Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases, and Dynamic Development fills an important gap in the Flash book market. With the emergence of e-commerce, no Web site is complete without a back end because the back end is the virtual sales connection. Likewise, complex games are dependent on access to huge sets of data that can be sent in small packages, but getting them in and out of Flash requires knowing how the data can be generated in Flash, how it can be sent out to the servers and how it gets information back from the servers and integrates it into the ongoing game.
While every book on Flash recognizes this new capacity to some extent, none of them have really showed developers how to get the data into and out of Flash and use it effectively. Server-Side Flash gives developers the tools to fully utilize Flash's capacity to communicate with the server side of the Web. PHP/MySQL have over half a million users, ASP has at least as many, and just about every professional Web page now contains at least some JavaScript. Find out how Flash communicates with these other languages and servers with coverage of the use of Macromedia's powerful database Flash product, Generator, and put its use in context with other Flash database techniques and applications.