Peter deHaan

Word on the street is that some beta chapters on new Flex Gumbo stuff is posted on the Flex Gumbo page on the opensource.adobe.com site:

• Gumbo View States
• Using Effects
• New Gumbo Effects
• ASDoc with Support for MXML files
• Gumbo Application Container

And, as always, the latest beta Flex Gumbo Language Reference can be found at livedocs.adobe.com/flex/gumbo/langref/.

So put on your technical reviewer hats on and go read some chapters! Also, to keep up with all the latest and greatest from the Flex Documentation team, check out their blog at blogs.adobe.com/flexdoc/.

A few updates to the Flex Gumbo page on opensource.adobe.com…

1. The milestones table has been updated to reflect the latest schedule.

* Dates subject to change

2. Open Iteration Meetings table updated with the slides and recordings from our first two public meetings (Feb. 19, 2009 and Mar. 24, 2009).

3. Two new feature specs posted:

• DropDownList (ComboBox)
• Flex Component Kit for Flash

4. Three new Architecture Review Board (ARB) Issues posted:

• Verbose Path Syntax (added 03/16/09)
• Removing fxComponent (added 3/19/09)
• Required vs. Optional Parts (added 3/20/09)

And as always, the latest build of the Flex Gumbo beta can be downloaded from: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4.

This upcoming Saturday (March 28, 2009 — from 9:30AM to 8PM PST), there will be the first Flex BugQuash hosted in Seattle at the Adobe offices (as well as online via Adobe Connect — the Connect room URL will be sent to registered participants the day prior to the event).

If you’re interested in attending in person, or want to pop in for a couple hours over Connect, please register.

For more information, see the BugQuash site at bugquash.com.

Here is what I have been blogging about over the past couple weeks on my Flex examples blog, blog.flexexamples.com:

• Setting the value on the FxHScrollBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the repeat interval on an FxNumericStepper control in Flex Gumbo
• Creating an emphasized FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling an emphasized FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Grabbing FlashVars from the embedding HTML template in Flex Gumbo (SWFObject Edition)
• Setting a custom skin on an FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Toggling data tips on an FxHSlider control in Flex Gumbo
• Using the FxAnimateColor effect to animate the content background color of a FxTextInput control in Flex Gumbo
• Using the DropDownList in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a label field on a FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a label function on a FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Creating a custom multi-column item renderer for the FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a custom thumb skin on a FxHSlider control in Flex Gumbo
• Using the Repeater class in Flex Gumbo
• Removing the default corner radius on the FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the base color on the FxHSlider control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a linear gradient background on an FxApplication container in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the base color on the FxHScrollBar control in Flex Gumbo

If you want to follow updates to FlexExamples.com (and my less frequent updates to ActionScriptExamples.com and AIRExamples.com), you can follow me on The Twitter at twitter.com/pdehaan.

Here is what I have been blogging about over the past couple months on my Flex examples blog, blog.flexexamples.com:

• Setting the bar color on the ProgressBar control in Flex
• Removing the border skin on a List control in Flex
• Using tab stops with the TextArea control in Flex
• Setting word wrapping on the FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the background color on a FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Determining when the selected state of a FxToggleButton control changes in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the repeat delay on an auto repeating FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Using the FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Requiring a user has an item selected on the FxButtonBar in Flex Gumbo
• Determining when the selected item changes on the FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling specific states in an FxToggleButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a horizontal gap between buttons in an FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Getting information about a class using the ObjectUtil class in Flex
• Creating a vertical FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling specific states in an FxToggleButton control in Flex Gumbo (redux)
• Styling the selected button on an FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the icon color on an FxCheckBox control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling the different states on an FxCheckBox control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the layout direction on a FxPanel container in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the base color on an FxRadioButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling the different states on an FxRadioButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the selected index on the FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the selected item on the FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Determining if an item is selected in an FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Determining if an item index is selected in an FxButtonBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the content background color on the FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the layout direction on an FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Hiding specific items in a data provider based on the current application state in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the requested row count on an FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the horizontal alignment on a FxList control in Flex Gumbo
• Removing the increment and decrement buttons on a FxVScrollBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a column count and row count on a TileLayout FxList component in Flex Gumbo
• Removing the thumb button on a FxVScrollBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling the decrement button and increment button on an FxSpinner control in Flex Gumbo
• Styling the decrement button and increment button on an FxVScrollBar control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a content background color on an FxTextInput control in Flex Gumbo

Here is what I have been blogging about over the past couple months on my Flex examples blog, blog.flexexamples.com:

• Setting a symbol color on an FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a base color on an FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting a content background color on an FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the kerning level on the TextGraphic object in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the joint style on a Path stroke in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the scale mode on an Ellipse object stroke in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the focus blend mode on a TextArea control in Flex
• Setting the thickness of a stroke on a Line object in Flex Gumbo
• Setting tab stops in a TextView control in Flex Gumbo
• Masking a Rect object with a TextGraphic in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the block progression on a TextView control in Flex Gumbo
• Setting the miter limit on a Path stroke in Flex Gumbo
• Exporting the text in a FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Displaying a FxTextInput control’s text as a password in Flex Gumbo
• Setting margins on a FxTextArea control in Flex Gumbo
• Displaying icons in a Flex PopUpButton control (Redux)
• Toggling buttons in a ToggleButtonBar control in Flex
• Setting the header colors on the DataGrid control in Flex
• Setting the column header text color on a DataGrid control in Flex
• Setting the disabled text color on a CheckBox control in Flex
• Setting the label color on a CheckBox control in Flex
• Setting the fill colors on a CheckBox control in Flex
• Setting the horizontal scroll position in the TextInput control in Flex
• Styling the last button in a ButtonBar control in Flex
• Setting the arrow icon color of a disabled CheckBox control in Flex
• Creating an auto-repeating FxButton control in Flex Gumbo
• Creating an auto-scrolling DataGrid control in Flex

Here is a collection of blog posts from my coworkers on the Flex SDK, Flex Builder, AIR, and LiveCycle teams:

• Flex Team blog: Flex SDK 3.3 Released
• Flex Butterflies and Bugs (Joan Lafferty): Flex 3.3 (a new update) is officially available
• Ted On Flex (Ted Patrick): Flex 3.3 Released!
• Mihai Corlan: Flex SDK 3.3 is out!
• Mihai Corlan: Adobe AIR 1.5.1 is out
• Flex Butterflies and Bugs (Joan Lafferty): Flex 4 SDK downloads now include Spark skins for all the components
• Flex Butterflies and Bugs (Joan Lafferty): How to add a scrollbar to a Gumbo Application
• James Ward – RIA Cowboy: Flex Gumbo Sample – Pretty Button with FXG
• Buntel Blog (Tim Buntel): How will CF/Flex work in FB4?
• James Ward – RIA Cowboy: Flex Monkey Patching and Framework RSLs
• Flex Team blog: Help the Flex Team by taking our survey!
• getting and setting (Scott Evans): take the flex user survey
• James Ward – RIA Cowboy: How Do You Use Flex?
• Ted On Flex (Ted Patrick): Flex BugQuash – Live from Seattle or Online via Connect
• Flex Doc Team blog: Simple Twitter client in Flex
• Christian Cantrell: Make the mouse wheel work in Flash on OS X
• Mike Morearty: All Flex developers, please do this.
• Anirudh Sasikumar: Flex Datamap Control
• Pearls of Flex (Sreenivas): Flex OLAP aggregating strings.
• Codedependent (Chet Haase): Video: Smarter Effects in Gumbo and Video: Flex 3 Effects
• Matt Chotin: Devoxx Talk now available on Parleys
• Codedependent (Chet Haase): Devoxx Talk Posted on Parleys.com: ‘The Future of Rich Internet Applications’
• James Ward – RIA Cowboy: Video – The Future of Rich Internet Applications at Devoxx 2008
• Mihai Corlan: Adobe TV segment: Generate a Flex/J2EE Database Application
• James Ward – RIA Cowboy: Get The Tour de Flex DVD
• Codedependent (Chet Haase): AS34J2: ActionScript for Java Developers, Part Two (Part 1)
• Ted On Flex (Ted Patrick): Facebook and the Flash Platform ESeminar
• Kevin Hoyt: ActionScript 3 TIFF Encoder
• FLEXing My Muscle (Raghu Rao): Detecting your Flash Player Version
• FLEXing My Muscle (Raghu Rao): Adobe nominated for Developer Awards @ GIDS – Vote
• Matt Chotin: ILOG Elixir V2 Now Available
• AIR Team blog: ILOG Releases New Data Visualization Components for Adobe AIR
• Kevin Hoyt: Collaborative Calendar with AFCS and iLog
• AIR Team blog: Adobe AIR 1.5.1 Released
• Ashutosh Sharma: Tutorial – Using Flex Builder Linux with AIR 1.5.1
• Ashutosh Sharma: Setting the correct MIME type for AIR applications on web servers
• Ashutosh Sharma: New Adobe AIR Marketplace
• Pursuit of Simplicity (Oliver Goldman): Performance-Tuning AIR Applications at the Adobe Developer Center
• AIR Team blog: New Performance-tuning article on Adobe AIR Developer Center
• AIR Team blog: Adobe AIR Development Plug-In for Aptana Studio Now Available
• AIR Team blog: Share News with ShareFire
• AIR Team blog: Fast & Furious Desktop Widget Powered by Adobe AIR
• Ashutosh Sharma: AIR applications and root access on Linux
• Ashutosh Sharma: Why does AIR install only on rpm/deb based Linux distros?
• LiveCycle Doc Team blog: Using process variables as constants
• LiveCycle Doc Team blog: Displaying process data in Flex controls
• LiveCycle Doc Team blog: Using web services to search for Rights Management events
• LiveCycle Doc Team blog: Dymystifying application configuration for LiveCycle Workspace ES

And some posts on Adobe MAX 2009 conference (Los Angeles CA – Oct 4-7 2009):

• Adobe MAX Blog: Adobe MAX 2009 – Call for Sessions and Labs
• Matt Chotin: Call for MAX 2009 Sessions
• Ted On Flex (Ted Patrick): Adobe MAX 2009 – Call for Sessions and Labs
• Mihai Corlan: Do you want to be a speaker at MAX 2009?

And from our friends on the Flash Authoring, and Flash Platform Evangelism teams:

• Jay Armstrong – Flashes of Interest: List of Getting Started Videos Added to Flash Help
• Flash Authoring (Tareq AlJaber): Slice 9 in Adobe Flash CS4
• Thomas Younsi: How MPEG-4 and H.264 video compression work
• Thomas Younsi: How to Play Video in Flash in Slow Motion using NetStream
• Mike Chambers: Scripting with ActionScript 3 and Flash CS4
• Mike Chambers: Monitoring File Changes in Adobe AIR
• Mike Chambers: Error: Error #2037: Functions called in incorrect sequence, or earlier call was unsuccessful
• Daniel Dura: Find Flash, Flex and AIR Jobs on Twitter
• The Flash Blog (Lee Brimelow): Introduction to Flex tutorial (part 3) and New video tutorial on runtime font loading
• The Flash Blog (Lee Brimelow): Master Collection dead drop London and The London dead drop explained (video)

For those few people out there that were not fans of the Fx prefix in Flex Gumbo (SDK-17854 — Kittens saved, Fx prefix will go away), you can now head on over to the Flex Gumbo page on opensource.adobe.com and check out the Architecture Review Board (ARB) Issues page on Dropping the Fx Prefix!

And for those of you who were fans of the Fx prefix… you can go read the ARB issues page too, because the Fx prefix is still being removed.

Thrilling topics of conversation include, but are not limited to:

• Section 1: New Namespace Organization
• Section 2: Top Level Package Organization for the new Gumbo classes
• Section 3: Class Renaming – enumerate names and packages for all new Gumbo classes. Most changes will be due to removing the Fx Prefix, but some additional usability changes will be included as well.
• Appendix A: Detailed list of classes in each namespace

Discuss (but on the ARB page, not here).

Last week I blogged that we had released a new version of Flash Player 10 (“Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22.87 available on adobe.com”), but apparently I missed the fact that we also released an updated version of Flash Player 9 (9.0.159.0)!

As always, you can download the debugger versions from the Adobe Flash Player Downloads page at www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html.

SDK and DMV downloads from Adobe.com: www.adobe.com/products/flex/flexdownloads/

Milestone Build on Open Source: opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+3

Release Notes for SDK 3.3 (including instructions for updating with DMV 3.3): www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flex/3/releasenotes_flex3_sdk.html