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
}