Sean Moore - Software Developer, Digital Musician, Arduino Hacker » MXML

Developing Flex 4 Components Book

seantheflexguy — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:39:23 +0000

Here’s an exciting new book that is full of great information regarding developing components in Flex 4. The book is very in depth and a really great read. I have yet to finish the entire thing but am slowly making my way through it. The beginning of the book is an overview of Flex and also a detailed look at the Flex component architecture. The author, Mike Jones, does an outstanding job of explaining the details of how the Flex component architecture works. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about creating components with Flex 4!!

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

After reading this book, you’ll be able to:

• Set up your Flex and Flash Builder development environment

• Understand key differences between Flex 3 and Flex 4 component frameworks

• Learn how Flex components are typically structured, developed, and rendered

• Leverage ActionScript and MXML to quickly create components

• Implement view states, transitions, effects, and events

• Manipulate and store complex data collections

• Use Flex 4’s FXG and MXMLG to support skinning and styling

• Create components with Flash Professional CS5’s drawing tools

• Integrate components with Flash Builder

• Package components for easy distribution with or without source code

• Streamline implementation with manifests, design view extensions, and metadata

You can get more info about the book and pick up a copy from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Flex-Components-ActionScript-Applications/dp/032160413X

Also you can learn more about the author, Mike Jones, at his blog and on twitter.

New Android Development Books for Flex 4.5, AIR, AS3 and Flash!!!

seantheflexguy — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:26:39 +0000

So with the release of Flash Builder 4.5 and the continuing popularity of the Android platform and devices there are a number of books coming to market. Here are a few books that should help you get up to speed and learn more about developing for Android with the Flash Platform. I had the opportunity to tech review the Cookbook written by Joseph and can personally recommend it. I haven’t read the other two…yet

Flash Development for Android Cookbook
Over 100 recipes to build exciting Android applications with Flash, Flex, and AIR
By: Joseph Labrecque
Publisher: Pakt Publishing
Released: expected September 2011
http://www.packtpub.com/flash-development-for-android-cookbook/book

Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR

An ActionScript Developer’s Guide to Building Android Applications

By: Véronique Brossier

Publisher: O’Reilly Media

Released: April 2011
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781449394820/

Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5

Building Android Applications with ActionScript

By: Rich Tretola

Publisher: O’Reilly Media

Released: May 2011

http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920020172

Mega-simple Drag and Drop for Flex 4 Group (Code Example)

seantheflexguy — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:04:41 +0000

Looking around the web and searching google resulted in no quick, easy and simple results for a basic drag and drop example for a Flex 4 Group. There’s plenty of drag and drop examples but all the ones I located were way too complicated for my needs. (What’s up with all the examples being super-over-the-top these days btw? K.I.S.S.) My need was really basic. Click a Group and drag it around the Stage. Whoa! So… this is crazy simple, maybe too simple to even have a code example for… Well, someone else might need this, and if so, here’s the code:

xmlns:s=”library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark”

xmlns:mx=”library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx”

mouseDown=”this.startDrag();” mouseUp=”this.stopDrag();”>

That’s it. Just tie the startDrag and stopDrag to the mouseDown and mouseUp events. Mega-simple…

Motivational Programming Posters

seantheflexguy — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:32:53 +0000

We’ve all seen it, the code that makes you cringe. The projects that leave you scratching your head for hours and hours. The nightmares you have and cold sweats you wake up with at 2AM with your mind racing about 900 line long methods. The countless nested if and for statements, the code with 20 references to the same variable. The 5000 line long main.mxml files. The projects that have NO structure at ALL. The NVC frameworks (No Model, No View, No Controller). Some of us have seen the worst of the worst, others will soon be intimately familiar. It doesn’t really matter what programming language you work with. There is sloppy code everywhere. In every language, for every kind of technology stack. There are devs who don’t care, dev’s who are just lazy, devs who write this kind of code for job security (or so they think), devs who don’t know better, devs with project managers standing behind them asking when’s it going to be done!?, etc., etc.

Rather than continuing to scream in vein at my monitor when encountering some of the stellar code people write I’ve come up with a better solution. The Motivational Programming Poster series!!

Here are a few of my initial posters. More to come. Enjoy!

Oh and by the way get the book called Clean Code and READ IT PLEASE…PRETTY PLEASE, WITH SUGAR AND A CHERRY ON TOP!!!

seantheflexguyTV – episode 02: Flash and the City conference, AIR 2.0, Flex 3 with Java book review

seantheflexguy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:14:01 +0000

Here’s the second episode of seantheflexguyTV! In this episode I talk about the upcoming Flash and the City conference in NYC. I also cover some of the new features and capabilities of AIR 2.0 and do a quick review of the Flex 3 with Java book. This episode should be a little more organized and focused. I put together some show notes this time, which you can download here. In addition I’ve collected up some links for you to check out that relate to the topics covered in the show. Thanks a ton for your suggestions last week and thanks for tuning in. The next episode will focus on Flex “Gotchas.” I’m looking to you, the viewer, to send any gotchas that you’ve encountered in your Flex development adventures. Please send them to: info@seantheflexguy.com I’m looking for problems with solutions if you have them. Nothing crazy just any weird issues you’ve found solutions for that others might benefit from. Thanks again for checking out the show, I appreciate your time and feedback. I have to send a HUGE shout out to Jens at Flash Magazine for the Vimeo Plus account for the shows going forward. Flash Magazine is now an official sponsor of seantheflexguyTV. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff moving forward. Well, until next time, take it easy…

seantheflexguyTV – episode 02: Flash and the City, AIR 2.0, Flex 3 with Java book review from seantheflexguy on Vimeo.

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

Flex Best Practices Presentations

seantheflexguy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:10:00 +0000

The San Diego Flash Users Group invited me to give a presentation on Flex Best Practices last night. Thanks to everyone who took the time to join the meeting. Thanks to Kyle and Chris for inviting me to present. Also thanks a lot to everyone who provided all the great feedback and questions. Dan made the journey down from the mountains to join us as well. Several attendees inquired about getting a copy of the slideshow. I think the articles that I wrote for Adobe are actually much better and cover even more material than the Powerpoint presentation. Here are the links to the articles:

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!!

Flex best practices – Part 2: Development practices

seantheflexguy — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:04:32 +0000

Following best practices during the development process can help organize and structure an application. Standardized development provides clarity, stability, longevity and scalability. I worked with several members of the Flex community and the Adobe Flex Team to create this article outlining over 90 best practices for the Flex development process. Thank you to everyone who helped review the article. Also thanks to everyone who provided input!! And, thanks to Adobe for the opportunity to write this!!!

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.”

Flex 4 Gumbo Link Roundup: From getting started to skinning

seantheflexguy — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:46:13 +0000

Mock Flex 4 Gumbo logo

Flex 4 is certain to mold the future of RIA development. Building on the existing Halo theme the Flex Team has started to further refine the component model and architecture for Flex. Flex 4 has a strong focus on design. One primary goal is to allow designers and developers to collaborate in innovative and unseen ways bending the RIA paradigm and pushing the expressive envelope even further.

Here is a useful list of links for finding information about Flex 4 – Gumbo. From getting started to the new skinning features this list of links will help introduce you to Flex 4.

“Gumbo plan” video – Matt Chotin
http://flexorg.wip3.adobe.com/gumbo/gumboplan.htm

Flex Bug Database – Filtered to show 4 Gumbo Bugs

http://snurl.com/39jlk

Gumbo Themes
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Gumbo+Themes

An Introduction to the Gumbo Component Architecture
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Gumbo+Component+Architecture

Compiling Your First Flex 4 Application
http://blog.smartlogicsolutions.com/2008/07/15/compiling-your-first-flex-4-application/

Compiling Flex 4 (Gumbo)
http://sherifabdou.com/2008/07/compiling-flex-4-gumbo/

Adobe® Flex™ Gumbo Language Reference
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/gumbo/langref/

Gumbo Downloads from Adobe
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4

Flex 4.0 Gumbo ~ Developer Designer workflow, just awesome
http://bkflex.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/flex-40-gumbo-developer-designer-workflow-just-awesome/

Using the beta Gumbo SDK in Flex Builder 3
http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/08/02/using-the-beta-gumbo-sdk-in-flex-builder-3/

Downloading and installing Flex SDK builds from opensource.adobe.com
http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/08/01/downloading-and-installing-flex-sdk-builds-from-opensourceadobecom/

Jumping Into Skinning with Flex 4
http://scalenine.com/blog/2008/07/17/jumping-into-skinning-with-flex-4/

Gumbo (Flex 4) Skin with Transitions
http://scalenine.com/blog/2008/07/20/gumbo-flex-4-skin-with-transitions/

Flex 4 (Gumbo) VSlider, HSlider, Panel Skinny Example
http://sherifabdou.com/2008/07/flex-4-gumbo-vslider-hslider-panel-skinny-example/

Flex 4(Gumbo) using the includeIn Property and States
http://sherifabdou.com/2008/07/flex-4gumbo-using-the-includein-property-and-states/

FXG kicks ass!
http://www.richapps.de/?p=156

ILOG Elixir Gauges using Flex 4 (aka Gumbo) FXG
http://blogs.ilog.com/elixir/2008/07/18/ilog-elixir-gauges-using-flex-4-aka-gumbo-fxg/

If you are Trying to Compile Gumbo (Flex 4) and getting a Verify Error
http://sherifabdou.com/2008/07/if-you-are-trying-to-compile-gumbo-flex-4-and-getting-a-verify-error/

Flex-mojos compiling Flex 4 Gumbo?
http://blog.flex-mojos.info/2008/07/16/flex-mojos-compiling-flex-4-gumbo/

A couple other related, useful links:

Cygwin
http://www.cygwin.com/

J2SE 5.0_13
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/5.0_13/index.html

Ant 1.7.0
http://archive.apache.org/dist/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.7.0-bin.zip

mm.cfg
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/download/attachments/2392481/mm.cfg?version=1

FlexSDK.cfg
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/download/attachments/2392481/FlexSDK.cfg?version=1

Mate framework article on Flash Magazine, by: SeanTheFlexGuy

sean — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:56:36 +0000

I wanted to post a link to this article that I had the pleasure and opportunity of writing for Flash Magazine about the Mate framework for Flex. Mate is an awesome framework used for developing applications using Adobe Flex. I’d like to thank both Jens from Flash Magazine and Laura from ASFusion for their help reviewing and getting the article together and published. I’ve wanted to write for Flash Magazine a very long time, so massive respect for the opportunity!! I was also unclear on a couple of things about the framework and Laura’s input was a huge help and greatly appreciated.

You can check out the article here:

Mate: Event driven framework for Flex
by: Sean Moore, July 2008 for Flash Magazine
http://www.flashmagazine.com/Reviews/detail/mate_event_driven_framework_for_flex/

Getting Started with Flex 3 – Pocket Guide for Developers

sean — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:50:46 +0000

Here is a new pocket guide for Flex 3.0 that somehow slipped past me. I haven’t seen this book mentioned anywhere. Things have been mega busy over the last few months so that could explain it. Three things I really like: Flex, O’Reilly and a pocket sized book. These pocket guides are great for reading while standing in lines, on airplanes etc. I want to get a copy of this little guy ASAP! Here are the details for the book. Enjoy!

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/