Using Flex Ant tasks to build Flex projects – Part 2: Adding build tasks: Extend Flex Ant build scripts with additional tasks.

Tour de Flex planetary dashboard: See who is using Tour de Flex right now across the world.

Creating your first website – Part 1: Setting up your site and project files: Learn to set up a local site in Dreamweaver CS4, then create a page layout in CSS.

Creating your first website – Part 2: Creating the page layout: This tutorial explains how to create a CSS-based page layout in Adobe Dreamweaver CS4.

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS4 excerpt: Using the liquid CSS layouts: Authors Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis demonstrate the time-saving tips and techniques that make Dreamweaver and CSS such a powerful combination.

Getting started with the ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component : Learn how to use the FLVPlayback component to play progressively downloaded Adobe Flash Video files over HTTP or play streaming video files from Adobe's Flash Media Server or from Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS).

Skinning the ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component (updated): This updated article covers three approaches available for skinning the ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component.

Working with the Project panel in Flash: Take advantage of the project management tools available in Flash CS4 Professional when building applications.

Real-Time Messaging Protocol specification: Read about the open RTMP spec, which delivers video, audio, and data in various formats compatible with Adobe Flash Player. Also, check out this blog post for additional information.

Effects in Adobe Flex 4 SDK beta – Part 2: Advanced graphical effects: In Part 2 of this series, learn how to take your Flex applications to the next level with the new effects included in the Flex 4 beta.

Building data-driven map applications using the Flex DataMap control: Discover the capabilities of the DataMap control and see the process of building a simple yet powerful application in a few lines of code

Video Learning Guide for Flash CS4 Professional (Updated for Flash CS4): Learn all you need to know about video on the web: capturing, encoding, adding video to web pages, delivering with custom playback controls.

Performance tuning for ColdFusion applications: Explore different ways to improve ColdFusion application performance.

Using Drupal themes with Dreamweaver CS4: Understand the fundamentals of a Drupal theme and how Dreamweaver CS4 helps designers produce these themes.

Adobe Reader compatibility documentation: These documents provide guidance and important information regarding changes in Adobe Reader 9 that may affect enterprise workflows.

>>The Adobe Reader compatibility promise (PDF)

>>Adobe Reader 9.0 compatibility overview (PDF - updated for Reader 9.1)

To date the ADC has donated $33,600 to these charities in recognition of our ADC authors. To our ADC authors, we thank you for sharing your technical expertise with the greater developer community while helping other communities at the same time!

Read on to find out more about the charities that the program supports, and to see the list of authors for this quarter who made these contributions possible!

* Benetech: Creates new technology solutions that serve humanity and empower people to improve their lives.

* Nature Conservancy: Works around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

* Mercy Corp: Alleviates suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities.

* Care: Fights global poverty by serving individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world.

* Feeding America: Is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization.

The authors who participated in this program from March 1, 2008 – May 31, 2009 are:

• Alessandro Pace
• Alex Cougarman
• Bobby van der Sluis
• Branimir Angelov
• Chris Charlton
• Damien Bianchi
• Dan Carr
• Darren Osadchuk
• David Flatley
• David Hogue
• Jan Ozer
• Jeanette Stallons
• Jim Babbage
• Juan Sanchez
• Katie Evans
• Kevin Fauth
• Marc Esher
• Mariano Ferrario
• Matt Stow
• Mike Nimer
• Mohinish Basha
• Tommi West

Thank you, authors, for your contributions to the ADC!

Flash Builder 4 on Adobe Labs

Flex 4 SDK on Adobe Labs

Flash Catalyst on Adobe Labs

Learn to Use Flash Builder 4 and Flex 4 SDK

Learn to Use Flash Catalyst

Tutorial and demonstration videos for the Flash Builder 4, Flash Catalyst and Adobe Flex 4 SDK betas

Differences between Flex 3 SDK & Flex 4 SDK beta

What's new in Flex 4 SDK beta

Flex for ColdFusion developers learning center

Getting started with ColdFusion and Flash Builder 4 beta

Understanding the role of CFCs in Flex application development

Effects in Adobe Flex 4 SDK beta – Part 1: Basic effects

Two-part Flash Catalyst/Flex 4 tutorial

InsideRIA article: Overview of Flex 4 (Gumbo)

InsideRIA article: Flash Catalyst Beta 1 [Top Branch Demo Part 1]

InsideRIA article: Flash Catalyst Beta 1 [Top Branch Demo Part2]

Flex 3 vs Flex 4 State Management

FlashCamp SF Keynote

Flex 4 beta cookbook recipes

Flex 3 in Action book excerpt: Advanced reusability in Flex: Understand some of the advanced reusability features in Flex in this Flex 3 in Action book excerpt.

Flash Quick Start: Loading images and Library assets in Flash with ActionScript 3: Learn strategies to dynamically load images and assets from your Library, as well as from local and remote locations.

Understanding live DVR – Part 2: Using DVRCast with Flash Media Live Encoder 3: Build a sample live DVR video player that utilizes the updated FLVPlayback 2.5 component.

Invoking the LiveCycle ES Distiller API from Java: Learn how to invoke a LiveCycle ES SOAP endpoint to convert a PostScript file into a PDF file.

LiveCycle ES Update 1 – FormGuides: Get a set of best practices to plan, develop, customize, and maintain data capture experiences with form guides.

Graphic Effects Learning Guide for Flash CS4 Professional: Control the expressiveness of creative graphic effects in Flash to enhance the look and feel of your projects.

Design Learning Guide for Fireworks CS4: Explore the many ways to work with graphic images in the latest version of Fireworks.

Uploading a file with Flex and Java: Implement file upload functionality with a Flex front end and a Java servlet.

Protecting Flash Lite content packaged in a Symbian installer with OMA DRM 1.0 Forward Lock: Learn how to package your mobile content into a SIS installer and apply digital rights management with OMA DRM 1.0 Forward Lock.

Using Dreamweaver, InContext Editing, and Spry to build a dynamic site: Build a simple dynamic site that users can edit online without HTML or Ajax knowledge.

Invoking the LiveCycle ES 8.2.1 Distiller API from Java: Convert a PostScript file to a PDF file from Java using LiveCycle ES.

ADC developer survey: Please help the ADC by taking a moment to provide some valuable feedback.

AdvancED Flex 3 excerpt: Sculpting interactive business intelligence interfaces: Represent, aggregate, and manipulate data effectively for BI scenarios.

Adobe AIR in Action excerpt: Copy and paste, drag and drop: Copy-and-paste and drag-and-drop operations are a standardized way for users to interact with an application, so it's a good idea to build these behaviors into AIR applications.

Adobe AIR 1.5 Training: Building desktop applications with Flex 3: This course introduces you to building Flex applications on Adobe AIR. This course is divided into modules, most of which contain demonstrations and walkthroughs.

The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development excerpt: Building your first AIR application: This chapter appears in The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development, published December 2008. It is being reproduced here by permission from Friends of Ed.

Prototyping AIR applications with Fireworks: Leverage the features in Fireworks CS4 to create an interactive prototype of an AIR application.

Adobe LiveCycle ES Java service invocation: Learn how to remotely invoke services using the APIs and SOAP endpoints.

Understanding ActionScript 3 debugging in Flash: Whether you're a designer or developer, learn the basics of debugging and understand the most common issues that occur in debugging ActionScript 3 projects in Flash CS4 Professional.

Building a Drupal site in 10 steps (Dreamweaver): Learn to set up a Drupal site, including adding content and altering menus, modules, and themes.

Understanding video formats and controlling video volume in Flash Lite 3.x: Learn how to control the volume of embedded video in a Flash Lite 3.x mobile application.

In the Developer spotlight: Elad Elrom: Meet Elad Elrom, picked for his use of Flex and Flash Catalyst to create applications for the web, desktop, and mobile devices.

Deploying your first Flex application on Facebook: This tutorial will step you through the process of deploying a Flex application in an iFrame on the Facebook website in 15 minutes.

Building a kiosk using Flex: This article covers some basic kiosk concepts, such as working with both user-driven and timed events, as well as describes the general architecture of a kiosk application, and build a simple kiosk application to help explain the concepts.

Design and prototype Flex applications using Fireworks: This article explores the designer-developer hand off process and shows how Fireworks is uniquely qualified to make the process of product development more efficient.

Flash Player enterprise deployment: Deliver secure, high-performance apps that run consistently across operating systems and browsers, in alignment with IT policies.

Building a list component in Flash Lite: Learn how to build a simple but useful List component for Flash Lite applications. The article also includes the sample files for the completed custom List component and the sample project can be extended and updated to tailor any part of it to fit the needs of your Flash Lite mobile application.

Software as a Service: A pattern for modern computing: Understand the core pattern of SaaS in pragmatic terms and its strategic advantages.

Test Driven Development with ColdFusion – Part 2: Design components for easy testability: Create unit tests for ColdFusion using the MXUnit built-in mock capabilities.

Animation Learning Guide for Flash: Dive into this comprehensive resource for learning animation, including the new, improved way of creating and editing motion tweens. See below for 12 individual tutorials:
oOverview
oFrame rates
oTimelines and keyframes
oFrame-by-frame animation
oMotion tweens
oMotion tween manipulations
oMotion paths
oMotion Editor
oPreset and custom eases
oMotion presets
oUsing ActionScript 3
oShape tweens

Creating desktop applications for the cloud with Adobe Flex, AIR, and Amazon S3: Employ the Amazon Simple Storage Service in place of a multi-tiered server infrastructure.

Externalizing service configuration for BlazeDS and LiveCycle Data Services ES: Configure your services at runtime to simplify deployment.

Migrating to ActionScript 3: Whether you use Adobe Flash CS4 Professional or Flash CS3 Professional, this resource will help you get started with ActionScript 3.

ActionScript 3 migration cookbook beta: Browse through the entries in the ActionScript 3 migration cookbook beta to see how the semantics of the core language are not much different from ActionScript 2 and should not present much of a learning curve. Or download the PDF.

Top five misconceptions about ActionScript 3: Read about the incorrect beliefs some people have about ActionScript 3.

Top five benefits of ActionScript 3: Find out what some of the top advantages are of using ActionScript 3 in your projects.

H.264 for the rest of us: Understand F4V-specific settings in Adobe Media Encoder and Flash Media Encoding Server to achieve optimal bit rates for H.264 video.

Test Driven Development with ColdFusion ― Part 1: Driven by the cold: Use MXUnit to build unit tests for ColdFusion.

Flex 3 in Action excerpt: Introduction to pop-ups: Learn how to create, position, communicate with, and close pop-up windows.

Using pages, states, and layers in Fireworks CS4: Learn best practices to structure your Fireworks document, organize objects, and reuse common elements.

Seamlessly storing and managing documents protected with LiveCycle ES: Make interaction seamless through the use of spaces and smart policies.

Using the Salesbuilder Adobe AIR sample application: This sample app lets you make and receive phone calls and includes an org chart and an offline calendar.

Sharing data with Adobe Flash Collaboration Service beta – Part 1: Custom messaging: Learn how to send custom messages back and forth between Flex apps.

Flex cookbook: Creating a dynamically resizing TextArea without scrollbars: Learn how to create a dynamically resizing TextArea without scrollbars.

Updated Flex 3 Restaurant Finder: Use REST and SOAP web services to update data in a master-detail type application.

Rapid interactive prototyping with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript using Fireworks and Dreamweaver CS4: Use Fireworks and Dreamweaver to create working models that replicate product functionality.

Foundation Form Creation excerpt: Performing advanced form scripting: Add calculations and scripts to your form by applying either JavaScript or FormCalc to your objects.

Adobe Acrobat 9 digital signatures, changes, and improvements (PDF, 290K)

PDF/A-1 in Acrobat 9 and LiveCycle ES (PDF, 90K) (Updated in April 2009)

Developer spotlight: Justin Putney: Meet Justin Putney, picked for his use of Flash and ActionScript, and for releasing free extensions to the Flash community.

Understanding Flex itemEditors – Part 3: Using itemRenderers as itemEditors: learn about using one class to display and edit the data by employing itemRenderers as itemEditors.

Using Flash CS4 and Adobe AIR to build custom browsers for e-learning and social networking: Explore the Flash CS4 and AIR components workflow.

Enabling multiple user access to the ColdFusion Administrator and RDS: Understand the new multiple user feature and learn how to configure it.

From table-based to tableless web design with CSS – Part 2: CSS starter pages: Use Dreamweaver CSS starter pages to jumpstart your designs.

Creating merged help with RoboHelp 8: Learn the reasons for merging any type of online help and get an overview of the merged help process.

We are also promoting the updated Tour de Flex version 1.2:
*Web version
*AIR version

The Adobe Developer Connection has also just launched a new Facebook Developer Center with loads of new content:

*Flex Learning Path for for Facebook developers

*Video: Build your first Facebook application (12:08)

*Article: Understand the architecture of Facebook applications

*Article: Compare iFrame and FBML Facebook applications

*Article: Get your head around Flash on Facebook

*Facebook examples

*Facebook samples

*Quick start: Build your first Facebook application with Flex

Starting this week, I will be giving away some Flex books randomly to my list of followers (@esulliva).

Once a week I will be selecting someone from my list of followers for a copy of O'Reilly's Flex 3 Cookbook.

Several times a week I will be selecting someone from my list of followers to send a copy of the Getting Started with Flex 3 Pocket Guide.

All followers are eligible, but you can only win once per prize (feel free to un-follow me after you win!) That means if you win the Flex 3 cookbook, you are not eligible to win a second Flex 3 cookbook, but you are fair game for any drawings for different giveaways.

I anticipate adding some other great giveaways into the mix after I exhaust my supply of books. Could be a cool t-shirt or a backpack...maybe even a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional will make its way into the mix!

And even if you don't win, you'll still have the pleasure of being kept up to date on all the new resources made available through the Adobe Developer Connection, in addition to being exposed to any witty comments I may make throughout the day.

Note to winners: you will need to either DM me or email me your name, address and phone number in order for me to send out your book.

Happy following!!

Ed Sullivan
Adobe Developer Connection

AdvancED Flex 3 excerpt: Integrating via data and media services: Learn about the data services architecture, explore the steps, and see data services in action.

Reducing the risk of malicious web attacks with HP SWFScan: Learn about the free tool that scans SWF applications for security vulnerabilities.

Advancing mobile storytelling with the Adobe distributable player solution: Pioneering mobile storytelling developers share their experiences with Flash Lite 3.1.

New comprehensive ActionScript language references page: This is a list of all currently published ActionScript language and library references for the following technologies: Flex, Flash CS4, LiveCycle, Mobile & devices, Flash Media Server.

Exploring the new 3D features in Flash CS4 Professional: Control rotations, animate with motion tweens, program effects with ActionScript 3.0, and more.

From table-based to tableless web design with CSS – Part 1: CSS Basics: Take the first steps towards CSS layouts and away from table-based layouts.

Using the Kuler panel with Fireworks CS4: Learn how to go from a blank slate to a fully realized desig using the Kuler panel.

Working with masks in Fireworks CS4: Watch this presentation to apply different masking techniques and produce a professional end result.

Enterprise security solutions using Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES: This technical guide (PDF) provides an overview of the Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES solution component and how it can be used to protect sensitive information stored in your electronic documents, even after they have been transmitted outside your firewall.

XML Forms Architecture (XFA) Specification Version 3.0: Use the latest spec to create XFA templates and process XFA forms.

Tips for building AIR applications that can be easily updated: Note the potential pitfalls when building and deploying AIR application updates.

Using Flex Ant Tasks to build Flex projects – Part I: Creating a build script for Flex: Set up, create, and execute a basic Ant build script using the Adobe Flex Ant tasks.

Understanding Flex itemEditors – Part 2: Editing events and complex editors: Use events to make more complex itemEditors that do some simple data validation.

Flex cookbook spotlight: faqcontrib: Meet some of the regular contributors to the Flex Cookbook.

Search Engine Optimization Technology Center: The newly launched SEO Technology Center helps explain what the challenges are and provides practical steps, examples, and best practices that you can follow to overcome them.

Search optimization checklist for RIAs: Integrate search into the planning stages and production cycles you will encounter when developing RIAs.

Adobe Flash Player version checking protocol: Learn what to watch out for and what techniques to utilize to ensure that search engine spiders can enter your website's front door.

Search optimization techniques for RIAs: Understand the challenges and adopt techniques to improve the relevance of your SWF content in search engine results.

Encoding options for H.264 video: Learn about H.264 video and encoding it for Flash Player delivery using Adobe Media Encoder or Flash Media Encoding Server.

Using timeline labels to dispatch events with the ActionScript 3.0 TimelineWatcher class: Use the TimelineWatcher class to programmatically monitor the timeline while keeping it separate from your application logic.

Foundation Fireworks CS4 excerpts: Visual effects and extending Fireworks: Create popular visual effects and understand the SWF panel development process to get the most out of Fireworks CS4.

ADC Write & Give Program: Learn how we acknowledge the writing efforts of our community authors by donating money to charities for each article they publish on the ADC.

Adobe Reader compatibility documentation: These documents provide guidance and important information regarding changes in Adobe Reader 9 that may affect enterprise workflows.