Blog2Print : Turn your Blog into a book

Blog2Print is a service that makes a book out of your blog entries.

You have a few options to customize the look of your book and to choose which blog entries will be included.

The preview is shown as a Flash flipbook.

Piku-Piku processing and viewing technology from Start 3D

Start3D.com is a site for creating and sharing 3D photos online.

You would not need special glasses to view the 3D photos. The Piku-Piku processing and viewing technology from Colin Davidson(Founder and CEO), an Academy award winner for Technical excellence, takes care of that.

The site is currently in Beta and free to register and use in Beta.

Read more about what 3d photography is all about at the Start 3D Blog

Google - Browser Size

Browser Size from Google labs gives you an estimate of users who can see the content on your web pages without scroling.
It gives a rough idea of which portions of the page cannot do without scrolling.

Photoshop.com : online photo editing, storage and sharing

Photoshop.com is an online photo editing, storage and sharing site form Adobe.

The UI makes good use of the Flash Platform. You require Flash player 10 and above to use the service.

Photoshop.com is an evolution of Photoshop express beta, also from Adobe, which is now the editing component used in the service.

There's a free membership in addition to a premium offering. The free membership provides you a 2GB storage space.

To know more about usage and features , visit the Photoshop.com community questions page

Microsoft Bizspark - support for startups

Microsoft BizSpark is a program that provides Startups with Software and Support.

Eligibility : http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/Faqs.aspx#Startup-Question2

Aviary Design Apps

Impressive use of the Flash Platform for an impressive set of applications http://aviary.com/tools.

Image Editor - Phoenix : http://aviary.com/tools/phoenix

Image Mark up tool - Falcon : http://aviary.com/tools/falcon . Use it along with the Firefox extension Talon

Effects Editor - Peacock : http://aviary.com/tools/peacock

Vector Editor - Raven : http://aviary.com/tools/raven

Audio Mixer - Myna : http://aviary.com/tools/myna

Colour Swatch / Palette Editor - Toucan : http://aviary.com/tools/toucan

Follow Aviary blog at http://aviary.com/blog

Founders of Aviary also created http://www.worth1000.com/ , a community site for digital artists to participate in daily contests.

How to render transparent png images in IE6 with AlphaImageLoader filter

It’s a well documented fact that IE6 does not render transparent png images properly. You would see a greyish patch in place of the transparent areas .For instance if you had the following div tag

<div id=’layer_with_transparency’>inner html</div>

and its associated style was

#layer_with_transparency
{
background-image:url(‘images/transparent_bg.png’);
}

you’d end up with problems while viewing the page on IE6.

To fix the problem, make use of the AlphaImageLoader Filter http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532969(VS.85).aspx from Microsoft.
The css for this filter would be
 filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled=true,src='images/transparent_bg.png’, sizingMethod='scale');

To make IE6 alone use this filter, use the underscore format so that the later version of Internet Explorer ignore the filter style specs.
The final css would take the form

#layer_with_transparency
{
background-image:url(‘images/transparent_bg.png’);/* style for IE6 fix */
_background-image:none ; /* remove the above bg image as we are going to use the filter */
_filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled=true, src='images/transparent_bg.png’, sizingMethod='scale'); /* use the filter for transparency support in IE6 */
}

Dontclick : Interactivity and Navigation with no mouse clicks

Dontclick.it  The interface has no clickable buttons ... but can you keep yourself from clicking the mouse?

Technorati Verification

Z3TRBVCRMSNY

Glimmer: Visual jQuery Design Tool

Glimmer is a free interactive design tool to create jQuery effects and interactivity for your web pages.

The installer for Glimmer can be downloaded from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/glimmer/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2578

Glimmer offers a few options for applying jQuery effects. You can use one of the wizards like image sequencer, drop-down, etc or open up an existing file and apply custom jQuery actions from scratch.

Official Glimmer samples can be downloaded from http://mschannel9.vo.msecnd.net/o9/mix/labs/glimmer/glimmersamples.zip

I found this tool thanks to this post http://www.techsutram.com/2009/03/glimmer-jquery-designer.html

Silex : Open Source Flash CMS

Silex is an open source Flash CMS that lets you create flash web sites .

It comes with a WYSIWYG editor and the ability to target different versions of flash – version 7, 8, 9 and 10 are supported.

What I liked about the application is that the site you create can be made SEO-ready with deep links.

Download Silex from : http://sourceforge.net/projects/silex/files/

The installer comes with a set of templates to get you started and additional templates/ themes can be downloaded from http://silex-ria.org/?/themes/

The developer API can be found at http://silex-ria.org/api-v1/

The documentation for Silex can be found at http://silex-ria.org/?/help/#/documentation/home .
I must warn you though; some of the content (tutorials) is still in French. Here is a forum in English that might be of help http://silex.hoyau.info/forum_en/

Flash and Flex Developer's Magazine - Download online edition

Flash and Flex Developer's Magazine November 2009 Online issue is available for free download.

Download : http://ffdmag.com/download-6-2009

Adobe BrowserLab : Web page testing tool

I had recently posted about two services that allow you test how your web pages render in various popular browsers http://ravindrabharathi.blogspot.com/2009/10/tools-for-testing-browser-compatibilty.html.

BrowserLab is a similar service fro Adobe with several Browser - Operating System combinations.

Merapi : open source bridge between AIR and Java Applications

Merapi (http://www.merapiproject.net/) is a bridge for AIR runtime applications to exchange messages with Java applications. This framework , currently in alpha, is an open source project by Roundarch .

You can read about how Merapi works at http://www.merapiproject.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=64&limitstart=3

Download information for Merapi : http://www.merapiproject.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=59

Google code page : http://merapi.googlecode.com/

Applying TextFormat in AS3

Let’s say you wanted to apply a TextFormat to a TextField with the setTextFormat method and you script the following code in AS3

var t:TextField=new TextField();
var tf:TextFormat=new TextFormat();
tf.font="Verdana";
tf.size=24;
tf.bold=true;
tf.color=0xff0000;
t.width=160;
t.setTextFormat(tf);
t.text="test text";

To your surprise, the resultant text does not get the textFormat you applied. The result is




Do not panic. Just swap the last two lines of code like below.

var t:TextField=new TextField();
var tf:TextFormat=new TextFormat();
tf.font="Verdana";
tf.size=24;
tf.bold=true;
tf.color=0xff0000;
t.width=160;
t.text="test text";
t.setTextFormat(tf);

And everything’s fine.




If you were to set the text once again with, say, t.text=”Another text”, you should apply the desired TextFormat once again with the SetTextFormat method. This is because every time you set the ‘text’ property of a TextField, it is the DefaultTextFormat which will be applied.

In fact if you were doing quite a bit of text handling, you are better off setting the DefaultTextFormat of the TextField with the following code

t.defaultTextFormat=tf;

Social : service on Adobe Labs

Social is a service that lets you integrate social networks in your Flash and Flex applications. It provides a single unified abstraction layer for multiple social network APIs. The service is powered by Gigya , makers of the Gigya Socialize Technology. There are settings to configure and integrate Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo apps and support for OpenID with a promise to add more in future.

Download: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/social.html

Developer’s guide: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FPS/Social/1.0/WS58a04a822e3e5010514cd17d123be4341a6-8000.html

API reference : http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FPS/Social/1.0/WS58a04a822e3e5010-1012c7a1123be457886-8000.html

Examples :
Flash AS3 : http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FPS/Social/1.0/WSc4727564e6331f43-290356a4123e910c0ce-8000.html
Flex AS3 : http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FPS/Social/1.0/WSc4727564e6331f431836d7512408233f6d-7fff.html

Tools for testing Browser compatibilty of web pages

If you are in need of tools to check how your web pages will look in the numerous browser variants, here are some.

Litmus allows you to test your pages on all major browsers and versions. A free account entitles you to test on IE 7 and Firefox 2 with a limit of 5o pages/ month.

IE Netrenderer is a free service that allows you to test your pages on IE 7, 6 and 5.5 .

Adobe WorkflowLab

Adobe WorkflowLab is Adobe’s offering to provide designers, developers and project managers with a common way to share information on specific project types including tasks, applications and instructions. It is an AIR application based on Adobe’s Flash Platform and is currently in Alpha.

Download Adobe WorkflowLab (Alpha ) from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/workflowlab/

Degrafa : open source declarative graphics framework

Degrafa www.degrafa.org is an open source declarative framework for flex 2 and 3.

The need to write actionscript code (using the Drawing API) in order to draw visual elements on screen is highly minimised as you can do similar things with mxml declarations when using Degarafa framework.

Degrafa also facilitates data binding in these visual elements making it easy to produce visuals that change based on dynamic data.

Download: http://www.degrafa.org/code/
Samples : http://www.degrafa.org/samples/
Blog : http://www.degrafa.org/blog/

Flex 4 will have similar features with the use of MXML 2009 / FXG but if you are stuck with Flex 3, Degrafa makes your life a lot easier.

Show Hand Cursor on Flash AS3 Sprite , MovieClip

To show Hand Cursor on a Flash MovieClip or Sprite that listens for MouseOver events, add the following code:

mClip.buttonMode=true;

where mClip is the Sprite or MovieClip that listens for MouseOver events.
If mClip contains a TextField within it, add this line :

mClip.mouseChildren=false;

To try out the example code below, copy and paste the code in your Flash IDE.

var mc:Sprite=new Sprite();
mc.graphics.beginFill(0xffff00,1);
mc.graphics.drawRect(0,0,100,30);
mc.graphics.endFill();
var t:TextField=new TextField();
t.text="Text inside Sprite";
mc.addChild(t);
mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,Over);
mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT,Out);
addChild(mc);
mc.x=100;
mc.y=100;
mc.buttonMode=true;
// mc.mouseChildren=false; // Uncomment this line to display HandCursor
function Over(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//handle event
}
function Out(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//handle event
}

Squiggly - spell checking engine for Adobe Flash player and Adobe AIR

Squiggly (preview release) is a spell checking engine for Adobe Flash player and Adobe AIR.

Currently, this technology preview release of Squiggly can only be used with an English dictionary.

The package, which can be downloaded at labs.adobe.com/downloads/squiggly.html, has a few Flex samples and a dictionary based on an open source word-list from wordlist.sourceforge.net to get you started.

Deep linking in Flex

A Deep link can be loosely defined as a link to a web page other than the main or home page of a web site. Jakob Nielsen, one of the foremost gurus on web usability has said 'Deep Linking is Good Linking'. He also points out when it is good to avoid deep linking.

Flex applications do not work like traditional web applications. Navigating to different states/views of a Flex application happens internally and does not open a new URL. In fact, opening a new URL (a new page load) would mean losing the state of the application. Working within a single URL poses problems in enabling common web page features like bookmarking and back-forward navigation.

To implement these features, the different states / views of a Flex application are represented using real or pseudo named anchors. For instance, if the main page is www.mywebsite.com, a view that represents the customers information would be www.mywebsite.com/#customers or www.mywebsite.com/#/customers . Anything after the # is called a URL fragment. These fragments are used in the two way communication between the browser and the flex application - the Flex application informs the browser of a change or user interaction so the browser can update the URL to reflect this action and the browser informs the Flex application of a change in the URL so that the application updates its state to reflect the change. All this happens without a page reload.

This kind of deep linking in Flex is implemented in various ways.

Flex 3.0 itself implements deep linking using the BrowserManager and URLUtil classes. The BrowserManager class provides methods for setting the browser page title, setting and getting URL fragments and listens for change events in the web page URL. The URLUtil class provides methods for processing fragments – to convert the name-value anchor information into objects or strings as necessary. Read more about these features in this article titled Flex 3: Feature Introductions: Deep Linking. Some limitations in this implementation are that the application has be initialised before you can pass any URL fragment references to it and BrowserManager is not yet supported and tested for all browsers.

A more popular implementation of deep linking for Flash and Flex is with SWFAddress. It is a lightweight javascript library that provides deep linking features when used with SWFObject. Visit www.asual.com/swfaddress/ to know more about SWFAddress . The resources section at www.asual.com/swfaddress/resources/ together with samples and documentation provide a wealth of information on how to implement deep linking with SWFAddress.

URLKit is another implementation of deep linking for Flex. It was written by Joe Berkovitz and Todd Rein of Adobe. David Tucker explains the functioning of URLKit in detail with this excellent article: Advanced Flex Deep Linking with URLKit. You can also find documentation for URLKit at www.davidtucker.net/docs/urlkit/ .

SocialVibe - Giving back to society

SocialVibe ( www.socialvibe.com ) is a social media tool that allows the online community to help fund charitable causes. Members choose a brand to endorse and the points earned are then turned into funds for the charitable cause of their choice.

Here's a post by Joe Marchese, the CEO of SocialVibe, on how the SocialVibe gadget works on Blogger
http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/09/earn-charity-donations-on-blogger-with.html

Google AS3 API

This AS3 Library for Google API from Labs.boulevart provides an interface for Google's AJAX API.

Here's a simple application that visualizes a Google web search. Only the top 8 results have been used but this can be customized to provide more options.

Ribbit Platform

The Ribbit Platform is multi-protocol, open platform that supports rich voice innovation and integration.

It has flexible API support for Flex, Flash, REST, PHP, and other programming environments.

Ribbit platform has a Flash Toolkit as well as a Flex SDK

VizualPV3D

VizualPV3D is a GUI interface to create and manipulate objects in 3D scenes using Papervision3D.

The current version is a public release alpha.

VizualPV3D web site : www.juxtinteractive.com/work/vizualpv3d/

Concrete5 - Free CMS

concrete5 is a free open source CMS www.concrete5.org

It works on PHP 5.1 and above and MySQL.

The installation instructions can be found at http://www.concrete5.org/help/building_with_concrete5/installation/ and the API documentation is at http://www.concrete5.org/api/

Free Online edition of Flash & Flex Developer's Magazine

Sign up for the free newsletter of FFDMag (www.ffdmag.com) and get the first online edition of the magazine free. You can also download the back issues for free.

3D Tic Tac Toe

A very simple Tic Tac Toe engine ... you need to try very hard to lose.

Used papervision3d for the cubes.

Move the cursor over the face

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Move live space entries to blogger ... the round-about way ...

Used live space mover ( http://b2.broom9.com/?page_id=519) to move my live space entries to wordpress.

Moved the resulting wordpress blog to Blogger using the tips found at http://takeonlogyk.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/moving-from-wordpress-to-blogger-is-simple/

Flickr, Flex and PV3D!

Flickr photos displayed using Flex SDK , FlashDevelop 3 and Papervision3D.

Uses the following libraries
AS3 Flickr API from Adobe Labs - http://code.google.com/p/as3flickrlib/

as3corelib - http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/

and Caurina Tweener - http://code.google.com/p/tweener/

Takes a while to load ...

Mouseover the cubes to interact ... click to enlarge the cube ...

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Papervision3D

http://pv3d.org/

Eclipse project for Silverlight

Silverlight plugin for Eclipse  http://www.eclipse4sl.org/

Install Apache Solr on Windows

Download and install lastest Java sdk

Download and install Tomcat 6

set JAVA_HOME and CATALINA_HOME env variables

download apache solr

Unzip and copy solr-.war to %CATALINA_HOME%/webapps/solr.war

Create Solr_Home where index will be stored ... for this create a JNDI entry solr/home

The easiest way is to copy 'solr' directory from the examples folder that came with your solr download.

start up tomcat and browse to http://localhost:8080/solr/

 

 

Tomcat 6 startup problem

Tomcat 6 server was not starting up.

Kept getting Java_Bind error  for port 8005.

Changed the shutdown port value to 8006 in conf/server.xml ... that solved the problem.

Flash Builder 4 Beta

Flash Builder 4 (formerly known as Flex Builder) Beta was made available at Adobe labs.

 

Get it from http://labs.adobe.com/