Introduction

Macromedia Studio 8 is the premier Web development software package available today. From cutting-edge graphic design to developing database-driven e-commerce Web applications and everything in between, Studio 8 offers serious tools for visually oriented graphic designers and code-oriented Web and multimedia programmers alike. Given the breadth and depth of the five applications that compose Studio 8—Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Contribute, and ColdFusion—it is impossible for someone new to these applications to master them in a day.

The 17 lessons in this book are intended to provide a crash course for serious beginners, people who have an ambitious learning agenda. In the book, you’ll begin designing graphics and page layouts in Macromedia Fireworks 8, before moving to Dreamweaver 8 to build an entire Web site. You’ll then turn to Flash to build some animated and video assets for the site. In the final project of the book, you’ll design a database-driven ColdFusion site, some Flash applications, how to configure the site for maintenance by Contribute users, and learn how to send data in and out of Flash.

As these topics suggest, the book places special emphasis on integrating the different Studio products, rather than covering each one in isolation. While the collection of tools available in Macromedia Studio 8 is unparalleled, they are even more powerful when used together. Integration topics include exporting page layouts from Fireworks to Dreamweaver, developing a ColdFusion site in Dreamweaver and integrating it with Flash content, and integrating a database-driven Web application using ColdFusion with a simple client—Contribute—enabling non-technical content experts to maintain their own content.

Prerequisites

Macromedia Studio 8: Training from the Source is intended as an introductory curriculum for those who want to learn Macromedia Studio 8. As such, the book makes few assumptions about what you already know.

The lessons assume the following:

• You have basic familiarity with your operating system, including using the menu system and file management.

• Studio 8 is installed, and your system meets the requirements needed to run it.

• You have access to a Web server running ColdFusion. This can be a local server, a network server, or an ISP that you access via FTP.

• You are at least willing to learn some code, including HTML, Flash ActionScript, and ColdFusion Markup Language, though you are not expected to know Any Of These Up Front.

Outline

This Macromedia training course steps you through the projects in each lesson, showing you how to design graphics and prepare them for the Web; develop Web pages; prepare graphics for print; create multimedia animations and interactions; and develop database-driven Web sites.

The curriculum of this course should take you about 24 hours to complete and includes the following lessons:

Lesson 1: Preparing Graphics

Lesson 2: Designing a Page Interface

Lesson 3: Exporting a Site Design

Lesson 4: Preparing a New Site

Lesson 5: Developing a Page Template

Lesson 6: Developing Site Content

Lesson 7: Creating a Flash Movie

Lesson 8: Creating Animation and Interactivity

Lesson 9: Flash Video

Lesson 10: Preparing the Dante Site

Lesson 11: Nonlinear Flash Interactions

Lesson 12: Drag-and-Drop Interactions

Lesson 13: Dynamic, Data-Driven Sites

Lesson 14: Connecting to Data Sources

Lesson 15: A Component-Based Flash Quiz

Lesson 16: Flash, ColdFusion, and the Database

Lesson 17: Decentralizing with Contribute

The Project Site

In the course of completing the book, you will build two sites.

The first project you will work on is a Web site for a fictional organic farm called Jade Valley. During this project, you will do the graphic design of the site from scratch in Fireworks and Dreamweaver. You will design a page template, complete with an accompanying Cascading Style Sheet, from which you will then generate the pages in the site. You’ll also use Flash to develop an interactive movie and a short video.

The second project is for a fictional class on the Inferno, by the medieval poet Dante. Most of the graphic design work has been done in advance, so you can focus on the development side of Studio 8: architecting and scripting Flash movies; connecting sites to a database using ColdFusion; and sending data between Flash movies, pages, and the database. As a final activity, you will make the static portions of this site editable by non-technical Contribute users.

Elements and Format

Each lesson in this book begins by outlining the major focus of the lesson at hand and introducing new features. Learning objectives and the approximate time needed to complete all the exercises are also listed at the beginning of each lesson. The projects are divided into short exercises that explain the importance of each skill you learn. Every lesson will build on the concepts and techniques used in the previous lessons.

Tips: Alternative ways to perform tasks and suggestions to consider when applying the skills you are learning.

Notes: Additional background information to expand your knowledge, as well as advanced techniques you can explore in order to further develop your skills.

Boldface terms: New vocabulary that is introduced and emphasized in each lesson.

Italic text: Text that you need to type in is set in italics.

Menu commands and keyboard shortcuts: There are often multiple ways to perform the same task. The different options will be pointed out in each lesson. Menu commands are shown with angle brackets between the menu names and commands: Menu > Command > Subcommand.

Keyboard shortcuts are shown with a plus sign between the names of keys to indicate that you should press the keys simultaneously; for example, Shift+Tab means that you should press the Shift and Tab keys at the same time.

CD-ROM: The files you need to complete the projects for each lesson are located in a folder named for the lesson: Lesson01, Lesson02, etc. The CD can be found in the back of the book. Inside the lesson folders are Start and Complete folders, which represent the state of the Jade Valley or Dante project at the beginning and ending of that lesson, respectively.

The files you will use for each of the projects are listed at the beginning of each lesson.

Macromedia Training from the Source

The Macromedia Training from the Source and Advanced Training from the Source series are developed in association with Adobe, and reviewed by the product support teams. Ideal for active learners, the books in the Training from the Source series offer hands-on instruction designed to provide you with a solid grounding in the program’s fundamentals. If you learn best by doing, this is the series for you. Each Training from the Source title contains hours of instruction on Adobe software products. They are designed to teach the techniques that you need to create sophisticated professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD-ROM that contains all the files used in the lessons, completed projects for comparison and more.

Macromedia Authorized Training and Certification

This book is geared to enable you to study at your own pace with content from the source. Other training options exist through the Macromedia Authorized Training Partner program. Get up to speed in a matter of days with task-oriented courses taught by Macromedia Certified Instructors. Or learn on your own with interactive, online training from Macromedia University. All of these sources of training will prepare you to become a Macromedia Certified Developer.

For more information about authorized training and certification, check out www.macromedia.com/go/training/

What You Will Learn

You will develop the skills you need to create and maintain your Web sites as you work through these lessons.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Design graphics in Fireworks, using special features such as masks and Live Effects

• Build button rollovers and navigation bars

• Design and export interactive page interfaces using Fireworks

• Build and deploy a Dreamweaver template

• Design a site using new, standards-compliant CSS layers for the layout and look

• Rapidly develop Web pages using templates and CSS styles

• Reuse Fireworks-created graphics in business cards, envelopes, and letterhead designed in Freehand

• Architect movies in Flash, using its timeline, stage, and Library

• Animate screen objects in Flash

• Create interactive, nonlinear Flash applications

• Create drag-and-drop interactivity in Flash

• Configure a dynamic, ColdFusion site in Dreamweaver

• Connect a ColdFusion site to a database and retrieve a data each time a page is requested

• Collect information from users with a Web form, process that data with ColdFusion, and insert it into a Flash application

• Develop a Flash quiz using Flash user interface complonents

• Collect data form the quiz and pass it to a database via ColdFusion

• Configure the site for hassle-free maintenance by non-technical Contribute users

Minimum System Requirements

Macromedia Studio 8 (In case you don't own a copy of Studio 8, you can download a free trial version at www.macromedia.com/software.)

Windows

• 800 MHz Intel Pentium III processor (or equivalent) or later

• Windows 2000, Windows XP

• 256 MB RAM (1 GB recommended to run more than one Studio 8 product simultaneously)

• 1.8 GB available disk space

• 1024 X 78, 16-bit display (32-bit recommended)

• Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 4.0 or higher

• Access to a Web server running ColdFusion. A single IP developer's edition of ColdFusion can be downloaded for free from http://www.macromedia.com.

Macintosh

• 600 MHz PowerPC G# and later

• Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4

• 256 MB RAM (1 GB recommended to run more than one Studio 8 product simultaneously)

• 1.2 GB available disk space

• 1024 X 768, thousands of colors display (millions of colors recommended)

• Internet Explorer 4.0 or Safari 1.0 or higher

• Access to a Web server running ColdFusion.