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

Comments

[jadd]

ciao,
I'm glad you are having fun with this FC. I was so anxious to give it a try when the first beta came out ... and after a day or so I was so disappointed and sad ... It is or (maybe for you was) toooo "young" to be a real efficient new application. I know it is in beta, and I can agree that will be a great step but not now. I would be curious to see your talk at FOTB, but I can't (too expensive for me).
Cheers, roberto.

[Andrew Shorten]

Hey Marco - long time, no speak! Looking forward to seeing you at FOTB. I am sure you will have some more Flash Catalyst best practices to share there :)

Cheers,

Andrew

[Pino]

Marco, you can't believe people -after all these changings- will react thinking they are happy to change. TOO MANY CHANGES, MARCO. Adobe in my opinion is not thinking about users: it is fighing against abstract competitors and building theoric software, based on its feelings. Reality is different: why should one always learn how to do the same things in a different way every two years o so? I can dedicate all this time to learn other technologies and I skill myself more. Moreover, you should tell me HOW a company passes from Flash to Flex to Catalyst to... without IMPACT upon productivity... this is crazy..

[Marco Casario]

Pino, I think you're talking about 2 different points that require two different analyses.

Flash Catalyst has born to solve a problem that now exists between RIA's designers/developers workflow.
It's not a new technology to learn but it's tool to simplify the life and the productivity of a RIA's team.
As a Flex guy and companby Iìm pretty sure I'll soon implement the use of Catalyst in my company.

The second thing you're saying is about the tech field and its actors (tech companies).
But this is a huge topic that involves a lot of factors (technologies, markets, economics, competitors ....).
We, as users, have the freedom to choose what to do and what to use in terms of operating system, techology, tools and so on.
You can choose not to embrace Flash Catalyst of Flex 4 and continue developing using Flash 8.
It's up to you and it's up to the field you work in.

But do you think your clients will be happy and satisfy by your job (in a long term ) ?
Or they could ask you and pretend the latest 3D feature of Flash Player 10 they've seen on a cool website.

So, at the end, is it you or the market that drives tech companies ?

My 2 cents.
ciao

[Pino]

Hi Marco, the fact is that your company is a RIA-specialized company: this is the little picture (that involves the work of freelances too). In italian big companies (100 or more employees) they know it exists Flash CS3 (and CS4) and eventually they use it because they have someone referred to as "the graphics guy" (even if this person is "cross-skilled") who uses the software, doing the code and the graphics things. Now, I imagine Catalyst should be for this kind of companies: Adobe wants to get the maximum from the designer and from the developer and that's ok. The fact is that (in Italy) very often reality is different and the employee can't change the world. Moreover, in some cases you are creating two employees where the company wants just pay for one. So, big companies, that could produce very very interesting swf works, are in any case slow and can't get easily updated, without destroying some estabilished processes. So, when in a few years you go from Flash 8 AS2 to AS3 to AS3 in Flex and to Catalyst and Flex Builder to Flash Builder, maybe you ignore the current state of some realities (or you think these companies should call RIA-specialized companies to get the work done). How can an employee contact his CEO and explain what the hell is Flash, Flex, Flash Builder formerly Flex Builder, Catalyst and convince him to purchase licenses of one of these things? It's not that easy and it should not be an employee task. So, now, imagine Flash CS4 will have no successor: at this point, you want your big fat company to purchase Flash Builder and Catalyst. How will you convince them when they have used Flash for years?

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