Wallaby : Convert Adobe Flash files to HTML

An experimental technology from Adobe codenamed 'Wallaby' enables you to convert Adobe Flash(FLA) files to HTML.

Learn more about Wallaby at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/wallaby/

Download Wallaby from http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/wallaby.html

Installation instructions for Wallaby are at http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Wallaby#Installer

The release notes shed more light on supported features and cross browser issues.

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.

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?

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

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

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
}

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/

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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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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Tic Tac Toe