September 18, 2007

Video Tutorials for Flash Media Server development

Lately I've been kinda juggling around in my mind whether it would be worth it to put together a set of tutorials for FMS/Flash best practices for the beginner/intermediate developer. Anybody think this is a decent idea? Would you check them out or is the internet already too saturated with beginner/intermediate tutorials?

My idea is to put together some kind of application that will take advantage of all the aspects of Flash Media Server and touch on all the topics while building it. Kind of a "this is how I build stuff" kind of thing. Any thoughts? Would that work or are certain topics a better way to go? Like, "these are shared objects and how to use them" and "this is how to stream a video file" etc.

Just kinda tossing some feelers out there. Let me know.

**UPDATE 11/07/2007**
The site has been launched. It's called FMSGuru.com and can viewed at www.fmsguru.com.

Posted by Graeme at September 18, 2007 04:12 PM
　



Comments

I think beginner/intermediate tutorials on FMS are a very a much needed aspect of Flash development. There haven't been many quality tutorials since Flash Communication Server was first released. Now with AS3 and FMS 2 (and FMS 3 on the way), all the older tutorials are out of date. The more advanced developers have been able to navigate there way through the white papers, but beginner/intermediate developers have been left without much to get started with.

I would love to see some of the following topics:

1. Getting Started - installing and configuring the server locally AND on a hosting provider (here's your chance to promote an FMS hosting provider of your choice - hopefully you'll have some love reciprocated)
2. Build a simple text chat.
3. Build a simple avatar chat.
4. Build a simple webcam chat.
5. Show how to stream video.
6. Build a simple multi-player game.

On a side note - I was about to commit some learning time to SmartFoxServer or ElectroServer because they have better learning resources, but if you're going to create quality learning materials for FMS, I'd prefer to go the Adobe route.

Thanks!

Posted by: Bill Brown at September 18, 2007 05:09 PM

yes please +1

since FMS is not my main gig (not even in my job description) every attempt (FMS 1.0, 1.5) has been ham-fisted and lucked and I'm no better with it now than when I started. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

"I think beginner/intermediate tutorials on FMS are a very a much needed aspect of Flash development."

I'm with Bill on this, 100%.

Posted by: barry.b at September 18, 2007 05:33 PM

yes please, that would be great

Posted by: George at September 18, 2007 08:31 PM

Go for it !:)

Could you let us know when you have done some ? Or you could add them yourself at http://www.flashbookmarks.com / "add link" (bottom right).

Good luck and allready thanks.

Posted by: Flash Bookmarks at September 19, 2007 12:16 AM

That would be great, I have been banging my head of the FMS2 wall for too long now....look forward to it.

Posted by: Troy at September 25, 2007 06:19 AM

Thanks everybody for posting up your thoughts. I think I will go ahead and get started on them then. I'm just a bit torn if I should wait for the next version to come out (although I don't know when that is..) or just go ahead and get going on them and then revise later.. hrmm..

Either way, I'll post a list of planned tutorials then. Thanks Bill for providing such great detail in what you would like to see. I'll definitely keep all those in mind while planning the first set of stuff.

Posted by: Graeme at September 26, 2007 11:49 AM

why even ask? the internet is saturated with beginner and intermediate tutorials but for FMS2 they are skimp. so YEP! SO LET the TUTOIALS RAIN LIKE CHOCOLATE!

Posted by: Marsgoonbars at September 30, 2007 03:51 PM

That's a great idea...
I remember when i used to see peldi's coding cafe and learned a lot of interesting stuff... i want to see your tutorials even if its on plain text or multimedia format... I am an intermediate FMS programmer and I would love learn new contents... go to it!

Thank you... I am really excited about it!

Posted by: Vinícius Hacebe at October 1, 2007 09:55 AM

No +1, +1000 !

I just can't find decent tutorials step-by-step anywhere, got sample applications to work, but still can't understand the code, tutorials on basic of FMS2 could be GREAT.

Also, please, if it isn't a great effort, consider making the videos in text as well... some of us have poor internet connections, or just can't use audio at work to hear the tutorials.

A great thank you on your idea.

Posted by: MarcosBL at October 4, 2007 10:05 PM