Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Develop rich and smooth AJAX apps with Google Closure tools

It looks a great announcement from Google: Closure tools,  a collection of JavaScript tools that Google has used to develop our JavaScript-intensive applications such as Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs.

It consists of the Closure Compiler, Closure Library, Closure Inspector and Closure Templates. The internal names of these tools are JSCompiler, Closure, LavaBug and Soy Templates. For Closure Compiler, we also released a web application, a RESTful API and a Firefox extension that you can use with Page Speed.

All of these tools started as 20% projects and over the years hundreds of Googlers have contributed thousands of patches. Today, a few hundred projects within Google use some of the tools such as the Closure Library and the Closure Compiler.

Millions of Google users worldwide use JavaScript-intensive applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Maps. Like developers everywhere, Googlers want great web apps to be easier to create, so we've built many tools to help us develop these (and many other) apps. We're happy to announce the open sourcing of these tools, and proud to make them available to the web development community.

Google introduces Closure tools http://bit.ly/4xXgRL

I'll be presenting Flash Catalyst (via Connect) in a few hours

I have an e-seminar today organized by Adobe Italy where I'll give an overview of Flash Catalyst IDE and the new workflows between designers and Flex 4 developers

The event is free and this is the URL (italian language):

Using Flash Catalyst for designing your Flex 4 application

See you there in a couple of hours (4 pm local time).

What's new in Flash Catalyst BEta 2 and what's ahead for Flash Catalyst 1.0

The first day of MAX has ended. I had great time following pretty interesting sessions. This year I'm very focused on Flash Catalyst and Flex 4's sessions.
Today the new beta of Flash Catalyst and Flex 4 has been announced and they're now available on the Adobe Labs.

Steve Heintz, product manager of Flash Catalyst, during his Flash Catalyst session has given us a lot of interesting information about the product and its roadmap.
These are some of the notes I've taken.

Adobe Flash Catalyst Beta 2's new features:

Easing for more fluid motion
Add sound effects
More interactions (go to URL and play video)
SWF Control (paly SWF from any frame)
New Filters (drop shadows, belev, glow, blur)
Image compression
Add video with custom controls
Increased performance
Create scroll panels
New Text tool
Round trip editing with Illustrator
Enhanced user interface
Export to AIR (in addition to SWF)
Working with Desing Time Data

What's ahead for Flash Catalyst 1.0

New design for the in.context HUD (Heads Up Display)
Font Embedding
Externalize images
Compressing Options
Quick interaction

Flash applications on iPhone now available with the upcoming Flash Pro CS5

That was the announcement done at the  today's MAX Keynotes. On theAdobe Labs site you can watch a videodemonstration of applications from the Apple App Store built using Flash technology.
Below there is the video that I've taken during the Keynotes:

From the Adobe Labs:

Flash Professioal CS5 will enable you to build applications for iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. These applications can be delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store.*

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 with prerelease support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year

Setting your Flash Catalyst custom options using the hidden Preferences window

At Flash On The Beach during my session about Flash Catalyst (soon all my slides will be published on my blog) I've showed how to open the Preferences dialog box. Since a couple of guys have emailed me to ask how to open the Preferences dialog box, I've decided to post it on my blog.

Flash Catalyst beta hides the Preferences window. If you go to the Flash Catalyst menu you won't find anything.

In order to show it up you have to switch to the Code view of Flash Catalyst using the combobox on the upper right corner of the IDE, as shown in the figure:

This is where you can see all the code that has been written by Flash Catalyst in the background while you were working with your graphic.

Remember that the Code view is just a display area and it's not a code editor. In fact you can't edit or modify any line of code.

Now, pointing the mouse on the code viewer and right-clicking the contextual menu will show you up the Preferences option.

Click on it and the Preferences dialog box will appear and it will allows you to change the following Flash Catalyst settings:

File Type Associations 

Content Types

Appearance

Tex Editors 

Accessibility

Annotations

Linked Mode

Quaick Diff

Spelling

Flash On The Beach 2009 video trailer

John Davey did it again. This is the brand-new video for FOTB 09 made by Artillery (thanks to Lee for publishing it)

Best practices on using Flash Catalyst

If you're having fun (like me) using Flash Catalyst there's this useful article by Andrew Shorten about "Adobe Flash Catalyst best practices":

In this article, Andrew'll  provide some hints and tips that will make it easier for you to move design assets from Illustrator to Flash Catalyst in a structured way. He'll also highlight some best practices in Flash Catalyst that will ensure you achieve the right result and minimize re-working or re-structuring your assets once work continues inside Flash Builder.

This is the list of best practices given by Andrew:

Illustrator's Best Practices for importing artworks in Flash Catalyst:

Plan your Illustrator file structure

Design on a single art board

Give everything a name

Don't link to external image files

Mark duplicated component assets

Use "create outlines" for text with filters and effects

For data list components define a single element

Don't define all component states in Illustrator

Flash Catalyst's Best Practices:

Use "Save as copy" on a regular basis

Undertake tasks in the right order

Use optimized graphics

Consider component reuse

Define meaningful state names

Rename components in the Library

Use code view to spot optimizations

Preview state transitions in the browser regularly

Remember that changes only apply to a single state

Preparing to the Flash Catalyst's era attending my session at Flash on The Beach 09

FOTB09 is about to sold out again. From the last newsletter received, John Davey wrote that tickets sales will end way before the conference starts. Because of the phenomenal speed of sales this year, we are looking at a 3rd year in a row being sold out way beofre the event! We have never seen tickets go so fast!

Since there's the real probabily that the conference will have sold out around 4th of Sept and most probably before then. 

Don't miss the opportunity to join this awesome event ! 

That said everything for my presentation is ready. I have a title and a description :

Preparing to the Flash Catalyst's era

Flash Catalyst will change the way designers and developers will work together to create Rich Interactive applications.

You'll learn key features of the latest version of Flash Catalyst as well as the technologies behind the tool such as the FXG format and the Flex SDK 4.

You'll discover how to work with products such as Photoshop and Illustrator to create the look and feel and the user experience of a RIA, while automatically generating the necessary code in the background.

Making the most of MAX Los Angeles 2009

I just wanted to point this collection of useful links and tips out to get to Adobe MAX 2009 on a budget. Serge Jesper made a great job giving you a lot of information, tips, and links for anyone who is interested in partecipating to MAX Los Angeles 2009:

Getting to Adobe MAX 2009 on a budget. Get a $400 discount!

Don't waste time thinking about it because MAX is only 10 weeks away !!

Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4 will be moved to early 2010

Yeasterday on the Flex Team's blog, Adobe has announced that, in order to make the enhancements required and get additional feedback from the community the final release of Flex 4 SDK and Flash Builder 4 will be moved from late 2009 to early 2010.

Maybe to most of you this could not be a good news but to me it gives me a bit more breathing space