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Source: Oaxoa Blog What can be the natural evolution of an isometric engine? Of course a voxel engine… It was really a lot of time I had this in mind and already did some experiment, but never finalized them.
What I’ll show you now is some first implementation. Source code is already optimized but I need to finish class public methods so I’ll not post source for now. Let me say that these screenshot really suck, but you got to see them moving (they runs very fast). This first sample is a bitmap based map. The class wants two bitmap, one for the height map and one for the color. Of course you can use the same twice (but obviously it looks good only with grayscale images). With my brand new Intel Quad core QX9550 I easilly reach the fps limitator of 51 (ok, ok… on the screenshot is written 29 but believe me!  ). I am new to multi core cpu and I am really surprised to see that now the browser vs IDE situation totally changed. Now I can do 51 fps in the browser (Opera 9.23) and 30 in the IDE… mmm strange behaviour, maybe I just need some sleep. The file is very big cause of the low compressed 2000×2000 jpeg files. No preloader (don’t even try to ask for it) so be patient please (631 Kb) 
 Continue reading...
Source: InfoQ Often the hardest part of changing technologies is language syntax differences. This new article provides Java developers with a transition guide to Actionscript which forms the foundation of Flex. Let’s face it: The client has not been a friendly place for Java programmers. Java technology on the client with applets, Swing, and JavaFX has had limited success. JavaScript, despite its name, is almost nothing like the Java language. And Adobe Flash—well, it’s just like JavaScript. Or is it? It might have been the case that Flash was like JavaScript a couple of years ago, but with the advent of ActionScript 3, a lot has changed. And I think you’ll find a lot to like. First, ActionScript—the programming language for Adobe Flex and Flash—is now strongly typed. It also has first-class object orientation, including classes and interfaces. It has extras that you won’t find in Java—notably, get and set functions for properties and a language extension called ECMAScript for XML (E4X), which turns any XML document into objects that you can reference with dot operators, just like regular objects. This article takes you through the basics of ActionScript 3 and shows how it compares with the Java environment you’re used to. By the end, you should have given up any preconceptions you may have had about ActionScript... Continue Reading ActionScript 3 for Java Programmers
While at first qooxdoo 0.8 looks like a minor jump in version number over the previous 0.7.3, the actual changes are huge. In particular the
UI capabilities as well as the developer tool chain were improved substantially. qooxdoo 0.8 features a complete rewrite of the GUI toolkit. It is state-of-the-art and supports all major browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera). The GUI toolkit has a layered architecture: on-top of a low-level DOM-oriented layer (that might be used as a separate library), it includes a large set of widgets and layout managers (perfect for building RIAs). Online demos are available. Users can very easily implement additional custom widgets or layouts to fit their individual needs. Theming of widgets continues to be independent from the widget code itself, and now allows for virtually
unlimited styling possibilities, e.g. rounded borders, gradients, shadows. While qooxdoo comes with two new attractive themes, it is also easy to create custom themes, without any CSS knowledge required. Besides the exciting changes in the GUI toolkit, the developer tool chain has also been improved to a large extend. It frees the developer from such tedious and complex tasks as compressing and optimizing the JS code, resolving dependencies between classes, using a JS linker to produce a custom build of the app ready for deployment. Some further highlights of the comprehensive, built-in tooling include: searchable API reference, internationalization, source code validation, unit testing, combined images, and much more. The entire tool chain is platform-independent: all that is needed is a working Python installation, which is trivial to setup on any operating system, including MS Windows. While API documentation is quite complete already, wiki documentation is still being updated to account for all the changes and improvements. Download the qooxdoo 0.8 package, and see the
included index.html to get started quickly.
This release is long overdue but there were a few issues that we wanted to resolve and then there were summer vacations... There are quite a lot of new features and really nice stability improvements, we hope that all of you enjoy this release! About FlashDevelop: Changes GUI: - New "fullscreen" editor mode
- New common GUI for AS2Api and ASDoc
- SWF exploration shows the frame where definitions are imported
ActionScript: - Fine tuned code completion
- Dynamic syntax highlighting: custom classes get colored like flash classes (MovieClip, Event, etc)
- Completion for package-level declarations and Flash 10's Vector.<T> type
- New generator: Ctrl+Shift+1 on a non-imported type to generate the import
- Go To Declaration (F4) with SWC classes display a generated pseudo-class
- Improved generators
MXML: - Tags with ID now appear in outline view and <script> code completion
- Updated completion (generated using a tool available in SVN)
Templates: - Improved MXML projects templates
- New optimized AS3 project template with preloader (no Flex dependencies)
- Templates now include an index.html with swfobject.js
PHP: - Now featuring simple PHP completion
Download FlashDevelop 3.0.0 Beta8
Source: Brett, Webtecker.com This week I’ve been working on a project that required data to be shown visually. I needed a Chart Script that was attractive yet gets the data across. The Charts scripts below are built using JavaScript, Flash, Silverlight, and Java. - Flot - Flot is a pure Javascript plotting library for jQuery. The focus is on easy usage , attractive plots and interactive features. With Flot you can interact with the data, look at specific data by zooming in, plot a time series, and other various options.
 - Open Flash Chart - Open Flash Chart is a Flash charting component. It is fairly easy to setup and has classes written in PHP, Perl, Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and .Net to connect to the Chart. You can create some really nice looking Bar Charts, Pie Charts, Area Charts and etc…
 - AmCharts - AmCharts are animated interactive flash charts. The charts include Pie Charts, Line Charts, Scatter/Bubble Charts, Bar/Column Charts, and even a stock chart. AmCharts can extract data from simple CSV or XML files, or they can read dynamic data generated with PHP, .NET, Java, Ruby on Rails, Perl and ColdFusion. All the charts are free but they have a link to AmCharts on the upper left.
 - Emprise JavaScript Charts - Emprise JavaScript Charts is a 100% Pure JavaScript Charting Solution that requires no JavaScript frameworks. Emprise JavaScript Charts include Line, Area, Scatter, Pie, Bar charts with zooming, scaling and scrolling ability. Tested and works with all major browsers.
 - PlotKit - PlotKit is a Chart and Graph Plotting Library for Javascript. PlotKit works with MochiKit javascript library. It has support for HTML Canvas and also SVG via Adobe SVG Viewer and native browser support. PlotKit also has great documentation.
 - Flotr - Flotr is a javascript plotting library based on the Prototype Framework version 1.6.0.2. Flotr lets you create graphs in modern browsers with features like legend support, negative value support, mouse tracking, selection support, zoom support, event hooks, CSS styling support and much more.
 - PHP/SWF Charts - PHP/SWF Charts is simple yet powerful tool to create attractive web charts and graphs from dynamic data. You use PHP to gather the data and put it into flash. It supports many charts types, Line, Column, Stacked column, Floating column, 3D column, Stacked 3D column, Parallel 3D column, Pie, 3D Pie, Bar, Stacked bar, Floating bar, Area, Stacked area, Candlestick, Scatter, Polar, Mixed, Composite and Joined. These Charts have some great features like Animated transitions, Printable charts, and more.
 - Visifire - Visifire (Powered by Silverlight) is a set of open source data visualization components. With Visifire you can create animated Silverlight Charts with ASP, ASP.Net, PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, Ruby on Rails or just simple HTML.
 - FusionCharts - FusionCharts is a cross-browser and cross-platform flash charting component that can be used with ASP.NET, ASP, PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, Ruby on Rails, simple HTML pages or even PowerPoint Presentations. All you need to know is the language you’re programming in.
 - JFreeChart - JFreeChart is an open source Java chart library that makes it easy for developers to display quality charts in their applications. The JFreeChart project was founded seven years ago, in February 2000, by David Gilbert and is used by approximately 40,000 to 50,000 developers. JFreeChart supports many different output types that includes JPEG, GIF, PDF, EPS and SVG. This is a great resource for Java developers.
 If you know of any other Charting Scripts please post below.
Isomorphic just announced the beta release of the SmartClient plugin for Aptana Studio. This plugin provides code auto-completion for the SmartClient API to make it easier to learn and use SmartClient's functionality. For the Eclipse fans out there, Aptana can be installed as an Eclipse plugin. The beta version of the plugin features: - Code Assist on the complete SmartClient API.
- The option to create a SmartClient project in the Aptana New Project wizard.
- The ability to load the SmartClient documentation browser and Feature Explorer alongside your code inside Aptana Studio, and the SmartClient docs can be viewed inside Aptana.s help system.
To learn more go to http://blog.isomorphic.com/?p=27
The underlying language for all Flex applications is ActionScript 3. All the Flex components are written in that language. We used ActionScript 3 in order to make the Flex framework maintainable and extensible. When you’re creating a business application, however, you don’t always want to use the lowest-level language available in a framework. In Flex, we created a higher-level language, MXML, an XML language that sits on top of ActionScript. Because MXML is a domain-specific language targeting the rapid development of Flex user interfaces, you can quickly become productive with MXML. View full article...
Ted Patrick, Adobe's Evangelist shows you ActionScript Project of Flex Builder, which let's you build SWF files without any of the Flex Framework.
By David Worthington Although Silverlight 2 is not yet out the door at Microsoft, a component maker has already created a suite of controls that leverages it. Yesterday, Intersoft Solutions publicly unveiled beta versions of “Sirius 2.” Sirius is the code name for a suite of components built with Silverlight 2 beta 2; it includes a cover flow style viewer and fish eye style menu that functions as a docking style navigation control. Intersoft describes WebCoverFlow.NET, its cover flow control, as a Web-based multimedia viewer. However, it is not limited to just that; the company notes that it could also be used in a line of business application to present employee data, because it supports data binding and templates. Intersoft’s fish eye control for Silverlight 2 is called WebFishEye.NET. It features data binding and item template capabilities. The company suggests that it could replace conventional navigation items such as icons, text links and tree views. The controls comprise WebAqua.NET 2.0. WebAqua mimics the "dock" feature of Mac OS X Leopard; icons are displayed within a three dimensional dock, and items can expand into stacks. WebAqua.NET will be bundled in Intersoft’s upcoming WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2 component suite. In related news, Intersoft released a beta of WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2 today. It provides two assemblies for WebAqua.NET, in ASP.NET and Silverlight 2, which share a common code base. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 are prerequisites for the ASP.NET version, and the Silverlight 2 version requires the June preview of Expression Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 with the Silverlight 2 toolkit installed. WebUI Studio.NET also updates WebScheduler.NET, a calendar component, as well as introducing an accessibility compliant data grid. WebScheduler.NET provides more control over its new event editing form, the company says, and it adds new timeline views for events. Lastly, WebGrid.NET Enterprise has been made Section 508 compliant. Section 508 is a U.S. law that requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Intersoft says that Web applications can be made 508 compliant without breaking existing functionality. The control also has new shortcut keys for selecting multiple rows.
Written by Mike Gunderloy Intrigued by Microsoft Surface, but don't want to spend $10,000 - or deal with Microsoft? Then take a look at the TouchKit project, which can help you get together a table-sized screen with a multitouch interface, using open source components. TouchKit comprises both hardware and software components. On the software side, the API is implemented as an addon to OpenFrameworks. This gives it cross-platform compatibility with OS X, Windows, and Linux, though you're going to need to be comfortable hacking around in a pre-release C++ framework to make use of it. The software is licensed LGPLv3. On the hardware side, TouchKit consists of a computer, projector, camera, and a special screen including a rear projection surface and strings of infrared LEDs. Since you're not all that likely to have the screen laying around, the inventors will sell you the core pieces for $1580 or just the infrared strip lighting for $350.They also say they'll be releasing shematics under a Creative Commons license, making this another open hardware project. Some of the hardware schematics are already online, with more to come. TouchKit reminds me of some of the fun hacking projects that form our heritage in the computer field, right back to the original Spacewar! If you're handy with a soldering iron and have some spare time and a bit of spare money, it could be a great project to get involved with.
Mainsoft for Java™ EE, Developer Edition, 2.5 (a.k.a. Grasshopper™ 2.5) gives you the freedom to build C# and Visual Basic® Web applications using the Visual Studio® 2008 development environment and host them on open Java platforms.
Grasshopper 2.5 provides full support for ASP.NET AJAX including ASP.NET 2.0, the AJAX Extensions, and the AJAX Control Toolkit. In addition, 2.5 supports new language features for C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9, such as Local Type Inference, Object and Collection Initializers, Anonymous Types, and Auto-Implemented Properties.
Clear Toolkit 3.0 is a set of components, code generators, and plugins created by software engineers of Farata Systems that they were using internally in multiple Flex enterprise projects. This toolkit will be available free of charge. Read more...
from Flash Enabled Blog by Carlos Pinho 
The Tech Labs has just published a new tutorial, about expanding the Videoplayer, with new features like, playlist, fullscreen support, save volume and clickable progress/volume bar. Don’t miss this great how-to article by Rafael Nünlist from Orange8. You can see the demo player here.
Source: Refreshing Apps.com Pixus is another tool in the designers toolbox that is powered by Adobe AIR. It’s an onscreen measurement tool that can be put to numerous uses when designing or developing apps. You can not only measure the screen object size with easy. With overlay mode and presets, you can also preview how your design will look in the real environment. Ideal for web and interface designers. The AIR app can be dragged around the screen using the green Pixus bar just above the main measurement window. You have the option of a lightbox type of view where the background is darkened slightly while the window remains clear. This gives a great view of the workarea. Through the preferences panel you get to save preset sizes for later use. I did have a problem where I could not get a preset size to reactivate. This is probably just a small bug that could be easily fixed. One addition I would like to see is the ability to set the size of the window in the green Pixus bar, currently the size is read only. Design eye One cool option is the skin of the window. You can choose from a Safari theme if your on a Mac, IE theme for Windows or the standard. Nice concept when developing AIR apps that are crossbrowser. Pixus is visually appealing fitting well with the target designer user. Standard behaviour of resizing by clicking and dragging the bottom left of the window is supported in both the main measurement window and the preferences pane. But there is only a visual icon for the preferences panel. A small point but consistency is vital when developing a quality application. Technical eye The Pixus AIR app is open source and the project is held on Google code. It appears the app has been developed since the AIR beta (when it was called Apollo) so include a history of the releases. Developed with Adobe Flash.
Source: Xero's Blog 
Creating web-applications with flex 3 is great. there are a ton of pre-made components, and an open-ended architecture to allow you to create your own. built into flex is also a variety of options to change the visual styles of the components. today i will talk about two different types of customization. first, the simplest method, is using css to style your components. next, the more advanced technique, is creating component skins. for this example i will be using flash cs3. With in a flex mxml application, css is natively understood. so by utilizing the tag, we can create a variety of styles for out application. personally, i don't really care for the eclipse/flex built in css editor, but since flex uses valid css, any editor can work! macromedia has also created a very useful tool for helping designers/developers write flex 3 specific css. click here to view the flex 3 style explorer now for some code...
by Neil McAllister 
The more I hear about the ongoing efforts to revise the leading Web standards, the less convinced I am that we're approaching Web-based applications the right way. The latest dust-up involves ECMAScript, the international standard that forms the basis of the JavaScript language. Last week, the committee in charge of the language voted to abandon the proposed ECMAScript 4 standard in favor of a much less ambitious revision, dubbed ECMAScript 3.1. Had the work continued, it would have brought big changes. "Programming 'in the large' has been a problem with untyped languages like JavaScript," Adobe's Ed Rowe told me in an interview earlier this year. "That's why Adobe has been working with [ECMA] on ECMAScript 4 ... to introduce concepts that are compatible with building large-scale applications." But while large-scale application development might sound good to Adobe, guaranteed it wouldn't have worked for everyone. The history of traditional systems programming languages is evidence enough of that. For every methodical, disciplined Java programmer there's a Perl hacker who would much rather play everything by ear. Strong typing, packages, and namespaces may make it a lot easier to maintain large applications, but they're virtually useless to any Web coder who just wants to bash out a little bit of UI glitz. In fact, the very concept of an all-purpose programming language that's designed by committee is questionable. Once before, a bunch of very smart people got together to write the specification for what was supposed to be the ultimate programming language. It was secure, robust, and so standardized that nothing was left to interpretation. Remember Ada? No? That's probably because, once the specifications became available, the language was so strict and inflexible that most folks preferred to code in C. So if nobody ever managed to come up with the ultimate, perfect language for systems programming, what makes us think we can do it for the Web? If anything, the more we talk about building large-scale Web applications, the more we should recognize that a single style of programming will never suit every job. I'm a big fan of the Model-View-Controller design pattern. It doesn't work well for everything, but it can often provide invaluable guidance in the application design process. In a nutshell, one of its core tenets is to separate the View -- the presentation of data -- from the data itself (the Model) and the underlying logic that manipulates it (the Controller). So here's an idea: Your Web browser window is a View. Maybe it's high time we stopped trying to force it to be a Controller, too. Ever since the early days of Web browsers we've had this language, JavaScript. Over the years, we've demanded more and more of it, to the point that we're now talking about using it to build entire applications. The simple truth, however, is that JavaScript will never be good for everything. Rather than shoehorning more and more functionality into the browser itself (and going through all the rigorous standardization procedures that this requires), maybe it's time we separated the UI from the underlying client-side logic. Let the browser handle the View. Let the Controller exist somewhere else, independent of the presentation layer. We already have a means to achieve this separation for client-side code today: browser plug-ins. Of course, most Web developers will tell you that plug-ins are a Bad Thing. Every time you force the user to download and install a plug-in, says the popular wisdom, you throw a roadblock in front of your code. But is that really true? Early browser plug-ins were mostly designed to deliver multimedia. Typically it didn't take long for them to become vehicles for online marketing -- and this at a time when most computer users connected to the Internet via dial-up. Little wonder that no one could be bothered to download them. The modern counterexample is Google Gears. Install the Gears plug-in once, and every Gears-enabled application gains additional functionality. To date, the list of enabled sites includes not only Google Docs and Google Reader, but MySpace, Picasa, and even WordPress blogs. People tend to focus on Gears' ability to allow Web applications to be used while offline. They overlook the WorkerPool module, which allows JavaScript code to run in the background, independent of the code on the main page. WorkerPool is a standalone code execution engine; it just happens to run the same JavaScript as an ordinary browser. So why JavaScript? Why not Python, or Lisp, or some other, new language designed with an alternative Web application development methodology in mind? If the application that it powers is compelling enough, the incentive to install a plug-in is high -- particularly in this age of readily-available broadband. An external browser module capable of executing most of the proposed ECMAScript 4 specification already exists: It's the Adobe Flash plug-in. Other platforms are available as plug-ins, as well, including Curl and REBOL. As Web developers, we tend to shy away from these alternatives, but only because of the never-ending efforts to refine and standardize JavaScript within the browser itself. Because it's a Web standard, we tell ourselves, JavaScript is the "purer" option. But if sticking to a single way of doing things is what we want, then why reinvent the wheel? We already have an all-purpose client that's capable of acting as a front end to a wide variety of applications, from databases to e-mail. It's installed at thousands of enterprises worldwide, right now. It's called Lotus Notes. Is that the way we're heading? Is that really the model for the browser of tomorrow? Or is it time for the Web development community to start thinking outside the box?
by Paul Krill, InfoWorld* Embarcadero Technologies next week plans to unveil next-generation CodeGear rapid application development (RAD) tools for Windows, featuring support for Microsoft's Silverlight technology for media and rich Internet applications The announcement capitalizes on Embarcadero's May acquisition of the former Borland software development tools unit. It covers the Delphi 2009 and C++ Builder 2009 releases, geared to ISVs and workgroup client/server development. The tools can be used for building packaged software for resale and distribution, graphical workstation applications, and client/server workgroup database applications. A highlight is Visual Component Library (VCL) support for the Web, for building AJAX and Silverlight-enabled intranet and line-of-business applications. Silverlight capabilities are specifically designed for line-of-business intranet applications, according to an Embarcadero representative. The two products are the first Embarcadero offerings that bring together CodeGear and Embarcadero's DatabaseGear functionality into a single offering, via the new Architect edition of the products. Included in the Architect products are ER/Studio Developer Edition for designing and building database applications. Also featured in the two products is Unicode support for all language versions of Windows. Enhanced localization tools make it easier to translate applications for specific local opportunities, Embarcadero said. Other enhancements include advancements to the Delphi and C++ languages. These include programming features such as generics for Delphi and C++0x language capabilities. The two features enable developers to write more efficient, reusable code, Embarcadero said. A multi-tier DataSnap architecture lets developers use RAD for developing high-performance database middleware applications, Embarcadero said. These applications can be connected with thin, full-featured clients that reside on a native or Web platform. Also included in both products are: -
VCL components, including Microsoft Office-style ribbon controls and the ability to build UIs for Windows XP and Vista desktop applications simultaneously. -
Updated dbExpress support for CodeGear InterBase and Blackfish SQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and other databases. Prices for the two products, which are available immediately, begin at $399 for the Professional edition for ISVs. An Enterprise edition for line-of-business departments and workgroups also is available, in addition to the Architect edition. Users also can purchase the two products bundled together. *Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld.
In a recent project I had to use runtime shared libraries. In ActionScript 3, the use of external libraries is made easy through the ApplicationDomain class and the getDefinition method. But one common limitation of the getDefinition method is that you have to know the name of the class definition you want to extract. A cool addition would be a getDefinitions method which would return an Array of definitions. Unfortunately such a feature is still missing in Flash Player 10. That’s the reason why is created this tiny library called SWFExplorer which lets you browse an SWF and extract all the classes definitions available in an SWF. Read full article...
 This tutorial is the first in a series about Away3D, a powerful real-time 3D engine for Flash or Flex. This tutorial explains a very simple Away3D class line by line so that those that still use Actionscript 2 or have a designer background will be able to understand what is going on in the rest of the tutorials.
No matter what you want to do in Away3D, there's some things that you'll always need to set up. The "Basic" tutorials will explain the Scene, View, Camera, Primitives, Textures and explore some of the possibilities. Each example in the series will be organized as Actionscript Classes so they can be used in both Flash and Flex. If you are new to 3D on computers, you might want to read our introduction that explains the core 3D concepts. This tutorial also contains the source for 6 other Away3D projects that may be worth checking out. To run the example files, you will first need to set up Away3D on your computer. When you have the Away3D source files and your software is set up, you can open, explore and export the examples in this tutorial by just placing them in your project directory. 3D is processor intensive, so all the examples use a file called Cover.as that you must also download to your project directory to be able to run the examples. 3D on computers use cliches that we are used to from the movies. The four things we will always need is a Stage, a Camera, a View and something to look at. Thanks to a lot of "default" properties, you only need to set up a view to get get started with Away3D. Read full article...
Looking for a little hint on using context menus in ActionScript 3? Here we go, little piece of code for you: package {
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.ui.ContextMenu;
import flash.ui.ContextMenuItem;
public class RightClickTest extends Sprite
{
public function RightClickTest()
{
var ctxMenu:ContextMenu = new ContextMenu();
var menuCopyright:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem( "Copyright © skitsanos.com" );
var menuCredits:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem( "Credits...." );
ctxMenu.hideBuiltInItems();
ctxMenu.customItems.push(menuCopyright, menuCredits);
this.contextMenu = ctxMenu;
}
}
}
I’m currently using the Flashplayer in more of an embedded system configuration. We’re evaluating multiple hardware configurations to decide what hardware to use and we’re also evaluating multiple version of the Flashplayer to decide which Flashplayer to use. So I made a quick open source test app to help with this evaluation. It allows you to compare animation performance between an EnterFrame animation vs a Tweener animation vs a Timeline animation. You can also apply various effects to see how they impact things. Since scaling can skew results, the app is designed to run at a specific resolution, but it is easily scalable to whatever resolution you wish to test (and steps are included in the source). Read full article...
Source: My Digital Life blog I have embedded various styles imitating the old Facebook to demonstrate how easy it is to style a page or to learn CSS by example.
The CSS code is available for easy downloading along with this page.
You can either download the zip file with all icons and images included or you can download the source files individually from my public DropBox account. Tip: Right-Click on link and select 'Save As'. Each class is labeled with its respective declaration, eg. .fb1, .fb2, ..., .fbx.
Note: Some classes will be found to be sub-divided eg. .fb6a, .fb6b, .fb6c.
Go ahead and hover/click your mouse around the styles to interact with me. Found bugs? Need a specific style for your widget or blog FOR FREE?
Let me know!
Enjoy! See also
Source: blog.joa-ebert.com This FDT update makes me so happy that I have to post about it. The Powerflasher FDT developers implemented the new Vector.<T> syntax. Hooray — we can make full use of the Vector class! FDT is implementing it also in a nice way. So for instance if you have a Vector.<int> named vec and you write var sprite: Sprite = vec[0] this will result in an error because FDT knows that your Vector was typed int. There are still some glitches here and there but I hope this will be fixed soon as well. By the way I am using the beta site to update my FDT — so if you want to have Vector support too you should use the beta update site.
from Yahoo! Flash(R) Blog by Alaric Cole You’be probably heard of the many available SWF embed parameters, such as allowNetworking, wmode, allowScriptAccess, and of course height and width. But there a few less well-known ones that may be incredibly useful. One of these optional attributes you can specify when embedding a SWF is named base. Adobe’s LiveDocs give the following description of the attribute: base - Specifies the base directory or URL used to resolve relative path statements in ActionScript.
This is important when dealing with relative paths (URLs) in Flash. By default, the base URL of a SWF is its parent HTML page. This means if your SWF is loaded from another domain and has assets such as images or XML files, you’re in trouble. Say, for instance, that yahoo.com loads a SWF ad from ads.com/car.swf. That SWF, in turn, tries to load “images/convertible.jpg”, using a relative path to an images directory that resides on ads.com. Given the default settings, this will not work, unless “yahoo.com/images/convertible.jpg” exists. To get around this, developers have often used absolute paths, such as “http://ads.com/images/convertible.jpg”. The base parameter solves this problem, allowing you to continue to use relative paths. To allow relative paths, all you need to do is “reset” the base directory. You can even use base="." to mean “make all paths relative to the swf itself.” Here’s an example of a full embed statement: <object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″
width=”500″
height=”300″
codebase=”http://active.macromedia.com/flash7/cabs/swflash.cab#version=9,0,2,8″>
<param name=”base” value=”.”></param>
<param name=”movie” value=”someSWF.swf”></param>
<param name=”play” value=”true”></param>
<embed base=”.” src=”someSWF.swf”
width=”500″ height=”300″ play=”true”
pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash”>
</embed></object> If you are fond of the popular SWFObject JavaScript library for embedding Flash content, here’s how to use the base parameter with it: var swfobj = new SWFObject(value, “someSWF”, 500, 300, “9.0.28″, “#FFFFFF”);
swfobj.addParam(”base“, “.“);
swfobj.write(”swfDiv”); Note that if you have a SWF that loads another SWF within itself, the base path of the loaded SWF will always be the loading SWF.
Source: Pro Dev Tips The other day I was asked to demonstrate how to setup AMFPHP in Flash. As I’ve already done it many times in Flash 8 with little or no problems I felt relaxed about it. The machine I was to demonstrate on only had Flash CS3, no problem I thought and fired up an Actionscript 2 project. The extra components you are required to install in Flash 8 are probably already integrated by now I thought and copy pasted code from an older project, hit ctrl-enter and got a debug window complaining about a lot of missing classes. Apparently you have to copy that stuff from somewhere in the Flash 8 program dir tree and put in the corresponding place in the Flash CS3 dir tree. We didn’t have any Flash 8 installed though… So I started a new AS3 project instead and started googling my ass off for a quick solution (the designers I were demoing to started getting restless), which I found in the form of Oscar Trelles‘ nice AS3 Flash remoting example. I followed the tutorial but no it didn’t work. The staging server had .htaccess with password protection that ruined things this time. I had to give up, I told them I would get back to them and here I am! Read full tutorial...
You've been doing some awesome things with your photos on Photoshop® Express. Now you can take it up a notch. We've just added a bunch of new features—check 'em out, and let us know what you think (there's a feedback link in the upper right corner of the app). Seamless uploading
Upload your photos more easily with our new Photoshop® Express Uploader. Drag and drop from your desktop or another favorite photo app. One quick download, and you'll be uploading away. Add music, stir
Want to add a little soul to your slide show? Choose a tune (like country? Or is emo more your style?), and pick your music track when you're creating your slide show. Print your pics
Uncle Bob may not hang out online. Make sure he gets to see your masterpiece: Get prints of your digital photos on Shutterfly. Tag your photos
Make your life a little easier—add tags to your photos. Then you can view and sort by name, subject, party, whatever. Download
So someone else took the coolest shot you've ever seen? Now you can download photos from anyone's public albums, and keep a collection of your favorites. Connect with Eye-Fi
Wirelessly upload shots directly from your camera to your photo library with an Eye-Fi Card. It's automagic. Resize
You want your latest and greatest photo front and center—on Facebook, your cell, wherever. Pick a preset image size for mobile, web, or e-mail and resize with one click, or set your own width and height. Try out these new features on www.photoshop.com/express.
This tutorial is all about dragging an object around the stage. You will learn different ways to implement dragging. I'll also show you how to add some animation with the dragging. So start your Flash IDE and let's get going! ActionScript 3 startDrag and stopDrag methods The methods startDrag and stopDrag are probably the most easiest methods to implement dragging. Follow these steps and see yourself! View tutorial...
Source: Blue Flame Dev Now, creating awesome particle effects in ActionScript 3 is as easy as adjusting sliders! Check out the barebones build of the ParticleSun Explorer. Just set the values you want, and copy the code into your project. You can also get the early (unsigned) AIR app if you want quick access to the explorer. The ParticleSun explorer will set all of the basic values for you. There are many functions and properties that are not yet included in particle sun, such as custom particles, particle events, and many more. Keep an eye out for updates to the explorer. Please note: This works with the current version of ParticleSun (grab it on Google Code). Since neither of these products are a 1.0 release, there is no guarantee that the explorer’s code output will work with future versions of ParticleSun, although it is gaining API stability. Before you use the latest version of ParticleSun, make sure you also have the latest version of the explorer. See also
Source: Computerworld Not every employee is champing at the bit to telecommute. A survey commissioned by Steelcase Inc., a manufacturer of office furniture, shows that professionals have decidedly mixed feelings about the option of working from home. On one hand, respondents said that they believe it's important for employers to let their employees telecommute. They think that companies that let their people work from home will be more successful than companies that don't, because they believe that working outside the office increases morale and reduces attrition. Respondents also said that they see working from home as a way to help them achieve work-life balance. On the other hand, many of these same respondents worry about their employers' perceptions of telecommuting. Almost half (46%) of the respondents said that their employers allow them to work from home, but less than one-third (32%) said they participate in telecommuting arrangements. That's because they feel that their employers really prefer that they work in an office -- both to control the work environment and to prevent a decline in productivity. Respondents also worry that working from home will hamper their career growth. The survey of 700 white collar professionals was conducted over the phone in early June. Here are some of the highlights: - More than half of respondents said it's important for a company to endorse telecommuting.
- Of the 32% of respondents who have the option to telecommute but don't, 71% said they feel their employers would rather they work in the office to prevent a dip in productivity, and 64% said they think they'll miss out on a promotion.
- 80% of respondents said that they think existing technology allows them to remain just as connected to the office while working at home.
- Half of respondents said that they're more productive in a different work environment.
- More than half said that they think companies that promote telecommuting will be more successful than companies that don't.
- Over 80% said that having the option of working from home increases employee morale and reduces turnover.
- 80% said that they believe the telecommuting trend will continue to grow over the next five years.
- 62% said that they think their employers prefer employees to work in the office to prevent a lack of communication.
- 41% said that they believe that their employers don't let people telecommute because they think the cost of the technology needed to support telecommuters is prohibitive.
- 61% of employees who telecommute do so balance their family and work lives; 37% do so to reduce their carbon footprint.
Adobe Flash is an excellent technology that allows developers to add interactivity and smooth animations to web pages. Its popularity is so immense that you’ll find many websites dedicated to helping developers interested in Flash. In this article, you’ll find 12 wonderful websites that’s worth a bookmark if you’re looking into sharpening your Flash development skills. For each entry, you’ll find three tutorials from the website so that you can see what’s in store for you. Read full article...
This is a simple and quick tutorial for creating a custom scroll bar. We’ll dynamically load in our text using an array in Actionscript then we’ll connect a custom scrollbar. In the files below we have three Movie Clips on the stage, two hands and a square. The two hands will act as our pointers allowing us to gradually scroll up and down. The square will act as our slider allowing us to slide the content up or down as you would do with a normal scrollbar slider. Continue reading...
 Adobe Flex® evangelist Ted Patrick has spent endless hours planning more than 200 sessions for Adobe MAX 2008. In this interview, Ted provides the inside scoop on this year's premier community event.
View video ›
 Free Application: KiGoo by Kayxo Now Enables Google Users to Manage and Update their contacts and calendar trough MS Outlook
With KiGoo, users are able to instantaneously create, read, update or delete contacts and appointments in their Google Calendar directly from their MS Outlook interface. The new application KiGoo offers users a convenient two-way link of Google and MS Outlook. The application, running with Kayxo Insight technology, enables Google users to fully manage their main calendar and contacts through the MS Outlook interface. Exchange and Google Calendar in Side by Side view.
KiGoo users are able in real time to create, read, update or delete appointments in their Google Calendar directly from MS Outlook because the KiGoo application takes advantage of Kayxo Insight platform's .NET extensibility to access directly to the Google API. Kayxo technology enables this capability to act as a bridge between any external API or database and MS Outlook, leveraging the low access MAPI protocol but avoiding applications to deal with it directly. In addition to being able to manage both Exchange and Google calendars in one program, KiGoo enables users to check the availability status of all Google contacts who share their information. And no synchronization is needed to be able to see, browse, update, email and invite Google contacts from MS Outlook. Get KiGoo Free! www.getkigoo.com
This easy installation application operates in real time and is free to download. KiGoo supports MS Outlook 2003/2007, costs nothing to download or utilize, and is supported by the technology platform Kayxo Insight.
By David A. Utter  Yahoo opened a new API for developers, this time tapping their index of information about music and artists.
Web developers with a need for a more musical experience on their sites may want to check out the latest service being made available by Yahoo. The Yahoo Music API debuted on the company's Developer Network, Yahoo announced today: The Yahoo! Music API gives developers access to the Yahoo! Music catalog of artists, albums, tracks, videos, ratings and more. It provides numerous ways to browse the catalog: through charts, search, similarities, genres, artists, and user recommendations and ratings. Adding content to your site becomes simple when using our API and video player. A site developer could use this API to build an application with personalized features. Registered users could place their ratings and recommendations under unique profiles. An application could use that information to show visitors what its members think about a given song or artist. The Music API is the latest in a string of such access to data Yahoo continues to make available. Yahoo opened its biggest index, search, through its SearchMonkey developer tool earlier in 2008.
We are very pleased that Flex 3 has won Best Open Source developer tool for RIAs as part of InfoWorld's Best of Open Source Software Awards. Help us continue to be the best by staying connected on the Flex Open Source site and contributing in the various ways we have listed.... Continue reading ...
by Dale, Noponies Blog The NpFlexLayout Class is designed to simplify aligning DisplayObjects to stage dimensions and responding to changes in stage dimensions at run time by a user or between different users. This supersedes a simpler implementation of this approach, called “ActionScript 3 Liquid Layout Manager”, which I’ll leave on the site. As opposed to the LayoutManager class, the NpFlexLayout class is an actual layout manager, taking care of instantiating, destroying and passing on requests to instances of an internal class called NpFLexLayoutItem which wraps each displayObject passed to the NpFlexLayout Class. Class Features - Position objects (x,y) on the stage as a proportion of the stages dimensions
- offSet each displayObject (x,y) from where it would be by an absolute pixel value
- set objects to stretch to fit either stage width / height or a proportion of stage dimensions
- per object minX & minY settings where reflowing, resizing will cease
- use either the clips registration point, or its visual center (width/height)
- pause, resume displayObjects responding to resize events
- update individual class properties at runtime
- tween objects properties at runtime (uses internal simple tween method)
- set tween easing
- add, remove displayObjects from class
View Example
Here is an example; http://www.noponies.com/dev/as3_flexlayout/ Source Files
Here are the relevant source file; http://www.blog.noponies.com/wp-content/uploads/npflexlayout.zip
By J. Nicholas Hoover, InformationWeek  Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 on Wednesday. The new database software is a continuation of Microsoft's efforts to bolster SQL Server's credibility as a highly scalable database and the cornerstone to Microsoft's evolving "data platform."
"If you added up all of our investments in SQL Server 2008, it was data warehouse scale that got the highest level of investment," Ted Kummert, the VP of Microsoft's data platform and storage division, said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. Microsoft already claims numerous deployments of multiterabyte, heavily accessed databases and has largely gotten over its reputation as a system that couldn't scale, but the company continued that focus in this release. SQL Server has been selling well -- it's growing faster than competitors, according to the most recent IDC research estimates -- and Microsoft expects this growth to continue. However, though placed in the leadership column of Gartner's magic quadrant for data warehouse database management systems last year, Microsoft still lagged behind IBM, Oracle, and Teradata. A number of features in SQL Server 2008 focus closely on scalability. New data-compression features let users store more information in less space. There are a number of new features aimed at scaling performance. And a feature called the resource governor, which Microsoft referred to on the call as the top feature of SQL Server 2008, eases management of concurrent workloads by controlling the amount of CPU and memory that applications use. Other important enhancements in SQL Server 2008 are new data types such as spatial data, better connectivity with third-party apps from companies like Oracle, new integration points with Office, a new report builder, easier encryption, and policy-based management features to enforce compliance. The release was on track with its initial schedule almost three years after the last version's debut, despite delays that pushed the new software out of the spotlight during the megacelebration of the release of the new editions of SQL Server, Visual Studio, and Windows Server earlier this year. SQL Server is gradually becoming a centerpiece of Microsoft's suite of data offerings. "In our view, SQL Server is a lot more than a database," Fausto Ibarra, director of product management for SQL Server, said on the call. "It is an integral part of our data platform." Supporting products like PerformancePoint provide added business intelligence capabilities, SharePoint provides a place where data can be shared, and recently announced SQL Server Data Services begin Microsoft's path toward providing ways for developers and businesses to tap into an online data infrastructure. SQL Server Data Services is a service similar to Amazon's SimpleDB, though it will likely take a more robust shape in the coming months. The SQL Server Data Services team is slated to show off the latest features at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference in October. "Our intent here is to provide a consistent platform such that you as an application provider have a consistent model to think about," Kummert said, possibly hinting that more traditional relational database features could be on the way for the service. "We will provide a consistent data model across all tiers, whether it be the edge, the data center, or the cloud." There's no change in pricing from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008, as first announced last year. Microsoft offers a number of SQL Server versions, including the base Standard edition, one aimed at the enterprise, Workgroup, Web, and Developer editions. Two free versions, SQL Server Express and SQL Server Compact, are available to those who only need modest database capabilities. Microsoft plans to support Windows Server 2008's new Hyper-V hypervisor in SQL Server within 30 days of the database software's release. It also intends to provide enterprises and developers with documentation on best practices of how to use the two technologies in tandem.
HotScripts mailed this morning quite interesting stats on current job trends, I'm including some details below. Salary Trends -The 2008 IT Salary Guide published by Robert Half Technology lists a broad range of IT salaries based on U.S data. It reports an average of $76,250 to $108,250 for the ‘Senior Web Developer’ position, which is an increase of 6.6% over this job’s 2007 salary range. The report gets more remarkable as you drill down the different skills and their respective salary increase: - Java development – 10%
- LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl) – 5%
- AJAX – 5%
- CFML development – 5%
- Visual Basic .NET – 10%
- C# development – 12%
Ranking the different programming languages by annual salaries based on Indeed Salary Search, C++ ranks first, followed by Python, C# and PHP and ASP.NET ranked last. Programming Languages - To get an overview of jobs based on the most popular programming languages, we’ve used SimplyHired, a job search engine with data derived from millions of jobs indexed over the past few years. Here is a breakdown on the current trends since November 2006: - Perl jobs decreased 40%
- Python jobs decreased 9%
- PHP jobs increased 35%
- Ruby jobs increased 23%
- ASP jobs decreased 48%
- ASP.NET jobs decreased 31%
- Java jobs decreased 39%
- AJAX jobs increased 77%
- Ruby On Rails jobs increased 238%
- Flash jobs increased 2%
Geographic Trends – The job market differs both in terms of programming languages and salary average in different locations. In large metropolitan areas like Boston, New York and Stamford, the salaries are higher than the national average. In UK for instance, the average salary for a senior developer would be slightly less than the US while being almost 50% less in India. Freelance Jobs – Not every business needs a full-time developer and lately, with the increase of freelance job boards, the number of freelance jobs has increased accordingly. FreelanceSwitch.com, for example, reports 150 new freelance jobs monthly, while SimplyHired, a job search engine, shows an increase of 341% of ‘Freelance Web Programmer’ jobs. The success of freelance job boards relies on the fact that different freelancers can bid for a job giving the job poster several potential candidates to choose from.
Source: Inquisitr  Google will serve ads into Microsoft’s Silverlight 2 platform, the company has confirmed.
Google’s original announcement that DoubleClick would start powering Silverlight 2-based ads disappeared shortly after its posting this morning, leading us to question what was up with the deal. Google tells us, though, that the vanishing act was a result of a “glitch” on its web site and was unrelated to the deal itself. It was fixed just a few minutes ago. So, it’s a go: The new partnership will launch with the monetization of 2,500 hours of Silverlight NBC Olympic content. DoubleClick’s already on-board for ad serving with Flash, RealMedia, and Windows Media, so the addition of Silverlight 2 only makes sense from Google’s perspective — though it’s probably not a positive reflection on Microsoft, with the company turning to its competitor for help on its own product.
 The widespread adoption of XML has profoundly altered the way that information is exchanged within and between enterprises. XML, an extensible, text-based markup language, describes data in a way that is both hardware- and software-independent. As such, it has become a standard of choice for a growing number of Web services and Service Oriented Architectures. With a vast amount of data being published in XML format by multiple sources, the need has arisen for an easy and efficient means of extracting and manipulating this information. XQuery has emerged as an ideal way to aggregate data from Web services, relational databases, and other applications that employ XML.
Read more...
by Flash My Mind blog In this tutorial, we're going to apply blur and bevel filters to images. All the animation is done with ActionScript 3.0 of course. Move your mouse over to the images to see the effects. When you master these, you'll be able to create other filter effects as well. So start your Flash and let's get started. Setting up the environment - Create a new document of size 500x250.
- Import two images to the stage (about size 200x200). You can import one rectangular and one round image as I have done.
- Convert both images into movie clips. You can name them to whatever you want. Set the registration points to the center.
- Give them instance names of "apple01" and "apple02".
Moving into ActionScript 3 Open your actions panel and type the following. //These are used for animating the filters
var blurSpeed:Number = 1;
var bevelSpeed:Number = 5;
//Add the MOUSE_OVER listener to each apple
apple01.addEventListener (MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, mouseOverApple01);
apple02.addEventListener (MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, mouseOverApple02);
//Add the MOUSE_OUT listener to each apple
apple01.addEventListener (MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseOutApple01);
apple02.addEventListener (MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseOutApple02);
/*
Add the ENTER_FRAMEs for both apples, so we can animate them
in each frame.
*/
apple01.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameApple01);
apple02.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameApple02);
// Create and assign the blur filter to apple01.
var blur:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter();
blur.blurX = 20;
blur.blurY = 20;
blur.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH;
apple01.filters = [blur];
//Create a BevelFilter for apple02
var bevelFilter:BevelFilter = new BevelFilter(10,
45,
0x000000,
1,
0xffffff,
1,
0,
0,
0,
BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH,
BitmapFilterType.INNER,
false);
apple02.filters = [bevelFilter];
//Set the default values (mouse is not over the apples)
var mouseIsOverApple01:Boolean = false;
var mouseIsOverApple02:Boolean = false;
//This is called when mouse is over apple01
function mouseOverApple01 (event:MouseEvent):void {
mouseIsOverApple01 = true;
}
//This is called when mouse is over apple02
function mouseOverApple02 (event:MouseEvent):void {
mouseIsOverApple02 = true;
}
//This is called when mouse is out of apple01
function mouseOutApple01 (event:MouseEvent):void {
mouseIsOverApple01 = false;
}
//This is called when mouse is out of apple02
function mouseOutApple02 (event:MouseEvent):void {
mouseIsOverApple02 = false;
}
//This function animates apple01
function enterFrameApple01 (event:Event):void {
//If mouse is over the apple, decrease the blur
if (mouseIsOverApple01 == true) {
blur.blurX -= blurSpeed;
blur.blurY -= blurSpeed;
}
/*
If the mouse is out of the apple,
and the blur is not over 20,
we increase the blur.
*/
if (mouseIsOverApple01 == false && blur.blurX <= 20) {
blur.blurX += blurSpeed;
blur.blurY += blurSpeed;
}
/*
We need to assign the filter again since we
made changes to the blur filter.
*/
apple01.filters = [blur];
}
//This function animates apple02
function enterFrameApple02 (event:Event):void {
//If mouse is over the apple, increase the blur until we reach 100
if (mouseIsOverApple02 == true && bevelFilter.blurX < 100) {
bevelFilter.blurX += bevelSpeed;
bevelFilter.blurY += bevelSpeed;
//We need to assign a strength to the bevel to make it visible
bevelFilter.strength = 5;
}
//If mouse is out of the apple02, decrease the blur
if (mouseIsOverApple02 == false) {
bevelFilter.blurX -= bevelSpeed;
bevelFilter.blurY -= bevelSpeed;
}
/*
If we are sure that no blur is applied,
we make the whole bevel filter invisible (strength is 0).
Otherwise we would see some ugly corners.
*/
if(bevelFilter.blurX == 0) {
bevelFilter.strength = 0;
}
/*
We need to assign the filter again since we
made changes to the bevelFilter filter.
*/
apple02.filters = [bevelFilter];
} You are done, test your movie! If you have any questions concerning this tutorial, please visit the forum. Have a nice day!
by InfoQ It was only recently that Amazon took cloud computing mainstream with the release of EC2. They are not the only game in town however. This new article takes a look at cloud server providers EC2, Mosso, and GoGrid. The idea of providing IT capabilities as services using the Internet is relatively new and has recently peaked a lot of interest. There have been several articles on Infoq which provided “An Introduction to Virtualization” and security but there hasn’t been a comparison of the different “cloud” providers. This article will cover three “cloud” companies that provide server centered solutions. It will provide an overview of how to get started with each one. Each will also be compared in terms of features, pricing and availability. Read full article...
by Ntt.cc  Problem Summary： Once I want to display a series article of Flex performance from InsideRIA(www.insideria.com) in my blog. I recognized that the amount of the articles is increasing. I should keep the links dynamically. However, I am not the provider of the blog system, so I cannot modify the codes to meet my requirement. Luckily, I can embed SWF in my blog articles. So, I just need to develop a simple RSS reader in SWF format.
Solution Summary: I do not want to parse the RSS myself. It’s a hard work to deal with. I tried to find some open source library of RSS parsing in programmed by action script 3.0. Googled for many, I got the syndication library(http://code.google.com/p/as3syndicationlib/) at last. Use the syndication library to parse Atom and all versions of RSS easily. This library hides the differences between the formats so you can parse any type of feed without having to know what kind of feed it is. The detailed information will be found in the project home(http://code.google.com/p/as3syndicationlib/). Then, I started to develop my own RSS reader  Demo |  Download Full Project
 By INQUIRER Newsdesk
GOOGLE has paid a reported $15 million for a video editing start-up called Omnisio. The deal is good news for a trio of Aussie entrepreneurs who left Her Madge's far-flung outpost to make their fortunes in Silicon Valley. The deal should keep them in amber nectar and Sheilas for a few weeks. Omnisio software is designed to be used with Youtube clips, allowing users to edit and fiddle willy-nilly to produce new content from old. The firm's threesome said on their web site: "We've been acquired by Google and will soon be joining the Youtube team, aligning us with the market leaders in online video." Google reckons the Omnisio team, "has tremendous technical expertise when it comes to advanced video tools and having this kind of talent at Youtube should help us further explore ways to enhance your Youtube experience."
Angus and dev.live.com announced on the 28th July 2008 that the July refresh of the Windows Live Tools would include the release of the much anticipated Virtual Earth ASP.NET control. 
The control is a complete drag and drop experience from within Visual Studio 2008. Drag the map from your toolbox onto your design surface and resize to suit. As you would expect all Virtual Earth 6.1 properties can be set as properties of the control, there are a full set of server side and client side events for the map and a range of very cool client side extenders. Through a series of videos we take you through the full experience of installing the control and coding with its basic features. Each video is fairly detailed and runs for about 5-7min. They are hosted by Silverlight Streaming so you will need to install the latest Beta2 Silverlight Client or download the wmv file directly. Through the videos I hope to not only guide you through how I saw the control being used when I designed it but also share some tips and insights. The videos where recorded at 1024x768px @ 30fps and rescaled for this presentation. Every single sample shown can be downloaded as part of a single package that is also hosted online. It is my hope this sample will grow in time to include some complex examples. Your feedback is welcome. Videos after the jump Read more...
by Thomas Baekdal It is amazing that what used to be science fiction is now pretty much reality. The inventions have already been made, the innovative ideas have been put forward, the technology is more than capable, and the cost is not a problem either. So what is the problem? Why don't we yet live in the sci-fi future we dream of? The answer is simply speaking "lack of implementation". We have all the stuff we need, but we have not yet implemented it. Instead we spend all our time talking about it, and almost no time creating anything. The most astounding thing is that 99% of all the "future" concepts that we see, could be made with current advancements in technology. Most of the stuff that we dream about is actually possible to do. Wireless Life A couple of weeks ago I came across WirelessLife.com. It is a site made by Qualcomm and it illustrates daily life in a world where all devices has built in Wi-Fi. The most remarkable thing is that we can already do it. It is not a future concept. The technology and the inventions exist today, and parts of it is also already implemented in a number of devices around the globe. Continue reading...
Source: Hassel Quist blog Scroll scrollbar when mouse is moving in a specified area and mouse button is down. Problem Summary? In a flex project, I need to insert an object to a object list which is derived from Container component. However, the list has fixed width and height, and the items of the list are too many to display one-time. So i have to scroll the list to the proper position then drag the object from a panel and insert it. I need a convenient way to complete this. I worte an AutoScrollManager utility to help myself. Solution Summary: I add an event listener to the stage object of container’s systemManager object. It’s used to find the proper Container during the run-time because the container cannot trigger the MouseMove event while I am dragging the object from the panel. It is covered by what I am dragging. I have to find the proper container according to the Mouse coordinates. The function findContainer helps me a lot. Despite of this big problem, there is nothing hard to deal with. Continue reading...
by Evan Mullins Allowing users to use the keyboard as well as the mouse is a great way to incite interaction with your flash. This tutorial will show how to code it and what you can do with some keyboard events. This changed with ActionScript 3, note this tutorial is AS3. altKeY (Boolean) Indicates whether the Alt key is active (true) or inactive (false).
charCode (uint) Contains the character code value of the key pressed or released.
ctrlKey (Boolean) Indicates whether the Control key is active (true) or inactive (false).
keyCode (uint) The key code value of the key pressed or released. KeyboardEvent
keyLocation (uint) Indicates the location of the key on the keyboard. KeyboardEvent
shiftKey (Boolean) Indicates whether the Shift key modifier is active (true) or inactive (false). Read full article...
from Ajaxian by Dion Almaer Andi Gutmans of Zend has posted on a proposal for AMF support in the Zend Framework, which is being lead by the AMFPHP project leader, Wade Arnold. This ZF component will allow for client-side applications built with Flex and Adobe AIR to communicate easily and efficiently with PHP on the server-side. We are excited about this proposal as it is consistent with our emphasis to be a heterogeneous “use-at-will” framework and as it substantially strengthens Zend Framework’s RIA story. It is also another industry heavyweight joining as an official ZF contributor and joining the likes of IBM, Google and Microsoft in doing so. Now that we have the Dojo integration ready for ZF 1.6 as a great Ajax story, AMF will complement that with more of an Enterprise oriented solution. We are currently planning to have AMF support aligned with the ZF 1.7 release but we will know better once the proposal has made it through the proposal process. The proposal itself is here and its overview is: Zend_Amf_Server provides Action Message Format (AMF3) support for the Zend Framework that is compatible with the Flash Player 9 and above. The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and Flash Player uses AMF to communicate between an application and a remote server. AMF encodes remote procedure calls (RPC) into a compact binary representation that can be transferred over HTTP/HTTPS protocol. Objects and data values are serialized into this binary format, which increases performance as the AMF serialization is a highly optimized procedure in the Flash Player. Zend_Amf_Server will act as an AMF gateway to the Zend Framework by exposing through introspection custom class objects and functions that will respond as callbacks through the Zend_Amf_Server gateway.
Source: Noponies Blog ActionScript 3 Full Browser Background Image. This is the second iteration of this class. I decided to put the NpFSObjectResize Class to use within this demo, using that class as the superclass for here. As a result, this new version of this file is much more capable, supporting stage alignment modes along with a simple method for loading in new background images. You could use that feature to create a simple full browser slideshow, but be warned that I have not used the same bitmapData memory management techniques as I have within the Full Browser Cross Fading demo. So, your memory useage could get higher using this class as a slideshow (as you will be waiting on the garbage collector to do its thing). Class Features - Stage Alignment Modes
- Load New Bg Method
- Specify Cross Fading Time
- Specify Min Stage Scale points
View Example Source Files
Source: The Cosmonaut While helping out on the forums at FlashKit, I came across this post: Hello,
We have a project that requires free falling snow flakes. When the cursor enters the stage we need the flakes to ‘rush’ toward the pointer and follow it. When the cursor leaves the stage the flakes drift away and down. Can anyone point me toward an FLA or tutorial? Many thanks Well, for some reason I got all obsessed with this question and I wrote the following tutorial. I did a rough version that emulates this effect. You can probably fine-tune it to be nicer, but this will get you started. Here’s what you need to do: Continue reading...
Source: Summit Projects Flash Blog This is the first of what I hope will be a series. We’ll call this part, Only Getting Halfway with AS3’s Built-In Sound Capabilities. I’ve spent close to a week working on a little application, which has so far turned out pretty nice. The end result is an AIR app that reads sound files, draws their waveforms, and then saves out a PNG of each sound’s waveform. Easy peasy, right? Sure enough, we thought this would be a pretty quick job. Just use the built-in SoundChannel.peakLeft and peakRight properties, or perhaps SoundMixer.computeSpectrum(). Load an MP3, set up a loop to play a Sound from an incremented position, and grab the peak values. Should take a few minutes, tops! Except that that approach has several flaws. Continue reading...
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