ISBN:0735713766Book Description
Each of the applications in Macromedia's just-released Studio MX 2004 product suite--Dreamweaver MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, and FreeHand MX--is, in its own right, a powerhouse in some aspect of Web development. Put them together, and you'll be conquering the world with your dynamic, data-driven sites! All you need is this guide to pull it all together. Written by a trio of Web experts, this volume uses the creation of a fictitious community center to give you a solid overview of how you can use the integrated workflow of Macromedia's Studio MX product suite to create your own dazzling sites. You'll start by learning about the principles that govern the creation of database-driven sites and the planning that ensures their successful deployment. Then the fun begins! The remainder of the book shows you how to use the tools at your fingertips--along with Contribute, Flash Remoting, and Flash Communications Server--to build real-world applications.
/p>Reviews From AMAZON.COM
What Stewart said
Stewart (below) had already written my review for me before I logged in to do it...he's right on the money. I'm not new to web development or Cold Fusion and am so fascinated by Dreamweaver MX 2004 (absolutely buy the beyond excellent "Missing Manual" book for it, BTW) that I bought Studio MX 2004 and I hoped this book would get me up and running. After 115 pages of cryptic how-to's that assume you already know how-to, and a lot of discussion about how to deal with your client and draw a flowchart (the diamond shape is a decision box, it sez here...really!), I threw up my hands and realized I had made a bad buy. If you already know the individual products in Studio well, this may be of great help to you. If you're coming from Cold Fusion Studio and have limited exposure to graphic design, run far, far away from this one.
Too much saying we're great, too little technique!
We purchased this book hoping (from the great reviews it got in Amazon) it would be the missing link to learning the techniques advertised, however the book does a fairly poor job of presenting the advertised techniques and makes quite a few mistakes. After using the excellent "Training from the source" books published by Macromedia, this book is a real let down. The book seems more like a pat on the backs for corporate style departmentalized development than it does a training manual. The authors start off wasting several chapters telling you that you can't develop competent websites by yourself as an individual web developer anymore then waste more space convincing themselves that wasted space was valuable. They do eventually get to some technique development but when they do they don't make their presentation in a straight forward fashion. If we were not already developers used to Macromedia Studio MX 2004 tools and capabilities this book would have been impossible to benefit from. Having such knowledge, this book is of little help. We would have given the book a two star rating except for the fact that we bought it because of the five star ratings we saw on Amazon (that's all it had then), and we cannot understand how it could ever get more than three. If we would have had any idea how little help this book would be we would not have bought it. If these authors would have stuck to presenting the techniques advertised in a step-by-step progression, editorially reviewed their work for accuracy and eliminated all of the fluff regarding departmentalization for development, they might have created a valuable product. As it is, it's not worth recommending. Macromedia's Training from the Source books like: