Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Speaking at the event Rich Web Clients using Flex 3/ BlazeDS and the new Spring 3.0 REST support

I'll speak at this free event organized by SpringSource and Comtaste where will be presented for the very first time in Italy the new version of  the Spring 3.0 framework and the integration with Flex 3 and BlazeDS.

Those are the two sessions of the afternoon:

Session 1 - Spring 3.0 and the new REST support, Speaker: Rossen Stoyanchev (SpringSource)

One of the major new themes of Spring 3.0 is the support for REST in Spring MVC. This talk will investigate these features from the perspective of a web application developer and discuss them in the context of JAX-RS, the Java Standard for RESTfulWeb Services. If you're familiar with JAX-RS you can relate your knowledge to Spring MVC. If you're an existing Spring MVC user can learn about major developments in the areas of data binding, validation, and type conversion as well as how Spring MVC compares to JAX-RS, a topic that's likely to come up in your organization.

Session 2  - Rich web clients with Spring and Flex 3,  Speaker: Marco Casario (Comtaste)

All the information to register on the Spring and Flex 3 / BlazeDS event's page.

Google is open-sourcing its operating system's project named Chromium OS

Today Google has announced the open source project Chromium OS.
Google Chromium OS is the brand new name for the Google Chrome OS, the open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web.

The project looks very promising and interesting. It's a totally new idea of operating system that isall about web applications.

This is what Google says about the Chromium OS project:

The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we're going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys. If you dig security, read the Chrome OS Security Overview or watch the video.

Google Chrome OS will be ready for consumers this time next year.

Developing AJAX apps using Dreamweaver CS4 and the Spry framework

In a few hours I'm going to start an eSeminar via connect for Adobe Italy about developing AJAX apps using Dreamweaver CS4 and the Spry framework.

This is the url of the event that will be presented in italian language:

http://eseminars.emea.adobe.acrobat.com/elearning1811/

I'll talk about the Spry tools: Spry Data, spry Form, Spry Layout and effects.

The seminar will start at 4 pm (local time). See you there !

Adobe AIR 2 beta released on Labs together with Flash Player 10.1

That's a great news. Adobe finally announced that the Adobe AIR 2 beta is now publicly available on Adobe Labs!
Moreover the Flash Player 10.1 is available too. Flash Player 10.1  is the first runtime release of the Open Screen Project that enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and video across devices.

The features of AIR 2 are tons and they add real value to our desktop applications. Below you can get some useful resources and the list of the newest features that AIR 2 brings:

Adobe AIR 2 beta on Labs 
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/ 

Adobe AIR Team Blog: Adobe AIR 2 Beta Now Available
http://blogs.adobe.com/air/2009/11/adobe_air_2_beta_now_available.html 

Adobe AIR 2 Beta Release Notes on Labs 
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_2:Release_Notes#Overview 

Adobe AIR 2 Beta Developer FAQ 
http://www.adobe.com/go/air2_faq

Adobe AIR 2 Beta Sample Applications 
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/samples/ 

Flash Player 10.1

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

This is a list of the new features of Adobe AIR 2:

• Open documents with the user's default application (see File.openWithDefaultApplication() and Opening files with the default system application.)
• Microphone data access (See Microphone.sampleData and Capturing microphone sound data.)
• Mass storage device detection (see StorageVolumeInfo.)
• Updated WebKit version
  • WebKit in AIR is based on the version shipped with Safari 4.0.3
  • Support for JavaScript profiling
  • SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine resulting in 50% faster performance using SunSpider tests
  • CSS3 Module support 
  • Styling scrollbars via CSS
  • Latest Canvas enhancements.
• Global Error Handling (see UncaughtErrorEvent.)
• New networking support
  • Server sockets (See ServerSocket and Server sockets.)
  • UDP sockets (See DatagramSocket and UDP sockets (AIR).)
  • TLS/SSL sockets (See SecureSocket and Secure client sockets (AIR).)
  • DNS lookup (See DNSResolver and Domain Name System (DNS) records.)
  • Network interface enumeration
    
• Packaging an AIR application in a native installer
• Native process API
• Database transaction savepoints (see SQLConnection.setSavePoint() )
• Screen reader support (Windows only) (see Accessibility)
• Printing enhancements
  • Vector printing is now supported on the Mac.
  • PrintJobOptions.printMethod.
• Idle time-out settings for URL requests (see idleTimeout)
• Improved IPv6 support
• Increased maximum size of NativeWindow (see NativeWindow.bounds)
• File promises (Win/Mac only) (see URLFilePromise and Dropping file promises)
• Multi-touch events (see TouchEvent)
• IME API and IME text input enhancement
• Native runtime install packages for Linux

Get reviews, ratings, business hours of the best places to eat, shop and stay on Google Maps

I'm a really big fan of Google Maps and Street View.

So it has been a great shot when I've realized that you can now find the best places to eat, shop and stay directly on Google Mpas.

Just click on "more info" to get reviews, ratings, business hours, and check out its Street View. The feature is also supported on Google Maps Mobile !

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

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