Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Macromedia Flash's books revival (aka my first Flash's books)

While tidying up my library in the past days I've found some very old books I've used to study my first topics in the multimedia/web development filed.

I've discovered a book on Director 5, Perl, HTML 3 and the follwoing Macromedia Flash books: Flash 3 Web Animation (by Coriolis Press), Flash Web Design by Hillman Curtis, Flash 4 Magic (by New Riders), and Complete Flash Remoting (by Wiley).

Great old memories :)

Creating AIR submenus for a native menu with Flash CS4 - Part 2 (The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development Highlight)

The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development book is oriented to Flash developers interested in building desktop applications via Adobe AIR. You can preorder The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development  on Amazon or buy it on local bookstore starting from 22nd December.

In the first part of this article dedicated on AIR menus you've learned how to create an AIR native menu (read the full Creating AIR native menu with Flash CS4 - Part 1 article)

To create a submenu item, you use the NativeMenuItem class . Begin by opening the Ch06p01.as class and add the createFirstSubMenu() method , which creates an item of the NativeMenuItem class and adds two elements. This item will be used as a first submenu of the native menu you’re creating. Here’s the code:

private function createFirstSubMenu():NativeMenuItem
{

Next, create an instance of the NativeMenuItem class by showing the label that it needs to be associated with. Assign an instance of the NativeMenu class to the submenu property of the element you’ve just created. The native menu object associated with the submenu property will contain the subitems you’ll create for this element of the menu.

// create first submenu
var subMenu:NativeMenuItem =
new NativeMenuItem( "My first custom submenu" );
// initialize child container
subMenu.submenu = new NativeMenu();

Follow these steps to define the elements that will be displayed as children of the element of the menu you’ve just created:

1. Instantiate an object of the NativeMenuItem class by giving the constructor a label for the element.

2. Register an event listener method for the SELECT event (Event.SELECT). Each time the user selects this element from the menu, the menuItemSelected() method will
be executed.

3. Finally, add the element of the menu you’ve created to the submenu property of the submenu you’re creating with the addItem() method of the NativeMenuItem
class. Here’s the code:

// create first submenu child
var subMenuItem1:NativeMenuItem =
new NativeMenuItem( "menu 1 item 1" );
// register event listener for menu item
subMenuItem1.addEventListener( Event.SELECT, menuItemSelected );
// add item to submenu
subMenu.submenu.addItem( subMenuItem1 );

Create a second object of the NativeMenuItem class. Then register the selection event of the element to the menuItemSelected() method . Finally, add the element to the submenu you’re creating. Here’s the code:

// create a second child, register event listener for
// selection event and assign to submenu
var subMenuItem2:NativeMenuItem =
new NativeMenuItem( "menu 1 item 2" );
subMenuItem2.addEventListener( Event.SELECT, menuItemSelected );
subMenu.submenu.addItem( subMenuItem2 );

Next, return the menu you’ve created so that it can be added as a child of the main context menu.

return subMenu;
}

The first submenu has been created and is ready to use. Before testing your application, you have to define the createSecondSubMenu() method , which will deal with initializing the second submenu of the context menu you’re creating.

Adobe Flash Player 10 running on Google Phone (T-Mobile G1 Android Phone)

That was presented by Kevin Lynch at MAX Conference in San Francsico. He showed the Adobe Flash Player 10 running on Google Phone:

Watch the video on YouTube.

Flash Media Server 3.5 announced at MAX

Only one word: dynamic streaming. Now it's a reality with Flash Media Server 3.5 announced today at MAX by Adobe.
From the Adobe web site: Dynamic streaming will help solve this problem as bandwidth     becomes restricted or is made available. The technology does this because of     the new APIs available with Adobe Flash Player 10 and Flash Media Server 3.5. ActionScript     written for Flash Player or Adobe AIR 1.5 can instruct Flash Media Server 3.5     to send a lower quality stream and switch the streams without interrupting the     audio or video flow. The user is never the wiser. When bandwidth increases,     Flash Player can request for a higher quality stream and once again deliver without     disruption.

Other great new features are:

Digital video     recording (DVR) feature that allows you to record your favorite shows when they air, or pause a     live stream while you tend to something else. In either case, you can watch     your program in its entirety or even go backwards to catch something you missed     the first time through. The trend here is that video consumers are watching live     media on their own time—and on their own terms.

And last but not least:

• A new Flash Video Player and ActionScript 3 classes
• Interactive full screen
• Stream-encrypted F4V files
• More ways to monitor and manage your deployment
• H.264 server-side archiving
• XMP metadata support
• Higher quality audio conferencing with new Speex codec support

           

The ActionScript Conference Matrix-style video report by Lee Brimelow

Yesterday Lee Brimelow published a video report from The ActionScript Conference Singapore. The video is so cool that I had to point it out ;)

As Lee wrote, these smaller events (such as the ActionScript Conference)  are often just as good as the larger, more expensive conferences. And another good point is that the enviroment is very familiar and you can keep in contact with everyone easily, creating the perfect field for networking.

Ehi Lee congrats for your first experiment of  quick-frenetic-cuts video ! It's very Matrix-oriented
In a few weeks you'll be the new Ronin ;) (no offense Rob ;))

Heading to The ActionScript Conference in singapore

I'm heading to The ActionScript Conference in Singapore.  I'm pretty excited to speak for the first time in Asia and I can't wait to share ideas and thoughts with people.

The Actionscript Conference (TAC) is a community conference with the focus on Flash Platform.  TAC aims to bring topics on Actionscript 3.0, Flash development, Enterprise Flex, AIR, Integrating of Flash and other Platforms, and building Rich Internet Application to its audience.

If you're there for the event, drop by my session to say hi.

Specifying an ActionScript Value Object as data type of the elements of an Array using the [ArrayElementType]

It's a fact that ActionScript does not support typed arrays. It means that you can't specify the data type of the elements of the Array. Flex SDK provides the [ArrayElementType] meta tag that allows you to specify Array type checking using Flex Builder and the Flex compiler:

[ArrayElementType("int")]  private var _intArray:Array;

[ArrayElementType("String")] private var _stringArray:Array;

In the above example I've specified the data type for the Array elements. In the first Array,_intArray , the elements of the Array must be int, while in the second Array, _stringArray, the elements of the Array must be String. If you try to put different data types into the Array the Flex compiler will issue a syntax error.  Cool and simple.

But you can also use the [ArrayElementType] to specify an ActionScript Value Object (it's an ActionScript class) as data type of the elements of the Array. In this scenario you pass the fully qualified package reference of the ActionScript Value Object as type of the ArrayElementType:

[ArrayElementType("com.casario.vo.UserVO")]
protected var _users:Array;

Then you can populate the _users property using, for istance, the push method:

_users.push( new com.casario.vo.UserVO ( id, name, role, description ) );

The ActionScript Value Object should look like this:

package com.casario.vo
{
    [Bindable]
    public class UserVO
    {
        public var id:String;
        public var name:String;
        public var role:String;
        public var description:String;

        public function UserVO(
                                id:String,
                                name:String,
                                role:String,
                                description:String,
                              )
        {
            this.id = id;
            this.name = name;
            this.role = role;
            this.description = description;

        }
    }
}

Forcing the value object as data type you'll get compile-time errors if you'll attempt to assign elements of a data type other than the UserVO ActionScript Value Object to the Array in an MXML file.

Want to join the beta of the next Flash Media Server 4 ?

Today I found this post by Kevin Towes, Product Manager for Flash Media Server at Adobe, where he wrote about the next version of our Flash Media Server software:

Adobe would like your help to test the next version of our Flash Media Server software, the best way to deliver media to the Adobe Flash platform and to create rich interactive solutions.

Learn about some of the exciting new features we’re adding that will significantly improve the quality of media delivery to Adobe Flash player 10 and make it much easier to deploy your own Flash Media Server.

If you’re interested in testing this next generation Adobe software, please take a moment and fill out our survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=y0_2f01VYSDUiwLfHYUMtQwA_3d_3d

Want to learn some of the Adobe Flash CS4 new features ?

I've just finished to read this interesting article on the last issue of  The Edge magazine:

Adobe Flash CS4: New features and improved workflow

Tha article was written by Doug Winnine that explored some of the biggest features of Flash CS4 Professional and show you how they can improve your workflow.
This is a recap of the new features of Flash CS4:

Doing more with animation: the new animation model, the workflow is easy. Simply select the frame you want your object to end up on and move the object to its desired location

New Flash CS4  Motion Editor

Flash CS4 now adds animation of 2D objects within 3D space, entirely within the application — no code required. Flash offers two ways to create 3D animation: the 3D rotation and 3D translation

Packaging and sharing motion

Bones: Objects such as characters, animals, or mechanical gadgets have skeletons or limbs that restrict certain types of movement. Flash CS4 can easily add this type of structure, or virtual bones, to your animation subject in one of two ways. You can connect individual objects together as segments of limbs. Or you can give structure to a single existing object

Flash CS4 introduces the XFL file format, a publishing format for InDesign and After Effects that is natively Flash.

Remembering the Flash On The Beach 2008 conference

I'm just back home from Brighton where I've been part as a speaker of the FlashOnTheBeach conference. Tomorrow I want to find the time to make a great summary of the event and share my thoughts (if you wanna see some photos).

Now I feel melancholy thinking about the great moments I had. So I thought to watch the FOTB Video Presentation video.
This is the video presentation of the conference directed by The Ronin (brilliant job Rob) and presented on the first day at the conference. It has been a very emotional moment (thanks to Lee Brimelow to post it on YouTube):