Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications

Everything Flash developers need to know to create native Android and iPhone apps.

This Wrox guide shows Flash developers how to create native applications for Android and iPhone mobile devices using Flash. Packed with practical examples, it shows how to build a variety of apps and integrate them with core mobile services such as Accelerometer, GPS, Photo Library,and more.

• Offers Flash developers the tools to create apps for the Android and iPhone mobile devices
• Shows how to design a user interface optimized for Android and iOS and offers plenty of examples for building native Android and iPhone apps with Flash, migrating existing Flash media, testing and debugging applications, and more
• Helps you understand ways to work with files on Android and iOS

Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications

Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. You get all of the essentials-from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store.

Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including:

• Rapid prototyping
• Adding interactivity, audio, and video
• Employing iOS and Android Interface Calls
• Hardware optimization with AIR
• Game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D
• Designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV
• Code optimization, testing, and debugging
• Publication within weeks of Adobe’s release of the Android packaging utilities Full-color illustrations of UI and design implementations *Companion website with tutorial media and author forum

User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion websiteincludes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments.

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps

The Android operating system works on phones that combine a camera, Web browser, e-mail, GPS, and mapping tool into a single accessible pocket-sized unit, and can function on computers, as well. Aimed at visual learners and packed with hundreds of screen shots, this guide brings Flash developers up to speed on the necessary factors to take into account when developing for this touch-based, mobile platform. Experienced Flash developer Julian Dolce escorts you through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using the Flash CS5 development platform and informs you of best practices to try as well as common pitfalls to avoid.

• Guides you step by step through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using Flash CS5
• Explores the capabilities and limitations of developing apps for the Android OS
• Points out common pitfalls and teaches you best practices
• Features hundreds of screen shots to assist with visual learning

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps gets you on your way to developing apps for Android… in a flash!

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets

iPhone does not support Flash in the app store, but don’t despair…Android does! In today’s mobile marketplace, games are one of the most popular and money making apps out there. And Flash enables some interesting games on Android, for both smartphones and tablets.

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets lets you take your Flash game development skills mobile as you learn the latest in Android development using the Adobe AIR SDK, Flash CS and Flash Builder tools.

If you’ve ever dreamed of creating games for the fastest growing mobile operating system, Google Android, then this book is for you. Whether you’ve dabbled in ActionScript 3, or worked with Flash Professional or Flash Builder, this book shows you how to create compelling mobile games for Android smartphones and tablets.

• Create compelling mobile games that leverage device capabilities such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, and multi-touch.
• Design games to work well across multiple screen sizes.
• Identify ways to monetize your app through competitive pricing, ads, or in-app purchases.

After reading and using this book and its rich code, you come away with the ability to build fun, commercial Flash game apps that can also make you some money, too.

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I began using Flash here and there in 1999/2000 with Macromedia Flash 4. Previous to that, I was mainly doing straight HTML and a bunch of design work; Photoshop, Illustrator, 35mm photography, and photo compositing. What drew me to Flash was that I could take pieces from all of those areas and use them together in a meaningful way. I think everyone coming to Flash from that angle remembers the first simple animation they created and how outstanding the feeling of publishing your first swf was. It was magical for me.

I actually didn’t get involved in Flex until Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0. I was doing a lot of work with AS2 before this using Flash Professional, and AS3 was made available in Flex Builder before Flash because it was built into the SDK. I tried out Flex but it didn’t click for me- so I used the Flex SDK to write AS3 using FlashDevelop for a time. This is how I learned AS3. By the time AS3 was available in Flash Pro… I was already set

What eventually “forced” me into Flash Builder and Flex was the ability to write AIR applications and the tooling built into Flex Builder 3. I was using the Apollo alphas and had a few projects at the university where I was pushing the technology. The first AIR project we deployed was actually an Apollo project a day before – so we were really on the bleeding edge! Anyhow- using Flex for AIR apps got me to appreciate the framework for use in other projects… saw the obvious benefits of using Flex Builder over Flash Pro for writing code… Flex framework makes a lot of layout and structural underpinnings so simple – so I stuck with it. I do go to Flash Pro for certain things now and again, but Flash Builder and Flex are primary for me now.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No… I’m not. I understand the benefits and have made numerous attempts to integrate the practice into my workflow, but as it stands now I’m just a total failure with TDD! With most things though, I find that my initial set of attempts are often crash-and-burn exercises. At some point, it will all come into place and I just have to work toward that moment. The problem right now is that much of what I do is systems maintenance and planning – so am not as actively involved in any solid development starters at the moment.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

The Adobe Flex Framework

Well… I’ve definitely looked at other frameworks and micro-architectures. A lot of people seem to like RobotLegs and I’ve done some beginner exercises with that to get concepts down – but have not attempted anything in a real project yet.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes. Mostly experiments for projects like my “Flash Development for Android Cookbook”, but have also written some applications for Android that are available in the Market. These include; Sketch-N-Save, AXNA Feed Reader, My Shit-List!, Transient Recorder, and others. I’m in the middle of writing a mobile Flex application for the university right now which should (eventually) be available across multiple platforms. It taps into the university media management system to provide users with direct access to video, image, and audio materials along with associated metadata records for their mobile devices. It’s in beta for Android, and once we get that solid will look at publishing for iOS and perhaps event BlackBerry Tablet OS. We’ll see what use may dictate.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

Primarily Flash Builder – no plugins. I also launch Flash Professional from time to time to work on legacy projects and perform specific functionality that is better suited to that environment. I have used FDT and FlashDevelop on occasion… and as mentioned before, actually learned AS3 on FlashDevelop.
what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

I use the entire Adobe Creative Suite for my work. Well, almost the entire suite. Also tools like Lightroom for my photography. Lightroom is awesome.

With Flex projects, I’ll often use a graphics package like Photoshop or whatnot to create any image assets needed, sometimes will design skinning elements in that or Illustrator/Fireworks depending upon my mood. I do my FXG work within Flash Catalyst and copy/paste into Flash Builder. XML, HTML, and such usually gets edited in Dreamweaver. Audition for audio assets, video stuff is covered by Premier Pro/After Effects… really try and use the full suite if the project allows it.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I generally don’t follow specific blogs but rely on Twitter for most of my information and news. Too many people to mention, but you can have a look at who I follow and interact with for a good idea! As a general rule, if you are an AEL, ACP, or Adobian who follows me… I will follow you back! Also – if you are doing other interesting non-Adobe-specific stuff (Unity, experimental HTML/CSS/JS, other crazy stuff), that is cool and will probably peak my interest!

I just beg everyone on Twitter to please make it apparent who you are and where your interests lie – makes it much easier to follow back that way. I try my best not to be a Twitter-snob so the best way to get my attention is to ENGAGE

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

Yes… *deep breath*.

A lot of conference activity this year… too much! I started off the year doing three different Adobe User Group presentations on BlackBerry PlayBook development (Columbus Digital, LA Flash, and KCDevCore).

In March I took a break from technical presentations and did a spark session for Ignite Denver 8 on personal branding. In case you are unfamiliar with Ignite – many cities around the world host these events. Speakers have 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about any subject they choose… and the slides auto-advance on a timer It’s a really interesting way to present and Ignite Denver pulls around 400 people, so you get a pretty big crowd.

I attended 360|Flex in Denver this year and wasn’t going to do any presentations myself, but the local Adobe User Group, RMAUG, had a slot open and I threw together an hour long session on “Getting Down n’ Dirty with Mobile Flex 4.5 Projects” which went really well for being a last minute gig. Since Adobe released Flash Builder 4.5 that morning, the topic was timely and I’d been working on the prerelease versions of the tooling for months (not to mention materials for my book which was still in tech-review at this point). It was a good session. Jun Heider was moderating a panel in the evening one night called “Open Screen Project: Views from the Trenches” and I also contributed to that. They tried to record the panel but I’m not quite sure if the recording was ever released.

In June, I did another Ignite session for Ignite Denver 9 called “Zombies, Vampires, and Babies: What You NEED to Know!”. It basically revolved around comparisons of babies with the undead and was really well received. I enjoy doing the Ignite stuff but will probably have to skip out on Ignite Denver 10 in September because of other obligations. Next year!

In July, I was very fortunate to have been accepted to speak at Dee Sadler’s excellent D2W (Designer/Developer/Workflow) conference in Kansas City. My session “Adapting Expectations to Fit a Mobile Workflow” revolved around mobile once again but with an emphasis on workflow and the considerations that go along with that. The amount of killer speakers at this conference is astounding – all great sessions.

A few weeks later, I attended the Adobe Education Leader Institute at Adobe HQ in San Jose for the 3rd year. This is a week-long conference for AELs and is always a blast. We get to interface with product managers, engineers, and executives… all sorts of interesting people- including other AELs from around the world. During the event; I moderated a panel on Adobe Edge, did a 5-minute presentation on custom context menus in AS3, and presented a hands-on session which covered the basics of developing a mobile AIR application using Flash Builder and mobile Flex. One of the cool things this year is that Adobe opened up many of the sessions to the outside world over Connect – so we were able to have an expanded audience.

The last set of sessions for the Summer were done for the COLTT conference in Boulder, Colorado. I presented a full session called “Mobile computing in a ‘Post-PC’ era… right?” in which the current state of mobile computing in education was discussed, and that evening spoke at the Café Pédagogique event on the necessity (or not) of institutional mobile applications.

Upcoming speaking engagements will all be during the Adobe MAX event in Los Angeles. I’ll be presenting a scheduled MAX session called “From Desktop to Mobile: Application Functionality for Small Screens” on Tuesday at 4:00pm and will be doing a condensed, modified version of this same talk for the Adobe Education pre-conference day. I’m also scheduled to speak on mobile UX during the FITC unconference and have scheduled a session on BlazeDS, Flex, and Java/Spring for the 360|MAX unconference. A full schedule for sure!

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

Sure! I’ll be writing about this further down the question stack though.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

Not really. I do plan on open sourcing the codebase for my DropFolders application this Summer. This is an application that I built to both showcase the native process functionality in AIR 2.0, and as an application for use by less technically inclined members of the university community who wanted to encode video with no real fuss.
The app is basically a GUI for the HandBrake CLI and includes the ability to set up sets of monitored directories and outputs with custom encoding parameters. Almost no one at the university is using it, but it has gained a pretty large user base in the wider world. Unfortunately, my time is limited and as such cannot continue to support the application… hence my desire to open up the source code for others to build off of.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

It’s good to see HTML finally evolving to more closely match the needs of modern browser-based projects. JavaScript, unfortunately hasn’t really changed much apart for some new APIs that come along with the HTML5 spec and an increased number of frameworks (like jQuery) to make JS development a little less painful. I was really hoping that JavaScript would adopt the ECMAScript 4 proposal put forth about 5 years ago (the same spec that AS3 was originally based off of) but sadly it never did. So we are stuck with the same old JS that I used when I started doing web development over a decade ago! Unbelievable.

I have to say something about HTML/CSS/JS and Flash here. This is the same thing I’ve been saying for years but it is worth repeating. HTML and Flash have worked hand-in-hand for their entire history and there is no reason that this will change with an evolved HTML spec. No reason at all. The fact that some basic animation can now be done using HTML/CSS/JS in no way renders Flash obsolete as the platform has such reach now that simple animation on the web is not really a concern for really any of the Flash devs I talk to on a regular basis. If you need some simple animation on a website- by all means use HTML/CSS/JS to accomplish that if it is appropriate to do so.

Two things that have really irked me about this whole debate has been the public condemnation of Flash by Apple (this sort of corporate assault is unheard of) and the renewed antagonism toward Flash developers by people using other technologies (though mostly from the JS side of things). Apple has taken an anti-Flash stance and has made it official company policy. There is nothing we can do about that but hope they eventually reverse the policy. Individual developers, however, are a different story entirely. Isn’t the web about freedom? We have a variety of choices when deciding which technologies to employ atop the basic HTML/CSS/JS web stack. The HTML5 spec has the embed tag for a reason – to expand upon this basic set of technologies with other platforms. There is nothing wrong with that. Unity, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Shockwave… whatever is an appropriate use of technology should be accepted. Yes, if you choose to use something outside the “standard” set of browser-based tech, you may not be able to access that content on all devices in the world. This is nothing new. People need to realize this, gain some perspective, and get over their narrow-minded view of the web. It’s big enough for everyone to play

In short; be nice to one another and accepting of other technologies and platforms. And if you disagree with a particular technology… please refrain from being a total smarmy douche about it.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

Aside from legacy projects, I always target the latest version of Flex. We generally don’t have any restrictions at the university level when it comes to this so it is rarely a problem… though we do evaluate such things on a project-to-project basis.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

Flash/Flex/AS3 is my core but I have rarely met a Flash dev who only works within the confines of the platform. This is probably due to the history of Flash Player in the web browser- which necessitates that a developer knows at least some HTML, JavaScript, and ideally a few backend server technologies. As for myself, this includes ColdFusion, PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Zinc, JavaScript, FMS, a little JSP, a bit of ASP, BlazeDS, and a smattering of other languages as the need arises.

Flash is a gateway drug. Once you have a grasp on a few of these things and a willingness to read the docs, nothing is really all that hard to pick up. I really want to pick up C# but haven’t come across a project that necessitates it yet. I may have to just come up with a personal project sometime over the next year or so to experiment. Finding the time to do this while staying abreast of changes and additions to my core toolset is tough- but can be done.

With all of that said though… I absolutely prefer to work in Flash. It’s solid, proven technology that can do just about anything you need. It is an absolute joy to work with where other tech can be a painful experience!

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I’ve been writing a lot of articles and books lately. My “Flash Development for Android Cookbook” has been out for around six weeks now and is beginning to get some really good reviews. I’m also in the middle of writing some short eBooks for O’Reilly which should be out in October and am in the planning stages of another print book with my primary publisher, Packt, for publication in 2012. There’s also a short, 48-page book that I wrote to accompany the set of mobile Flash development DVDs that I recorded with Peter Elst and video2brain a few months back for Adobe Press and Peachpit. This collection should be available something this month. A smaller workshop of new Flash Builder and Flex stuff with video2brain was actually just published and is available now.

I’m almost always involved in teaching a variety of courses for the University of Denver as adjunct faculty. These courses range from beginning Flash and AS3 to web graphic design with Fireworks and PHP development. A real variety in materials… I actually did a special topics workshop this Summer on mobile Flash and Flex which just concluded. That was interesting! The students built a lot of interesting apps and I received really good feedback about the course.

Apart from my work at the university, I also run a small technical consultancy and production company from my home called Fractured Vision Media, LLC. We do a variety of projects for clients both local to Denver and as far away as Seattle – mostly Flash and AIR work but it varies. With the amount of writing I’ve gotten myself into lately, I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of active clients we take on. It’s a rough balance.

FVM is also a small record label which I leverage when publishing audio recordings as my experimental darkambient alter-ego – “An Early Morning Letter, Displaced”. I’ve been working in music production through this project for over a decade and have released five different albums of music (2 lp, 3 ep) during that time. FVM has also released a free collection of music collected from the developer community called “Emergent Collective One” which contains a stellar set of varied material. I keep meaning to organize a second volume but time has not been kind to me this year.

I have a wife and two small daughters as well… so always need to find time for them. It’s difficult with all of these other things going on and I may have to cut back on some of this work in 2012 in order to retain some level of sanity.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

I’ll list some resources and sites that I’ve mentioned above here, but want to note a few things first; primarily, thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this interview! I love this series of developer interviews- so informative to read others perspectives on these things. Second, I’m writing this on a long airplane session… stuck in a seat for hours… with no one to hear my screams… so to be able to just work through these questions has been quite welcome! This probably accounts for the length of my answers as well – if anyone is able to get through reading the entire interview- good on you!

Links:
- JosephLabrecque.com
http://josephlabrecque.com
- Twitter Profile
http://twitter.com/JosephLabrecque
- In Flagrante Delicto!
http://inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com
- Flash Development for Android Cookbook
https://www.packtpub.com/flash-development-for-android-cookbook/book
- Mobile Development with Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder 4.5: Learn by Video
http://www.adobepress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321788109
- Adobe Flash Builder and Flex 4.5: New Features Workshop
http://www.video2brain.com/en/products-161.htm
- Fractured Vision Media, LLC
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/
- Emergent Collective One
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/FVM005/

what’s your favorite animal?
Dragon. I am a dragon.

Here’s some more info about the book pulled from Amazon.

Flash and the City Conference Blog

http://blog.flashandthecity.com/

Flash and the City Speakers

http://blog.flashandthecity.com/speakers/

Elad Elrom’s AIR 2.0 Cookbook recipes (thanks again dude!)

http://elromdesign.com/blog/2010/02/01/10-recipes-on-adc-cookbooks-covering-air-20-new-apis/

AIR 2.0 info on the Adobe Labs site

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/

Exploring the new file capabilities in Adobe AIR 2

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/articles/exploring_file_capabilities.html

StorageVolume class info

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/filesystem/StorageVolume.html

StorageVolumeInfo class info

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/filesystem/StorageVolumeInfo.html

StorageVolumeChangeEvent class info

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/events/StorageVolumeChangeEvent.html

Interacting with Native Processes in AIR 2.0

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/quickstart/interacting_with_native_process.html

AIR 2.0 New Features Overview

http://www.infoq.com/articles/air-20-new-features

AIR 2.0 FAQ on Adobe Labs

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_2:Developer_FAQ

New Features in AIR 2.0 on Adobe Labs

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_2:Release_Notes#New_Features_in_AIR_2__beta_2

AIR 2 Enhancements Complete Overview

http://www.insideria.com/2009/10/air-2-enhancements-complete-ov.html

Using the Microphone capabilities in Adobe AIR 2 beta

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/articles/using_mic_api.html

TouchEvent class info

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/events/TouchEvent.html

TouchscreenType

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/system/TouchscreenType.html

MultitouchInputMode

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/ui/MultitouchInputMode.html

Multitouch

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/ui/Multitouch.html

TransformGestureEvent

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/actionscript/3/flash/events/TransformGestureEvent.html

San Diego Flash Users Group: Flex Best Practices Presentation

To start 2009 off I gave my first presentation to an awesome group of Flash and Flex developers in San Diego. The presentation was created from the two articles I wrote in 2008 for the Adobe Developer Connection on Best Practices for Flex development. I’ve kept the Powerpoint presentation offline until now. Some of the content is a little dated but it’s probably still worth checking out. I may update this presentation with everything I’ve learned over the last year and for the upcoming changes coming in Flex 4, if time permits.

Download the Flex Best Practices Powerpoint Presentation here.

Java Programming II at UCSD

After wanting to learn more about Java for many years I decided to go back to school and take a structured class. This was the first time I’d set foot in a classroom since about 1998. It was through the UCSD Extension program but classes were held on the UCSD campus. It was pretty cool to walk around the campus and see the “college” life again after so long. In addition this was the first time I’d ever taken a class at a University, my previous college experience was at a community college. The instructor Kent Yang was really awesome and the class was killer! I learned a lot more about Java, OOP, Unit Testing and Design Patterns. This knowledge was all transferable into AS3/Flex so the experience was well worth the time and investment.

Check out the class details here.

The Flex Show Episode 71: OOP w/ Sean Moore

The Flex Show is awesome, simply stated. Jeffry Houser has done an excellent job with the podcast and I’ve been a fan for a few years now. One of my goals was to be a guest on The Flex Show and in 2009 in became a reality. I was able to put together a talk about OOP in regards to Flex and ActionScript development. The Java class helped solidify my knowledge of OOP so hopefully the talk will help others grasp some of the fundamental OO concepts. It was an honor to be on the show and I really appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully I can do another show sometime in the future. Maybe on the Mindset BCI work I’ve been doing lately.

You can listen to my talk on The Flex Show here.

Orange County Flex Users Group: Flex Best Practices Presentation

Laura Arguello was kind enough to invite me to give my Flex Best Practices preso at the OCFlex Users Group in March. This gave me a chance to visit the ASFusion office before the preso and hang out with Jeremy Saenz (aka The Flex Gangster) a bit as well. The crowd at OCFlex was really great and very patient as I got set up and had some trouble finding a room at the venue big enough for everyone. Thanks again to ASFusion and the OCFlex Users Group for inviting me to present. It was a great experience!

Technical Authoring for O’Reilly InsideRIA

2008 was a big year for me and authoring. I wrote articles for Adobe, Flash Magazine and O’Reilly’s InsideRIA. I continued the trend in 2009 by writing three featured articles for InsideRIA. Rich Tretola is one of the coolest guys I know and such a pleasure to work with. He helped me a ton with the articles I wrote this year through the good and the bad. Another person I really have to thank is Matt Chotin. His feedback on my Flex 4 article was a huge help and I really appreciate his time and input! You can check out the articles I wrote for InsideRIA below:

Round up of ActionScript 3.0 and Flex optimization techniques and practices

Overview of Flex 4 (Gumbo)

Decorator Design Pattern

Technical Reviews for Manning Publications

Reviewing books is great for a lot of reasons, it helps your writing skills, you get a preview of the books before they’re published and you get to contribute to the quality of the books being published. I do the reviews on a volunteer basis and really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to do so. In 2009 I had the privilege of reviewing three books for Manning. They are all great titles and I encourage you to check them out.

Hello! Flex 4

Flex On Java

Flex 4 In Action

Present.ly AIR Client Development

This is one of the larger apps that I worked on completely by myself. Dave at Intridea got in touch with a request to help them refactor an existing AIR application to best practices. This project was one of the best projects I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. The app was cool, the concept was cool and the client was cool. The Present.ly service is a private Twitter like service for businesses, if you haven’t already taken a minute to check it out I encourage you to do so. Another really awesome aspect of this project is that the codebase for the AIR app is totally open source and available for download on GIT Hub. I was able to use Cairngorm and Flex Unit on this project which I feel really helped the codebase and application’s stability and scalability. You can check out the codebase and the finished app by following the links below:

Present.ly AIR source code at GIT Hub

Present.ly AIR Client

Game Consulting and Development

A game development company contacted me for some assistence with consulting and development for a Flex and Flash based game. This was my first experience doing any game dev and it was really great. This was another awesome client. They are not public yet so there aren’t any links to share. I did want to note that game development is something that I’d like to do more of and hopefully 2010 will present more opportunities to do so.

Parsley

Learning Parsley was been on my radar for quite some time. I’ve been able to work with the framework quite a bit over the last few months and really like it so far. It’s quite a bit different than Cairngorm development but it offers more flexibility and is the preferred direction by many developers. IoC frameworks are all the rage and I am glad to be learning how to use them.

Presentation Model

This design pattern is great. It enables better unit testing for your applications and helps to decouple logic from views. Using the Presentation Model wasn’t totally clear at first but after working with it for a while I’m really beginning to like it. Having a bunch of code in MXML files wasn’t really ever all that appealing to me and using the Presentation Model really helps to separate this code out into pure AS3 classes.

ThinkGear Brain Computer Interface API

In an effort to end 2009 with a bang I released my ThinkGear API. This API enables the Neurosky Mindset Brain Computer Interface to communicate with AS3 based applications. So far I’ve been able to build a rough dashboard that uses my brainwaves as its data source. In addition I was able to tie my brainwaves into some AS3 based particle visualizations. You can see my demo video and learn more here. Control ActionScript with your mind!!!

Well here’s looking to 2010. I can’t believe it’s already been a decade since Y2K. It’s been a great decade for the Flash Platform we’ve all come a long way.

Update 08/03/09: I’d like to congratulate Nephi and Brian for their participation in the book giveaway. They nailed the answer and emailed me in record time. I’ll be sending out your books this week. Great work guys!! Thanks to everyone else who sent in the answer and checking out the sample PDF.

The kind people at Packt publishing got in touch and turned me on to a pretty cool book covering Flex 3, BlazeDS, LCDS and Java titled Flex 3 with Java. They were cool enough to send me a couple of extra copies of the book that I am able to giveaway to the Flex community! The first two people to email me the key features of E4X as described in the sample chapter available for download as a PDF will win a free copy of the book. (Unfortunately only US candidates are eligible for this giveaway.)

I’ve only had a chance to review some of the book so far, you can check back later for a more in depth review. I checked out the chapters on BlazeDS and LCDS a little and there is some pretty good info available.

You can get more information on the book by visiting the Packt website. You can also download Chapter 5: Working with XML, you’ll need it for the giveaway.

Here is some additional info on the book from the Packt website:

This book provides comprehensive information on various aspects of Flex 3 and ActionScript 3.0. These include developing simple applications, handling events, creating custom components and events, using RPC services, integration with Java and BlazeDS, styling and formatting, and how to package and deploy Flex applications.

You will start with downloading, installing and configuring Flex 3 SDK and Flex Builder 3 and learn basic concepts such as what MXML and ActionScript are, understanding UI components, controls, compilers, and more. Further you will develop simple applications and slowly advance into more depth where you will learn advanced concepts such as creating custom components, debugging, integrating with Java, using RPC services, styling, internationalizing, and deploying Flex applications, and more.

One of the things you’re really going to love about this book is that you will develop a full-blown e-commerce application using a combination of Flex 3, ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS 3.2, and Java. At the end of the book you will have the knowledge and experience needed to develop Rich Internet Applications.

I’d like to thank Swati at Packt again for getting in touch and sending along the books for me to review and do the giveaway. Good luck to anyone participating in the book giveaway and thanks for stopping by. Hope you’re all having a great weekend, and don’t forget to get your Flex on

Getting Started with Flex 3 An Adobe Developer Library Pocket Guide for Developers
By: Jack Herrington, Emily Kim
Compiled by: Adobe Development Team
First Edition June 2008 (est.)
Pages: 143
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52064-6 | ISBN 13: 9780596520649

Book description:
“Discover how easy RIA development can be with this one-of-a-kind handbook from the Adobe Developer Library. Several clear, step-by-step mini-tutorials teach you about web services, event handling, designing user interfaces with reusable components, and more. After finishing this guide, you’ll be able to build Flash applications ranging from widgets to full-featured RIAs using the Flex SDK and Flex Builder 3.0 — whether you come from an open source or Visual Studio-intensive background.”

Table of Contents

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520649/

Now, on to the free Flex books!!!

Congrats to Anand Vardhan for being the first one to send in the correct answer to the last book giveaway question.

“What are three components that can be used for accessing server-side data with Flex?”

The correct answer was:

• HTTPService
• RemoteObject
• WebService

More information about Accessing Server-Side Data with Flex can be found in the online Adobe Flex 3 Help.

Anand already had a copy of Programming Flex 2 and he was kind enough to pass the book on to the second place winner who was Nuno Rosa from Portugal. Congrats to Nuno, you’re copy of Programming Flex 2 has been sent off. Enjoy that book, it’s a great one!

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for… The free book.

This week I have a copy of Flex Solutions by Marco Casario. The book is published by Friends Of ED so you know it’s quality. This is a massive book that covers a TON of information for Flex 2 and Flex 3 developers.

Here is this weeks book giveaway question:

AIR provides an easy-to-use, cross-platform window API for creating native operating system windows using Flash, Flex, and HTML programming techniques. What are three classes used to create and work with windows in AIR?

The first person to email me with the correct answer will win the copy of Flex Solutions. Good luck!