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.

This was a great project to work on and the people at Intridea were just awesome to work with. They allowed me to do the development without any distraction or micro-management. The application already existed when they got in touch but they wanted to change a few things and also update the codebase to a more standards based approach since the app is open source. The codebase now uses Cairngorm and Flex Unit and is also fully commented for ASDoc. It also used Degrafa for some of the view. I’d really like to thank Dave at Intridea for the opportunity to work together, it was a great experience and I really enjoyed working on the application.

You can visit the page for the AIR client here. The app is available for download and you can also browse or download the source code from github.

Intridea also has several other applications for the Present.ly service including a really cool web based application, an iPhone app and an Android app to name a few.

Take a minute to check out the Present.ly service. It was mentioned as Best-Bet Collaboration Tool by Inc. Magazine and also won an WebWare 100 Editor’s Choice Award. Intridea is a pretty cool company doing some exciting things!! You can sign up for the Present.ly service here.

Flex best practices – Part 1: Setting up your Flex project article

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/best_practices_pt1.html

Flex best practices – Part 2: Development practices

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/best_practices_pt2.html

If you would still like the Powerpoint preso email me and I’ll send it along.

There was an example application that I wanted to share as well. I’ll post it on this blog in the very near future. It utilizes many of the practices and standards covered in my presentation and the articles. I’d like to provide a little info or blog post at least along with the example…soon….

I’ll be giving this same presentation on Flex Best Practices in March at the OC Flex Users Group. Thanks to ASFusion for the invite!!

Thanks again to everyone who made it out last night. The audience was really great and had great questions and a great discussion. I appreciate everyone’s time and feedback. Thanks to Dolores for all of the help getting ready for the preso too!!

Here is a short passage from the article:

“In this article, you will learn how to manage assets so that your application’s dependencies will be well organized. I will also discuss widely accepted ActionScript 3.0, MXML, and CSS coding standards currently being practiced by the Flex development community. I’ll review ASDoc, a tool that you can use to create API language reference documentation as HTML from your application’s source code. In the application architecture section of this article I’ll show techniques that you can use to help define the blueprints for your application’s foundation. I will cover some of the application development frameworks that are available to Flex developers and discuss when it makes sense to use them and when it does not. Lastly, I will cover best practices for unit testing so that you can test your codebase and ensure the code will perform consistently.”

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/

List of 31 Flex APIs, Libraries, Components and Tools
http://seantheflashguy.com/blog/2007/08/21/list-of-31-flex-apis-libraries-components-and-tools/

List of 22 ActionScript 3.0 API’s
http://seantheflashguy.com/blog/2007/08/13/list-of-22-actionscript-30-apis/

ActionScript 3.0 APIs from Eric Feminella
ActionScript 3.0 APIs developed specifically for Adobe Flex and AIR.
http://www.ericfeminella.com/blog/actionscript-3-apis/

ASMailer
The ASMailer class sends emails using an SMTP server. ASMailer sends mail without the need of a server side language like PHP or JSP.
http://asmailer.riaforge.org/

Away3d 2.1
Away3D is a realtime 3d engine for flash in ActionScript 3.0
http://away3d.com/away3d-21-demos-docs

Bullet Graph
A good way to show actual time spent vs. the estimated time for a project
http://agileui.blogspot.com/2008/05/bullet-graph-free-flex-component.html

Degrafa
Degrafa : Declarative Graphics Framework
http://www.degrafa.com/

Desuade Partigen
Desuade Partigen is an extension for Adobe Flash which lets you create realistic vector and raster particle effects (such as fire, smoke, sparkles), without requiring you to do any complex coding.
http://desuade.com/products/partigen/

EasyMVC
EasyMVC is an event driven MVC framework which focuses on flexibility while not getting in the developers way.
http://projects.simb.net/easyMVC/

Five3D
vector-based 3d rendering framework by Mathieu Badimon – has just received a significant update, bringing it to version 2.1. New features this version brings: Back Face Culling, Flat Shading, Z-sorting, Space Drawing functions, Bitmap3D class, Video3D class, Sprite2D Class, Letter Spacing, Text Width
http://five3d.mathieu-badimon.com/

Flash Player 10 API Documentation!
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_as3langref_052008.zip

Flex 3 Performance and Memory Profiling
“Memory profiling lets you look at objects being created, take snapshots and compare them. Performance profiling allows snapshots for looking at cumulative and internal time.”
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_3:Feature_Introductions:_Performance_and_Memory_Profiling

Flex 3 RSLs
Use Flex 3 runtime-shared-libraries (RSLs) to reduce the size of your applications and thereby reduce the time required to download the application. RSLs are just SWF files whose code is used as a shared library between different application SWF files.
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_3:Feature_Introductions:Flex_3_RSLs

Flex 4 States syntax changes
Flex 4 will target all of the legacy usage scenarios of classic Flex states functionality (stateful components, states as application “views” or “pages”, effects and transitions between view states, etc.). This document outlines what is primarily a syntax change for the existing functionality.
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Enhanced+States+Syntax

Flex and Flex Developers Magazine
http://www.ffdmag.com/

Flex “Designer Scroll Bars”
“designer scroll bars” – skinny little tone on tone scroll bars that have no scroll arrows
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2008/05/designer_scroll.html

FlexMDI
flexmdi is a robust, extensible Multiple Document Interface framework for Adobe Flex.
http://code.google.com/p/flexmdi/

Flex Resource Bundles
What’s a resource bundle? It’s a set of values that you externalize from your source code in a properties file. And it can be swapped out at compile time or, with Flex 3, at runtime. Think of it like a style sheet for values.
http://blog.extends.eventdispatcher.org/roger/introduction-to-flex-resource-bundles/

FOAM
FOAM is a two-dimensional rigid body physics engine written in ActionScript 3.0.
http://code.google.com/p/foam-as3/

Go3D
Cool Tweening Engine, the Go3D which give you more control over moving objects in 3d space.
http://code.google.com/p/goplayground/source/checkout

GoogleMap Flex Component
A new component for Flex Developers who want to add more control or be very well organized.
http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=140

Guttershark
Guttershark is an Actionscript 3 library that pushes some simple conventions on you, only to make you faster as a developer. It’s a pattern for Flash development that cuts out a huge amount of time, especially when you’re in the first stages of development.
http://www.guttershark.net/

ILOG Elixir
A suite of professional user interface controls that gives developers a rich collection of innovative and interactive data display components. It includes ready-to-use schedule displays, map displays, dials, gauges, 3D and radar charts, a treemap chart and organization charts.
http://www.ilog.com/products/ilogelixir/

LoadingImage
Takes a regular Flex Image component, and adds a self contained ProgressBar to it to show its own loading progress.
http://www.munkiihouse.com/?p=135

Logger Library and RIALogger
The Logger component provides classes to that abstract the Flex 2 Log and logging Target classes. It provides a simple approach to logging messages with category information and provide hooks into multiple targets. It supports the following logging targets by default: RIALoggerTarget, TraceTarget (trace()), XPanelTarget, and FlexTracePanelTarget. The LogController also provides functionality to allow you to setup your own custom logging Target.
http://renaun.com/blog/flex-components/rialogger/

Mate
Mate is a tag-based, event-driven Flex framework.
http://mate.asfusion.com/index.cfm

Merapi
Merapi is a new project that is a framework for connecting AIR to java at the desktop.
http://adamflater.blogspot.com/search/?q=merapi

MinimalComps: Minimal AS3 UI Component Set
CheckBox, PushButton, HSlider, VSlider, InputText, ProgressBar, RadioButton, ColorChooser (text input only) and Panel.
http://www.bit-101.com/minimalcomps/

OpenFlux
OpenFlux is an open-source Flex component framework which allows developers to create radically new and custom Flex components.
http://code.google.com/p/openflux/

PeekPanel
Cool way to hide options or preferences in an application. It borrows the look and feel from the FlexBook/PageFlip components already out there, but instead of simulating a book, this is more of a way to use the “flip” to hide other components.
http://www.billdwhite.com/wordpress/?p=29

PlexiGlass
http://www.bobjim.com/category/plexiglass/

Share (Document Services API)
Online service provided by Adobe that allows you to share, publish, and organize documents online.
http://code.google.com/p/as3sharelib/downloads/list

Slide
Slide is an application framework for projects built in Flex 2 or 3. Using familiar design patterns, Slide provides a robust MVC structure, view state management decoupled from view implementation and a flexible approach to model and controller access, eliminating need for singleton classes.
http://code.google.com/p/flex-slide/

Sandy 3.0.2
Sandy is an intuitive and user-friendly 3D open-source library.
http://www.flashsandy.org/versions/3.0

Sprouts
Sprouts is an open-source, cross-platform project generation and configuration tool for ActionScript 2, ActionScript 3, Adobe AIR and Flex projects.
http://www.projectsprouts.org/

Universal Mind Extensions for Adobe Cairngorm
Universal Mind has extended the “classic” Adobe 2.2.x Cairngorm version to provide many productivity and maintenance enhancements.
http://code.google.com/p/flexcairngorm/

Video Tutorial on Compiling for Flash Player 10
http://theflashblog.com/?p=383

Virtual Space (AS 3.0) V. 1.0
The Virtual Space is an AS3 component that can be used to create virtual-tour type visualizations very easily. Simply specify 6 images to be used for top, bottom, left, right, front, and back. Then, position the camera, set the initial view, and specify interaction parameters.
http://www.afcomponents.com/components/virtual_space_as3/

Here is a bit more information from Erin about these exciting opportunities:

“Adobe is looking for Flex and Actionscript developers; especially folks who are experts at building on top of platforms like the Flash Player, Flex, Flash Media Server, etc. Specific jobs can be found at:”

Here is the link that Erin sent along, you’ll need to search for the jobs mentioned in this blog post. (The Adobe job site is a great place to keep an eye on too, if you weren’t already.)

http://cooljobs.adobe.com/frameset.html

Here are the open positions and the technologies that you will be working on for each position.

Flash Authoring/ Flex Dev w/ a strong background in CS to work on the Media Platform.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mediaplayer/

Flex UI Dev focus on real time communications:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/brio/

Flex UI Dev working on a v1.0 product, Share.com:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/share/

Full job descriptions are available in the following PDF downloads:

Flex Application Developer
Flex App Developer.pdf (47kb)

Senior Software Engineer, Connect
Sr. SWE Connect Brio.pdf (39kb)

Computer Scientist, Flash
Computer Scientist, Flash.pdf (40kb)

The other area she investigated was skinning the Flex 3 UI controls with video. This is something I haven’t seen in any Flex UI’s to date, Dolores is always up to something cool! She has really been digging into skinning Flex apps lately. Stop by her blog or get in touch directly to discuss bleeding-edge Flex 3 and AIR skinning requests. Dolores is also very interested in integrating 3D into Flex. Stay tuned for some 3D/Flex UI explorations from her in the future.

Flex 3 Cheatsheet, page 1 DRAFT:
http://actionscriptcheatsheet.com/pdf/Flex3ControlsCheatsheet_p1.pdf