Mike Potter

January 26, 2007

Talking Flex to Students Around Toronto

If you're interested in seeing the latest web technologies, including Flex and Apollo, and live in Toronto or Waterloo, then you should drop by one of the three events that we're having next week. On Tuesday, I'll be presenting Flex and Apollo to students at the University of Toronto. On Wednesday, I'll be at Sheraton College and on Thursday I'll be at the University of Waterloo. All the events are free, and I'll be accepting resumes for 3 summer intern positions on my team. Finally, I'll also provide tips and tricks on how you can get a job at Adobe.

Here are the details. Remember, all the events start at 4 PM.

Tuesday, January 30th - University of Toronto at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, 40 St. George Street, Room BA 1130.
Wednesday, January 31st - Seneca College
Thursday, February 1st - University of Waterloo in the Laurel Room at South Campus Hall.

January 23, 2007

Looking for students interested in RIAs and working at Adobe

Are you enrolled in a University in Canada, interested in a summer job with Adobe and interested in Flex, Apollo and rich Internet applications? I'm looking for 3 students to join Adobe this summer: two as software developers and one as a community relations expert. Interested candidates should: a) read the job descriptions below, b) be blogging and actively involved in the Flex community (you can start now if you're not doing that already) and c) email me their CV at mpotter@adobe.com.

Software Development Intern (2 positions)
The EDBU product marketing team has an immediate opening for a Software Development Intern located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The software developer will play an instrumental role in the adoption of Adobe Flex, Apollo and ActionScript. The student’s primary responsibility will be to write ActionScript libraries to popular web services, such as eBay, Amazon and Google and other large web companies. They will be expected to blog regularly, create and post content to the Adobe Flex Developer Center, and respond to questions and participate in mailing lists and forums. During their 4-month employment, the student will gain a deep understanding of ActionScript, Flex and Apollo. This is an unbelievable opportunity to work with some of the coolest technologies available.

Applicants should be enrolled in second year or higher in a computer science or computer engineering discipline. They should have an understanding of Java, JavaScript, ActionScript and XML, and developing applications with IDEs, especially Eclipse. Applicants should have experience applying these technologies outside of school in extra curricular projects, especially software programs or websites developed in their free time. A deep understanding of web services and APIs from major web companies is considered a plus.

Community Relations Intern (1 position available)
Position Summary
The EDBU product marketing team has an immediate opening for a Community Relations Intern located in Ottawa. This person will play a key role in informing Adobe about community activities related to Adobe software, especially Flex, ColdFusion, LiveCycle and Apollo. The student’s primary responsibility will be to monitor popular blogs, forums and mailing lists for questions relating to Adobe technology. The student will be expected to respond to issues as required, and to forward them to Adobe representatives if they are unable to respond. The student will also work with the product marketing team to create responses to the issues that arise.

Knowledge and Skills
Applicants should have a combination of business and technical experience. A student in an engineering and management program would be ideal. The applicant should have excellent written and verbal communication skills. The applicant should have a deep understanding of online communities, either running them or participating in them. The ideal candidate will be a motivated self-starter, and one who gets involved in extra curricular activities. Deep technical knowledge is not required, but a basic understanding of JavaScript, ActionScript, Flash, Flex, XML and web services is ideal.

January 17, 2007

Learn more about Flex and ColdFusion in Ottawa

Ben Forta, who is the guy when it comes to ColdFusion, will be presenting at the Adobe office in Ottawa on Flex and ColdFusion. The event is scheduled for February 6th, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. Registration is free. This invitation has more details on the event. The event is being sponsored by the New Toronto Group.

No word on whether they're changing their name to the New Ottawa Group. :)

January 15, 2007

An Update On Flex and Ruby on Rails Integration

There's been a lot of work lately on improving integration between Flex and Ruby on Rails. Here's an update on what's been done lately, and how you can get involved. Carlos Eduardo has created an open source Flex scaffolding project that allows you to easily create a Flex application that talks to Rails. Check out his code in Ruby Forge, or this screencast demo that he's created.

Recently as well, Ilya Devers has been working on an open source Flex / Cairngorm generator for Ruby on Rails. For those of you unfamiliar with Cairngorm, its a framework for more complex Flex based RIAs. You can find out more about Cairngorm on Adobe Labs. Ilya's code is available on Google Code as an open source project.

(We've also recently moved a number of ActionScript 3 Libraries to Google Code as well. Check out this post by Mike Chambers for more information, or this search on Google Code for ActionScript projects.)

Derek Wischusen is writing a series of articles explaining Ruby on Rails and Cairngorm integration using WebORB for Ruby on Rails. Check out his great work at flexonrails.net.

Finally, Flexible Rails is a PDF book that outlines a number of connections between Flex and Ruby on Rails. If you're developing with Flex and Ruby on Rails, you'll definitely want to pick it up.

If you're interested in Ruby on Rails and Adobe Flex, then you should join the Ruby on Rails RIA Google Group that discusses integration between Flex and Rails.

January 09, 2007

Updated PHP RIA SDK - Download Now

I have updated the PHP RIA SDK to include new releases of AMFPHP (v 1.9 beta) as well as the latest WebORB for PHP release from the Midnight Coders (1.3.2). The free (as in speech) SDK is available now from the Adobe Flex Developer Center. You can join the mailing list to ask questions about the SDK, or if you want more information on connecting PHP and Flex together.

There is a lot of exciting work going on in the world of PHP and Flex. I'm going to have some more great news to share with you later this month.

If you'd like to hear more about my thoughts on rich Internet applications, and what I think the future is for PHP, please come listen to me talk at one of the following conferences: Vancouver PHP Conference, PHP Quebec Conference, and PHP|Tek in Chicago.

As rich Internet applications start to blur the lines between desktop and web applications ( see my recently started blog RIApedia for great examples) , having a powerful client side tool that allows you to build attractive applications quickly will become even more important. Flex fits that bill perfectly. Add on a powerful, server side programming language with millions of developers, and you've got a very powerful and compelling solution.

I'm anxious to see applications that combine PHP and Flex. If you're building some, please comment in my blog or use the Contact Us page at RIApedia to let me know about it.

January 05, 2007

Most Popular Flex Book, as a Flex Widget

The other day I posted an entry about the most popular Flex Book at Amazon.com. A short time later, Kyle Hayes wrote me an email wondering how I was tracking that information. I told him I had an XLS file with links to the product information for each book, then I clicked on each link, read the information and inputted it into an XLS file. He thought there was a better way, and quickly created a webpage that looked up the information via Amazon's web services. Yesterday he expanded on that sample, and made it a Flex application.

Widget is probably a better word to describe it. I think this could be fairly useful in a sidebar of a website: reading in XML information, displaying the cover art of the books, and then linking back to Amazon to purchase them. In fact, the widget could also be expanded to allow someone to search for a keyword, then return the most popular books for that keyword, and show them in a number of different views (cover art, data grid etc...).

Nice work Kyle, will be interesting to see how this widget expands in the next few weeks.

January 04, 2007

Adobe Flex Wins InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award

From Ryan Stewart's blog: Flex 2 has won Infoworld's 2007 Technology of the Year Award for Application Development. From their site: "Adobe Flex 2.0 constitutes a big leap forward for this RIA platform, thanks to a new Eclipse-based IDE for drag-and-drop layout and code management, and a separate data services application for server-side messaging and data integration. Easy connections for Web services and Java objects bolster this very good choice for enterprise RIA scenarios."

Other winners include the Dojo Toolkit, Backbase, Sun NetBeans and others.

January 03, 2007

What's the most popular Flex or ActionScript book?

At the end of every month there are a number of stats that I like to track, to try and gauge how well we're doing at spreading the word about Adobe technologies, mainly Flex and LiveCycle. One of the items that I started tracking last month was the Amazon book ranking for a number of Flex and ActionScript 3 books. I figure if the books are increasing in popularity, then the technology must be heading in the right direction. O'Reilly does something similar.

There are 8 books that I'm currently tracking from Amazon.com. In order of popularity, they are:
ActionScript 3 Cookbook
Advanced AS 3 with Design Patterns
Adobe Flex 2: Training from the source
Programming Flex 2: The comprehensive guide to creating Rich Internet Applications
AS 3 Pocket Reference
The complete guide to Flex 2 with AS 3
AS 3 Essential Training
Learning AS 3 Design: The non programmers guide to AS 3

I haven't read any of them, but I've heard very good things about the Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns book from other Flex developers.

December 12, 2006

AMFPHP Adds AMF3 / Flex Support

The AMFPHP project, headed by Patrick Mineault, has added support for AMF3, the newest AMF protocol that's used by Adobe Flex and ActionScript 3.  (There's a preview release of ActionScript 3 for Flash Professional on Adobe Labs.)

This means that developers now have 3 choices when choosing which PHP package to use for Flex remoting.  AMFPHP, SabreAMF and WebORB from the Midnight Coders all offer AMF3 support.  They are all open source projects, with the WebORB project being the only one backed by a commercial entity.

Remoting scripts like these allow PHP developers to write applications that can translate PHP objects directly into ActionScript objects in Flex and Flash projects.  Without these projects, PHP developers can still build solutions that output XML (REST interfaces), and then read in that XML with Flex and ActionScript directly. However, using one of the above projects allows you to bypass serializing data into XML and then deserializing it on the client - you can transfer objects, arrays and other data types directly from the backend server to the Flex / Flash application. 

What's this mean for developers?  Although its more complicated to learn, its more powerful  than transfering XML data... For example, when querying a MySQL database, you can transfer the mysql_result object back to the client directly: it will be available to you as an array, and you can access the items in the array directly, without having to decode any XML.

Developers interested in building RIA solutions with PHP should check out the PHP RIA SDK by Adobe.  This open source project contains libraries and a number of samples that show PHP developers how to build rich Internet applications with Flex, Flash and the Spry Ajax framework.  There's also a mailing list available.

technorati tags:php, flex, amfphp, sabreamf, midnightcoders, phpriasdk

December 07, 2006

Want the Flex / AS 3 posters and live in Canada?

If you want a set of the AS 3 and Flex posters and live in Canada, please leave a comment in this blog with your shipping address and I'll ship them off to you. If you live outside Canada, including the US, we're still trying to come up with a solution that will scale well enough to satisfy everyone. For now, your best bet is heading to an event that we're attending, say Javapolis or the 360 Flex conference?

technorati tags:flex, actionscript, posters, canada

360 Flex Conference - March 5 - 7

The 360 Flex Conference was announced yesterday.  Taking place in San Jose from March 5 - 7th, its a chance for developers to learn about Adobe Flex and building applications with Flex.  The speaker lineup is a who's who of Flex and Apollo developers, including Ely Greenfield, Ben Forta, Mike Chambers, Ted Patrick, Christian Canctrell, Matt Chotin, Jesse Warden ...  (for the sake of blog space I'm stopping there, but the entire speaker lineup is outstanding.)

The cost for the conference is amazingly low, just $100, thanks to the generous support of the sponsors, including eBay, Adobe, ESRIA, the Midnight Coders, CF Dynamics and silvafug.  Registration is now open.

Somewhat unrelated, I've started another blog about RIA technologies including Adobe Apollo and Adobe Flex at riapedia.com.  Check it out, I'm hoping to feature one new application daily.  If you're writing an application and want some free publicity, use the Contact Me page to let me know about it.

technorati tags:adobe, flex, ebay, riapedia, 360flex

November 30, 2006

FlexSearch.org - Custom Flex Search Engine

technorati tags:adobe, flex, search

November 27, 2006

Need Help with Flex? Did you know there's developer support available?

If you're developing commercial applications for Flex, you may be interested in developer support for Flex.  The Adobe Enterprise Developer Program provides unlimited support by email for Flex for 1 year, for $1495 US.  You can purchase the program online via the Adobe online store.  This covers all the Flex products, including charting components, Flex Data Services, Flex Builder and even the SDK.

If you've had trouble getting started with Flex or LiveCycle, then you should consider purchasing Adobe Enterprise Developer Support.  This support option goes beyond what's available in product support, and will help you in building out your solution.  Flex product support will help you with product problems, but won't help you in integrating with existing systems, databases and other developer problems.  These are the types of problems that Developer Support attempts to resolve.

technorati tags:adobe, flex, enterprise, developer

November 14, 2006

Looking for a job working with Flex?

Adobe is currently looking to hire someone to work in the Enterprise Developer Business Unit, out of the Ottawa, ON, Canada office.  Here's the job description:

"The successful candidate for Senior Computer Scientist for the Enterprise Developer Business Unit will have more than five(5) years of experience in software development in the high technology industry. This individual will be responsible for creating a high-impact integration experience between our LiveCycle and Flex/Flash products. This individual should be a self-starter with the proven ability to bootstrap ideas and direction through the development of prototypes in an agile manner. A particular emphasis on user experience design and implementation using object-oriented principles is a requirement. The ideal candidate must have the ability to influence beyond specific project boundaries and across business units in the company to achieve project goals. While experience with Flex is not absolutely mandatory, it is considered highly beneficial."

Knowledge & Skills:

• Over five (5) years experience in the technology industry, including experience in a Software Development role.
• Experience working with the following (but not limited to): Java, electronic forms, business process management, XML related specifications (XML Schema, XML DSignature, Xforms, XHTML etc).
• Masters or Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or Engineering is very desirable.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently.
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams.
• Strong coding and design skills.
• Experience with Flex/ActionScript is highly desirable.

technorati tags:adobe, flex, helpwanted, jobs

October 19, 2006

IE 7 Uninstalling Debug Version of Flash Player?

I've heard reports that Internet Explorer 7 is overwriting the debug version of the Flash Player that comes with Adobe Flex Builder. To re-install the debug version of Flash Player 9, do the following.
1. Uninstall Flash Player. Read this technote entry on how to do that.
2. Re-install the debug version of Flash Player, by running the appropriate file in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 2\Player\debug\
If you installed the plugin version of Flex Builder, the above directory will be C:\Progarm Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 2 Plug-in\Player\debug\
The ActiveX control gets installed from Install Flash Player 9 AX.exe. Install Flash Player 9.exe will re-install the plugin for other browsers.

October 18, 2006

Flex and Ajax Working Together

technorati tags:flex, ajax, fabridge

October 04, 2006

Using Flex to browse a MySQL database using PHP - Updated PHP SDK

I have created a sample Flex application that lets you browse your MySQL databases and allows you to do simple filtering on that data. The application is part of the PHP RIA SDK by Adobe that I've updated today. It also includes some new samples and libraries, mostly done by community members. Pete Mackie contributed a sample using the WebORB for PHP library which is in the samples/flex/simple_weborb_php directory. The Weborb for PHP library is now also included in the SDK, under the libraries/weborb directory.

The Flex MySQL browser is not meant to be a replacement for PHPMyAdmin, but I find it faster for browsing data. PHPMyAdmin does much more than this simple application, but if you're looking for a piece of information in a database, you may find it faster to use tthis Flex application.

If you would like to extend the Flex MySQL browser, you can join the Google Code group for the PHP RIA SDK by Adobe and / or the Flex / PHP mailing list at Google Groups.

I'll be showing off this and more at the Zend / PHP Conference later this month in October.

Please post issues with the SDK in this blog.

September 29, 2006

Free Online eSeminars for Flex

There are a number of online seminars coming up relating to Flex. If you're new to Flex, you'll want to check out at least one of these sessions.  I believe they will be recorded, but if you catch it live you can get your questions answered immediately.

There are three sessions, with multiple dates and times available.  The sessions are:

Introduction to Flex 2
Tuesday, October 31, 2 - 3 PM ET

Introduction to Flex Builder 2
Tuesday, October 3, 2 - 3 PM ET and
Tuesday, November 14, 2 - 3 PM ET

Introduction to Flex Data Services
Tuesday, October 17, 2 - 3 PM ET and
Tuesday, November 28, 2 - 3 PM ET.

You can register online today, and registration is free.

technorati tags:flex, adobe, eseminars

September 12, 2006

Attention PHP and Ruby on Rails Fans attending MAX

If you're developing a solution with Flex and either Ruby or PHP, I'd love to meet you at the MAX conference.  On Monday, October 23rd, Adobe is hosting MAXUP, a community based "unconference" at MAX in Las Vegas.  I think this would be a perfect time for these groups of people to get together, showcase what you're working on, and talk about the problems that you're facing.  We're working out the details of MAXUP, but if you're going to MAX, plan on arriving on the Sunday so that on Monday we can get together and showcase and talk about the work that's going on with Flex and languages other than Java and ColdFusion.

Use this blog entry to create an agenda for the day... Provide comments on speakers you'd like to hear from, topics you'd like to cover etc...

P.S.  Less than 2 weeks remain for you to register and get the early bird discount for MAX.  If you haven't registered yet, do so quickly (and book your plane trip soon as well!)

technorati tags:adobe, flex, rubyonrails, adobemax06, php

September 11, 2006

Flex and Rails - Destined to be together?

Sometimes you go away on vacation for two days, and nothing big happens, and then other times you go away and things pile on, like last week.  I was away on Thursday and Friday, but work continued in the Flex and Ruby on Rails community.

First, Peter Armstrong released the first edition of a book he's working on called "Flexible Rails", which you can buy for $20 USD for individual users up to $200 USD for a 30 copy enterprise edition.  His blog post gives a look at the entire table of contents, and the code for all the samples in the book is also available.

While Peter was working on that, Derek Wischusen was updating the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK to include a new sample: Flex Paint.  Using a Flex interface, you can upload an image and draw simple lines on it.  Then, using a Ruby on Rails backend, you can save that image out to a .jpg file.  This builds on the that James Ward built, using a Java backend to save the image.  The code to that sample is available from the Subversion repository of the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK.  I will be updating the .zip download in the near future.  Join the RoR RIA SDK mailing list to keep up to date with all the discussions about Ruby on Rails and Flex working together.

Finally, word from the Midnight Coders that they've added support for native serialization of associations within active record models in WebORB on Rails. Very cool.

technorati tags:flex, rubyonrails, adobe

September 05, 2006

Announcing the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK by Adobe

Following a similar release to the PHP RIA SDK by Adobe that I announced last month, today I'm happy to announce that I'm releasing a similar project for those of you interested in Ruby on Rails and Adobe Flex.  With the help of Derek Wischusen, who has written all the samples in the SDK, today I'm announcing the creation of an open source project to help Ruby on Rails developers get started with Adobe Flex.  The initial release of the SDK contains four samples, each with various degrees of complexity. 

The most complex sample makes use of the WebORB for Ruby on Rails software that the Midnight Coders released a few weeks ago.

If you're interested in Ruby on Rails and Adobe Flex, you can participate in our small but growing community by joining the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK mailing list and / or contributing to the project, currently hosted on Google Code. 

You can download the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK by Adobe (~4 MB) or you can check out the project on Google Code via Subversion.

technorati tags:adobe, flex, rubyonrails, ria

August 17, 2006

Ruby on Rails and Flex

I've decided to take the plunge and at least explore Ruby on Rails, inspired by a few posts to the FlexCoders email list.  Here are the list of resources that I've found that are most useful in getting started with Ruby on Rails, Flex and other Adobe products.

Chritophe Coenraets: Christophe's tutorial is the best that I've seen so far that shows how to create a sample store using Flex and Ruby on Rails.

Stuart Eccles: Stuart wrote two articles (first article here, second article here) integrating RoR and Flex 2.  Although written for beta 2 (I think?), they're still useful, though be aware that some properties have changed in newer versions of Flex.

This webpage has some tips on getting Ruby on Rails code highlighting and code completion working in Dreamweaver 8, however one of the links on the page is broken.  This page is what they were linking to, telling you how to get Ruby files recognized in Dreamweaver.  This page has a list of XML functions for code completion in Dreamweaver.

The group at Midnight Coders is working on an implementation of Flex Data Services for Ruby.  As I write this, it will be released in 4 days, 19 hours, 3 minutes and 20 seconds.  They've got a countdown timer for it.

This Google search (flex and ruby on rails) may provide more useful links for you.

If you've found other useful links, please post them as replies to this blog entry.

technorati tags:flex, rubyonrails, gettingstarted, adobe

August 15, 2006

Running a Flex application locally and remotely

One of the problems working with Flex and a PHP backend is that the HTTP Service calls and RemoteObject calls need a complete path to the server. They don't accept relative URLs, only absolute URLs. This becomes a problem if you try and move things from a local testing server to a remote server. The URLs can get messed up, and it becomes painful to have to recompile a .swf file just to update a server name.

Here's a pattern that should help you as you create Flex applications and move them from a local server to a testing server to a production server. With this code, you don't need to modify the MXML file every time you move the resulting SWF file. Note: The code assumes that the default is http://localhost and will change to the server if it is being requested by something other than a file:// URL (this allows local testing to still work, again assuming that when you test locally, you're hitting the localhost server.)

Add the following code to your MXML file:

[Bindable]
public var hostname:String = "http://localhost";

public function onInit():void
{
var protocol:String = ExternalInterface.call("window.location.protocol.toString");

if( protocol != "file:" )
hostname = protocol + "//"+ ExternalInterface.call("window.location.hostname.toString");
}


Then, use something like this in ActionScript:

gateway = new RemotingConnection(hostname+"/adobe_php_sdk/libraries/amfphp/gateway.php");

or something like this in MXML:

<mx:HTTPService id="userRequest" url="{hostname}/adobe_php_sdk/samples/flex/simple_flex_php/request.php" useProxy="false" method="POST">
<mx:request xmlns="">
<username>{username.text}</username><emailaddress>{emailaddress.text}</emailaddress>
</mx:request>
</mx:HTTPService>


Note: This functionality is now implemented in the Adobe PHP SDK. You can see this by updating your code from SVN. The next release (.zip file) will have this implemented as well.

August 01, 2006

Real World Flex Seminar in New York - August 14th

Sys-Con is hosting a Real World Flex Seminar in 2 weeks time, on Monday, August 14th in New York City.  The lineup looks really great - Adobe VP David Mendels will speak, as will Flex evangelist Christophe Coenraets.  If you want to get a preview of Adobe Apollo, Luis Polanco, who is the Product Manager for Apollo, will be speaking at the event as well.

If you register before midnight tonight, the cost is only $395, and includes breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day, as well as a t-shirt and backback.  I'm not sure I should be blogging about this, but I have heard that if you use the discount code "adobe1", you can save an extra $150.

The entire schedule of the event is posted online on the website.  Sessions start at 9:00 AM and go until 6:00 PM.  Topics covered include Flex and Java, Extending Ajax with Flex, Flex Data Services, Flash and Flex, Designing Great RIA Experiences, Creating Great Mashups Using Flex and Planning for Adobe Apollo.

technorati tags:flex, adobe, apollo, ajax, syscon

July 25, 2006

Ajax, JSON, PHP, and Flex together to build a Flash-y Ajax site

In honor of the O'Reilly Open Source conference that I and other Adobe people at attending, I'm happy to show an example of building out a site that combines Ajax, JSON, PHP, and Flex into one application, with 90% of this being done with open source software (the only piece that is not open source, but is free (in terms of cost), is the Flex SDK). I've created a site that tries to mimics the experience of Google Finance, a great site that combines Ajax, and Flash together to provide a great user experience.

This tutorial, available online in PDF format with complete source code in this .zip file, shows how to take data from your Feedburner feed, and create an Ajax application that displays the dates and hits of your feed. It will then take that information and populate a graph that we've created with Flex and the Adobe Flex Charting components, using the Flex / Ajax bridge from Ely Greenfield and the JSON ActionScript library from Mike Chambers, Christian Cantrell, Daniel Dura, and Darron Schall.

A working example of this is available on our wickeddemo.com website. (Note that because of load, that example will load data from a static XML file, rather than PHP.)

If you have any questions about this example, please post there here in this blog.

Here is what I've learned in using the Spry Ajax framework and Flex together:

1. I found it easiest to modify the HTML that gets output by Flex Builder, rather than to reference the built swf file in my own HTML file that I create. If you do that, be sure to modify index.template.html in the html-template/ folder of your Flex project, rather than the .html files in the bin/ directory of your Flex project. The HTML files in bin/ get overwritten when you save and re-build your Flex application, and if you modify those, rather than index.template.html, you'll lose your changes to index.template.html.
   

2. I started building out the Flex graph using JavaScript and the Flex / Ajax bridge. I don't recommend that. Build out your entire Flex component in Flex Builder, then simply write functions to pass data to it from HTML. I think that's easier than trying to build Flex components using JavaScript.

3. Similarly, write functions that closely couple your Flex application to your HTML page. For instance, you'll notice that in my MXML file, I call the chartClicked JS function using:
   if( ExternalInterface.available )
   ExternalInterface.call("chartClicked",clickEvent.hitData.item);

   I could have attached an observer to the lineChart instead, using the Flex / Ajax bridge, but I find it easier to get the data items and debug the application in Flex Builder, rather than trying to do that in JavaScript on the HTML page.

4. The ActionScript 3 JSON library doesn't like new lines or carriage returns in the JSON data. You need to strip those out before sending data from JS to ActionScript over the Flex / Ajax bridge.
   
   

5. I don't know of any other technologies that I could use in this tutorial to get a higher click through on MXNA. Well, maybe Web 2.0. :)
   

technorati tags:flex, ajax, php, web2.0, json, adobe, flash

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July 20, 2006

Why Flex developers should love XPAAJ

As I posted the other day, we recently opened up access to the XPAAJ library to anyone, without requiring a membership to the Adobe Enterprise Developer Program. We're working on creating tutorials on how to get started with XPAAJ, and why its so useful to developers. Here's the first XPAAJ tutorial that we're working on, please provide comments on it in this blog.

Flex developers should love XPAAJ, because it allows you to take the data from your Flex application and put it into a document of record. Create a sweet looking application in Flex, allowing the user to enter and manipulate data online. When its time to take that information offline, or provide them with a document of record for their data, use XPAAJ to populate a dynamic PDF form (that you created with LiveCycle Designer - free trial here) that contains all their information. Users can then interact with that document through Adobe Reader, without having to be connected online.

At that point, you can do all sorts of things with the PDF document. Want to control who can open or print it? Use LiveCycle Policy Server. Want to allow them to comment on the document with Adobe Reader? Use LiveCycle Reader Extensions. Want to allow them to add their digital signatures to the document? Use LiveCycle Document Security. Need an overview of all the LiveCycle products? Watch my Adobe developer week presentation.

Want to try LiveCycle? Get the LiveCycle Toolbox. Want access to the LiveCycle Toolbox, without an Adobe Enterprise Developer Program membership? Email me by commenting in this blog.

technorati tags:livecycle, xpaaj, flex, pdf, adobe

Blogged with Flock

July 18, 2006

Blogging about Flex and LiveCycle

technorati tags:livecycle, flex, adobe, sunone

Blogged with Flock

July 17, 2006

How to pass values from Flex to a PHP backend using AMFPHP

I received a comment last week on a previous post on how to connect Flex to a PHP backend using AMFPHP.  Here's how you do that:

The commenter in question was trying the following:

gateway.call( "sample.getUsers(varArray)", new Responder(onResult, onFault));

The correct way to send data from Flex / ActionScript to PHP on the backend is by sending the variable to be sent back as the third parameter in the call function, like this:

gateway.call( "sample.getUsers", new Responder(onResult, onFault), varArray);

You should be able to send back arrays as well as more simple variables: integers, strings etc..

technorati tags:flex, php, amfphp, adobe

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July 14, 2006

JamJar: Adobe's First 'Web 2.0' Application

Yesterday afternoon, Adobe released a preview of JamJar on labs.adobe.com, which is "a demonstration application built with Flex 2 that provides a private and persistent canvas for small groups to easily exchange digital content."  I think the best way to think of it is that its similar to an Flash version of MySpace.

I'm a huge fan of JamJar, I think its really cool and one of the best client applications, even in its current test form, that Adobe has released in the past few years.  Others aren't so happy with it.

Here are some reasons why JamJar is Adobe's first Web 2.0 application:

• Its the first Adobe application to serve up Google ads from Adsense as the only revenue stream (currently).
  
• Its the first Adobe application that really needed an Invite a friend link in the menu bar.
• Its one of the first applications from Adobe that doesn't install on your hard drive.  Yes, the company that brought you Creative Suite and its over 1 GB install, has created a program that doesn't install anything on your machine.
  
• It integrates my photos from Flickr.
• Its better than any other social networking web creation space, because changes happen in real time... No more reloading of pages to see what text would look like as Times New Roman rather than Arial... Change it and you see it immediately.
• Real time collaboration / file sharing!  If two people are in the same JamJar space at the same time, changes to the space are reflected on both people's view, in real time.  A long way to say that we can have a real time discussion in JamJar, or when you add a file to JamJar, and I'm on your space, I see it immediately and can download it right away.
• Control who can do what to your space... When you invite friends to your space, you can make them authors (meaning they can read or write to your space) or just visitors (read only).
  

Here are some reasons why its not a true Web 2.0 application:

• No RSS feed for new items.
• No way to create new JamJar components.
• No APIs to add items to your space from outside JamJar.
  

I'm looking forward to more JamJar releases, and I urge you to test it out if you can.  Currently the JamJar server appears to be down.

Apologies for the click-bait in the title.  I'm not a big fan of the term 'Web 2.0'.

technorati tags:jamjar, web20, flex, myspace, socialnetworking, adobe, realtime

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July 12, 2006

PHP and Flex - JSON, XML or AMFPHP?

I've created a small performance study that shows time to load three different types of data from a PHP backend... Data transfered as PHP objects from AMFPHP, data transfered as XML and data transfered in JSON notation.

The two most popular ways of getting information from a PHP backend to a Flex front end are through the use of XML and AMFPHP. The use of XML requires you to serialize your data into XML formats, while the use of AMFPHP allows you to transfer objects directly from PHP to ActionScript, the Flex scripting language that is similar to JavaScript. I'm not too familiar with JSON, but it seems to be getting a lot of attention for web based applications.

In the tests, I use the AMFPHP library, which you'll need for the AMFPHP test. I use the Zend Framework for the JSON library, converting my PHP Array to JSON. JSON is handled in Flex with the use of the JSON library. The XML test is the simplest of all, simply printing out the XML without having to load any other library or files.

Here's the data (times are in ms):

As you can see, under 20000 items returned, AMFPHP and XML give you about the same performance, with JSON lagging behind considerably. Above 20000 items returned, XML appears to be a bit better than AMFPHP in terms of performance, with JSON really struggling. (Of course, once the data was in the Flex application, the data could be sorted and filtered with the same performance).

There's lots of things to consider when building out your PHP application with a Flex front end. First of all, you need to consider the fact that with XML, you're respondible for serializing all your data. That may or may not be difficult, depending on what your data type is. In this example, it was relatively easy. AMFPHP may provide some time advantages there for your development, and may be a reason to choose that over XML. As well, you should look at the amount of data that is being transferred. I did all my tests over a local connection. Over the Internet, lattency may be an issue for your application (AMF is a binary protocol, which should make things slightly faster than straight XML encoding).

My next tasks are to see what happens when I do this remotely, and to see what effects any of the PHP accelerators have on the performance

If you'd like to do the tests on your own, here is a .zip file that contains all the useful files: the .mxml application file, the PHP files for printing out JSON and XML data and the file to put in your AMFPHP services/ directory.

technorati tags:amfphp, json, flex

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July 10, 2006

More Information on Adobe MAX Posted - Including Registration Form

We've announced more information about Adobe MAX, including details on all the sessions that will be taking place during the conference. Here's the press release, here's the agenda, here's the list of tracks and here's the registration form.

If you're developing software or solutions with Adobe software, then you'll want to attend.  There are sessions on Acrobat and Breeze, LiveCycle, Mobile, RIAs, Web Design and Development and more.

Also announced are the 2006 MAX Awards, which will "honor the most effective and compelling customer work in eight categories: achievement (high return on investment); advertising and branding; industry innovator; interactive process management; media and entertainment; mobile and devices; rich Internet applications and Web development; and training and collaboration."  Adobe will accept submissions starting on July 17th, entries must be submitted by September 1st.  I'm not sure where you can submit your entries, but a list of last year's finalists is available online.

If you're blogging about this, please tag your posts "adobemax06" in Technorati.  We'll use that same tag for Flickr photos of the event.

technorati tags:adobemax06, acrobat, livecycle, flex, ria, conferences, adobe

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July 07, 2006

LiveCycle, PDF and Open Source

A few blog entries ago, I explained why I thought the release of Flex was good for open source developers.  One of the comments, from Will Pollard, asked for clarification on how LiveCycle fits with Flex and open source.  In particular, why would someone use LiveCycle as opposed to any of the free PDF creation tools that are out there. 

To start with, LiveCycle is a bit more difficult to access than Flex... Unlike Flex, you cannot download trial versions of the Adobe LiveCycle server products.  (You can download a trial version Adobe LiveCycle Designer and start building out PDF forms.)  Currently you need to be a member of the Adobe Enterprise Developer Program to download the LiveCycle software, including the very easy to setup LiveCycle Toolbox.  (The toolbox is a pre-confirued install of all the LiveCycle software.  For an explanation of LiveCycle, check out this Breeze presenation I did for Adobe Developer Week.)

We do want to make LiveCycle more accessible to developers.

To understand how LiveCycle competes with open source PDF creation tools, its important to understand that there are two types of PDF documents: what I call static PDF documents and dynamic PDF documents.  Static forms are created in Acrobat, and are sometimes referred to as "AcroForms".  The PDF file is static (it does not grow or shrink in size), but in Acrobat or Adobe Reader it may contain interactive elements that people can fill out electronically.  For example, if you had an invoice, you would create the template with a set number of rows, and then hope that someone didn't order more items than the number of rows on the document.

On the other hand, dynamic PDF forms can grow or shrink in size depending on the data that is bound to the form.  So, say you have an invoice for products, it could be 1 page for 1 customer, and 10 pages for another customer who orders a lot of items.  To build that, you use LiveCycle Designer and create a PDF form, then use LiveCycle Forms to bind the data (likely in XML format) to the form.  Most of the free, open source tools out there do not handle this type of PDF document.  In fact, I haven't seen any solutions that do this, other than the Adobe LiveCycle set of products.

So, the question now becomes how does Flex fit into this?  The idea is that you would use a Flex front end to gather data, likely on a website.  At some point, you may want to continue filling in the form offline, or send the data to other people.  When the time comes to take that data offline, you pass the data to a PDF form (which was created with LiveCycle Designer), and then users are able to access that data in a PDF document.  They can send it to friends, do offline collaboration etc... When the time comes to send the data back to the organization's servers, a user would hit the submit button in the form and the data would be sent back to LiveCycle Forms, which will extract the data from the PDF form and allow the organization to process the data.

Once the data is in the PDF form, there are other LiveCycle pieces that may be of use as well.  Digital signatures, policy protecting that information, managing the form's workflow are all services that the LiveCycle set of products provides.  In the above example, I've focused only on taking the data off line, but once it is off line, the other LiveCycle products add additional functionality to the document / form.

technorati tags:livecycle, adobe, opensource, acrobat, flex

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July 06, 2006

Adobe Developer Week Recorded Sessions

In case you missed the sessions we had during Adobe Developer Week, they've all been recorded.  There's information on Adobe Apollo, LiveCycle, Flex, ColdFusion, Flex and LiveCycle, security, Ajax, and more.  Check them out at your leisure.

technorati tags:apollo, adobe, livecycle, ajax, flex2, coldfusion

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Flex and Eclipse 3.2?

I picked up a copy of my local newspaper this morning, flipped to the tech section and lo and behold, there's a quote from my boss about Eclipse 3.2.

Well, since I have pretty much every program that's available to be downloaded installed (and in many cases, uninstalled shortly thereafter) on my machine, I thought I'd see what Flex Builder 2 and Eclipse 3.2 looked like together.

Note: Flex 2 requires Eclipse 3.1.1/2, as mentioned on the system requirements page.  The following is definitely, 100% not supported by Adobe.  Follow along at your own risk.

First, I downloaded Eclipse 3.2, then I downloaded the free trial of Flex Builder 2 from Adobe's website.  I installed the plug-in version of Flex Builder into the Eclipse 3.2 directory (c:\eclipse32 for me)... I then ran Eclipse 3.2 and received a few errors.  Nothing major, so a few clicks on "OK" and we're off and running... The code view appears to work fine, with code hinting and code completion working.  Compiling an application went fine as well, I compiled a few of the older projects I had in my workspace, no problems.

(Have I mentioned that Flex Builder 2 is definitely unsupported on Eclipse 3.2?)

Debugging, well that was another story.  If you debug applications often, then you'll want to stick with Eclipse 3.1.1 or 3.1.2 for now.  In my (short) test period, debugging didn't work.

So, there's still some work to do.  If you want to try it out on your own, you can download Eclipse 3.2 from their website, and install the Flex Builder plug-in version into that folder.  (Warning, its not supported by Adobe, in case you didn't know.)  Just one warning: If you install Flex Builder plug-in for Eclipse 3.2 after you've installed the FB plug-in for 3.1.1/2, then the installer will overwrite your launch shortcut in Start -> All Programs -> Adobe.  You'll need to launch the old version of Eclipse using Start -> Run and entering a path to Eclipse 3.1.1/2.  Oh, and you can't run Eclipse 3.2 and Eclipse 3.1 at the same time.

One final note: Adobe Flex Builder on Eclipse 3.2 is not official supported.

technorati tags:flexbuilder, flex, eclipse3.2, eclipse

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June 29, 2006

Why open source developers can be excited about Flex

The goal of open source software has always been to create software that can be free, not in price but in terms of restrictions for use. The availability of source code and the the ability to modify that source code, are important parts in the free / open source software movement.

There is lots of good news with respect to today's Flex launch for open source developers. First of all, the free Flex SDK includes the source code for the Flex components, and allows anyone to compile a Flex application at no cost. You are free to modify the Flex components as you need to. As a developer, you can now build a Flash application in VIM, run it through the compiler in the SDK, which works on Linux and Mac OS X, and build a .swf file. (In fact, if you're using VIM, you might want to check out actionscript.vim by Manish Jethani to highlight your ActionScript source code in VIM).  For debugging, you can use fdb, part of the Flex SDK.

The Flex Builder tool is built on top of Eclipse, and we have published the source code for Flex Builder that is derived from Eclipse.

You can create open source Flex applications, and host them over at osflash.org.  As a Flex developer, you can enable users to see your source code when they right click on your application ("View Source").  (To enable this, in Flex Builder, choose Project -> Publish Application Source...).

You Flex application will work well with a Java backend system or PHP backend system.  For PHP integration, you'll want to download and use the open soure project AMFPHP.  You can read my tutorials on how to integrate Flex and PHP on the Flex Developer Center.

Once you've built your application, you can then deploy the file as you would any other web application (likely to an Apache web server), and end users can interact with that application using the free Flash player. Now, the story would be much better if that Flash player was available on Linux (and if it were open source), but its not, at least not yet (available on Linux that is). However, there is a team of talented engineers working on Flash Player for Linux, and you can follow their progress on their blog.  Apparently a beta version of Flash Player 9 for MacTel machines should be out soon, with a beta for Linux sometime later this year.

One of the benefits to web applications for Linux enthousiasts has always been the fact that web applications are not tied to a specific operating system - they simply need a web browser to work. The main problem to this model has been the the client: web applications today cannot replace desktop applications, there are too many limitations: local file access, no vector drawing APIs native in the browser, rich media integration isn't supported, JavaScript execution speed isn't the same as compiled code... Flex applications solve most of these problems (a drawing API is available in the Flash player, it can integrate rich media content easily, and it now has a JIT compiler for better performance), and we hope to have a better solution for local file access when we release Apollo (a beta version is expected later this year).

The development of more advanced web applications will continue to help adoption of operating sytems where the Flash Player is available, including Linux.  And yes, some developers are working on an open source Flash player.

No, the story isn't perfect, but I think its pretty good.  The Flex SDK includes the source code to Flex components, you can build and debug Flex applications on Linux, those applications can interact with an open source backend system (PHP), and end users can interact with those applications at no cost (and in a little while on a free operating system).

BTW: I'm always interested in your feedback on how Adobe can contribute to the open source community.

technorati tags:opensource, php, adobe, ria, flex, web2.0, flash, eclipse, flexbuilder

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June 28, 2006

Flex 2 and Future Web Application Development

Flex 2 has been released (CNET coverage here, TechCrunch coverage, Digg the story).  You can buy it from the Adobe online store for $499, or $749 with the charting components included.  The SDK for Flex is free, as in beer, and there's a free version for Flex Data Services included as well.

This release marks an important milestone for Adobe, as my colleague Bill McCoy has discussed in his blog.  Some great web applications have been built with Ajax, but increasingly a number of them are using Flash in areas that the browser cannot handle: rich media integration (You Tube, Google Video and others use Flash to stream video), saving data locally (using the Flash Shared Object), applications that demand higher performance from the client (Flash code is compiled as opposed to Ajax / HTML code).  Google Finance is a great example of using Flex and Ajax together, and using Flash where it makes sense (rich graphics drawn on the client).

Yes, you can do some very cool things with Flex right now.  However, future development looks even brighter from an Adobe perspective.  Apollo will provide additional APIs to web applications that will allow them to integrate into the operating system - users will launch web applications just as they would a regular desktop application (with icons on the desktop / dock / taskbar), the ability to save large amounts of data on the local machine (not limited to the 100K default for the shared object), and perhaps most importantly the ability to develop an application once and then have it run on multiple operating systems (we've committed to making Apollo cross platform).  Watch a developer week session about Apollo.

Take that view of the future along with the ability to create mobile applications that run on FlashLite using the same set of technologies.  Plus, unlike other languages, building a mobile application for FlashLite will work across a variety of devices - anywhere that the FlashLite player is installed.  (Did you miss the announcement of the FlashLite deal with Verizon?)  Can you see why JD was so excited about this deal earlier this year?

Here are a few other links about the release:

The source code derived from the Eclipse code is available for download.

A version of Flash Player 9 for Linux is underway.  Follow the Penguin.swf blog for more information.

Flex.org is a new site that launched today as well, with resources for the community related to Flex.

FlexCoders.net has a list of Flex developers, if you're interested in building out a Flex project and need some help.  If you need work, register there.

For historical Flash designers / developers, Adobe Labs now has a preview of Flash Professional 9 with ActionScript 3.

technorati tags:adobe, flex, ria, ajax, opensource, flashlite, mobile, apollo

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June 23, 2006

Sys-Con Announces Real-World Flex Seminar in August

Sys-Con will be hosting and producing a day-long event about Adobe Flex.  The event will take place in New York on August 14th.  If you're interested in Flex or building applications with Flex, this is definitely something that you'll want to attend.

From the webpage, "The list of topics at the Real-World Flex Seminar includes:

technorati tags:flex, ajax, seminar, adobe, actionscript, coldfusion, apollo, mxml

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June 21, 2006

Download a Flex / PHP Framework, with Source Code

When we were at the New York PHP Conference last week, one of the things that struck me was how hard it was to get started with Flex and PHP. You have to go to one site to download Flex Builder, then to another site to download AMFPHP, then build out your application, deploy it etc...

I thought I could help out, so I built a small framework that includes AMFPHP along with some sample files. The Flex application simply displays information from a MySQL database in a Flex application. Very simple. Here's how you, as a PHP developer, get started:

1. Download the Flex / PHP Framework .zip file.

2. Extract the .zip file in your website. The files must be put in a directory called flex_project in your web server's root directory (ie. /flex_project) (the .zip file should create the flex_project automatically, so you should just extract to the root dir.).

3. Create a database called sample, and populate it with the data from sample.mysql in the flex_project directory.

4. Modify the line $mysql = mysql_connect(...); in the file flex_project/amfphp/services/sample.php to be able to connect to your database.

5. Visit http://localhost/flex_project/amfphp/services/sample.php. (Change localhost if you haven't installed on a local machine). You should see some output.

6. Visit http://localhost/flex_project/bin/flex_project.html to see the Flex application in action. You will need Flash Player 9 for this to work properly.

To modify the backend PHP code, you'll want to change the file in flex_project/amfphp/services/sample.php

To modify the front end Flex code, you'll want to download Flex Builder, create a new Flex project with the source of it as the flex_project directory. Then, modify the flex_project/flex_project.mxml file. When you save that file, it will update the .swf file in the bin/ directory, so reloading http://localhost/flex_project/bin/flex_project.html should show you an updated application.

One thing to note that I've changed in this compared to other uses of Flex and AMFPHP. In AMFPHP, I commented out the following lines in amfphp/app/Filters.php:
$outHeader = new AMFHeader("AppendToGatewayUrl", false, "?" . ini_get('session.name') . "=" . $session_id);
$amf->addOutgoingHeader($outHeader);

I'm not too sure what that was doing, but it was calling an ActionScript function AppendToGatewayURL that was blank in my previous tutorials. Doing this removed the need to create a RemotingConnection.as file in your Flex Project. You'll notice this because the connection to gateway.php now looks like this:

gateway = new NetConnection();
gateway.objectEncoding = flash.net.ObjectEncoding.AMF0;
gateway.connect( "/flex_project/amfphp/gateway.php");
gateway.call( "sample.queryDatabase", new Responder( onResultQueryDatabase, onFault ) );

Hopefully this .zip file is helpful for PHP developers. It shouuld be relatively easy to extend this sample to include the ability to create, update and delete elements from the database. If you do that, please send me an updated .zip file to post on this site.

technorati tags:adobe, php, flex, amfphp, mysql, flash

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June 19, 2006

PHP Conference in New York - Wrap Up

Allen Seirafi and I attended the New York PHP conference last week, and had a great reception to Adobe Flex.  We showed off demos of Flex front ends to Gallery, a new admin screen for Drupal and other cool looking components from Ely Greenfield.

Here are a few reminders for PHP developers:

1.  The Flex SDK will be available for no charge.  So, if you want to develop cool applications using ActionScript and code in VI or Notepad as opposed to Flex Builder, you can do so at no charge.

2.  The graphing components will be not be bundled with Flex Builder, but will instead be sold seperately.

3.  You can download Flex Builder, Flex Data Services, the SDK and the charting components right now from labs.adobe.com.

4.  If you want to connect to a PHP backend, you'll want AMFPHP.  Once you've got that, you'll want to read the tutorials that I wrote on how to integrate that with Flex.

There are already some companies doing cool things with PHP and Flex.  Keep me posted on anything that you're developing.

technorati tags:amfphp, flex, adobe, php, nyphp, nyphpcon

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June 09, 2006

Record Video From Webcam and Post To Drupal (With Source Code)

For my talk to the Boston PHP user group last week, I built on Chritophe's sample that showed recording video from a webcam, and then publishing that to a Drupal based blog. Here is the code (MXML Format). To get this running, you'll need a copy of Flash Media Server (free developer version available) and a working webcam (I'm not really into error checking :) ). Once you download and install Flash Media Server, in C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications\, create a directory called flex_videoconference. A few things to note:
In the source, you'll see:

nc = new NetConnection();
nc.objectEncoding = flash.net.ObjectEncoding.AMF0;
nc.connect( "rtmp:/flex_videoconference");

You need the line ...=flash.net.ObjectEncoding.AMF0 because FMS doesn't do AMF3. The line nc.connect("rtmp:/flex_videoconference"); is equivalent to nc.connect("rtmp://localhost/flex_videoconference"); so if you're connecting to a remote server, you'll want to change localhost, obviously.
The line nsPublish.publish("christophe", "record"); tells FMS to record the stream so you can play it back. Valid values are "record", "append", and "live". The default value is "live". (Lookup NetStream in the Flex help for more information).

Nearly everything works in the publishing method, but I can't figure out how to properly encode the HTML string being sent to Drupal so that it will display the movie properly. I have also created a MediaPlayer.swf video player and put that in my Drupal theme directory, but because I can't get the encoding working properly, then it doesn't matter. If you have knowledge of the BlogAPI for Drupal, please help!

Regardless, even if you don't use it, you've got a way to record video to Flash Media Server and then to play it back in a simple example.

June 06, 2006

PHP Gallery Integration with Flex - With Source Code

Update: I've fixed the links in this to the Flex front end, sorry about that.

I have (finally!) got around to publishing the source code for my PHP Gallery / Flex integration. You can see it in action on WickedDemo.com. The PHP Gallery site is online, and the Flex / Flash front end to Gallery is here. The PHP code is here. When you visit the Flex front end to Gallery, right click on the Flex application and select "View Source" to see the code. Or, just click here to view the source. This is an example of using AMFPHP for integrating Flex and PHP.

May 19, 2006

Cool feature in Yahoo Maps Beta

Have you seen the beta for Yahoo Maps? Try finding a location, then right click on the map, select "Drive from here", then select another location and right click and select "Drive to here"...

Best use of right click in a flash app. Ever. :)

May 15, 2006

Passing Parameters from Flex to AMFPHP

I had an email the other day from a developer who was wondering how to pass PHP parameters via ActionScript. The answer is very simple... Let's take a look at some sample code from my PHP Gallery / Flex project:

public function getPhotosForAlbum( AlbumID:int ) : void
{
gateway = new RemotingConnection( "http://localhost/amfphp/gateway.php" );
gateway.call( "embededGallery.getPhotos", new Responder(onResultGetPhotosForAlbum, onFault), AlbumID);
}

You can see in this ActionScript code that the AlbumID is being passed to the "getPhotos" AMFPHP call. So easy, just add the parameters to the end of the RemotingConnection call, as a 3rd parameter.

Hope that helps some of you out!

May 12, 2006

A Flash / Flex Front End to PHP Gallery

A while back, I posted a message on the Gallery forums that I was working on a Flex application that acted as a front end to Gallery. Well, I think I hit a nerve with some people, because I've gotten emails about this every day, asking where the code was, how to help, what it looked like etc...

Well, now that Flex Beta 3 is out, I figured I better spend some time updating the application to get it working. First off, this is a v