FlashGuru Blog

I have just been informed that their is a developer version of Macromedia Flex available already. You must buy the trial version (available only on CD) at a cost of $8. Wait for it to arrive. Play with it for 60 days (until the trial runs out) and from then onwards it becomes a developer edition (5 IP Address Limitation). Why is it only available on a CD you might ask? well i would imagine its because their are tonnes of components and documentation for Flex, which all adds up to make a rather large file and it would take along time to download, even on broadband.

Macromedia's target audience for this application is large corporates (who have lots of $12,000+ to spend), surely those types of companies have big pipes to download the software?!? I have a big pipe here at the office....

The issue for me and probably lots of others is that A) I personally dont use Credit Cards, so i cant use the Macromedia shop. B) Im outside the United States & Canada and thus it will cost me $33.99 for the trial and take anywhere from 8 to 13 working days for it to arrive.

[update] Apparently there is a bug in the Shopping Cart system on the Macromedia website and thus, at present it is incorrectly charging customers shipping costs who are located outside of the U.S & Canada. The Flex Developer Edition CD should be $8.99 worldwide. [/update]

[update] The bug has now been fixed and the Flex Developer Edition CD should now cost you only $8.99 anywhere in the world. [/update]

Macromedia Flex, a new application server technology that builds .swf's from xml based documents (MXML) is now available to anybody that has a spare $12,000 floating around (how much???). James Talbot from Macromedia got me really excited about this technology at the MXDU Conference in Sydney recently and it looks very promising for Flash Developers like myself and you. If all goes well and Macromedia market this properly, in the near future, a new market will open up for us, developing RIA's with Flex and components for Flex. The basis of Flex is simple, write an xml document utilising the MXML tags, stick it on the server, when a request for that MXML document is made, the Flex application server parses it and outputs a Flash Movie. Lots of sample MXML can be found here. A new tool called Brady will be released in the not so distant future that will make the authoring of MXML documents much easier... more on that when the day arrives. A tonne of information on Flex, is already available on Macromedia Devnet. No developer version is available as of yet but would imagine their will be one soon.

Check out this funky animation that Nectarine put together for MXDU. It was the animation that kicked off the show just before Tim Buntel and Ben Elmore did their keynote.

Check out this funky little racing game we developed recently for NTL Broadband. Get on the scoreboard and your in for a great chance of winning one of these yummy prizes:

• An Xbox Games Console
• An Xbox Live Starter Pack
• Project Gotham Racing 2
• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Top Spin Tennis
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3

As of yesterday there is now a JSFL Extensions category on the Macromedia Flash Exchange, so you can submit all of your Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Extensions to the exchange and reach a bigger user base. There is only mine in there as i write this, so get submitting! My Auto Save extension is getting lonely.

I have made two new Flash Extensions available on the Flash Extensions page, one of which i showcased in my presentation (Duplicate Layer Command) and the other was a request from Todd Dominey about 30 minutes ago. Both of them are really useful for designers, even more useful if you assign them a keyboard shortcut.

The slides, notes and associated files are now online for my conference presentations at both MXDU 2004, Sydney and FlashForward 2004, San Fransisco. Check them out here. Note that the sessions differ slightly.

So, just got back from San Fransisco, a 10 hour flight with only three hours sleep thanks to the noisy/smelly people sat directly in-front and beside me. Straight to the office from the airport, eyes wide shut. Very tired:(

The conference itself was great fun and full of great people. My presentation went really well and there were alot more people in the session than i expected. Presentation files will be online shortly.

I didnt really attend any of the sessions other than those of Eric Natzke and Andries Odendaal, both of which had drool dripping from my chops!

I did however spend most of my time in San Fransisco hanging with other Flash geeks around seedy bars and restaurants, some of whom are old friends, some of whom were new friends and some of which were strangers. It was a pleasure to meet and hang out with in no particular order, Grant Skinner, Peter Hall, Vera Fleischer, Kristin Henry, Chafic Kazoun, Keith Peters, Eric Dolecki, Jason McVearry, Christian Cantrell, Daniel Dura, Paul Splitzer, Marcus Dickinson, John Dowell, Steve Rycroft, Mike Chambers and Robert Penner.

It was also nice to see Brendan Dawes, Craig Swann, Pete Barr Watson, Samuel Wan, Branden Hall, Joey Lott and others whose names i cant recall.

I had a great time and have lots of photos which will be posted here soon.

Macromedia have released the documentation and sample files for extending the extensiblity layer - adding new functions to the jsapi using c. I touched on this topic in my presentation at FlashForward2004. Definetley worth checking out.

Motion Graphics:
The Uninvited

Application:
Stampede Cattle Auction

Education:
Virtual Knee Surgery

3D:
Coca-Cola Christmas Stars

Story:
Winged Sandals

Art:
Sonata for the Unaware

Typography:
Typographic Illustration

Navigation:
Play More

Cartoon:
Fool Lee

Commerce:
24 7 Media Studios

Original Sound:
Amiamo

Technical Merit:
Wefail Lovers

Game:
Chasm

Experimental:
Brain Show

Video:
Re:Evolution of Sports

Been back from Sydney about 2 hours, stayed a night in Japan courtesy of the airline, now getting my bags and presentation ready for FlashForward2004 San Fransisco. Flying out there tommorow morning. Hope to catch up with some of you guys over there.