nothing yet | jason madsen

We are about half way through Flash Camp Orlando. This mornings keynote was given by Greg Wilson who showcased the latest Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder builds. Pretty cool looking stuff. I am looking forward to getting into both of those apps.

I gave my presentation, “Making the jump to Flex”. I didn’t quite get a chance to show all of my examples, but as promised, here are my slides in .pdf form and Flex Builder project archives. The flex examples are pretty basic, but if you are just getting started with Flex, maybe you will find them helpful. I’m also posting the actual keynote slides ( as in .key, not .pdf ) the keynote is a bit large (17MB).

David Tucker’s presentation on AIR data persistence was great. We’re just now getting started with Carl Smith covering user experience.

So far so good. I’m digging the Flash Camp Orlando.

Jason

When you create a new project in Flex Builder, the IDE updates a config file buried in the preferences that marks the project’s ‘bin-debug’ folder as a trusted resource. In so doing when you run the project you are able to access local resources (i.e. a local XML file), and remote services at the same time. When you import a Flex Builder archive it is supposed to update the same config file with the ‘bin-debug’ folder of the newly imported project.

There is an apparent issue with Flex Builder (I am running FB on a Mac, but apparently it exists on Windows as well) in that when you import, move, or rename a project, it doesn’t update the config file. When the config file isn’t updated and you try to load a local resource the player will throw a “Security Error”. This isn’t a problem if you are only using local resources ( -use-network compiler flag ). But when you need to access local files and remote files or services this can be a real pain.

I had some time recently, and decided to look into the issue. In doing so I came across a couple of past articles:

This one by Mark Walters, and this one by Jesse Warden

The fix is easy enough, go add the path of your bin-debug folder to the config file. In case you skipped the links, you can find the file in the following location:

Mac:
/Users/userAccount/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#Security/FlashPlayerTrust/flexbuilder.cfg

PC:
C:\Documents and Settins\userName\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#Security\FlashPlayerTrust\flexbuilder.cfg

Updating the config file isn’t too big of a deal. However, to expedite a quicker fix, I have built an AIR app called bugrd! that will add a project’s debug folder to the config file for the user. Once the app is installed you simply drag your project folder and drop it on the interface. The interface will confirm the project that you have selected. Click the ‘un-bugr’ button, and it adds your debug folder to the local trusted list in the config file.

I am assuming that this will be cleared up some time (Flash Builder 4?), until then hopefully this’ll speed up the process.

You can install the bugrd from the install badge above, or you can download the .air installer here

Jason

Universal Mind and Adobe have announced Flash Camp Orlando, a full day event happening May 29th. I’m excited to have the mini conference here in my backyard. Tickets are available for $50 and include entrance to the event, parking, lunch, and door prizes. As I understand, the recent camp in Miami sold out, so go get your tickets now.

The local Adobe User Group (Adogo) has a raffle for a few free tickets as well. You can find more details at this post on the Adogo blog.

There is an impressive line-up of speakers including David Tucker, Andrew Powell, and Christian Saylor all from Universal Mind. As well as Greg Wilson from Adobe.

I’ll be presenting “Making the Jump to Flex”, an intro into migrating to the Flex Framework. Over the next few weeks my hope to is post a few brief articles aimed at getting up to speed with the basics of the Flex Framework.

In the mean time check out the speaker line up, and get your ticket.

I had a person or two ask about building Flash extensions and or want to modify the DocBuilder for their specific purpose. In response I’m putting up the source files for the DocBuilder as a reference to get people started. Building Flash extensions in my experience involves creating a Flash interface, and using that Flash interface to execute JSFL (JavaScript for Flash) functions. So you create a Flash interface, and then a JSFL file with functions that it will execute. You then create an xml file that is used by the Extension Manager to build your extension. Considering how simple it is, I’m surprised that there isn’t an overwhelming amount of extensions talked about.

If your interested and just getting started, Lee Brimelow posted a getting started video tutorial a while back at gotoAndLearn

A few years ago, I built a simple extension for the Flash IDE that would auto generate class files for me. I used it for a while, but shortly there after moved to Flex Builder as my editor. At the University, the OOP course I teach, starts out in the Flash IDE for a few weeks, and then moves to using Flex Builder as an editor for ActionScript projects.

Lately I’ve just really dreaded the Flash editor. I realize that it could come off as spoiled, but I really dislike typing out the usual skeleton code to get a class file started. Tonight I decided that I’d had enough, so while the students were working on projects, I decided to update my extension. I call it the DocBuilder. It asks you for the package, class name, and what class you would like to extend. It then asks you to save the file in the appropriate directory to match the package. Viola!!!! Stub code generated.

Here is a screen shot of the outputted class skeleton:

Feel free to download the extension from here.

Update: I found and fixed a small issue where the help button gave an error. The linked file above is the latest version and seems to be working well.

jason

So originally my work was planning on sending me (and a few others) to MAX NA 08, in San Fran. Without sounding too bitter, they changed the plans on us. So we are left in Orlando reading blog posts, and news updates from the sessions. Hopefully Adobe will put the videos up on Adobe TV like they have been with some of the recent conferences.

Anyhow, in my readings about MAX, I have come across the Tour De Flex application that a few of the Adobe evangelists have put together. It’s an AIR application that gives you samples on using everything Flex, from the very basics, to some interesting third party components, and even some cloud API’s. It has working examples for everything. A great application. They even have a system in place to allow developers to showcase their own work through a submission process. I can see this application being helpful for people just getting into Flex, or as a reference for Flex developers for those ‘how does that component work again…’ moments.

There is also an Eclipse plug in. It allows you to search for components. It will bring up a list of search results, double clicking the result opens Tour De Flex and displays examples, and descriptions.

I’m going to put the install badge in the widgets bar to the right for a while. Feel free to install it directly from the badge, or visit the Tour De Flex page, where they have the same badge in effect.

So, later tonight I’ll be speaking at the Adobe Developers of Greater Orlando (adogo) user group on Adobe AIR. We’ll be looking into File I/O and SQLite as I had previously mentioned. I thought I would post up the Slides as well as a few example flex projects that I will be go through in the presentation so that people can follow along on their own machine. You can download the zipped materials here

Jason

I will be presenting at the next Adobe Developers of Greater Orlando meeting. The presentation is entitled “Adobe AIR File I/O and Embedded SQLite”. I have posted a primer at the user groups page. You can read the details there. I’m hoping to cover both the technical details of the classes involved, as well as putting together examples.

If you are free on November 3rd, and in Orlando, come check it out.

jason

Not to far back I built a small application for the University that I work for. I called it the HelpDesk. I wrote the technical end of an article for Adobe about the application, how Flex was involved and other details. I didn’t realize that the article had gone live at Adobe’s site until this morning when I got an email from a colleague who mentioned the article. The app is described pretty thoroughly in the article so I won’t go into details here. The article is live at Adobe’s site, you can check it out here.

So day two was pretty interesting. Jeffry Houser gave an interesting session on building Flex Components. He has a comfortable, interactive style of speaking that works well, and keeps you involved with the session.

I really enjoyed the introduction to fluint, the Flex Unit testing project by Jeff Taper. Unit testing is one of those things that I would like to incorporate more into projects, but have always balked at the time considerations involved. I think the fluint project is really come along.

I think my favorite session of the day was Christophe Coenraets (Adobe Evangelist). It was a pretty high level overview of LiveCycle Data Services, and using remote objects. It didn’t get into too much of the tech details, but I really enjoyed the session. He also showed an interesting Flex portal application that was using Modules and a Module Loader.

After talking with Jeffry Houser for a few minutes, he talked me into doing an quick interview for the Flex Show. I was really flattered to be a part of the show. We mostly talked about the conference sessions and my thoughts on them. I have been listening to the Flex Show for a while now, so it was nice to meet Jeffry, and be on the show. You can check out the latest show, episode # 56 to hear it from here.

I ended up having to leave just before the mixer at the end to catch a cab to the airport. I was disappointed at missing that.

All in all it was a great two day event. I’m glad I went. Thanks to 360 | Flex and the NJ Flex group for putting it together.