Updated to cover Flash MX, the newest version of Macromedia Flash, ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition is the one book no serious Flash developer should be without. ActionScript is Macromedia's programming language for Flash MX, the popular authoring tool for creating rich internet applications and animations for the Web. With Macromedia's new focus on application development, ActionScript now includes a direct drawing API, loading of external MP3 and JPG files, improved sound control, an extensive set of text formatting tools, complete support for component development using movie clip subclasses, local data storage, accessibility features, and much more. And ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is the most complete, up-to-date reference available for the latest version of this language. Author Colin Moock, one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community, has added hundreds of new code examples to show new Flash MX techniques in the real world: how to draw circles, save data to disk, convert arrays to onscreen tables, create reusable components, and preload variables, XML, and sounds. The book's language reference alone has nearly doubled from the first edition, with more than 250 new classes, objects, methods, and properties. You'll find exhaustive coverage of dozens of undocumented, under-documented, and mis-documented features. Along with the new material, Colin Moock has meticulously revised the entire text to conform to Flash MX best-coding practices. In particular, objected-oriented programming and the new event model get special attention in light of changes to Flash MX ActionScript. From sending data between two movies to creating getter/setter properties, the new edition of this book demystifies the often-confusing new features of Flash MX, giving developers easy access to its powerful new capabilities. ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is structured so non-programmers can learn how to use ActionScript and programmers can take their skills to new heights. If you are in the market to really learn about the hows and whys of ActionScript, then this is the book for you.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 55 Ratings

nice book - 2008-12-01
Reviewer Rating:
I received this book in three days, which was a fast delivery. I am still working on this book, but I must say I like this book.

Cover ActionScript2 which will not run on Flash CS3 - 2007-09-24
Reviewer Rating:
This book looks pretty good and the first chapter was very promising. However I must tell my experience so at least people don't waste time and get frustrated like I did.

The very first example of the book, the Multiple-Choice Quiz will NOT run on latest Flash CS3. It turns out that Flash CS3 (ActionScript3) decided to kill backwards compatibility and throw away the onRelease method for its buttons. So you get a bunch of compile errors. I managed to find out by myself that with AS3 you must use addEventListener to handle clicks to SimpleButton.

Anyways, the line:

totalOutput_txt.text = "Your final score is: " + totalCorrect + "/2.";

Is not compiling either with the error:

1120: Access of undefined property totalOutput_txt.

The totalOutput_txt is being created by "reflection" with the line:

createTextField("totalOutput_txt", 1, 150, 200, 200, 20);

But it looks like Flash CS3 does not like this. Again, another compatibility problem with CS3...

There goes my first star out. Now comes my second start out:

This book assumes that you DO KNOW how to play with FLASH, how to play with the timeline, etc. It does make a good effort to guide you through the steps to create the movie frames, etc, but I felt that I needed a flash designer near me to explain me what was going on.

Anyway, I was looking for a book like: Flash + AS for Java Programmers, but I guess I am asking too much. If anyone has a recommendation for me, please reply in this comment!

A difficult read but good for AS references - 2007-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
This book proved to be valuable for looking up new ways of implementing Action Script into my Flash projects. There were many examples of action script that can easily be found in the books index.

Glad I didn't throw it away - 2007-07-02
Reviewer Rating:
Was going through my books looking to get some space on the shelf for new ones and had this in my hand ready to go but for some reason couldn't do it. I hadn't done Flash/Flex (Flesh? Flax?) in a couple of years (moved mostly to C#) then recently I got a chance to do the quirky & kludgey beast of computing again with Flash8 and This Old Book Still Had The Goods.

If you don't own it, buy it. If you are thinking it's past its prime... buy it anyway :)

Oh, gotta say this: if you're thinking of buying into FMS... buy Wowza instead - it's more flexible and it's not priced as arrogantly as the ancient "Adobe" server.

The best - 2007-06-26
Reviewer Rating:
Hands down, the best ActionScript book in my library. Good for building a solid understanding of AS, but definitely not for someone looking for a few quick tricks, effects or tutorials.

A good book for coders, but designers will probably want something far less intense.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Graphics
Programming

Sub-Categories:
Graphics > Flash
Flash > ActionScript
Programming > ActionScripting