Archive for February, 2006

It’s that time of year again, travelling galore!

Friday, February 24th, 2006

So, its conference season again and ive got alot of travelling to do in the next few weeks which im throughly looking forward to. I cant wait to get out of the UK were it has done nothing but rain for the past couple of days. I have a serious Vitamin D deficiency- thanks to the lack of sun on this miserable island.

I will be travelling with the one and only London Flasher known as Tink, who will be shaving off the beard which hes been growing for a good 6 months now :)

First stop is Sydney, where i will be presenting for the third year in a row at the webDU conference, this time on the subject of the Flash 8 - BitmapData API. We will be over there for 9 days soaking in the summer sun on Bondi Beach, cocktails in hand and then we are heading over to Hong Kong to break up the monster 24 hour return flight, we will stay there for 6 days before embarking upon the final part of the journey back to London.

The day after i get back to London, i fly out again, over to Washington D.C to stay with a friend for a few days, before we both head off to Microsoft Mix 06 in Las Vegas, where i will stay for 4 days and hopefully return with some money in the bank courtesy of the casinos.

Lots of fun will be had and lots of photos will no doubt surface on my flickr account.

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BitmapData.loadBitmap gone in AS3

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

When playing with the BitmapData API in Flash 8, it was often necessary to work with an image embedded in the library. To achieve this you could assign a 'Linkage Identifier' to the image in the library and then use BitmapData.loadBitmap to retrieve a BitmapData instance pre-populated with the specified image from the library:

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. import flash.display.BitmapData;
  2. myBmp = BitmapData.loadBitmap('theLinkageId');

Naturally things have changed somewhat in Actionscript 3. There are no longer Linkage Identifiers and there is no longer attachMovie. Everything is created using the new operator.

So, how do you go about embedding an image inside a Flash Movie in Actionscript 3 you might ask? and then how do you get a BitmapData object for that embedded Image? Well im going to show you because these questions seem to be coming up alot of late.

(more...)

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Flex 2 Compilation - Hidden Goodies

Monday, February 20th, 2006

We all like to know a little more about what goes on under the hood of our favourite tools. Undocumented features and the like have a certain appeal that gets everybody excited.

Flex Builder 2 which is currently in public beta has a little known gem of a feature (for which documentation is scarse) which you can use to learn alot more about what Flex actually does under the hood to make all that mxml markup goodness into a working Flash movie. This compiler option did not work in the previous public alpha build.

The brains of Flex 2 lie in the compiler (AKA MXMLC) which internally converts all your mxml markup into Actionscript 3 classes ready for the next stage of the process which is Actionscript compilation. The Flex 2 compiler accepts certain arguments (or compiler flags) that allow you to change the way it operates slightly.

There are plenty of these compiler flags but my favourite has to be the option that tells MXMLC to keep all of the Actionscript 3 classes that it has generated as part of the project building process. You can then view these actionscript files to find out more about how Flex actually works.

The compiler flag i speak of is called -keep-generated-actionscript and you can turn it on in Flex Builder 2 for your own pleasure by doing the following:

  1. Right-click a Flex Project in the Navigator Panel.
  2. Select Properties from the Context Menu.
  3. Select Flex Compiler in the Properties Window.
  4. Enter -keep-generated-actionscript into the 'Additional compiler arguments' field.
  5. Click 'OK' to apply the changes.
  6. Build your Flex Project by clicking the Run button.
  7. Right-click your Flex Project again in the Navigator Panel.
  8. Choose Refresh from the Context-Menu.
  9. A new folder should appear under your Flex Project in the Navigator Panel, named 'generated'

Inside the 'generated' folder lies the under the hood Actionscript 3 files that the compiler generates as an interim stage of the whole compilation process. Open them up and have a nosey as to what Flex 2 is actually doing under the hood to setup all the default component styles etc... it's an awesome feature, lets hope they keep it in there.

Enjoy.

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Adobe Launch Party thoughts and observations

Friday, February 10th, 2006

Who's that strange man in the background, and what's with those dots? Dust on the lense maybe.

This is Me, Tink, Grant and Bobbi in Waxy O' Conners fulfilling our appetite before the Adobe Launch Party. Steak for me and Bangers and mash for Grant :D

We arrived at the launch party at just after nine, by which time the apparently dull keynote had long been forgotten and the drinks were flowing at the free bar. The free bar being the place were us and the rest of the Flash Envoy conveniently located ourselves for the rest of the evening.

I was interested to hear from some of the other attendees that the only mention of Macromedia or Macromedia Products in the whole of the keynote was that the aquisition had closed, which is fair enough i guess considering it was a party for the launch of Adobe Production Studio which doesnt include any of the Macromedia products, but still a little strange since they invited a bunch of Flash dudes.

I felt a little out of place amongst all these presumably photoshop/after effects users and me and Grant were saying it was pretty weird going to an event and not knowing many people. The venue was a gay bar, Rich Leggett came suitably dressed with pinkish stripey shirt and all and the music was along those lines aswell for most of the night (Madonna et al), although it did pick up in the last hour or so, at which point the empty dancefloor became a pit of jeering, swaying half-cut Adobe employees and others, which was hilarious to watch from above in a drunken gaze.

The little Flash Envoy at the party consisted of in no particular order, Grant Skinner, Me, Richard Leggett, Stewart McBride (Temporarily), Aral Balkan (For a little while), Tink, Sean, Dave Williamson, Mike, Daniel Brown and some other guys from AKQA. Was nice to meet Dan and Mike with whom ive never spoken before, both top blokes.

All in all a good night, but the highlight of the night, for me was when the Flash Envoy on leaving the event decided to "borrow" the Adobe Marketing Product Boxes which were left behind on the stage and conveniently re-erect a pyramid structure outside one of the Adult Sex Shops in Soho for a group hug.

Till next time. More piccies here.

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London, Adobe Launch Party

Thursday, February 9th, 2006

I'll be in London again tonight for the Adobe Launch Party.

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