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Have you made the upgrade yet?

You can download the new version of Flash from here: http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer.

Alright i am one of those who haven’t. I am looking forward to this upgrade though. With the new FileReference implementation, now i should be able to send Byte Data to my BlazeDS service. Yes FileUpload with BlazeDS should be possible now. I shall try it out this weekend and share.

Just in case someone faced the same problem i did. Here’s the actual code to download a file with Flex


var fileToDownload:FileReference = new FileReference();
private function downloadFile(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest("file.txt");
fileToDownload.download(request, "aSpecificFilenameChosenByYou.txt");
}

It doesn’t work if your file reference object is declared as a local variable. For the non-coders, here is the negative example.

private function downloadFile(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest("file.txt");
var fileToDownload:FileReference = new FileReference();
fileToDownload.download(request, "aSpecificFilenameChosenByYou.txt");
}

Today, there is only one API for creating production grade front end for RIA talking to Java. It’s called Adobe Flex. In 2010, JavaFX may become another alternative. But meanwhile, please stop bashing Java. Do not forget that many of these new popular programming languages exist because there is a J2EE application they need to connect to. Do not forget that Java puts bread on the tables of many people (including mine) around the world. Do not spit in the well you drink from.

Yakov Fain from Farata Systems » Flex is strong because of Java.

I can feel so much from what Yakov has written. I totally agree with him. Coming from an enterprise world, it is really where the big money pot is. No offense to the other languages, you can laugh all you want about Java but you are missing out on the potential Java can give to a Flex application. I am still a little skeptical about JavaFX. Let’s see what Sun can do with JavaFX.

I have package my slides and source codes. Click here if you wish to download it.

Something that i was unable to share with everyone. I have used BlazeDS with Spring and Hibernate. For my Flex client, i have used Flex with Cairngorm.

Have a look at the codes…

Drop me a msg if you have trouble setting the source codes up. You can tweet me @kennethteo.

Cairngorm is the lightweight micro-architecture for Rich Internet Applications built in Flex or AIR. A collaboration of recognized design patterns, Cairngorm exemplifies and encourages best-practices for RIA development advocated by Adobe Consulting, encourages best-practice leverage of the underlying Flex framework, while making it easier for medium to large teams of software engineers deliver medium to large scale, mission-critical Rich Internet Applications.

Cairngorm Project Home at Adobe Open Source

Great news to the Flex community that Cairngorm is now open-sourced. I can only hope for more great things to come. Having completed my first project using Cairngorm, i would certainly recommend it to anyone who is using Flex in their projects.

Here’s a video about customising your own skin for your Flex controls. Simply cool! This feature is certainly something i am looking forward to.

I am excited to share this piece of news.

The Singapore Flex User Group is organising The Actionscript Conference on 19 October 2008 at the National Library. Expect lots of exciting things at this conference. Peter Elst is one of the invited key speakers.

The Actionscript Conference is a community conference with the focus on Flash Platform. Attendents will see themselves immersed in a day of learning, knowledge exchange, and networking. TAC aims to bring topics on Actionscript 3.0, Flash development, Enterprise Flex, AIR, Integrating of Flash and other Platforms, and building Rich Internet Application to its audience.

The Actionscript Conference is organised by the Singapore Flex Usergroup. We aim to create a conference for the developers, by the developers.

Since this is a non-profit event, as part of the organising committee, i cordially invite you to join us as a sponsor(Sponsorship details). If you wish to offer your knowledge to this conference, it is much appreciated as we try to make this a successful event.

Merapi is a bridge between applications written in Java and those running in and created for Adobe AIR™ (Adobe Integrated Runtime™).

Merapi has been designed to run on a user’s machine, along with an Adobe AIR™application and providea direct bridge between the Adobe AIR™ framework and Java, exposing the power and overall calabilities of the user’s operating system, including 3rd party hardware devices.

Introduction to Merapi

Got this from insideRIA.com and the moment i saw Java and AIr, it got me excited. First thing that comes to mind is “No more jfc/swing interfaces”. But visiting their sites, i see more potential in this. Adam Flater has created a demo which shows the interaction between the mac accelerometer and AIR. Check out the demos here!

I signed up for the alpha and hope to play with it asap.

I have two different Flex apps, one compiled with Flex3(i call this F1) and the other compiled with Flex2(call this F2). Both are accessing the same endpoint.

Everything works fine when you access in the order of F2 and F1. Hell breaks loose when i access F1 followed by F2. I noticed that F1 creates a JSESSIONID cookie on my browser and deleting it allows my F2 to work.

My guess is that a bug was fixed between Flex3 and Flex2. Now i have to push up the schedule for a version upgrade for F2 app.

Some rules to remind myself

1. KISS
   • Reduce the use of nested containers
   • If you use many VBox-es and HBox-es to maintain proper layout, you might be better off with a Canvas
2. Use List, HorizontalList, TileList controls and sometimes repeaters(though List controls are still preferred)
   • Only the controls within the visible area will be generated for the List, HorizontalList and TileList controls.

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=Part2_DevApps_1.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/client_perf_04.html

Tags: flex, UI, design