Four Chapter Excerpts from The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide
I just got word from Adobe that a number of The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide excerpts are freely available in PDF format from the Developer Connection’s ActionScript Technology Center: Check ’em out!
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/as3_quick_ref.html
Combine those with the freebie excerpts at CommunityMX.com, and you’ll find you have a decent selection to help you choose if this book would be useful to you.
How AS3 Helps You Program with Purpose
Working with Library and Linkage Changes in ActionScript 3.0
Flash CS3: What Happened to the WebServiceConnector Component?
Reader response has been great so far! From Margot Sheehan’s Amazon.com review:
I was browsing at Borders at Park Ave and 57th, where they had exactly one copy of this. I’d heard of this book but hadn’t seen it yet — it was announced over the summer but O’Reilly kept delaying publication so the book could be current with Flash CS4. I looked up a few items in the ToC and index, and went straight to the checkout queue. I had to have this book right away! even if Amazon could sell it to me cheaper!
Okay, why is the book good? I’ve spent more time with it now. I’ll give you my three biggest reasons:
1) It’s readable. It really is. It’s friendly and accessible. Did you ever enjoy those … How-and-Why science books that started out with something like, “Hi! This is a fun book, and we’re going to take you on a fun journey, step-by-step …”?
Well, did you like books like that? I did, and I’ve always resented scholarly and technical books that didn’t introduce themselves along those lines.…
This book is overtly addressed to users of ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, and those already using 3.0; to artists, designers, and developers of all stripes. It’s all-inclusive. Like Rich Shupe’s Learning ActionScript 3.0, it has a friendly, hand-holding attitude that goes through the length of the book.
Read the rest of her comments here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R22FGEDQ9XAW0U/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
June 30th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Hi David,
I bought your book, Flash CS4.
I just read a post where you gave the code for as3 “previous” and “next” button.
It was concise and easy to understand for a rookie like me.
How come you dont have those everyday examples in your book?
June 30th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Sydney,
Thanks for the purchase! I assume you’re referring to Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (friends of ED).
Gosh, I’m sorry the examples in this book don’t seem as useful to you as some of the entries in this blog. Fortunately, you can dig around here on the blog as much as you like, and it doesn’t cost anything.
I hope you change your mind, after you keep reading! The book in your hands is nearly 700 pages long. Tom and I packed tons of examples in Foundation Flash CS4, including downloadable example files that you can tinker with. These samples include “previous” and “next” buttons, along with additional controls, such as “pause/play” buttons, volume sliders, etc., for a video player, an MP3 player, an XML-driven slideshow, and plenty more.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
David,
Thanks for your remarks.
What is the chapter of the xml driven slideshow?
Thanks
Sydney
June 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Sydney,
Chapter 13 introduces XML, in case you’re not familiar with it, or not sure how to access it with ActionScript 3.0. After that, Chapter 14 steps through how to build a handful of applications, including a slideshow. On page 592, you’ll see a heading that reads “A tour of the Beijing art district,” which is specifically what you’re looking for. It starts without XML, then shows how the slideshow becomes more flexible when it draws its data (in this case, image files and captions) from an XML file.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hi David,
Thank you. I have a conundrum, I am making a photo gallery with 14 different albums related to the photo gallery, which with all the photos, and text content, there are about 80 - 100 .swf’s
Do you hove any suggestions on how to handle it, and perhaps if you might be aware of a tutorial I can look at.
I am using Flash CS4, so I can use AS 2 or 3.
Thanks in advance.
Sydney
July 7th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Sydney,
It sounds, then, like you have 14 different categories, right? Each category would presumably take the same approach (x-number of photos to display). I would definitely use XML for something like this, just like in the book, except I’d add one more tier to my XML. For example, I might add a
<category>tag for holding each group of<slide>tags. Using the same principles in the book, you could configure the ComboBox component to select from among your categories, and leave the “Next” button to advance among slides (images) in each category. Of course, that’s just one of many possible ways this could go.The trick for this sort of thing — usually the case for any programming endeavor — is to think through all the things you need to accomplish, then break down your main goals into smaller and smaller sub-goals. Eventually, your “bites” are small enough that you can digest them easily. In other words, sooner or later, your sub-goals are simple enough that you understand exactly what each part does. From there, with perseverance, you’ll find that each step eventually leads to the finish line.
Granted, this pep talk is easy enough for me to say, because I’m comfortable with ActionScript.
But the principle here is key: break down your goals into sub-goals, until you understand what’s going on. I’m afraid I don’t know of a tutorial off-hand that will lead you exactly where you’re headed. When my schedule allows, I make an effort to provide micro tutorials right here in these comment replies, but I’m in the middle of a 500-hour project right now that will keep me busy for a few months, yet.
At the moment, the best I can do for you is suggest that you stick with XML, re-read the XML chapter in the book, and practice parsing XML documents as a preliminary step. Parsing XML would be one of your sub-goals for this project, and if even that seems overwhelming at present, break it down further. Start with a super simplified XML document, such as a single
<slide>version of what’s in the book. Start with a fresh, otherwise empty FLA file and add nothing but ActionScript in a single “scripts” layer. Use thetrace()function to access your one-tag document’s attributes. See if you can get at those values. Then surround that<slide>tag with a<category>tag and adjust your code so that you can still access the<slide>tag’s attributes.Step by step, you’ll make progress!