Blowing my own trumpet for a moment… last week I sat and passed as Adobe® Certified Expert in Flex with AIR. Which I hope will help make my case with prospective clients.
01
Feb
2009
Flash Platform
28
Jan
2009
going to see what haXe is all about…
… at the London Flash Platform User Group… tomorrow (29 Jan 2009).
26
Jan
2009
AS3 reference docs on iPhone / iPodTouch
Really handy! … ActionScript 3, Air and Flex documentaion distributed as an application on iPhone and iPodTouch – by Mike Chambers.
Downloaded it, had a play, simple and effective. A ‘back’ button would be nice though in future versions 🙂
23
Nov
2008
an AIR pet hate : Forcing Windows UI on users of other platforms
An emerging pet hate of mine: AIR applications that do-away with the system chrome, only to then re-implement parts of it, but ignoring host-system conventions. Note this isn’t anything to do with AIR itself, more to do with designers and/or developers not entirely considering user-experience across all platforms.
The example above taken from Tour de Flex.
Personally for this app I see no reason not to have used the host system’s chrome. Doing so would have entirely avoided this issue. But to re-implement fundamental controls such as those pictured using positioning and icons based on only one operating system in an app which is cross-platform undermines the user-experience for users of other systems. In the example, a Windows arrangement and appearance is used which feels wrong on a Macintosh system, where the arrangement should be reversed and in the left rather than the right corner of the window. That it is Adobe setting this presedent in a number of their AIR applications is disapointing. I hope it is a convention other AIR developers will not follow. I certainly wont.
18
Nov
2008
1st debug run following Flex SDK 3.2 update
Will probably yield scary looking error:
Process terminated without establishing connection to debugger.
Command:
“/Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/sdks/3.2.0/bin/adl” -runtime “/Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/sdks/3.2.0/runtimes/air/mac” /PathToProject/bin-debug/Project-app.xml /PathToProject/bin-debug
Output from command:
error while loading initial content
So, basically by setting the project to compile against the SDK 3.2 you are implicitly changing the version of AIR you are building against from earlier versions to 1.5. To fix you need to open file :
/PathToProject/Project-app.xml
and change the namespace to “http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5”
This has already been logged as a bug (FB-15687) in the bugbase against Gumbo, by the release of which, hopefully it will be intercepted to present a more meaningful message.
17
Nov
2008
Peddling Tour de Flex
New Tour De Flex application looking like a very cool and a very useful resource. More information…
Basically it’s a Flex Component explorer as an AIR application and Eclipse plugin.
Just thinking I’d have preferred that the System Chrome was used in the AIR app to provide the min/max/close buttons rather than those alien windows style icons on the wrong side of the window. Mac user me! 😉
17
Nov
2008
brushing up on flex and effects
This week I’ll be mostly getting my head around effects. Unfortunately missed Tink’s LFPUG presentation, but just been doing a catchup with the video and resources, I think worth re-posting here…
- Flex Effects – video of the session
- Presentation Slides – easier to read than squinting at the video
- http://www.efflex.org/
- Explorer – very good Effect explorer in the style of the Flex Style Explorer
23
Sep
2008
looking forward to this week’s LFPUG
Really haven’t spent enough time ‘finenessing’ Flex based UIs recently, so especially looking forward to a something of a fast-track on Flex Effects in Tink‘s presentation.
Always good to hear how others work with their clients too in the “ActionScript in Commercial Environment”session.
Full details: London Flash Platform User Group 25th Sept 2008
02
Jul
2008
understanding source code licensing
When researching ActionScript libraries to include in a project, it is tempting to simply look to see that it has an open-source license and just use it. However closer reading may often reveal that the license burdens the developer with responsibilities which may make use of the code irreconcilable with the project requirements. Grant Skinner has published a valuable plain English summary and comparison of the common source code licenses. My take from it, is that if the source you are hoping to use is published with any license other than MIT, chances are you are not going to like some of the license conditions and you certainly need to research them.
21
Jun
2008
AIR update Framework (beta), locating config file
When using the Adobe AIR Update Framework for the first time, you will be stepping through the associated documentation. You will probably initially decide to use a configuration XML file to govern the update process. The documentation presents the following line to inform the framework of the location of your config file:
Point the configurationFile property to the location of that file: as in the following ActionScript:
appUpdater.configurationFile = new File("cfg/updateConfig.xml");
If you are familiar with the File class, you will see that this is likely to generate a run-time-error, especially when testing in adl…
ArgumentError: Error #2004: One of the parameters is invalid.
at Error$/throwError()
at flash.filesystem::File/set nativePath()
at flash.filesystem::File()
If you are like me, you’ll probably want to place the updateConfig.xml file within the application directory next to the *-app.xml file. If so, the line of code you need can be written:
appUpdater.configurationFile = new File( File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath( "updateConfig.xml" ).nativePath );
or more compactly, using the “app:/” url scheme:
appUpdater.configurationFile = new File( "app:/updateConfig.xml" );