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Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: A massive treasure trove of information that has just saved me countless hours of messing around with Flash. I've read through the first 5 chapters and went through the included examples and that alone has been enough to make me feel comfortable selling backend integration to my clients now, and being able to deliver a Flash site that does more than just look and sound good. There's no ColdFusion here but at five grand for Cold Fusion Sevrver, I'll take the PHP/SQL,ASP,and Perl solutions detailed in this book any day of the week over a book trying to sell me on CF. I've got Flash MX too and the data transfer and handling model is still the same - you've got to know how Flash, the server, and the browser all integrate in the process, and this book puts all that knowledge well in hand. Thank you Sanders and Winstaley.
Rating:
Summary: At Last , a book even a designer can understand.
Review: As a graphics person, I've tried for months to understand scripting and databases with no success, I was just about to throw in the towel and literally go back to the drawing board when I found this book. The authors make these subjects easy to understand and the tutorials are excellent for bridging the graphic person's need to see the concepts in action. I've never written a review before, but this book has finally made me understand and given me the tools to move forward.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Flash resource!
Review: As an intermediate user of Flash, I found this book extremely useful in learning the ins-and-outs of server-side scripting utilizing Flash. Although a challenging read, the examples provided on the accompanying CD-ROM were helpful in making the process understandable. The writing of the book was concise without being boring and didn't use too much "techno-babble." You can tell these guys really know what they are talking about and are great communicators in sharing the information with others (something not often found in technically-based texts). The book IS expansive which means that virtually everyone will walk away with SOMETHING useful! If you want to use Flash with your server, this is THE book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Most books have very little about using the backend with Flash, but this book brings it all home. I've read several other books on Flash, and while some have some material on using Flash with servers and server side elements, none of them go into the depth and breadth as this one. First, it gives client-side users an excellent introduction to the server side, and it does so in a clear and practical manner. Second, it provides good introductions to several different server-side languages (CGI/Perl, PHP and ASP) and how they work with Flash. It is clearly an introduction to server-side languages and does a good job doing that with lots of examples that work. I suppose you could go buy a half dozen other books on server-side languages and a book on ActionScript, but I don't see the point. The book is not an introduction to ActionScript and Flash. It simply shows how to use Flash and ActionScript to set up and use server-side languages, and as far as I'm concerned it does a better job than those books written by committees or re-writes of the Macromedia AcitonScript manual. So, if you want to get a great introduction to and experience using Flash with backends, this book is the place to start. It also has the best explanation of how to use XML with Flash I've seen along with in-depth discussions of other little-known facets of Flash. It also comes with free hosting service for learning this stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: There are few books that address the server-side aspect of Flash. And even fewer of them that are well written. This one covers XML pretty well. It also covers some scripting languages, each with a specific database. Unfortunately this book misses the one scripting language that is the current focus of all Macromedia work: ColdFusion. It also misses the databases that are mostly used with ColdFusion: SQL Server and Oracle. ColdFusion MX is coming out soon and will tight the integration of Flash with ColdFusion on the server side. And what will then happen to this book?
Rating: 
Summary: A sparse overview
Review: This book is awesome; it explains how to use Flash integration with the most common used server-side programming languages (PHP, ASP and Perl)... All separated by parts, and it explains some of the functions and methods of the programming languages, just for letting the reader who doesn't deal with certain server-side languages more confortable to understand it. Really good book, it solved all my problems with database and server integration with Flash.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip this book
Review: This book makes me sorry I ever learned how to read. Besides the poor copy editing done by the editors to catch obvious mistakes like missellping 'default' or using the wrong 'your', this book takes inane examples and presents them in the worst possible way. This book is 458 pages of advertisement to buy other IDG Worldwide books and use JTLNet or HosTek hosting serices. Oh, and it has 4 lines of Flash instruction that you might need if you want to start learning server-side flash. Save yourself the money: Skim this book in the bookstore and you'll get all you need to know out of it.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific and easy to understand. Crystal Clear!
Review: This is an excellent book to get your feet wet with server side scripting for Macromedia's Flash. It's very easy to read, straight ahead. They don't assume you're an expert, so on that level, I suppose it's a great introductory book. The examples are practical. They do something that I particularly like in tutorial type books. They keep it simple, let you get the basic idea of what's going on and then you can take it from there. Many of the tutorials I've read on Flashkit or We're Here Forums (many of them excellent) assume that you know too much or worse, seem to want to flaunt their expertise with a very disingenuous attempt at helping the "student". Anyway, it appears that way when there are so many steps in a lesson that you lose track of what your basic goal is. Server Side Flash gives you a great introduction to Perl Script, ASP, XML and PHP MySQL so that you can decide for yourself which flavor you wish to delve into deeper. If I have any complaints at all, it would be that there's not an official website for the book. Not that I know of anyway. I went to flashcore.com, where one of the authors either writes or "used to" write, but there's not a mention of the book anywhere. Other than that, it really is a great book that will teach you the how to of server side flash and do it in a way that's easy to retain.
Rating: 
Summary: Note: Book is about Flash 5, not FlashMX or Flash Remoting
Review: This isn't a criticism of the book, but pay attention that it's from 2001 and covers Flash 5, NOT the latest Flash MX and its available Flash Remoting technology which offers far easier server-side integration. Still, the info in the book still has value today to those who have not yet bought Flash MX. Indeed, even if you have Flash Mx, if your server is Perl, PHP, CF5, etc, then the approaches here will work since the new Flash Remoting only works on CFMX, ASP.NET, and select J2EE platforms. Then again, MX users who do get the book should check out the newer LoadVars object as an alternative to the older but still supported LoadVariables. The approach to processing XML is also vastly improved in MX. Of course, the book can't be faulted for having come out prior to MX. It's just that since the title doesn't say Flash 5, if you buy the book thinking it's about the latest and greatest ways of doing Flash/server integration, you'd likely be disappointed. Just offering this as a caution.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: William B. Sanders and Mark Winstanlet have put together a remarkable little book that serves as a terrific intro on connecting Flash to a database. Clear but dense, this is no
"quick read" - however, you will walk away marveling at how easily Flash can connect to a database, and wondering why it is not used more often as an application development (as opposed to graphics/animation) tool on the web. In particular, the Flash, PHP, MySQL combo is simply awesome.
Bill Saunders, got back w/in an hour regarding a question on one of the examples. He is my favorite "Flash" author. Check out Flash FX and Design by Saunders as well. Best book on ActionScript for the money.
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