jun :: realeyes

The highly popular ActionScript 3 Cookbook was released back in ’06.

This was a really good book because it taught you the language through examples that you could use in real world situations.  A lot of the Flex and Flash developers I know really loved it.  The downside to this book was being an ActionScript book, it it didn’t cover things that were Flex-specific.

At the end of ’07, Flex Solutions – Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and 3 Developers was released.  I just got a copy of it recently to review, and will say it’s worth checking out.

First off, this book was written by Marco Casario a very prominent and well respected member of not only the Flex community but also the Flash Lite community.  He knows his stuff, and the examples in the book prove it.

Like the AS3 Cookbook, this book expands your knowledge of the language through practical examples.  For instance:

• Solution 1-5: Understanding the Flex event model
• Solution 2-7: Building loosely coupled components
• Solution 4-9: Formatting list-based controls with the labelFunction property
• Solution 8-4: Supporting the Express Install Flash Player feature
• Solution 10-4: Mashup applications using the LocalConnection and the Yahoo! Maps API
• Solution 12-5: Debugging applications with the Logging framework

It even covers AIR topics:

• Solution 14-2: Customizing OS windows using the AIR Window API
• Solution 14-7: Keeping the application updated

The flow of the book is highly structured.  Chapters are broken down by main topic, then solution.  Then each solution has a “What’s involved” section describing the underlying concepts, a “How to build it” section giving the reader a step by step walkthrough on code implementation, and “Expert tips” which took the examples a step forward.

Although I think this book is worthwhile, I do have a negative to point out.

I’m not positive, but I think Marco is Italian, and I don’t think that English is his first language. I hope no one takes it the wrong way, but I think that some of the grammer distracted me while reading. I found myself re-reading paragraphs a couple times to understand the concepts being conveyed.   That being said, I would not even be able to imagine trying to write a book in a second language, for instance Italian.  In other words, although this was a negative for me as a reader, I give Marco props for writing the book in a non-native language. (If my initial assumption was correct)

The good thing is, MXML and AS code are universal, so the wealth of well-written code samples in the book made up for my inability to read through the textual portions efficiently.  As a matter of fact, if you download the code samples, Marco has provided 30+ MB worth!  He also mantains an external site for the book’s code, and he makes it a point to keep it up to date.

All in all, this book is worth the money: easy to find information, written by an expert in the field, and filled with plenty of good cookbook style samples.  Good work Marco!

For those of you that are interested, here’s the link:

http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1590598768

I had to make some quick site updates tonight and decided to download the Dreamweaver CS4 Beta to do it.  Not only does it look extremely slick but it installed just fine and all my site config was still around, yay!  (Oh yeah, and I got to keep all my other programs running during the install…he he)

Hopefully tonight’s not just a fluke, but in general the Dreamweaver CS4 beta seems more responsive and appears to run much faster than Dreamweaver CS3.  So if I’m not imagining this speed boost, maybe in CS4 I’ll finally allow Dreamweaver to grab some default file extension handlers.

Here’s the link if you want to check it out for yourself:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/dreamweavercs4/

Good job so far Adobe!

The slides and code samples from my Flex Debugging sessions are now available. You can get them here:

• Slides: http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/webmaniacs2008/JunHeider_Flexmaniacs_2008_FlexDebuggingTechniques_1.0.pdf
• Code Samples: http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/webmaniacs2008/Webmaniacs2008_FlexDebugging_CodeSamples.zip

Also, earlier in the week, the person that was gonna present on Flash Player Memory Management cancelled out and I was asked to cover for them.  Here are the slides and code samples for that session:

• Slides: http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/webmaniacs2008/JunHeider_Flexmaniacs_2008_FlexMemoryManagement_1.0.pdf
• Code Samples: http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/webmaniacs2008/Webmaniacs2008_MemoryManagement_CodeSamples.zip

All in all, I enjoyed myself at the conference.  I got to meet and hang out with some great people in the community.  Heck, one night about 15 of us even went to China town to check out Indy and Iron Man.

As far as other people’s presentations, I have to admit I spent much of my time there working and prepping for the potential 5 presentations: 2 that were mine, 3 more I offered to cover that week.  Luckily for me I only had to present 3, but the unfortunate part is I missed out on some good sessions.

From what I did see, here’s what was good and interesting:

I got to check out Nick Matelli’s presso on CVS and ANT:

http://www.amentra.com/news_events/webmaniacs.asp

http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/Downloads/upload/cvs.zip

Thanks to Laura Arguello, I got to see a new Flex application framework called Mate (Pronounced MA-TAY Not mate):

http://mate.asfusion.com/

http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/Downloads/upload/mate.pdf

I also got to hang with David Hassoun while he gave his bad-ass presentations on Flex Skinning and AIR:Windows, Menus, System Tray:

http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/Flexmaniacs_2008_Flex3_Skinning.zip

http://labs.realeyes.com/labs/downloads/FlexManiacs2008_Windows_Menus_SystemTray.zip

I found out tonight that ObjectUtil.toString() has issues displaying the values of a Dictionary using object keys. I posted a bug with a screenshot and a Flex Project Archive to the Adobe bugbase. Go vote if you’d like:

https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-15589

So, interesting thing about ObjectUtil.toString(), it doesn't display properties named "password" or "credentials" by default. You can see what I mean if you check out line 409 of ObjectUtil.as.

I can see where the framework developer may have been going with this, but it probably would have been nice for them to put a blurb in the livedocs.

I commented the LiveDoc and found the bug report if you feel like voting for some type of fix:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/mx/utils/ObjectUtil.html

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-13013

Anyway, if you find yourself needing to output these properties using ObjectUtil.toString() all you need to do is set the third parameter "exclude" to an empty array...like this:

I've uploaded a Flex Builder 3 Project Archive if you feel like seeing for yourself:

http://www.iheartair.com/samples/CodeZips/ObjectUtil_TestExcludes.zip

Oh, and by the way, the debug perspective doesn't have this issue. In other words, the variables and expressions pane will both show "password" and "credentials" properties.

Neil Webb, fellow blogger who I'm excited to present back to back sessions with at 360Flex San Jose - and of course meet in person - just posted some very good updated WST Snippets install instructions.

http://nwebb.co.uk/blog/?p=178

If you've never checked out his blog, you should. He's got tons of good information there...some of the most extensive Flex Builder content I've seen.

Oh, and if you want to learn about the Flex Builder Profiler (Me) and Cairngorm (Neil) come check us out at 360Flex in San Jose:

http://www.360conferences.com/360flex/

Thanks Neil!

I'm gonna be at Webmaniacs/Flexmaniacs this next week to talk and mentor on Flex Debugging basics. If you're planning to be at Webmaniacs/Flexmaniacs and you want to learn how to use Flex Debugging perspective and other third party debugging tools cruise on by my sessions.

You'll have a choice on taking the lecture version, or if you want practice you can take the hands-on version. Also, if you're planning to come by one of my sessions and have some particulars you'd like to cover, feel free to comment on the blog and I'll see what I can do about working it in.

Oh, and if you just found out about Webmaniacs, come check it out. You can still register and also get some money off if you use my code --> JH320

Here's the link:

https://www.webmaniacsconference.com/registration/index.cfm

One last thing...if you still haven't registered yet, you should...especially if you're from Denver. There's a whole posse of us mile high folk cruising out there to drink a lot at low altitudes. Not to mention, our posse is filled will some wicked smart guys talking about wicked cool things:

David Hassoun:
- Skinning with Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator
- AIR Windows, Menus, and the SystemTray

Adam Flater:
- Advanced Skinning and Component Development
- The Merapi Open Source Project
- Design Patterns and Architecture Frameworks
- Flex Open Source Projects

Tony Hillerson:
- Flex w/Ruby on Rails

Juan Sanchez:
- Degrafa: Declarative Graphics Framework for Flex

Rob Rusher:
- Introduction to AIR
- History Management and the Back Button
- Extreme Makeover: Flex/AIR Edition

Jim Cheng:
- Understanding Flex Automation

Mile high city l33t!

Earlier I posted on a Degrafa presentation that will be given at RMAUG.

http://www.iheartair.com/?p=125 

I had the dates wrong and have since corrected it.  It is actually tomorrow, Thursday 5/8.  Sorry for the inconvenience, and see you there!

-Jun

If you're curious about Degrafa, we'll be hosting Juan Sanchez's presentation at RMAUG live in Adobe Connect!  It's limited to 200 attendees, but if you're one of the lucky ones you can take part in an outstanding presentation.

The presentation will be starting at approximately 7pm Mountain Time, tomorrow May 7th. [correction] it's on Thursday, May 8th. [/correction]

Here's a link to where the meeting will be hosted:

http://realeyes.acrobat.com/rmaug/

See you there!

On May 8th Juan Sanchez is going to be speaking about Degrafa at the Rocky Mountain Adobe User's Group here in Denver, Colorado.  The talk is "Intro to Degrafa" and should be worth your while.

If you're interested, you can register here:

http://www.rmaug.com/

If you don't know what Degrafa is, it's a declarative framework for graphics in Flex apps.  In other words you can make things real pretty with it!

If you don't know Juan Sanchez, you should.  He's been very good to the Flex community.  Active with user groups, speaking at conferences, and most importantly the man behind Scalenine skins and themes for Flex/AIR, and one of the main developers on the Degrafa team. 

Here's some more links:

http://www.degrafa.com/

http://www.scalenine.com/

Hope to see you there!