Flexets

1st Question in our Coaching Program

Franto — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:19:27 +0000

Main data carrier in big application - E4X XML or designated data class?

Hi my friends,

I have a question about software architecture:
Imagine you have an application that load data about many persons from XML and process / utilize that data all across the application. In AS2 there will be no doubt - I will parse the XML and create ‘id’ sorted array of Person class instances. But in AS3, where sophisticated E4X XML is available I hesitate. Should I use designated data class or dispatch pieces of XML all across the application?

What are advantages and disadvantages of both approaches?
Is it even common to dispatch pieces of XML across application?
Is even my terminology correct? (I am not sure whatever ‘data class’ is the proper term)
Can you point me to some resources about modern AS3 architecture?

Thanks!
Daniel

This is first question in our Coaching Program. We are happy, that it has started

And here is answer…

Hello Daniel,

thanks for being our first paid member and for placing your first coaching question

Now let’s move to your questions..

The software architecture approach definitely depends on the scale of the project. None of the approach is completely wrong if it works as expected and at the same time it’s flexible, maintainable and scalable..

But in general I would not recommend to use XML data structures throughout the project code as you have described. Not speaking about the great advantage of using E4X it would still not be too scalable because when anything in your data needs to be changed then you will have to modify your code accessing XML structures at many places.

More better approach is to separate your data from your functionality and just use centralized Data Model within your application. This Data Model can just serve as a storage of all data and also represent the state of your application being implemented as a Singleton class…

if you want to read complete answer, consider sign up to our Coaching Program. After registration you can read whole answer as well as all others questions and answers from all current and future customers. And we are at Flexets are waiting for your next questions to get help you with your learning process in Flex, AIR, Flash or ActionScript.

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Attending Singularity: Online or Offline?

Franto — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:57:03 +0000

Hey, maybe everybody from RIA world know about Singularity conference. Conference details are just great:

What: A kick-ass web conference
When: Oct 24-26, 2008
Where: Everywhere!

Uhh, everywhere? Sure, it’s online conference. You can attend from your home, no travel fee, no hotel fee Nice. Today Aral has announced sessions details, and new sessions will be updated soon. But it’s not enough. It’s great that there is no extra expenses, just $99 for 3 days conference, but someone can said: But I will not meet up friends there, can not talk to people I like. But wait, Aral has another surprise for you. It’s called Local Hubs. Yes, your local Adobe User Group, or anyone who want to organize local hub for Singularity conference has possibility now. Aral has started discussion about Local Hubs, come and discuss. So there is possibility you can even travel to Singularity conference, but not over the world, but maybe in your city or somewhere near your town

We will be there Do not know if we will attending Singularity conference online or we will have chance to attend it from some Local Hub in Slovakia.

From Photoshop To Brighton

Franto — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:52:35 +0000

Table of contents for Contests

From Photoshop To Brighton

Serge has started nice contest for 6 tickets to Flash On The Beach 2008 in Brighton (£499). Just make some nice photoshing with you, beach, and love for Flex, AIR, Flash… You have time till 8th September and winners will be announced on 12th September. I got few ideas already, so maybe I will join contest, though I got my ticket bought alread. But 1 more extra ticket will be great :)) So open up your Photoshop and meet us in Brighton this year…

Good luck and Be Creative!!!

Flexets Forum launched

Franto — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:34:23 +0000

Table of contents for Forum

Flexets Forum launched

We have launched Flex / AIR / Flash / ActionScript Forum on our site. It should help us to get better feedback from client or visitors, and allow us get back better help to Adobe community. If you need any help with anything regarding Flex / AIR / Flash / ActionScript, please post it in our forum and we will try to help you in shortest possible time. If you have anything to show to us or to community, just post it in forum.

We have launched also Coaching Forum as part of our Flexets Forum. I will provide more info about Coaching Forum later.

360Flex Europe - Day 1

Flexets Team — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:04:20 +0000

Table of contents for 360Flex Europe

360Flex Europe - Day 0
360Flex Europe - Day 1

So we have attended the Day 1 of 360Flex Europe Conference here in Milan.

This day was completely free thanks to the sponsors that the organizers were able to get in touch with.
It was really nice to meet some folks from the Adobe Team (especially Enrique Duvós and Sumi Lim) and also new people from the European Flex community.

We have seen some interesting presentations:

Adobe AIR: Cross-Scripting Techniques by Xavi Beumala
Xavi was talking about using some interesting techniques to use HTML component in AIR that enables to expose DOM API of underlying WebKit HTML engine and use it for manipulation of HTML rendering in AIR applications.
Better Flex and AIR Applications Using AJAX by Marco Casario
Marco was talking about bridging the Flex vs AJAX and use them together to take the benefit of both of them. The main idea was that the both of them are just complementary technologies and not the competitors.
Flex Bitmap Effects! by Luca Mezzalira
Luca has shown some interesting bitmap data manipulations and effects in Flex applications with realtime webcam images using the BitmapData API of the Flash Player. He also presented the usage of some bitmap filters and approaches for motion detection.
Video Streaming with Flex and Flash Media Server by Eros Marcon
Eros talked about video streaming in Flex using Flash Media Server. He walked through some examples of creating simple video player and shown techniques on using the incoming stream data to enhance the usability and user experience.

After the presentations we took part at the Birds of a Feather session sponsored by one of the partners where we enjoyed a couple of talks with people from the Flex community together with some refreshments and glasses of wine

It was really a pleasant day today and we really enjoyed it. You can check out some photos from today’s Day 1 of the conference in our Events page.

Just stay tuned for more news from 360Flex Europe Conference in Milan.

Previous in series

360Flex Europe - Day 0

Flexets Team — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:27:18 +0000

Table of contents for 360Flex Europe

360Flex Europe - Day 0
360Flex Europe - Day 1

We have arrived here in Milan today for our first 360Flex Europe Conference.

After checking in our hostel, we have visited “centro”. Took some photos of Duomo, La Scala and some nearby buildings After all day starving, we’ve eaten in Burger King and went back to our hotel to work on our site to have it ready for tomorrow

Check back photos from today’s Day 0 in our Events page. They are shown using our Expectal Photo Gallery product. If you like it go and try it and maybe you would like to make a purchase if it fits your needs.

Stay tuned for more news from 360Flex Europe Conference in Milan.

Next in series

Show Image from Clipboard

Flexets Team — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:44:44 +0000

Table of contents for Clipboard

Show Image from Clipboard

This is first tutorial in series of “Clipboard” tutorials. I just show you fast way how to display image immediately after copying it to clipboard and how to delete it from Clipboard. Please be aware, that this works only in AIR, not in browser.

So first step, we should access clipboard, that’s very easy:

var cb:Clipboard = Clipboard.generalClipboard;

In second step we have to find out, if content in Clipboard is Bitmap. For this purposes clipboard has function hasFormat:

if (cb.hasFormat(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT)) {

var bd:BitmapData = cb.getData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT) as BitmapData;

var ce:ClipboardEvent = new ClipboardEvent(ClipboardEvent.BITMAP_IN_CLIPBOARD, true);

ce.bitmapData = bd;

dispatchEvent(ce);

//clear image from clipboard

cb.clearData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT);

}

As you can see, BitmapData was easily get from Clipboard by using function getData:

var bd:BitmapData = cb.getData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT) as BitmapData;

Next I just dispatch BitmapData through my custom ClipboardEvent. If you want remove BitmapData from clipboard you can use:

cb.clearData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT);

It removes just BitmapData not texts in Clipboard. And if you want display Bitmap from Clipboard immediately after pressing PrnScrn key on your keyboard, you have to start Timer for example each 100ms, because there is no Event (at least I don’t know about it) which tells you, that something was copied to clipboard.

If you want to see example application, please download my FacebookCheats AIR application, switch to Print Screen Tab and press PrnScrn key.

Welcome

Flexets Team — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:54:54 +0000

Welcome here on our blog. Here we can post about our experience with Flex, AIR and other RIA development. Post tutorials and examples, and show how to solve problems in Flex or ActionSctript 3. Once more, please welcome on our Flexets Blog.