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.