Category: Flex

My last 2 posts about SQLite in AIR cookbook

In last weeks I spent a lot of time to work with SQLite in AIR for a course that I made in an italian company, so I decide to create a couple of posts in Adobe AIR cookbook about transaction with query and how to works with existing SQLite database included in an AIR application.

You can find in AIR cookbook  section in Adobe.com site.
In those posts you’ll find full HTML/Javascript and Flex/Actionscript samples.

I suggest to use this great section to share your AIR or Flex (there is also Flex cookbook section obviously)  skills and experience with all developers community.
For any kind of suggestions or comment, please contact me directly.

New Flex resource: flexets forum

Today is my last at work, from tomorrow to 23 August I’m on holiday.

But before to go on holiday, I want to share with you a new resource made from Franto that is a new Flex forum where you can talk about Flex, AIR and actionscript 3, share your knowledge with other developers and so on.

It started a couple of days ago so there are few people now, but I’m sure that could become a great resource for all Flash Platform developers.

Flexest launches also a service called Coaching forum, where new developers has a traning coach on Flex, AIR or Actionscript that helps to learn this stuff.
If you have few minutes during this holiday period, take a look and register in this community to start share your Flex exeprience! see you there guys!

OOP with Colin Moock

Yesterday in Milan there was last date of AS3groundUP tour with on of the best AS developer of the world: Colin Moock!

It was the first time that I was attendee in a Colin’s session and… WOW he explain very very weel and in a clear way!
He also made very cool samples with “Stan” a poor tamagotchi system that it always died!
There were few people in Milan, I suppose 70 / 80 people more or less, I think that in this kind of event you can’t miss!!! Maybe only to go there and gave an acknowledgment to this man that  went around the world to teach OOP in very cool way.

So thank you so much Colin, I hope to see you again, maybe at Max or FotB or… next tour (AS4?!).

If you’d like to see what Colin explained in the last tour date, take a look at his preso.
I made some pictures that you can find in my Flickr account. 

Working with big images and AIR (memory issue: SOLVED!)

A couple of weeks ago I solved a big problem in an AIR application that I’m working on.
This application is an images manipulator; the most important problem when you work on a desktop application is that a user could be uses any kind of images, from 200kb to 5mb!

This problem is not easy to solve when you work with a lots of images because memory use increase a lots.

First of all I tried to use a “normal” load of an images working with Flex Image component, but every time that I load an 3MB image from a folder in my desktop, allocated memory grows up a lot! I arrive to use, with 10 images of the same dimension (3MB each one), 750MB of memory allocated for my application… that’s crazy!!! 
If you want create a batch you have so many problem to preview images and working with them.

So I find a good solution to use less memory (30 – 40MB for all AIR application) working with BitmapData class and Loader class.
I create a zip file where you can find a sample with a couple of images, download it to take a look. 

In this sample you can find 2 buttons, the first one load an image with Image component the other one load image with a class that I made to solve this problem.
When you try it, please open Task Manager (on Windows: right click in system bar) or Activity Monitor (on Mac: Applications>Utilities) and take a look at process and memory that every method use to do the same thing.

If you have any comment, suggestion or so on, please feel free to add a comment at this post or contact me directly.

Enjoy!

final day at Scotch on the Rocks

It’s finished, I’m in the final keynote of SotR.

What a cool conference, cool atmosphere, strong developers and crazy staff!
I’m must thank you andy and all SotR staff for the opportunity to speak at this great event, I hope to come also next year!

Last day session was very impressive, a lots of stuff and very cool sessions.
So now I relax myself until sunday evening… see you in Italy again 

Let’s tour is (quite) ready

Yes guys, we are coming!!!

5 italian cities, an half day totally FREE with 6 shoots of 30 minutes each one, 3 teachers, a lots of technologies to show you (Flex, AIR, Flash LIte, Photoshop, Illustrator, PHP, PDF) that work together to create a final and amazing product workflow… that’s the Let’s TOUR!

Thomas Baggio, Tiziano Fruet and me will drive trough Italy (Florence, Milan, Turin, Verona and Padua) to make this show in the beginning of July, you can’t miss it!

Feel free to register yourself at the event and see you there guys!

Scotch on the rocks second day

Sotr second day at Sotr is finished.
Today there were very cool and interesting sessions! In particular about Flex and AIR.
First of all was Peter which a great session about OOP and Actionscript 3, he made an overview from base concept of OOP until to Design patterns, very cool preso. You can find slides in Peter’s blog.

Second session of the day was Andrew Shorten that show the power of AIR with showcases and some technical tricks.

Then another session on Flex and print classes made by Scott Stroz that explain very well how you can manage data to bring it and put on the papers. 

Finally I finished this day with Andrew Shorten with Inspired AIR session, my favourite application that I saw is AdobeDude for European Soccer Tournement; if you have a couple of minutes to spend, take a look at the site, very cool!

So now I’m finishing stuff for my tomorrow morning session about Flash Lite, Flex and AIR, see you tomorrow guys!

SotR… Rocks! first day impressions

Here we are! I’m at Peter’s session about AIR but it’s the final session, after this we have Bird of fathers.

First day is very interesting, I meet very skilled and strong developers like Nico and also I have a great lunch with Neil, Peter and so on.

Atmosphere is very fresh, Edinburgh is an amazing but very relax city, I love it so much.
Event starts with Ben Forta and Adam Lehman that make a keynote about Coldfusion and integration with Flex, LCDS and AIR, very cool!

First session of my day is Working with OOP and CFML, Matt Woodward shows us why developers must work with OOP and which are benefits.
Then I follow Nico session about google analytics, I learn that old counters are better than analytics… no that’s a joke! He shows the true powerful of this google solution and give us some news about new features (native integration with flex and air… cool!)
And finally now Peter give us an overview of AIR API with a lots of samples, great work Peter!!!

If you are plan which event to follow next year, take in consideration Scotch on the Rocks, very friendly and fantastic atmosphere! 

Working with AIR, files and XML configuration: tips & tricks

In last months I worked so hard with Flex, AIR and files. I’d like to share with you some tips that I think could save your time when you work on it.

 1. Don’t copy, write or do anything else with File.applicationDirectory. In Windows Vista, when you install an AIR application in Program folder, you can’t copy or update a file becuase Microsoft policy don’t allow to work on files in this directory and in all subdirectories.
If you try to make it, it fails silently so stop to execute the code immediately.

2.  You can’t set an <installFolder> different of Program or Application folder. If you try to set a different path like ../ or anything else in AIR configuration xml, when you create .air file, procedure fails with an error.
So you can only set Program folder (Windows) or Application folder (Mac) or a subdirectory like: Applications/myAirAppDir/

3. Attribute <programMenuFolder> is ONLY for Windows.
When you set this attribute you can choose path of Start/Programs menu. It’s optional attribute.

4. Remember to set <name> attribute without special chars.
If you try to make it, or you accidentally copy this attribute in the same XML configuration file, it fails with an error.

5. You can’t install AIR applications in a computer if you don’t have system privileges.

I hope that those suggestions could help in your daily development.

Road to Scotch on the Rocks

Yes guys, 3 weeks and it starts! I booked my hotel room and my flight a month ago and now I’m making material for my session.

I’ll talk the last day (Friday at 10.30 AM) about “Manage Flash Lite Data with Flex and Air”, when I propose this session I think that it could be very interesting to view the power of Flash Platform, in fact I’ll show a real case history that I’m working on now and explain how to create a little CMS with Flex and AIR for Flash Lite contents.
Flash Platform is too amazing, you can develop from mobile to desktop and not different application but a unique application that collaborate together.
You can find great speakers there like Ben Forta, Peter Elst, Neil Webb, Charlie Arehart, Mark Drew, Andrew Shorten so there are all elements to make a great event!  

I’m sure to meet a lots of new strong developers and designers and I’ll spend a fantastic time in Edinburgh.
For more information about the event or to take part, please see Scotch on the Rocks web site. 

See you there guys!