Flex Developer in Australia http://www.flexdeveloper.com.au/ Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:28:00 EST Douglas Knudsen is talking about Drag and Drop in Flex tonight on the Flex Meetup. If you are a Flex developer or want to learn about Flex development you should go watch his presentation. You might remember Douglas from our interview on the CFConversations Podcast where Douglas shared lots of good information about how to hook up ColdFusion to Flex. He is an interesting guy, excellent presenter and really knows his stuff! See you there! http://www.nodans.com/index.cfm/2009/7/5/Want-to-learn-more-about-Drag-and-Drop-in-Flex http://www.nodans.com/index.cfm/2009/7/5/Want-to-learn-more-about-Drag-and-Drop-in-Flex Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:28:00 EST Unlike my previous experiments with Pixel Bender, today I set out to implement a basic image manipulation routine, image rotation. While Flash natively provides the ability to rotate a DisplayObject that doesn't help if you want to combine multiple Pixel Bender filters that should use the rotated image as the source image. Turns out rotating an image in Pixel Bender was a little harder than I thought, but I ended up with a nice solution. Rotation is a simple image manipulation that can take advantage of transformation matrixes like you can create in Flash. The normal 2D rotation transformation matrix looks like this, given d is the angle of rotation, x and y are the original pixel location, and x' and y' are the new pixel location:  cos(d)-sin(d)  *  x  =  x'  sin(d)cos(d) y y' The problem with this rotation (and the standard DisplayObject.rotation property) is that the rotation is performed relative to the origin. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2009/07/image_rotation_with_pixel_bend.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2009/07/image_rotation_with_pixel_bend.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:22:31 EST While I was home over the past 2 weeks with my new daughter, I stumbled across a shrink wrapped Flex Builder 3 in my office that I am not using. Since, I don’t currently need this extra copy I would like to give it away to one of my Twitter followers. If you would like [... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Everythingflex/~3/yUU-ZDs5RYo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Everythingflex/~3/yUU-ZDs5RYo/ Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:00:43 EST SharedObject in your flash project can make for a much improved user experience, and can help you do things faster and more behind the sense so that your applications and web sites work the way users expect them to work. Recently I had to discover the power of SharedObject myself in a chat applications that [... http://mswallace.com/2009/07/04/sharedobjects-are-awesome/ http://mswallace.com/2009/07/04/sharedobjects-are-awesome/ Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:43:53 EST FlexMania is a Brazilian online event organized by Igor Costa. The event is focused on the Flash Platform and has a great collection of Flash/Flex/AIR related talks. Although, most of the talks are in portuguese, there are some interesting english sessions as well like Laura Arguello on Mate Framework, Stephen Downs (a.k.a Tink) on Efflex and Iiley Chen on AsWing I will also be presenting in english, my talk is “A Flex 4 Component’s Lifecycle” on Monday, July 6th at 15:30 GMT. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mrinalwadhwa/ragstoriches/~3/Et0wBuDpjWM/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mrinalwadhwa/ragstoriches/~3/Et0wBuDpjWM/ Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:52:09 EST We are trying to gain more information about potential attendees for Flash (Flex) Camp ATL.  If you would like to help shape the direction of the event, please fill out the following survey: http://bit.ly/9SWSF  We are trying to get an announcement together for early next week regarding the location and date of the event. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Infoaccelerator/~3/C9GPMV7BOGA/flash-camp-atlanta-survey http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Infoaccelerator/~3/C9GPMV7BOGA/flash-camp-atlanta-survey Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:07:08 EST If you're still on the fence about whether you are going to CFUnited 2009 now would be a good time to make up your mind. Early bird pricing ends today after which the 3 and 4 day package prices will go up by $100 and the Saturday only package price will go up by $50. Register now to lock in the better deal!If for some reason you aren't sure if CFUnited is for you I recommend checking out the schedule which lists all the topics and speakers. I'd be willing to bet there are lots of ColdFusion, Flex, and AIR sessions you would enjoy. http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/30/CFUnited-Early-Bird-Pricing-Ends-Today http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/30/CFUnited-Early-Bird-Pricing-Ends-Today Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:52 EST That's a long title. I got my session results from 360|Flex. As I have done in the past, I thought some discussion might be in order. 100% of people found my slides useful. 100% found my session informative. Wow, that seems like a bug in the survey result system. Either that or I'm really getting better at this. Most of the comments were really positive: Once again a great speaker, right from the source. I liked how Jeffry covered a good range of topics in a slide and code format. Learned all sorts of cool things about how do keep your code reusable and clean. He did a good job explaining what it takes to create stable components Awesome presentation, very informative by an excellent, very knowledgeable speaker. Thank you for the kind words everyone. There were some sound problems: The room had a loud air conditioning unit in it and the speakers were not on, so listening to the presentation was difficult. Believe it or not, all I needed to do was turn on a mic. http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2009/6/30/Reviewing-Jeffry-Housers-Bullet-Proofing-Flex-Components-Sesion-Survey-Results-from-360Flex-Indy http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2009/6/30/Reviewing-Jeffry-Housers-Bullet-Proofing-Flex-Components-Sesion-Survey-Results-from-360Flex-Indy Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:00:00 EST I've long wanted to use FDT to turbocharge my ActionScript coding, but without Flex MXML support I couldn't justify the cost. Then FDT 3.2 came out this past May, and I actually won a copy at 360¦Flex Indy! Now I'm addicted to FDT, but there are some things in Flex Builder I just can't live without. So how do I get the best of both worlds? http://www.joeflash.ca/blog/2009/06/fb3-with-fdt32-part-1.html http://www.joeflash.ca/blog/2009/06/fb3-with-fdt32-part-1.html Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:31:10 EST If you have read my blog any this week, you have probably noticed that I have been doing some basic research on collision detection within the Flash Player. As part of this, I have put together a simple test suite, showing the performance of a couple of different techniques for checking for collision. This is by no means meant to be exhaustive (and currently tilts towards boundary collision). However, I wanted to post the results as the current information is useful (if nothing more than to confirm existing assumptions), and perhaps generate more tests an ideas around collision detection. First, the test code (uses Flash Pro). clip1 and clip2 reference two overlapping MovieClips on the stage (clip2 is about 1/2 the size of clip1). package { import flash.display.MovieClip; import flash.geom.Point; import flash.display.Bitmap; import flash.display.BitmapData; import flash.geom.Rectangle; import com.gskinner.utils. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/xWxp_k5SvMw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/xWxp_k5SvMw/ Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:28:22 EST É com grande euforia e alegria que anuncio oficialmente para toda comunidade a Flex Mania. É sem dúvidas e esta sendo um grande desafio planejar, elaborar e executar esse evento. Para mim está sendo um desafio bom de ser vencido. Como tinha comentado após o aniverário de 5 anos da Flex-Brasil. Sobre o possível presente, este não é só meu presente. Mais de todos os 20 palestrantes inclusos durante os dois dias de evento ( 6-7 de julho) para com você. Esse evento só será um sucesso se contarmos com todo seu carinho com a comunidade, apoio, divulgação e também sugestões para a atual e a próxima conferência. Vocês podem visitar e aguardar anciosamente os dia do Evento. Visite www.flexmania.com. http://www.igorcosta.com/blog/?p=819 http://www.igorcosta.com/blog/?p=819 Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:27:24 EST Stretch & Squash in Flex 3, the next episode in CodeDependent series, is now available from Adobe TV. This show is a continuation of the episode Bouncing Ball Behavior, in which we saw how to use easing functions in Flex 3 to add bouncing motion to a bal in Flex 3. This time, we'll see how to apply some techniques from traditional cartoon animation to make the bouncing ball seem more lifelike. Here's the video: I will also post the actual demo and source code soon - check back here in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, have a ball. http://graphics-geek.blogspot.com/2009/06/video-stretch-squash.html http://graphics-geek.blogspot.com/2009/06/video-stretch-squash.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:35:00 EST Here's a quick tip for those of you who are using Flash Builder 4's FlexUnit integration and also build with Maven and Flex Mojos. When executing the unit tests of your library project or application, Flash Builder creates a FlexUnitApplication.mxml file in the root package of your main class path. This file is the test runner [... http://www.herrodius.com/blog/169 http://www.herrodius.com/blog/169 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:32:57 EST The following example shows how you can import a TextFlow object from an XML object in Flex 4 by using the static TextFlowUtil.importFromXML() method. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/FRtdChSSnM4/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/FRtdChSSnM4/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:59:35 EST Yesterday I blogged about how you can use the BitmapData.hitTest API to do collision detection between the visible parts of multiple DisplayObject instances. This works very well, but as some of the BitmapData apis can be cpu intensive (particularly new BitmapData and BitmapData.draw) you have to take care to make sure that performance does not get out of hand. This post will discuss a number of approaches for optimizing collision detection when using BitmapData.hitTest. Check boundary boxes first The first thing to do is to check whether you need to check for visible collision detection in the first place. You can do this by checking whether the bounding boxes of the two DisplayObjects overlap, and only if they do, then use BitmapData.hitTest to see if their visible areas also overlap. To do this, just use the DisplayObject.hitTestObject API like so: if(displayObject1.hitTestObject(displayObject2)) { //do check with BitmapData. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/G_YADXe0QDc/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/G_YADXe0QDc/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:40:38 EST When Director was being overtaken by Flash, you could see the signs by what they were teaching at local colleges, what jobs were hiring for, and activity centers online based more around Flash’ growth vs. Director. The same happened with Flex; Macromedia employee’s typically involved on the Flashcoders email list started to go quiet [... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jessewarden/~3/vhL8k7mPL68/flash-player-11-gaming-platform.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jessewarden/~3/vhL8k7mPL68/flash-player-11-gaming-platform.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:46:57 EST The following example shows how you can display icons in a Spark List control in Flex 4 by creating a custom item renderer. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/dnV9sCeSZuM/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/dnV9sCeSZuM/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:08:38 EST The Flash Player contains a number of APIs for handling collision detection within Flash content. The DisplayObject class contains hitTest and hitTestPoint which can be useful if you need to detect bounding box collisions, or detect collisions between an individual point and bounding boxes or shapes. However, BitmapData also contains a hitTest API, which can check collisions on BitmapData. Where the API really shines, is when you need to detect collisions between the visible areas of DisplayObjects (and not just of their bounding boxes). The API contains functionality for testing collisions between BitmapData and a Point, BitmapData and a Rectangle, and BitmapData and another BitmapData. It is the last item that I will focus on in this post. Since you can get BitmapData from a DisplayObject the API can be used to detect very exact collisions between the visible areas of DisplayObjects, even if the DisplayObjects have irregular shapes. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/nHjGtRDper4/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeChambersAtom/~3/nHjGtRDper4/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:56:33 EST You may have noticed that we’ve been recently adding new samples to Tour de Flex to illustrate various ways to work with backend data from Flex.  I just added some new samples to expand this topic into the worlds of .NET and PHP.   The samples were provided by the guys at MidnightCoders, creators of  [... http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/24/using-weborb-to-connect-flex-to-net-and-php-backends/ http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/24/using-weborb-to-connect-flex-to-net-and-php-backends/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:34:48 EST Another good partnership for the Flash Player enhancement has been announced from NVIDIA and Adobe: NVIDIA and Adobe Systems Incorporated announced that they are collaborating as part of the Open Screen Project to optimize and enable Adobe® Flash® Player, a key component of the Adobe Flash Platform, to leverage GPU video and graphics acceleration on a wide range of mobile Internet devices, including netbooks, tablets, mobile phones and other on-the-go media devices. http://casario.blogs.com/mmworld/2009/06/nvidia-and-adobe-together-for-optimizing-the-flash-player-graphic-accelleration-.html http://casario.blogs.com/mmworld/2009/06/nvidia-and-adobe-together-for-optimizing-the-flash-player-graphic-accelleration-.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:06:02 EST As an Android user, I am very happy to hear the news of Android joining the Open Screen Project and the announcement that Flash Player 10 will be coming to Android very soon. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/everythingflex/~3/WAW5YLyChf0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/everythingflex/~3/WAW5YLyChf0/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:13:43 EST During the past several weeks, we have been adding new samples in the Flex Data Access category in Tour de Flex.  All of the samples were created by either Christophe Coenraets or Holly Schinsky.  Below is a brief overview of each. Many of the samples described below utilize BlazeDS or LiveCycle DS.  If you are unfamiliar [... http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/24/blazeds-and-livecycle-data-services-samples-galore-in-tour-de-flex/ http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/24/blazeds-and-livecycle-data-services-samples-galore-in-tour-de-flex/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:09:57 EST The following example shows how you can set the base theme color on a Spark DropDownList control in Flex 4 by setting the baseColor style. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/slZs1Y1k-0Y/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/slZs1Y1k-0Y/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:59:29 EST This Thursday http://www.cfug.org.nz/ and http://www.fxug.org.nz/ are hosting an Adobe Roadshow event with http://www.markszulc.com/blog/2009/06/22/flash-catalyst-builder-cf-tour-headed-to-auckland-nz/,Mark Szulc. Come along to hear more about Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst and CF9! I will attempt to broadcast the meeting on http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/nzcfug/, all going well! Related Links: http://groups.adobe.com/posts/1b5f77b054 http://nzroadshow.eventbrite.com/ http://labs.adobe.com/ See you there! http://www.harrisfamily.net.nz/devblog/index.cfm/2009/6/23/Adobe-Community-Road-Show-Coming-to-Auckland http://www.harrisfamily.net.nz/devblog/index.cfm/2009/6/23/Adobe-Community-Road-Show-Coming-to-Auckland Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:32:00 EST I’ve received several request to extend the end date for the Flex Data Visualization contest.  The blog post has recently received a bunch of traffic so a lot of people are late getting involved. The new deadline is Tuesday, July 7th at noon EDT. Contest details at http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/08/flex-data-visualization-contest/ Posted in Adobe Flex, Data Visualization Tagged: Adobe Flex, contest, [... http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/23/flex-data-visualization-contest-extended/ http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/23/flex-data-visualization-contest-extended/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:52:58 EST One new project and two updates this week. I am excited that the Adobe ColdFusion and Flex User Group Tour is coming to Boston tonight with Adam Lehman and Tim Buntel. I think that the new features coming in ColdFusion 9 (and with ColdFusion Builder aka Bolt) will help spur more open source development from the ColdFusion community. You can even see the start of that with the new Bolt extensions category at RIAForge which already has a number of releases. New Releases and Updates New Project: nocCode Initial Release Thomas Stiegler released this web-based IDE that includes features like file management and syntax highlighting. cfpayment cfpayment adds Paypal support Brian Ghidinelli posts that Joseph Lamoree has added a Paypal gateway for the cfPayment project. Razuna Razuna 1.2 released – the next step in Open Source Digital Asset Management Razuna 1.2 adds features including version control on assets, folder tree navigation, commenting and sharing and print to PDF. http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/coldfusion-open-source-update-june-23-2009 http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/coldfusion-open-source-update-june-23-2009 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:15:31 EST During the past few months, I have often needed to share a small code snippet or other content that is impossible or impractical to paste into a tweet, blog comment or email.  On several occasions, I created a temporary page on my blog or on one of my public servers.  I also tried out a [... http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/23/tblurb-com-launched-share-code-snippets-create-disposable-web-pages/ http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/23/tblurb-com-launched-share-code-snippets-create-disposable-web-pages/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:05:37 EST Anirudh Sasikumar explains the capbilities of Flex DataMap component and the process of building a simple and powerful application. The final application will allow you to: - Show the same data on a DataGrid and on the map. - Reflect the changes made in the DataGrid on the map. - Lets you box-select multiple items on the map. - Lets you make free form drawings on the map, which can be saved and restored. http://www.beedigital.net/blog/2009/06/using-the-flex-datamap-control/ http://www.beedigital.net/blog/2009/06/using-the-flex-datamap-control/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:46:57 EST Over at Flextras.com I created an AutoCompleteComboBox Flex Component. One of the major benefits of the AutoCompleteComboBox over other options is the ability to pull data from a database. I have it working, it went through our beta testers, and was released over a month ago. But, no demo for this functionality exists on the site, yet. How come? Because I couldn't get Flex Remoting to work with ColdFusion on the production site. Everything worked fine on my local dev box. Everything worked fie on my development / staging server. I kept getting this error when trying to do anything on the production box: Message: flex.data.adapters.ChangeObjectImpl Type: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError This error was being e-mailed to be via the error handler in the Application.cfc. There was also a stack trace as part of the error e-mail, along with other information such as session information and cgi variables. None of it was any help in diagnosing the error. http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2009/6/23/Flex-and-CF-gave-me-this-error-flexdataadaptersChangeObjectImpl--javalangNoClassDefFoundError http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2009/6/23/Flex-and-CF-gave-me-this-error-flexdataadaptersChangeObjectImpl--javalangNoClassDefFoundError Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:00 EST The following example shows how you can set the symbol color on a Spark DropDownList control in Flex 4 by setting the symbolColor style. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/dOzoUiBs-dw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/dOzoUiBs-dw/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:59:22 EST Slides / Demos / Special effects whiz-bangery / Where to learn more Pixel Bender is so hot right now (having a Zoolander moment) and was a late addition to the WebDU agenda due to demand and interest from WebDU conference delegates. Geoff aptly titled the session “Mixing it up in the Pixel Bender”, but Pixel Bender [... http://www.flexdaddy.info/2009/06/23/mixing-it-up-in-the-pixel-bender-webdu-presentation/ http://www.flexdaddy.info/2009/06/23/mixing-it-up-in-the-pixel-bender-webdu-presentation/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:39:44 EST This weekend I read a blog by Ted Patrick and found very interesting phrase:”If you take a careful look at Catalyst it flips the % of design and development work within an app. Where development was 80% of an app, it is now 20% and Design/Interaction was 20% is now 80%”. Sorry for taking it out of context, but I think it will be taken out of context or even becomes a mantra for new development process the same way UML 10 years ago was suppose to produce 80% of the application out of structured requirements. I am certain that this interpretation was not intention of Theodore Patrick or anyone at Adobe. I would suggest that 80% - 20% separation has to be clarified as it might be used by some as Adobe’s recommendation of budget/time allocation and it could be problematic for the current state of the industry. http://flexblog.faratasystems.com/?p=427 http://flexblog.faratasystems.com/?p=427 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:42:55 EST Shane Johnson shared a nice tutorial at FlashTuts+ on how to create a multi-propose contact form using Flex. You will work with many features and components available under Flex framework, also a CSS style file will be created and implemented on you form to stylize the application. http://www.beedigital.net/blog/2009/06/contact-form-with-flex/ http://www.beedigital.net/blog/2009/06/contact-form-with-flex/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:40:22 EST The following example shows how you can style the Halo Accordion header (with default Spark skin) in Flex 4 by creating a new skin based on the default Spark skin and modifying the various skin parts. The default Halo Accordion header Spark skin can be found at \frameworks\projects\sparkskins\src\mx\skins\spark\AccordionHeaderSkin.mxml. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/57OQWAPZrLw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/57OQWAPZrLw/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:59:12 EST I gave a talk this Friday on the lifecycle of a component in Flex 4. The talk went into the details of how the flash player works, why a component needs a lifecycle and the various stages of a components life. Here are the slides and experimental code from the talk … Here’s the code we played with to understand how frame rates work in the flash player … FrameRates.as Here’s the code we wrote with to understand the Elastic Racetrack … ElasticRaceTrack.as Here’s the experiment to understand marshaled slices … MarshaledSlices. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mrinalwadhwa/ragstoriches/~3/0x_3gYbs0kw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mrinalwadhwa/ragstoriches/~3/0x_3gYbs0kw/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:52:42 EST The following example shows how you can set the corner radius on the Halo TextArea control (with default Spark skin) in Flex 4 by creating a custom skin and setting the radiusX and radiusY properties on the Rect objects (in Flex 3 and earlier this was done by setting the cornerRadius style directly). Full code after [... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/Ej3xOLZstZo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/Ej3xOLZstZo/ Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:59:38 EST The following example shows how you can set the viewport inset on a Spark Scroller control in Flex 4 by setting the minViewportInset property. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/X-3SCB_QwOg/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/X-3SCB_QwOg/ Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:47:44 EST Bouncing Ball Behavior, the next and bountifully alliterative episode in the gripping and suspenseful series CodeDependent, is now available from Adobe TV. This show is a continuation of the episode Easing Does It, in which we saw how to use easing functions in Flex 3 to create different kinds of motion. This time, we'll see how to use what we now know about easing functions to add bouncing behavior to our ball using Flex 3. Here's the video: Here is the demo application: And here is the source code. Have a ball. http://graphics-geek.blogspot.com/2009/06/video-bouncing-ball-behavior.html http://graphics-geek.blogspot.com/2009/06/video-bouncing-ball-behavior.html Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:39:00 EST The following example shows how you can reorder a stack of Spark Bitmap controls in Flex 4 by setting the depth property (formerly the layer property). Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/JACGA1wzn_A/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/JACGA1wzn_A/ Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:59:20 EST Tomorrow morning the 615Flex group (Nashville Flex User Group) is hosting a Flex/Flash Camp with six speakers giving one hour talks. I'll be giving a presentation on integrating BlazeDS, Flex/AIR, with a little ColdFusion mixed in for fun. After giving an overview of the technology behind BlazeDS and how BlazeDS messaging works I'll dive into the construction of an application in real-time. The app will demonstrate the use of BlazeDS messaging from a browser application to remote AIR clients. Registration for the event is closed but given its a free event I'd be willing to bet we'd find a place for you if you want to come out. More info is here. http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/18/Speaking-tomorrow-on-BlazeDS-Flex-and-AIR http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/18/Speaking-tomorrow-on-BlazeDS-Flex-and-AIR Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:20:00 EST The other day I gave a preview of my Illudium Bolt Connector and today I want to look at another Bolt (apparently now ColdFusion Builder) plugin I released on RIAForge I call the "Skeleton Application Generator". This one is designed to allow you to quickly and easily place the skeleton application files for a variety of frameworks into a folder. The concept is simple, but its useful and since its extensible, you can support additional frameworks or your own custom skeleton application files. In addition, I want to highlight how simple creating these plugins can be, as I was able to create this plugin in about an hour. First, let's look at how you can extend this plugin to support additional frameworks or your own custom code (as a sife note, I looked for a ColdBox skeleton to include  by defaultbut didn't find one - feel free to point me in the right direction). When you install this plugin, it puts a folder called "Application Skeleton Generator" in your web server root. http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/preview-of-the-framework-skeletons-bolt-plugin http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/preview-of-the-framework-skeletons-bolt-plugin Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:20:13 EST The following example shows how you can set the background fill color on the Halo TextArea control (with default Spark skin) in Flex 4 by setting the backgroundContentColor style (in Flex 3 and earlier this was done by setting the backgroundColor style). Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/9L5hbREF2Uo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/9L5hbREF2Uo/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:39:46 EST I’m heading to Nashville  to speak at the following events: Thursday, 06/18/2009 7PM CDT – Nashville ColdFusion User Group – I’ll be showing some amazingly cool features in the upcoming release of ColdFusion. Friday, 06/19/2009 7PM CDT – 615 Flash / Flex camp & Flex Adobe Tour – Cool Flex 4 and Catalyst demonstrations as well as [... http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/17/flex-and-coldfusion-in-nashville/ http://gregsramblings.com/2009/06/17/flex-and-coldfusion-in-nashville/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:03 EST I’m excited to be speaking at the Nashville Flex/Flash Camp this Friday, June 19th. If you’re within driving distance and interested in learning the latest Flash and Flex technology, I’d definitely recommend checking it out - plus there’s free beer. :-) I’ll be talking about some of the more interesting and powerful features introduced to the Flash Player in the last few years including ByteArrays, BitmapData, and Sound APIs. Here’s the official description. Cool Stuff with Flex 4 and the Flash Platform From ByteArrays to Sound APIs the Flash Player has grown a lot in the last few years. In this talk Ben will take a look at Flash Platform features you may not even know existed and show you how to use them in the latest Flex 4 SDK. Adobe evangelist Greg Wilson will also be on hand to talk about about some of the changes coming to the Flash and Flex Frameworks. Find more info at the official website and be sure to register if you still can. http://blog.benstucki.net/?p=57 http://blog.benstucki.net/?p=57 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:05:01 EST Just a quick reminder to anyone in the Tennessee, Alabama, or Kentucky area... the Nashville stop on the 2009 Adobe ColdFusion User Group tour is tomorrow. That's about 26 hours from now. So, stop what you are doing make plans to attend the event and head over to the NCFUG site to RSVP for the event. Everyone that RSVPs (and shows up of course) will be entered into the drawings for a copy of the next version of ColdFusion, a TimBuk2 laptop bag, Amazon gift cards, and more! Plus, each person that shows up will get stickers, a ColdFusion tour shirt and (yes there's more) an audio CD copy of Dave Ramsey's High Performance Achievement! Wow, how could you not come? I hope to see you there! More info and RSVP details are here. http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/17/Nashville-2009-ColdFusion-Tour-Stop-is-Tomorrow http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/17/Nashville-2009-ColdFusion-Tour-Stop-is-Tomorrow Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:47:00 EST But do it after you got hired. A custom component A (written in Flash) sends a custom event with parameters to a component B (written in Flex), and the latter needs to pass received event’s parameters to Flex  Application object. The code below just traverses through all parameters of the dynamic custom event and assigns them to the corresponding properties in the Application object. View Code private function passParamsToApp (event:MyGreatEvent):void{ // this code can be used in preloaders that need to load fast small Flash swc // getDefByName syntax allow to avoid pre-linkage of the Application obj var anApp:Object = getDefinitionByName ("mx.core.Application"). http://flexblog.faratasystems.com/?p=426 http://flexblog.faratasystems.com/?p=426 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:34:01 EST The following example shows how you can set the selected indices on a Spark List control in Flex 4 by setting the selectedIndices property to a Vector object. For more information on MXML Vector support in Flex 4, see the MXML Vector Support spec on the Adobe Open Source Flex SDK site. Full code after the jump. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/yIZ_VTRunDU/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlexExamples/~3/yIZ_VTRunDU/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:59:54 EST What is Flash Catalyst? Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding. Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces. Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution Work more [... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlashEnabled-GetReadyWithFlash/~3/iTEVBsr4pgU/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FlashEnabled-GetReadyWithFlash/~3/iTEVBsr4pgU/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:37:22 EST Four new projects and, yes, eight updates this week. It was a busy week of releases apparently. Perhaps that's because of all the time freed up now that we've finally stopped arguing with each other (i.e. OO vs procedural). Unfortunately, the more projects people release, the longer it takes to write this post. Thus I am trying to come up with a new war within the CF community to save myself some time next week. Maybe Mango vs BlogCFC? New Releases and Updates New Project: Googleitics Initial Release Pete Alexandrou wrote this component to retreive Google Analytics metrics, including Google Visualization API charts, for your site. New Project: JVMConfig Generator Initial Release Marcos Placona released this project which generates configuration files for new ColdFusion instances. New Project: Pingback Initial Release Marko Simic wrote this pingback support to add to existing blog software. http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/coldfusion-open-source-update-june-16-2009 http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/coldfusion-open-source-update-june-16-2009 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:04:21 EST You may have read or heard about the announcement that Bolt (ColdFusion's new IDE) will allow you to write your own extensions (Ray has talked about his extensions recently). I personally don't think enough fuss has been made about this feature, probably because people don't know a lot about them yet. To clarify, you can create fully dynamic extensions with CFML - no need to learn any of the internals of Eclipse - and then add these onto things like the file view or the RDS DataView. When I first heard about this, I thought this would be a great way to tie an existing installation of the Illudium PU-36 Code Generator into the IDE within the RDS DataView. That extension is currently available on RIAForge for anyone with access to Bolt right now or, if you don't yet have access, its there for when a public beta happens (no, I don't have a clue when that might be). In general writing extensions is pretty easy, and I hope to talk about it more down the road. This particular extension had some complications. http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/preview-the-illudium-connector-bolt-extension http://www.remotesynthesis.com/post.cfm/preview-the-illudium-connector-bolt-extension Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:38:11 EST