jun :: realeyes

Last week David and I gave a presentation on peer-assisted networking in Flash Player 10, 10.1 and AIR 2. This presentation was based on the presentation we gave at 360|Flex earlier this year with some updated slides and some new demos.

So, to start you can check out the resource page for the original presentation we gave.  There you will find the slides and the first round of demos: http://www.iheartair.com/?page_id=609

In addition to that, we now have an updated slide deck: http://www.iheartair.com/samples/conferences/rtmfp_edu/P2P_RTMFP_Welcome_edu.pdf

We also have two new demos:

New Demo 1 – Broadcasting Audio/Video using IP Multicast on a LAN

The first new demo took the existing Multiuser Video demo and enabled it for IP Multicast communication on a LAN without the need for Adobe Stratus: http://www.iheartair.com/samples/conferences/rtmfp_edu/RTMFP_IPMulticastDemo_Flash.fxp

New Demo 2 – eLearning POC

The second demo requires two application and represents some bare-bones concepts to allow one to build eLearning applications with real-time feedback and no need for servers other than Adobe Stratus:

1. The client is a Flash Player based application and uses OSMF to play some media.  It plays a movie for 20 seconds, then swaps it out for a SWF that asks the user what the movie title was.  If they type in ‘elephants dream’ then two things will happen.  First, the OSMF media player will allow the user to continue watching the movie.  Second, the application will use P2P to send real-time student feedback to the manager application. (Peer ID + “Test Passed”)  Here’s the source: http://www.iheartair.com/samples/conferences/rtmfp_edu/RTMFP_InteractiveOSMFDemo.zip
2. The manager application is an AIR 2 application.  It’s very basic and when you run it it will just show a blank screen.  However, if you leave it running and test the client application, you will start receiving feedback in this application whenever someone successfully types in ‘elephants dream’.  You can find the source here: http://www.iheartair.com/samples/conferences/rtmfp_edu/RTMFP_InteractiveOSMFManagerDemo.fxp

As always, these are presentation demos.  They should not be construed as production code…or even super clean code.  For the most part they were done in a hurry around ‘real’ work.  They will however illustrate the core concepts that you will need to build your peer-assisted Flash Player applications.

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions, and enjoy!

The Compilers will be playing a live funk rock show and giving a tech talk to walk through the apps we use on stage at the upcoming RMAUG.  For those that don’t know us, we are a three piece band of musicians that write code for a living and spend much of our time working with the Flash Platform.

The RMAUG meeting will be on the evening of Tuesday 6/8 and if you would like to attend, you can RSVP here: http://rmaug.com/

The beauty of this is that you don’t even need to attend in person since there will not only be a couple ways to watch the show remotely, but also to actually interact with our band and affect our music, that’s right, affect our music remotely no matter where you are in the world.  You just need an Internet-connected device.

So, geeks of the world unite and help us rock the world of Flash Platform goodness and learn something while you’re at it too.

Just as a teaser here’s some of the technology we’ll be using this time around:

• Flash 10.1
• AIR 2
• Adobe Stratus
• Merapi
• Megaphone
• Flash CS5
• Flash Catalyst CS5
• Flash Builder 4
• and much more…

So get your RSVP on…and experience geekRock as you’ve never experienced it before.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.  I’ve been in the trenches lately.  I just wanted to post an update on where you can catch my tech talks in the near future:

• Flash Media Server Users Group (Worldwide online on May 18, 2010 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (GMT-7 Mountain Time US & Canada))
• eLearning Devcon 2010 (Salt Lake City on June 16th – 18th)

Welcome to Adobe Stratus and Flash Player 10 P2P

• Rocky Mountain Adobe User’s Group (Casselman’s, Denver on June 8th, with the Compilers)

L33t Musicians Use Flash

Rock, robots, Flash, funk and a damn good time.  Come watch the Compilers demonstrate the use of Flash Platform technology during live performance and technical discussion.  Not only will you get your groove on with live music, but you’ll learn about what’s under the hood to drive this one of a kind musical experience. The Compilers will be playing tunes for you and be talking about how to build applications utilizing cutting edge technologies that are based on the Flash Platform.  Make sure to bring your cell phones and Internet connected devices!

See you soon!

The slides and sample apps for the Flex and Silverlight stack comparison talk that I gave at 360 Flex with Eric Fickes are now available.  You can find them here: http://www.iheartair.com/?page_id=604

The slides and sample code for the Peer-assisted networking talk that I gave at 360 Flex with David Hassoun are now available.  You can find them here: http://www.iheartair.com/?page_id=609

On Tuesday, March 2nd O’Reilly’s Global Ignite Week is making it’s way to Denver. Ground zero is going to take place at Rackhouse pub @ 6:45pm.  $2 Flying Dog Beers all night, a live comedian, and some cool door prizes. Heck, enter the speed round for your chance to win a genuine bottle of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey

Also, net proceeds for the event will be given to a local charity, The Bridge Project.

Not only will you get to experience my talk “Mainstream recycling practices are a crock of shit.” but you’ll see 15 other great sessions: http://ignitedenver.org/2010/02/ignite-denver-6-the-line-up/

So what are you waiting for?  Come help us Ignite Denver!  Register now: http://ignitedenver.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn

David and I have an article we worked on with Adobe released on Adobe Devnet today. For those of you interested in bringing P2P into your Flash Platform applications this is a good introduction on all the features you’ll have available to you with Flash Player 10.1, RTMFP, and Stratus 2/FMS 4.

There’s good information, a good sample with source code, and good illustrations to help you get going.  The last word document revision I submitted was 28 pages long, just to give you an idea on the wealth of information in this article.

Also, we’d like to thank our Adobe tech reviewers and editors for helping us get through this!

Here’s the direct link: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/p2p_rtmfp_groups.html

Enjoy!

Chat is @ Thursday Feb 11th, 11:30am MST

Eric Fickes and myself will be talking to the 360|Flex guys tomorrow about our session.  It’s actually going to be a back-to-back mega session comparing the latest and greatest on both the Flash Platform and the Silverlight Platform.

Come check it out and feel free to ask questions…although for the good stuff you’ll have to wait until our talks.

Here’s the full details: http://www.360flex.com/blog/2010/02/360flex-speaker-chat-eric-fickes-and-jun-heider/

Click above to register and help me get the party suite!

The 360|Flex guys have a copy of Flash Builder Pro, and CS4 up for grabs, and of course a ticket to 360|Flex. They’ll select the best video before the conference and show the videos before the keynote.  Here’s the details on the contest: http://www.360flex.com/blog/2009/10/360flex-be-a-movie-star-win-a-pass/?utm_source=360%7CFlex+San+Jose+Speakers&utm_campaign=9e6b1c9270-360_Flex_San_Jose_Speaker_Email_312_16_2009&utm_medium=email

David and I have been teaching Flex at a local college.  Recently David mentioned to a student that he should use a lighter-weight class for a mask than Canvas.  The student asked why.  This brings up a good point.

When you’re using various Flex framework classes, you need to stop and think.  Do I really need the class I’m using or can I get away with something smaller.  One good example is when you’re creating custom MXML components.  Many times a rookie developer will create an MXML component with a Container as the root component when all they really need to do is to make a UI Control the root component.

In the case of the question, when using a mask, a very lightweight class the Sprite could have been used if the student had not needed the mask to participate in the display list.  Otherwise, they could have used a custom class based on UIComponent, vs using the larger Canvas class.

Just to re-enforce David’s point, I created a little POC where I created three custom classes, one based on Canvas, one based on UIComponent, and one based on Sprite.  I did not create any custom code in these classes, they were simply used so that they’d be easier to call out in the Flex Builder Profiler.  Then I profiled the application and here’s a screenshot of the results.

As you can see, there can be significant memory impact when you use classes that are more robust than you need.

That being said, pay attention to the classes you use in your code, and always stop to think, do I really need to use this class, or can I get away with something that is lighter-weight?