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AMFPHP is back!

Today is a wonderful day!

I have teamed up with Ariel Sommeria-klein to revive the legendary AMFPHP project that spawned a whole new dimension of Rich Internet Applications. Together we have brought AMFPHP 1.9 out of beta and made it compatible with PHP 5.3. We have also completely rewritten the AMFPHP service browser and we have several improvements planned for AMFPHP 2.0.

If you would like to help contribute to this great open-source application, please contact us.Vote in HexoSearch

Flash Runtime implemented in JavaScript

Now this completely threw me… I can’t believe how one guy can be so skilled!

Flash Runtime in JavaScript

This is completely ridiculous… Tobias Schneider has written a JavaScript-based Flash runtime! Well, this gives Internet Explorer another thing to completely fuck up! Very impressed indeed…Vote in HexoSearch

Converting GIF to SWF using Flash CS4

A typical ballache… You want to use one of the cool loaders from http://ajaxload.info/ in your Flash/Flex apps, but it only generates a GIF file… So you’ll scour the net for a GIF2SWF application and you’ll undoubtedly come across a few, but you don’t have to look any further than Flash CS4 – surprisingly!

All you have to do is open a GIF file in Flash CS4 and it’ll automatically pull it apart and convert it to frames, which can then be converted to a SWF file :)

Hope it helps you at some point!Vote in HexoSearch

AMFPHP Genie v0.2

AMFPHP Genie (0.2) is a simple tool to help you get shit done using Flex and AMFPHP.

Check out http://dannykopping.co.za/amfphp-genie/ for more information!Vote in HexoSearch

Let it Bloom

Hhmm… what’s this? ;)

http://www.letitbloom.com/Vote in HexoSearch

Adobe WeatherLab Beta

Over the past few months, Adobe has really been pulling out all the stops. They’ve been releasing some ridiculously useful and innovative tools and additions to existing software, but their latest offering has dropped my jaw even further!

Introducing Adobe WeatherLab Beta

Adobe WeatherLab Beta

Adobe WeatherLab Beta

This latest release from Adobe will surely change the way we see the world around us and how we interact with it. Adobe WeatherLab Beta is a the latest addition to Adobe’s impressive line of Adobe AIR-based tools, and it boasts some pretty innovative features!

Adobe WeatherLab Beta allows you to communicate directly with whichever skygod(s) you please via RPC (Remote Procedure Calls) in either XML, AMF or JSON. Adobe WeatherLab Beta boasts an expansive, extensible API for changing the weather in realtime and – most importantly – it integrates with all of the CS4 and upcoming CS5 products.

Finally, you can adjust your environment to suit your specific needs. If you’re more of a sunshine and beer kind of person, simply call the Weather singleton and change it to sunny by using the constant Weather.SUNNY (code samples to follow).

Insiders at Adobe have revealed that they have been working on improving the feature-sets of applications such as Illustrator, Flash Professional, Flash Builder & Flex SDK and Photoshop, but found that these applications were just getting to the stage where no more work could be done on them

“We wanted a new challenge. We had reached a point where we realised that our applications were near perfect, aside from a few bugs, and we needed something to throw at our engineers. Luckily, one of our engineers knew how to rain-dance and this set off a chain reaction of events, all leading up to Adobe WeatherLab Beta“.

Much work has still to be done on this application, but engineers over at Adobe have assured me that any bugs in the system will not cause any universal constants to go out of whack.

When I first heard of this innovative and – let’s face it – ingenious application, I was skeptical. My skepticism was soon lifted when I used the mapping API from Google to pinpoint a parade which I subsequently used Adobe WeatherLab Beta to rain on.

Here’s the code I used:

// Code snippet for changing the weather
 
import com.adobe.weatherlab.Weather;
import com.adobe.weatherlab.Geography;
 
public function changeWeather():void
{
        var weather:Weather = Weather.getInstance();     // get weather singleton
        weather.change(Weather.SUNNY, new Geography(37.433868, -121.884155));      // target weather change
}

To download Adobe WeatherLab Beta, click here.Vote in HexoSearch

The Whirlwind that is Adobe in 2009

Wow.

It’s been quite a fascinating year thus far; Adobe has really started getting serious about Flash, Flex and the developers involved. This year, we have seen two amazing additions to Adobe’s web-dominating arsenal – Adobe Flash Catalyst (now in beta 2) and Adobe Flash Builder 4 (now in beta 2). After some preliminary buggering around in both of these, I came to the conclusion that working with a beta version of any software to create enterprise applications is putting yourself on the edge of the cliff, and working on a version 1.0 beta is hiring somebody to push you over the edge.

This raises an interesting catch-22:
When a massive piece of software is released, the community has the onus to test it and give feedback on any bugs, requested features and expedience tips – however, if your beta software tends to be very buggy (and how could it not be? The SDK is huge) then how are you going to get developers to test your software on real, enterprise projects?

In any case, Adobe has really been playing the part this year. This year we have seen the release of the Flex 4 SDK, major advancements in the Open Screen Project, Flash Player 10’s penetration rate to 93.5%, AIR surpassing 100 million installations and the introduction of Flash Player 10.1 most recently. Other great things i’ve seen are WorkflowLab, BrowserLab, Project Squiggly, Slider previews, Flash CS5 sneak previews and Community Help.

For all of those unlucky and miserable enough to miss Adobe Max this year (myself included), there’s an entire channel dedicated to Max 2009 Developer talks… Go check them out!

Oh, and if you have any luck getting these videos to play in Adobe Media Player, let me know. That app is more full of bugs than a salad in Nigeria.Vote in HexoSearch

Flash & Flex Developer's Magazine

The new version of FFDMag is officially out! The publication is now an online-based magazine, available free of charge to all that want to check it out.

Check out my article about Flex & AMFPHP integration on Page 54…

Vote in HexoSearch

Design, Develop, Debug, Deploy

Just in case you’ve had your head stuck in the ground for the past few hours and haven’t yet heard the news, i’m thrilled to announce that Adobe Flash Builder 4 (previously named Flex Builder) and Adobe Flash Catalyst (codenamed Thermo) have been released in beta on Adobe Labs! The two new applications are set to completely revolutionize the industry with their incredible new features and vastly improved workflows.

Check out the Adobe Labs website and http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flash/videos/ for more information and downloads. Happy Flashing!

flashbuilder4 flashcatalyst

Vote in HexoSearch

Flex Builder 3 for Linux has been canned! Show your support!

I was recently shocked and appalled to see that Adobe has put the development on Flex Builder 3 for Linux on hold. I, for one, would really love to be able to develop Flex applications on Linux (I use Linux Mint) and – in addition – would like to see a Creative Suite release for Linux soon, too.

Personally i can’t think why developing a version of Flex Builder for Linux would be so difficult. Flex Builder is built on top of (and as a plugin for) Eclipse, which is Java-based and therefore cross-platform. I’d imagine that it does have something to do with the Flash Player as Tom of rachaelandtom.info says. Can anyone shed some light on the situation?

The reason for Adobe’s suspension of development is:

“The project is currently on hold. There is not enough requisition for the product to continue its development” – Ben Forta (Adobe Senior Technical Evangelist)

Please show your support and vote for the continuation of this amazing project! Go to http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-19053 and vote!!Vote in HexoSearch