySendVars.MyName = userName;
mySendVars.MyEMail = userEmail;
mySendVars.MyMessage = userMessage;
mySendVars.sendAndLoad("mail.php", myLoadVars);
}

There's a bit more to it, like naming the text variables when you build the
form, but it works well.

Thanks for another reply Dan. Would you be able to recomend a decent book for
someone fairly familiar with programing (at least with Perl, PHP, and
JavaScript) to learn ActionScript? I've been told the Friends of Ed series are
very good and to stay away from anything published from New Ryders. How about
books published by Macromedia?

Hey Shrub,

Even though I had basic HTML experience (from a while back), last November I
was very, very new to Flash, programming, and the like. I too was interested in
dynamic, database-driven Web sites.

After scouring the entire macromedia.com site (including the White Papers and
video presentations), I was able to get a fairly robust Rich Internet
Application up-and-running within 2 months (1 1/2 months learning, 3 weeks
programming). I used the Macromedia MX 2004 family of products (Flash,
Dreamweaver, Flash Remoting, Cold Fusion). I am amazed at how quickly I was
able to learn and apply the skills needed to develop a robust application.

I purchased and read the following books:

Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide (Tom Muck -- O'Reilly) : Invaluable - a
must-have! This book made Remoting both practical and simple.

Programming ColdFusion MX 2nd edition (Rob Borroks-Bilson -- O'Reilly):
Excellent book, though I have yet to read the entire book (the only chapters I
needed were the first couple (basic CF) and the Cold Fusion Components. But
it's a great reference book.

Flash MX 2004 for Rich Internet Applications (Phillip Kerman -- New Riders):
Great book for letting you know what's possible with Flash MX 2004. Very
interesting writing style -- a good balance of "how-to", but more importantly,
focuses on "what-can-be-done".

Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the Source (Derek Franklin, Jobe
Makar -- MacroMedia Press): Excellent, excellent book that covers ActionScript
in detail. Great for a beginner (like me) to get a firm grip on the basics! I
really like the lesson-style layout -- first concept, then theory, then
practical example.

I will definitely grab any other O'Reilly books about MX 2004 as soon as
they're published (waiting on pins and needles for Moock's ActionScript v2.0
updated edition!)

Another book, though somewhat unrelated, that I found to be outstanding is
Chris Crawford's The Art of Interactive Design (No Starch Press). Another book
worth mentioning: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web 2nd edition
(Louis Rosenfield & Peter Morville, O'Reilly). Yes, I've become a huge O'Reilly
Press fan -- their unique "animal" stamp is as good as gold, as far as I'm
concerned. The authors have an amazing ability to clearly and concisely present
complex topics, without the "fluff".

Again, MacroMedia.com is an invaluable resource -- especially the online
videos and tutorials. I also found www.ultrashock.com 's MX 2004 tutorials and
forum to be extremely helpful.

Being a newbie, I'd strongly recommend sticking to the MX 2004 family of
products for online development (using Flash Remoting and ColdFusion instead of
..NET, XML, etc...) to cut down on your learning curve. Once you've mastered
those, it will be much easier to incorporate other technologies (such as PHP).

Best of luck!

W.

" I've been told the Friends of Ed series are very good "
Yes i think they are too, I`ve not seen the MM Press books for 2004 but the
ones written for MX were poor; looked like they were rushed off the press and
basically written for flash 5 with a couple of extra chapters.

Thanks for the great suggestions guys.

I tend to buy anything from O'reilly. I must own about a dozen different
books on subjects from HTML/XHTML to MySQL and JavaScript. I don't believe the
Borders by my house has any O'reilly books pertaining to Flash though. I'll
have to check out their website and order online.

Does anyone have any experience with books from New Riders? I''ve been told
by many that books from them, particularly by Hillman Curtis, are just pretty
pages that are nicely bound together that have absolutely no content inside
them.

Well I'm off to oreilly.com Thanks for the great suggestions, I'm building a
fantastic reading list for the next few weeks or so.