David Powers has been professionally involved with the electronic media for some 30 years, mostly in radio and television—he was BBC Tokyo correspondent in the late 1980s and early 1990s—but more recently with the Internet. He built his first site in 1995, and was instantly hooked. Eventually, the sheer tedium of updating content convinced him there must be a better way. After a brief flirtation with ASP, he experimented with PHP, and found himself hooked yet again.
A fluent Japanese speaker, Powers specializes in building Japanese-English bilingual websites, writing about Japan, and translating Japanese (he’s translated several plays). He co-authored Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593081) and PHP Web Development with Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593502). Powers also worked as technical reviewer on a number of web-related titles for Apress.
This book fills an important gap left by "Foundation PHP for Flash", now long out of print and very much out of date. By no stretch of the imagination, though, is it a rehash of the earlier book. It has been completely rewritten to bring it up to date with all the latest versions: PHP 5, MySQL 4.1, and ActionScript 2.0.
While writing the book, the typical reader I've had in mind is someone already comfortable in the Flash authoring environment, and probably with some experience of ActionScript, who wants to add the power of PHP and the MySQL database to Flash movies to create a richer, more interactive experience. Although the book is project-driven, I've deliberately designed each chapter so readers can come back later, find the information they need, and use it as a reference book. I've also incorporated a lot of troubleshooting advice, based not only on my own experience, but on feedback from users in online forums. Rather than just throwing huge chunks of code at you, I explain what the code does, and why I've chosen a particular technique. All the ActionScript is described, too, so the book should also appeal to PHP programmers wanting to improve their ActionScript skills.
I've been using PHP/MySQL for many years, and was delighted that Sham Bhangal agreed to act as my technical editor. Sham's an acknowledged expert on Flash and ActionScript (and the author of many best-selling books on the subject). Between us, I believe we've created a book that will not only take your skills to a higher level, but it's one you'll enjoy reading, too.
About the Author
David is a writer and broadcaster on international affairs, with a particular interest in Japan. He got the Internet bug in the days when Netscape ruled the world and websites were entirely hand coded. Then came WYSIWYDDG (what you see is what you definitely don\'t get) HTML editors. He tried a whole bunch, including several Japanese ones, before discovering Dreamweaver 3, and he\'s stayed with Dreamweaver ever since. He believes MX 2004 is the best yet, and might be persuaded to say it\'s finally WYSIWYG if he didn\'t spend so much time buried in Code view. David started creating dynamic websites with ASP and is thankful that unlike Cleopatra, he managed to survive before discovering PHP. When not developing websites, he spends his time writing about Japan, translating Japanese (he\'s translated several plays), and savoring the delights of raw fish and sake.
