Adobe AIR


20
Jan 10

Fogbugz Day 2

In starting to write a fogbugz app, I thought this might be an ideal time to really start learning how to use Flex 4. Wow, I’m glad I did – although – there’s definitely a learning curve moving from 3 to 4. It’s a good thing though, I see where the developer is given a lot more freedom in creating and styling the components in the Flex framework and it’s nice to see states work in a way that is really useful. Here’s how it looks in my really really early early first stab at creating an item renderer:

	<s:states>
		<s:State name="normal" />
		<s:State name="hovered" />
		<s:State name="selected" />
		<s:State name="normalAndShowsCaret" />
		<s:State name="hoveredAndShowsCaret" />
		<s:State name="selectedAndShowsCaret" />
	</s:states>

	<s:Rect left="0" right="0" top="0" bottom="0">
		<s:fill>
			<s:SolidColor color="black"
						  alpha="0"
						  alpha.hovered="0.4"
						  alpha.selected="0.4"
						  alpha.selectedAndShowsCaret="0.4" />
		</s:fill>
		<s:filters>
			<s:DropShadowFilter />
		</s:filters>
	</s:Rect>

You can see where I’ve cleanly defined the states and how the properties correspond with each state. No more addProperty and removeProperty, just nice clean awesomeness. Yay!

As for the actual app, things went fairly fast today. I already was working on a small base of code but I ended up trashing it so I could start clean in Flex 4. I was able to create models for all of the FB objects and was able to knock out the login, syncing FB details (projects, areas, fixFors, etc) and getting the search to work in a fairly rudimentary way. Tomorrow I’m hoping to really clean up the case list area and start working on the view you see when looking at a specific case. Huzzah!


9
Apr 09

FogBugz API Explorer thing…

I moved everything about the fogbugz api explorer over to this page…sorry for the run around. :(


9
Mar 09

Max 2008 Sessions are on Adobe TV

max_on_adobe_tv

I may be the last or next to last person to know about this but all (maybe all? What do I know, I wasn’t there) of the MAX 2008 sessions are available at Adobe TV. Gotta say, this is very cool and I’m very excited to sit down and try to watch some of these.

Adobe TV MAX channel


27
Feb 09

Actionscript Timer is more of a guideline really…

I use a fair amount of Timers in my Flash/Flex code – they are just so darn handy. So imagine my surprise when I read this post that states and shows that Timer tick at an interval based on the swfs framerate which is variable depending on the persons machine. Arg! That explains so much and helps me with a nasty bug I was dealing with months ago. Needless to say, I fired up wordpress and got ready to lay the smack down on Adobe for the .000453% of folks that actually read the stuff I throw up here. I mean come on – how dare I be inconvienced in such an inconcievable way – I don’t have time for all of this – let me look at the livedocs, I’m sure there is no mention of this…this…injustice…this calamity…this outright assault on my productivity…this…this…

You can create Timer objects to run once or repeat at specified intervals to execute code on a schedule. Depending on the SWF file’s framerate or Flash Player’s environment (available memory and other factors), Flash Player or Adobe AIR may dispatch events at slightly offset intervals. For example, if a SWF file is set to play at 10 frames per second (fps), which is 100 millisecond intervals, but your timer is set to fire an event at 80 milliseconds, the event will be dispatched close to the 100 millisecond interval. Memory-intensive scripts may also offset the events.

oh snapz!


21
Jan 09

Coding jigs…

I think like most developers I have a problem…that is, whenever a problem of most any situation arises I mentally develop a software solution for it. That’s not to say that they are all brilliant designs, in fact, they are largely better left to die in the empty void that occupies the space between my ears. But recently, I’ve needed a way to keep track of the various passwords that I use on a day to day to basis and that is something that could might probably possibly be a candidate for using some software to create a better way. Certainly a better way than using the same password for everything.

Enter the jig (this jig, not the irish folk dance). What a great way to solve a small problem I have (and yes I know it has been solved before) without having to worry about the usual pressure of deployment and client requirements and all that other stuff that makes me carry a solution from 0 to 50% where it stagnates and eventually becomes that “great project that I wish I had more time for.” Anyway, I’ll keep you posted but I whipped out this little app in Flex and AIR in a couple hours to start me down this path of actually solving this little password issue that I’ve been having. It’s ugly, but most jigs are right?

picture-16

I was going to call it swAIRwords but that seems kinda lame…although the possibilities for icons is almost limitless…