5 comments about Flash XML StudioLab.

1. The book is too wordy, I think the reader donot want to read a story book, also it is better to put notes under screen shots and pictures.

   I hope Friendsofed can notice the readers feedback. More content, few joke.




2. am I supposed to do with a fony Tarot application. I toatlly agree with the previous reviews. TO much hassel. I am getting into some flash application development, for which I got the taste after working my way through Friends of Ed's Dynamic Content Studion, which, by the way, is an EXCELLENT book....

   but this....c'mon




3. last week I bought the book , and till now it looks SO gerat



4. As Flash might finally emerge from experimental eye-catching gimmick to become the next generation front end for high commercial, dynamic web applications, this book really sets the wrong tone (explaining more about Tarot than XML does not match the book's title, right?).

   Although writing the first four chapters must have been fun for the authors - for us, the readers, its just painful. Long and rather vague, XML is described from many angles without getting on a level where you really would know where to start in a practical sense. So when you really have to know about XML, or just need some reference, this book is most probably not for you.

   Chapter 5, trying to compensate for the lengthy introduction, finally presents the XML object in warp speed. (If you are new to the subject, statements like "it would be so much easier if objects could be made directly from objects instead of having to remember its class" are more confusing than helpful, reflect bad style and do not really sell the idea behind object oriented programming).

   Chapters 6 to 10 are not that bad when showing how XML shuffles the tarot cards. Still it might be too cloudy for beginners as the authors just lack focus.

   The Rest of the book (XML Sockets, Perl Scripting, mySQL, PHP) gives you some ideas for the next books to buy, but definitively offer nothing you can start to do real business with.

   In a nutshell: When having read this book you will know what XML is on a high level and how you deal with it once it sits within your flash movie. But this is not what XML was primarily made for.
   When having read this book you still will not have much of a clue from where you will get interesting, business relevant XML data and how to make your flash application talk to the professional world of high end, high paid real world applications. Neither is there much help about dealing with end to end responsibilities. (test, debug, tune end to end transactions from Flash front-end, via web- and application servers down to databases and vice versa).

   For my taste this book still remains with the classic, design oriented flash programmer rather than to finally extend Flash's scope into the realm of serious application development. The book's focus is ways too much on how XML is used internally within flash, rather than to make XML do what it was designed for: standardized communication across new and existing systems and new (web) services. Otherwise you might really ask yourself, what all the fuzz about XML really is.

   As I have already said: do not polish your Porsch in your garage, take it out , learn to drive and experience the real world!




5. This book is a waste of money. I would suggest you check out XML in Flash by Craig Swann and Gregg Caines instead.
   
   The introduction, which admittedly is quite good, lasts over half the book. After the lengthy introduction, the authors spend little or no time explaining the actual meat of dealing with XML in Flash. Most of the latter chapters will state that a certain task can be done with XML in Flash, but provide no insight on how to accomplish this task. Maybe I'm just weird, but I already knew that XML was useful for Flash applications, and the reason I bought the book was to learn how to do it, not to be told that it is possible!
   
   For instance, the "XML Download/Upload" chapter is particularly frustrating. The early pages of the chapter tell the reader that Tomcat can be used to link Flash to a server via XML. However, after this statement, the authors offer absolutely no information as to how one might use Tomcat to serve XML to Flash, what servlets are available to accomplish this task, or how one goes about connecting to a Tomcat servlet from Flash. In my opinion, this is like telling a novice driver that "a car can take you places," and then turning them loose on the highway.
   
   If you want to learn how to use XML applications with Flash, don't waste your money with this book, purchase the book XML In Flash instead -- it's more in-depth, more concise, and best of all, cheaper.

No comments about High Performance and Appliance Approaches for XML Report: XML and Web Services at Wire-Speed.

No comments about The Xml Files: Development of Xml/Xsl Applications Using Websphere Studio Version 5 (Ibm Redbooks).

2 comments about Microsoft .Net My Services Specification.

1. This book is a peek into what will become Microsoft's major new web services intiative, .NET My Services. It contains a preliminary set of specs on the architecture of these XML-based web services, and a chapter or two on what .NET My Services is and how you might use it. The upcoming (spring 2002) "Introduction to .NET My Services" book from MS Press will contain a more in-depth introduction, including code samples and an updated "What is this and how will I use it" section.



2. Before buying this book please read the title.
   This is only what you are going to find a spec. usefull?

5 comments about XML and SOAP Programming for BizTalk(TM) Servers (DV-MPS Programming).

1. I bought this book with high hopes (The author makes references to Ayn Rand after all) The book is very limited in its discussion of BizTalk and it is a very cursory verbose overview with very little substance. The author continually makes extranious references and fails on numerous occasions to define his terms. Someone needs to write a decent book.



2. I've had this book for a while and I can say that MS changed a lot of staff in their latest release. If you get this book you won't find many things the book talks about. My recommendation is to get Professional BizTalk by WROX(10 stars out of 5) and BizTalk Documented by Microsoft Press(8 stars out of 5)



3. Being new to XML, I learned quite a bit about xml and xsl from this book. Biztalk is basically an xml/xsl processing rule engine, so this background information was useful and appropriate. Once I finished the XML background chapters, the book rapidly spiralled downward. Most of the examples are actually web programming examples using this unpopular scripting language called 'Omnimark'. The section on Biztalk had very very little information in it. 'Professional Biztalk', though a little deep, is a much better book. This book should have been titled 'XML and Omnimark Programming with almost NO Biztalk'.



4. If you want to learn about Biztalk or XML or SOAP buy another book.



5. I could not find useful information in this book. It is not good neither for beginners nor for advanced users.

No comments about ZapNote: HandySoft ZapNote: XML-Enhanced Process Management and Workflow.

5 comments about Java Developer's Guide to E-Commerce with XML and JSP.

1. The authors through this book explain how XML, Java servlets (and sometimes JSPs) could be used together in applications like Shopping cart and News Bulletin board.

   Though the book contains a lot of code, two things are disappointing. First, DOM is implicitly suggested as a preferred means for working with XML documents even in cases where simple SAX parsing would do. Secondly, JAXP 1.0 API's beta classes like XmlDocument are extensively used in the examples. Both these are not very useful in the real world scenarios.

   Though the book gives an impression from the title that it will be using JSPs to generate the presentation layer, the examples heavily use servlets with "hard coded HTML" in them for this purpose.

   I happen to have a copy of Benoit Machall's "Applied XML Solutions" with me with which I cannot help comparing this book with. Applied XML Solutions explains similar examples in a practical way with simpler code as well as using open source software and stabilized APIs to achieve the same results.

   So, these are a few things to consider before buying this book!




2. Though the book contains a lot of code, it becomes evident as you go through the book, that the author has not thought about using them in real world situations. All applications use DOM for XML parsing and Servlets for presentation of the content. A few JSPs are thrown in may be because the title says so!

   Buy this book if you got a lot of money!




3. The book looked great and I thought that I can learn how to build my own web site within 30 days, especially since I had a fair amount of knowledge in HTML, Java, UNIX, C++, MFC etc. My only setback was that I have never done XML and JSP programming, nor used Tomcat web server before.

   The book gives very little information about paths to put the example codes, and insufficient information on the server setup. After visiting the authors' web site and setting up the codes where, I believe, they should be, the main codes and servlets do not work.

   I discovered some bugs in the files and fixed them. Yet the codes (except the HTML) still do not work.

   Six weeks after buying the book I am no nearer learning XML and JSP. How can you learn how to use these languages when the codes that accompany the book do not work?




4. Firstly the examples do not try to explain which code example they relate to on the CD rom. You have to distribute the code on the cd rom to paths on your web server, so unless you are already a dab hand at configuring a JSP server you cannot begin, the book doesn't help you with this, or anything else, in fact I would suggest the only people who may be able to decipher this book are expert professional Java programmers who must also have a knack for interpreting rambling babble. Avoid this book at all costs, talking of cost, cut to the Author - tropical beach - pina colada.



5. Firstly the examples do not try to explain which code example they relate to on the CD rom. You have to distribute the code on the cd rom to paths on your web server, so unless you are already a dab hand at configuring a JSP server you cannot begin, the book doesn't help you with this, or anything else, in fact I would suggest the only people who may be able to decipher this book are expert professional Java programmers who must also have a knack for interpreting rambling babble. Avoid this book at all costs, talking of cost, cut to the Author - tropical beach - pina colada.

No comments about Creacion de Sitios Web Con XML y SQL Server 2000.

No comments about XML in Financial Services Report: The Whats, Whys, Whos and Hows.

No comments about The Pros and Cons of XML Report.