The Official Blog of MINDTWITCH Interactive

Just Launched: G4 X-Play Flash Video Widget

Michael Boucher — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:35:10 +0000

Just finished up the G4tv.com X-Play Video Widget which was a lot of fun to work on and allowed me to trim all of the fat off of my earlier video component classes. Now I've got a nice lean set of video components that are highly customizable both via Flash GUI or by extending the classes. (more...)

Adobe Cocomo: Real-time Social Applications

Michael Boucher — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:24:30 +0000

One of the first Adobe Labs releases coming out of Adobe MAX 2008 is Cocomo "a Platform as a Service that allows Flex developers to easily add real-time social capabilities into their RIA (Rich Internet Applications)." This reminds me a lot of Macromedia's Flash Communication Server, which was subsequently broken out into Flash Media Server, Flash Data Services (LiveCycle/BlazeDS) and Flash Remoting. (more...)

Adobe Thermo is Now Adobe Catalyst

Michael Boucher — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:09:16 +0000

One of the big announcements at Adobe MAX this year was the release name of Adobe Thermo, which is now called Adobe Catalyst. Since seeing the many demos of Catalyst on various blogs I've been anticipating its release for a long time. This is a tool that I think has been missing from the designer-to-developer work flow for far too long. It appears Adobe has a pulse on the pain points of designers, as well as developers, in regards to the communication gap between designers and developers. Adobe has listened and Adobe has delivered. Welcome Catalyst, welcome! (more...)

Actionscript 3.0 DataProvider: Shedding Some Pounds

Michael Boucher — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:58:55 +0000

**Update**: Adding the Class Path to the fl package in Flash fixed this issue and cut my original file size of 64KB down to only 32KB, an additional 16KB savings from the below solution. Not sure why I didn't think of this before. I attribute it to lack of sleep. **

I've been using the DataProvider class in Actionscript 3.0 (AS3) quite a bit lately but it wasn't until recently that I tried using it without using the built-in Flash Components such as TileList, ComboBox etc. I needed some custom functionality for a TileList and built my own from scratch and decided to utilize the DataProvider class as my means of managing data. Everything was working as expected until I became satisfied with my newly developed XaTileList and decided to delete the TileList Component from my library to save on file size. In doing so, I started receiving the following errors: 1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: DataProvider.

Going back into my source code I was importing fl.data.DataProvider, I checked all my variable typing to make sure I didn't misspell something, pulled my hair out and invented some new four letter words in the process before it dawned on me that by deleting the TileList Component I have deleted the source for the "fl" package. So I added the TileList Component back into my .fla library and compiled it at 64K. I was pretty impressed with the size of it but something just wasn't sitting right with me. It bothered me that I had all this overhead for the TileList Component that I wasn't even using. Why include all that fat? (more...)

Fx2Flash Compiler Extension for Flex Builder & Eclipse

Michael Boucher — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:07:13 +0000

So I moved to a Mac when I got my new job in November working at Clearspring and I quickly started missing FlashDevelop as I chugged away in the built-in Actionscript editor in Flash CS3. I've used FlashDevelop for Actionscript coding at home on my PC and have sworn by it, so much so I actually installed Parallels on my Mac but didn't like the work flow it created. And so began my quest to find a Mac equivalent of FlashDevelop. If you are reading this looking for the same thing, let me save you the weeks of searching, it's not out there. At least not for free, but there is hope.

I've read on numerous threads about how people are using Flex Builder for their Actionscript editing and how much better it is for coding/debugging. I started to investigate how easy it was to set things up and came across Ted Patrick's post on "Using Flex Builder for Flash CS3 Coding" and Joshua Bloom's post on "Using Flex Builder to edit and debug Flash Applications." Seemed simple enough, so I recently bit the bullet and bought Flex Builder 3 and must say it was well worth the purchase. If you want to see for yourself, go download the 30-day trial and run through Mike and Joshua's posts on setting it all up. You won't go back to the built-in editor in Flash ever again, and if you do you'll miss your new little friend dearly. (more...)

iPhone 3G: $199.99 to call 9-1-1

Michael Boucher — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:43:48 +0000

For those who woke up bright and early this morning, played hooky from work and stood in line for hours to get their hands on the new iPhone 3G, disappointment quickly set in. With the release of the first major upgrade to the iPhone stores are currently unable to activate the phones and customers are leaving with overpriced 9-1-1 dialers.

(more...)

iPhone 2.0 Software Update and iPhone App Store

Michael Boucher — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:42:56 +0000

So I found a link on LifeHacker which had a link to MacRumors on where to get the iPhone 2.0 update a day early via download and manual install. Pretty much been playing with it all evening and downloading apps.

(more...)

Adobe Labs: Adobe AIR Update Framework BETA

Michael Boucher — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:34:18 +0000

Adobe just released a new Adobe AIR Update Framework that will aid developers in building AIR applications that can "periodically check for updates based on an interval or at the request of the user." The framework will also provide capabilities The framework comes with a default user interface developers can use to alert users of updates ready for download, confirm the user wants to check for updates, displaying information on availability of updates and showing progress and error information.

Developers can also create their own custom user interface to use with the update framework as well.

On a related note, Adobe also announced the launch fo the AIR Cookbook site where users can share and find answers to problems.

How the ‘EFF’ Did We Ever Get Anything Done?

Michael Boucher — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:07:35 +0000

I just did an image search for screen shots of older versions of Adobe Flash and stumbled on this gem of a site. I was particularly fond of the Flash Splash Screens and Corel Draw Splash Screens sections.

Take a walk down memory lane, laugh and wonder how the hell we ever got anything done 10 years ago. Enjoy!

Adobe Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth BETA

Michael Boucher — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:27:40 +0000

It appears Adobe just released Adobe Dreamweaver Beta, Adobe Fireworks Beta and Adobe Soundbooth Beta on Adobe Labs. These releases come just twelve days after the release of Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta. Could the Adobe Flash and Adobe Thermo BETAs be on the horizon?

I'm excited to take these three for a test spin and check out some of the new features. I'll be sure to post my findings here.

Enjoy!