Archive for Actionscript 2
April 30, 2008 at 11:52 pm · Filed under AIR (Apollo), Actionscript 2, Adobe, Flash, Flex, Mobile Development, OSFlash, Remoting, Tech
Life just got a lot more interesting for those who make a living working with Flash:
http://blogs.adobe.com/open/2008/04/the_open_screen_project.html
As a part of the announcement, Adobe is publishing exactly how the SWF format works without restrictions, and removing all other barriers to getting Flash on the widest range of devices. Set top/cable boxes, all mobile phones, televisions, your appliances... anything technical, really. Even those devices without a screen and/or user interface. Bill Perry does a great job of going into more detail on the implications for devices on his blog.
Ryan Stewart has a great post explaining all the implications of this announcement, for devices and desktop computers alike. He goes into more detail on the several parts of the announcement, so it is worth the read.
As someone who makes their living from the Flash ecosystem, you should care greatly about this announcement. It may not seem like it to a non-developer, but this is huge for anyone who knows how to use Flash. The thought of having Flash everywhere is finally a reality for those who want to include it in their products as a user interface layer, or even to allow developers to control the product using ActionScript. And this means that your capabilities to design, develop, and then deploy your Flash experiences just became more marketable and useful.
Lastly, as a member of the Flash community, you should also be excited about the implications this has on open source projects such as SWX, AMFPHP, and the like. The more open the specifications surrounding the various parts of the Flash ecosystem, the easier it is for members of the community to create tools and open source projects which contribute to the growth and prominence of said ecosystem... and make all of our lives as participants in that ecosystem that much more interesting and fun.
April 18, 2008 at 1:07 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Actionscript 3, Adobe, Books, Flash, Flex, Mobile Development, OSFlash, Personal
About a month ago Aral Balkan mentioned he wasn't finding the time to write a chapter on SWX for an upcoming Friends of Ed book, so I offered to step in to write the chapter for The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development on SWX for Flash and Flash Lite.
It is an honor to be a part of this book with such open source Flash community members as Chris Allen, John Grden, Wade Arnold, Carlos Ulloa, Moses Gunesch and others. You can read bios of all the authors on the book's bio page.
I am wrapping up the last round of review this weekend, and the book should be published and available in July. You can pre-order the book on Amazon.com today for about $31.
April 8, 2008 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Actionscript 3, Adobe, Flash, Flex, Remoting
We knew this was coming for some time now and today Adobe finally released the 9.0.124 Flash Player which includes security updates that have an effect on any sites you may have built using AMFPHP, SWX, or any other Flash remoting services.
At issue is the crossdomain.xml file -- you'll need to add or update the file to ensure your services continue to function properly. Wade Arnold, a contributor to AMFPHP (which is also included with and used in SWX) has a great write-up on how to fix AMFPHP/SWX including a sample you can download and edit for your domain on his blog.
More details about the player, and the newly revamped Flash Player Download Center, can be found on Justin Everett-Church's blog posting about Flash Player 9.0.124. Adobe Developer Center has a helpful write-up about the exact changes made. Lastly, John Dowdell has an informative post with lots of helpful links.
Adobe has done a great job with communicating to the community that this change would be coming, and has provided a lot of resources to ensure sites were not affected. Today's information push is just another example of the great communication. Kudos, Flash Player team!
March 13, 2008 at 10:27 am · Filed under Actionscript 2, Flash, SWFAddress, Video
Rostislav has done it again! The creator of SWFAddress just released a simple way of deep linking into video content via YouTube's new JavaScript API and SWFAddress.
Why is this so awesome? Well, with this added functionality you can now create 'chapters' in your content, without having to split up the video file. And with YouTube basically becoming a free streaming media provider with the release of their chromeless video player, the possibilities are endless.
Check out an example of the deep link, which starts the video 21 seconds in.
Rostislav goes into more detail on his blog post about the SWFAddress and YouTube API project, and you can download the sample now from the SWFAddress SVN.
January 23, 2008 at 3:14 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Actionscript 3, Flash, Flex
O'Reilly's Inside RIA site is off to a great start with a new article by Colin Moock, author of Essential ActionScript 3.0. In the article Colin attempts to answer the question: ActionScript 3.0: Is It Hard or Not?
I highly suggest reading the lengthy article, the gist of which is:
The most common laments I hear about ActionScript 3.0 are, "It’s too complicated," "It’s harder to learn/understand," and "It takes a lot more code to do things." Yet, rarely have I seen these complaints backed up by more than one or two examples. So let’s do some thorough investigation to see if ActionScript 3.0 really is as hard as people seem to think it is.
Like the users Colin speaks of, I have also often felt that using AS3 can result in more code than using AS2. While in most cases the additional code results in a more structured and OOP-sound project, that structure is not always necessary. I also felt that it was more complicated than AS2 once I started using AS3, but I have never heard anyone deny that there is a ramp-up period, even for the most skilled developers.
As more and more developers make the switch and as more clients require their projects be developed in AS3, most of us developers will no longer have the choice. This is the main reason I chose to make a concerted effort to learn AS3 and start using it in projects -- I didn't want to get blindsided with an AS3 project and all of the sudden need to spend most of the project schedule learning AS3. It should also be noted that just about every developer who I speak to about AS3 says they haven't looked back since transitioning to AS3.
I think for designer-types the situation is a bit different, however. For instance, I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked the question, "Should I switch to AS3?" by designers who are used to coding on the timeline. These designers can make their way around a Flash file with AS2, alter code they find on the internet, and have a functional project. In these cases, yes, AS3 seems like it is "too complicated" and "harder to learn/understand". AS3 is now a fully OOP language and without the base knowledge of OOP, one would be lost quickly. While these concepts can be learned, each person needs to decide if they would benefit from doing so. The general Flash concepts from AS2 have not changed in AS3 -- gotoAndPlay() and the like are still available. Loops, conditionals, and timeline functions all still work pretty much the same, so your base of reference for AS3 isn't too far off.
My take? Start using AS3 immediately. As a developer-type you'll be forced to learn it eventually, and you might as well start getting cozy now. If you are more of a designer-type you can still code on the timeline using AS3 if you prefer to do so, and by following some simple timeline coding concepts you could take your code to external class files once you feel comfortable doing so.
However, the big issue here is not one of just developer-types vs designer-types. No, it is that group in the middle that was starting to grow significantly due to Flash: the "designveloper" - those who have a great sense of design and the development know-how to make their visions a reality. Samuel Agesilas and his Saffron AIR application is a great example of this - a complex application that looks beautiful. I have also seen several speakers at conferences last year actually call themselves something along these lines. This group is now starting to shrink rapidly because of the additional OOP knowledge that is required with AS3, the perceptions of AS3 being "too complicated" and "harder to learn/understand", or just plain unwillingness to take the time needed to learn the new language. This is not to say it cannot and will not start to grow again once the Flash community becomes more comfortable with AS3, but that may take some time to happen. In the meantime, I'm doing as much as I can to stay a "designveloper" because I enjoy both the design and development. But, even with that mindful effort I have seen myself leaning more and more to the development side as I continue to program in AS3...
December 25, 2007 at 1:06 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Flash, OSFlash, PHP
Yesterday I received an email from Aral Balkan informing me that one of my entries in the SWX Contest won!
The Gal to Gal Walk site completed a few months back, which was one of (if not the) first large-scale site completed using SWX, won the website category. In addition, the Verisign Payment API service which was written for use on the Gal to Gal Walk site and enables interaction with the Versign/PayPal Payment Gateway through SWX came in third place in the services category.
There was some great competition, so I'm really happy to have placed in two categories and am also excited about the amazing prize package Aral has put together. What a great unexpected holiday gift!
A huge thanks to Aral and the sponsors!
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