The promise of broadband is at hand. The tools to create new media continuously grow to be friendlier and more accessible. Yet, the power of this new medium remains mostly untapped. Every now and then the web presents a glimpse at the promise of new media storytelling.

This book offers you the expertise of development and design and a proven workflow methodology. The final ingredient comes from you and/or the client: content. The workflow process for dynamic site development using Macromedia Generator and Flash described here is for the community of designs, developers, project managers, producers; in a word, storytellers. It is with our sincere hope that this book was conceived. To share a wealth of knowledge and the tools to build interactive stories to those with content everywhere.

The Book Audience
This book is targeted specifically at the community of fellow developers, designers, web producers, and project managers in mind. The goal is to demonstrate the off-line dynamic Generator techniques to those who want to take advantage of the power of Macromedia Flash 5 templates and Generator 2, as well as those who are interested in rapid site development. The main focus of this book will be the workflow process, from initial creative inspiration, to the production of an entire site. You will walk through every step of the off-line dynamic site development process. Rather than cover specific topics in an unrelated manner, you'll deconstruct the development of an actual site from beginning to end. The hope is that you can cover all the hot topics and techniques, as well as wrap all those ideas into a related package that brings it all together. Along the way, sample code, illustrations, and notes will accompany the explanations, The ideas covered and lessons learned will give both designers and developers new tools to produce large content-heavy sites with quick results.

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What topics does the book cover?
This book guides you through the complete workflow life-cycle of an employee site using off-line Generator and Flash. From initial brainstorming to final testing and deployment, every step along the way is covered to give you an realistic view of building a site with Generator and Flash. Along the way your introduces to techniques for setting up a database, constructing a data entry web application, building the Flash template, and processing Flash movies with Generator.

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Summary of Book Contents
Introduction – What's the Big Deal with Dynamic Site Development?
Three cheers for Macromedia Generator, Flash, and off-line Generator site development
Assumptions
Development Profiles
Dynamic Site Development
Dynamic Site Development with Macromedia Generator 2
Online Development versus off-line development
Online Generator Mode
Off-line Generator Mode
Online vs. Off-line
The Benefits of Off-line Generator 2 Development
Chapter Summary

Chapter I – Planning Production Before Production
Setting the stage for the mock site
The workflow process
Step 1: Brainstorming
The goals of brainstorming
Audience
Elements
F low
Staying in Scope
T he Final list of site sections
Chapter Summary

Chapter II – Designing Beyond Look and Feel
Chapter Introduction
Storyboards and Wire-frames
Step 2: Storyboard and wire-frame the site
The goals of Site Design
Choreographing Movement and Pace
Spacing Elements
Transitions
Dynamic vs. Static Design
Chapter Summary

Chapter III – Developing our Database
Chapter Introduction
Database 101: Tables, Records, and Fields, Oh My!
Generator 2/Flash 5 Data Sources
Databases:
Access
Oracle
SQL Server
Databases RAD Tools
Macromedia UltraDev
Allair ColdFusion,
Microsoft Visual Interdev
Server-Side Scripting
ASP
PHP
JSP
TCL
Text files
The future: XML
Organizing Data
Lowest Common Denominator
Relationships
Information Architecture
The Goals of our Database Design
Step 3: The Database
Sample Employee Database
Replicating the Data - SQL 101
Chapter Summary

Chapter IV – Building the flash template
Chapter introduction
Flash templates and the overall design
Dynamic elements vs. static elements
Standards and Practices
Scenes
Layers Masks
Action Layer
Load movie
Image Optimization Library organization
Working with Generator Objects
Step four: flash templates
The goals of our flash templates
Incorporating dynamic content
Incorporating dynamic text
Library organization (revisited)
Cleaning house: ridding the template of all the extras
Chapter summary

Chapter V – The Data-Entry Tool 1
Organizing Data
Clean Data Entry
Identifying Elements of our Data Entry Tool
Server Side Scripting: ASP
The Goals of our Data Entry Tool
Step 5: The Data Entry Tool
The Main Welcome Page
Modify content Page
The database query
Header navigation
Displaying content
Form submit action
Update Page
Text input
Single Words and short phrases
Long paragraphs
Image input
Input Choices
Previewing Content 31
Planning for Final Generator Production
Chapter Summary

Chapter VI – Generating Flash Movies
The Goals of our Final Production
Step 6: Final Production
Processing Templates with Generator 2
Command Line Publishing
Server-Scripted Publishing
deconstructed
Supporting HTML
Test, Test, and Test Again
System checks
Visual checks
Chapter Summary

Chapter VII – Conclusion
Chapter Introduction
Review: The work flow process
Step 1: Brainstorming
Step 2: Storyboarding
Step 3: The Database
Step 4: The Flash Template
Step 5: The Data Entry Tool
Step 6: Integrating all the Pieces
Building on what we've built
Online Generator
Chapter Summary

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About the Authors

Richard Alvarez
Richard Alvarez and Jamie Gannon formed SurpriseMeida in September 2000, based in Chicago, IL. At Surprise, Richard serves as a technologist and evangelist for design and esthetic development through new media. His background in writing, multimedia, web development, and teaching are equally served at Surprise. Prior to SurpriseMedia, Richard was the senior web-developer for Britannica.com. Richard has been involved in all phases of new media since 1991.

Richard began his new media career as an intern with the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington. Since then he has played an important role in the development of award-winning CD-ROM titles, Kiosks, presentations, and web-based projects. His impressive client list includes top companies such as Whittman-Hart (now MarchFirst), Ameritech Communications, Waist Management, IBM, Boise Cascade, Sprint, Reuters, Navistar International and Bank One. Currently, Richard lead the technical development of interactive applications on the Britannica.com web site. He has contributed to the production of Award winning sites, including "The Books of Hope" (http://www.britannica.com/hope/), "Worlds Apart: Regional Roots of Conflict" (http://www.britannica.com/worldsapart/), "All About Oscar" (http://www.britannica.com/oscars/), and "2000 Summer Olympics: Reflections on Glory" (http://www.britannica.com/olympics/reflections/). Richard knows site development and off-line dynamic site development from all sides: as a technologist, as an end-user, and as an application developer. Richard is on the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism faculty and offers courses on journalism and new media.

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Jason Taylor
Art director at Leapnet (chicago). His realm of art and technology crosses the boundaries of art's traditional mediums, Jason first began designing and developing for the web simply as a way to display his work without the boundaries of cliquish art natives and relentless galleries. Since 1995 he has designed, developed, and contributed to more than forty-seven web sites and online galleries. Bridging the gap between designer and developer, Jason understands all aspects of Internet and new media production -- from initial concept, to production, to quality assurance. His main focus is to develop highly interactive, aesthetically pleasing, technologically sound new media pieces that push the current envelope well beyond the standard.

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Matthew Groch
Matthew Groch is the Director of Technology for 2MC, a technology consulting firm specializing in the delivery of enterprise-class systems architecture solutions. During his tenure at 2MC, Matthew has been heavily involved in a number of web development engagements, most notably the development of the Britannica.com web site where he assisted in leading the systems architecture design and implementation efforts. Although technically oriented, Matthew enjoys expressing his creative energies through other outlets and is looking forward to soon pursuing his goals of fiction writing, gourmet cooking, and eventually becoming an exceptional film director.

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