10 Awesome Flex Developers You Should Follow
David Tucker
I first noticed David’s work when he created the blog series on learning Cairngorm. He did such a great job it was amazing. He provided written explanations, code example and videos. Kudos man, I still send people there to learn about Cairngorm. David Tucker is a Rich Internet Application developer, author, and trainer. David currently serves as a Software Engineer at Universal Mind. In addition, David also blogs regularly at InsideRIA where he produces the Weekly RIA RoundUp podcast. David also recently completed the AIR 1.5 Cookbook (with a great group of co-authors) and the Lynda.com series,
AIR for Flash Developers.
Check his blog here: http://www.davidtucker.net/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/mindmillmedia/
Andy Powell
Andy is pretty much a guru in Flex / server integration and development. Andy has answered a number of my questions about Java, BlazeDS and Spring integration for Flex development. Andy is a RIA developer located in the metro Atlanta, GA area. He is currently employed by Universal Mind where he builds really cool applications with tools like Java, Adobe Flex, Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Spry, Hibernate, Spring, & other cool technologies.
Check his blog here: http://www.infoaccelerator.net/blog/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/umandy/
Laura Arguello
She was instrumental in providing technical reviews and input regarding the details of the framework. Laura is the CTO at ASFusion. She specializes in RIA development using ColdFusion and Flex. She regularly gives presentations at tech conferences and user groups. She is a Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX 7 Developer and the manager of the Orange County Flex User Group.
Check her blog: http://www.asfusion.com/
Check her side project blog: http://www.mangoblog.org/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/instante/
Matt Chotin
Matt is a Product Manager for developer-focused technology after having been a software engineer for 6 years. He is the Product Manager of Flex at Adobe.
Check his blog here: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mchotin/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/mchotin/
Eric Feminella
Eric is one of the best Flex developer. Definitely an extra special thanks to Eric!! Eric is a Software Architect specializing in providing quality solutions and services for enterprise and consumer class RIAs targeting the Adobe Flash Platform and associated technologies.
Check his blog here: http://www.ericfeminella.com/blog/
Adam Flater
Adam is a Technical Architect and Evangelist at Roundarch. His career has been centered on building innovative graphical user interfaces and research of emerging technology. He is also a contributor to InsideRIA and the creator of Merapi.
Check his blog here: http://adamflater.blogspot.com/
Folllow on twitter: http://twitter.com/adamflater/
Kevin Hoyt
He provides what seems to be effortless presentations that are easy to understand, interesting and just plain cool. Kevin is a Platform Evangelist with Adobe, and is actively involved with both the Flash and JavaScript communities.
Check his blog here: http://blog.kevinhoyt.org/
Follow in twitter: http://twitter.com/parkerkrhoyt/
Sean Voisen
Sean works with a lot of different technologies and probably wouldn’t classify himself as a Flex Developer. Sean has been a teacher at the Art Institute of California and has worked with companies like AOL and Adobe.
Check his blog here: http://voisen.org/
Follow on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/svoisen/
Jesse Warden
Jesse is a professional software design & development consultant. His background is in multimedia, blending art & programming together. If it’s cool, and computer related, he wants to be involved. He is currently a Flex & Flash Architect at Roundarch.
Check is blog here: http://jessewarden.com/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/Jesterxl/
Rich Tretola
Rich has been building Internet applications for over 10 years and has worked with Flex since the original Royale beta version of Flex in 2003. Other than Flex, Rich builds applications using ColdFusion, Flash, and Java.
Check his blog here: http://blog.everythingflex.com/
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/richtretola/
Flex Documentation links
- Component Explorer: http://examples.adobe.com/
flex3/componentexplorer/ explorer.html - Style Explorer: http://examples.adobe.com/
flex3/consulting/ styleexplorer/ Flex3StyleExplorer.html - Tour De Flex (Download and Install it Will solve your lots of Questions- Requires AIR) : http://www.adobe.com/devnet/
flex/tourdeflex/ - Adobe Flex in a Week: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/
flex/videotraining/ - Adobe Online resources: http://www.anandvardhan.com/
adobe-resources/
- Flex 2 FMS Explorer
- Away3D explorer for Flex
- Flex 2 Primitive Explorer
- Flex Examples
- Flex 2 Component Explorer
- Flex 3 Component Explorer
- Flex 2 Style Explorers
- Flex 3 Style Explorers
- Charting Components Explorer
- JAM – Just ActionScript and MXML
- FlexSpy – To modify and inspect all the visual components off Flex
- A directory of Adobe Flex components
- Flex Style Creator
- Easing Effects Explorer
- Color Explorer
- Cairngorm Diagram Explorer
- Resize Manager
- Flex Enhanced Button Skin Explorer
- Flex Book
- Distortion Effects Explorer
- Random Walk
- Flex Super Panel
- Chart Range Selection Component
- Dual Slider
- Advance Form
- Drag Tile
- Dictionary – Word Information
- Flex Text Effects Explorer
- Flex Presentations – You can also add your presentations in thishttp://www.asfusion.com/
projects/cf-presenter/ - MXNA Reader
- Drop Shadow
- Bevel Filters
- Bevel Filters
- Getting Started
- Flex 3 Help
- Reflection Explorer
- DZone – Community for developers
- Flex.org – Community for Flex developers
- Degrafa – Declarative graphics framework for Flex. Degrafa allows you to use MXML markup to draw shapes, make complex graphics, create skins and also includes advanced CSS support.
- Text layout Editor
- Custom Easing Function Explorer
- Flex Games
- tour-de-flex Component Explorer
- Flex Samples
- Flex Applications
- Scrawl Application
- Display Shelf
- Rating Component
- Create Flow Chart
- Designer Effects for Flex
- find answers to your Flex questions
- Flex 3 regular expression explorer
- Adobe bugs and issue management system
- Rich Spatial Flex viewer
- Color tool
- Advance data visualization for flex
- RIA Trax Explorer
- 25 Excellent And Useful Adobe AIR Tutorials & Resources
- Visualization Explorer
- CSS3 Box Explorer
- Scroller Explorer
- Pixel 3D Explorer
- Google Social Graph Explorer
- Component Framework
- Opensocial
- Library of Flex Components
- Open Flux – Framework
- Degrafa – Declarative graphics framework for Flex. Degrafa allows you to use MXML markup to draw shapes, make complex graphics, create skins and also includes advanced CSS support.
- FlexLib Component List
- Firebug for flex applications
- lightweight logger extension for Flex 3-4, AIR and Flash 9-10 applications
- List of 31 Flex APIs, Libraries, Components and Tools
- List of 22 ActionScript 3.0 API’s
- ActionScript 3.0 APIs developed specifically for Adobe Flex and AIR.
- ASMailer : The ASMailer class sends emails using an SMTP server. ASMailer sends mail without the need of a server side language like PHP or JSP.
- Away3d 2.1 : Away3D is a realtime 3d engine for flash in ActionScript 3.0
- Bullet Graph : A good way to show actual time spent vs. the estimated time for a project
- Degrafa : Declarative Graphics Framework
- Desuade Partigen : Desuade Partigen is an extension for Adobe Flash which lets you create realistic vector and raster particle effects (such as fire, smoke, sparkles), without requiring you to do any complex coding.
- EasyMVC : EasyMVC is an event driven MVC framework which focuses on flexibility while not getting in the developers way.
- Five3D : vector-based 3d rendering framework by Mathieu Badimon – has just received a significant update, bringing it to version 2.1. New features this version brings: Back Face Culling, Flat Shading, Z-sorting, Space Drawing functions, Bitmap3D class, Video3D class, Sprite2D Class, Letter Spacing, Text Width
- Flash Player 10 API Documentation!
- Flex 3 Performance and Memory Profiling : Memory profiling lets you look at objects being created, take snapshots and compare them. Performance profiling allows snapshots for looking at cumulative and internal time.
- Flex 3 RSLs : Use Flex 3 runtime-shared-libraries (RSLs) to reduce the size of your applications and thereby reduce the time required to download the application. RSLs are just SWF files whose code is used as a shared library between different application SWF files.
- Flex 4 States syntax changes : Flex 4 will target all of the legacy usage scenarios of classic Flex states functionality (stateful components, states as application views or pages, effects and transitions between view states, etc.). This document outlines what is primarily a syntax change for the existing functionality.
- Flex and Flex Developers Magazine
- Flex Designer Scroll Bars : skinny little tone on tone scroll bars that have no scroll arrows
- FlexMDI : flexmdi is a robust, extensible Multiple Document Interface framework for Adobe Flex.
- Flex Resource Bundles : Resource bundle is a set of values that you externalize from your source code in a properties file. And it can be swapped out at compile time or, with Flex 3, at runtime. Think of it like a style sheet for values.
- FOAM : two-dimensional rigid body physics engine written in ActionScript 3.0.
- Go3D : Cool Tweening Engine, the Go3D which give you more control over moving objects in 3d space.
- GoogleMap Flex Component : A new component for Flex Developers who want to add more control or be very well organized.
- Guttershark : Actionscript 3 library that pushes some simple conventions on you, only to make you faster as a developer. It’s a pattern for Flash development that cuts out a huge amount of time, especially when you’re in the first stages of development.
- ILOG Elixir : A suite of professional user interface controls that gives developers a rich collection of innovative and interactive data display components. It includes ready-to-use schedule displays, map displays, dials, gauges, 3D and radar charts, a treemap chart and organization charts.
- LoadingImage : Takes a regular Flex Image component, and adds a self contained ProgressBar to it to show its own loading progress.
- Logger Library and RIALogger : The Logger component provides classes to that abstract the Flex 2 Log and logging Target classes. It provides a simple approach to logging messages with category information and provide hooks into multiple targets. It supports the following logging targets by default: RIALoggerTarget, TraceTarget (trace()), XPanelTarget, and FlexTracePanelTarget. The LogController also provides functionality to allow you to setup your own custom logging Target.
- Mate : Mate is a tag-based, event-driven Flex framework.
- Merapi : Merapi is a new project that is a framework for connecting AIR to java at the desktop.
- MinimalComps : Minimal AS3 UI Component Set : CheckBox, PushButton, HSlider, VSlider, InputText, ProgressBar, RadioButton, ColorChooser (text input only) and Panel.
- OpenFlux : OpenFlux is an open-source Flex component framework which allows developers to create radically new and custom Flex components.
- PeekPanel : Cool way to hide options or preferences in an application. It borrows the look and feel from the FlexBook/PageFlip components already out there, but instead of simulating a book, this is more of a way to use the “flip” to hide other components.
- PlexiGlass
- Share (Document Services API) : Online service provided by Adobe that allows you to share, publish, and organize documents online.
- Slide : Slide is an application framework for projects built in Flex 2 or 3. Using familiar design patterns, Slide provides a robust MVC structure, view state management decoupled from view implementation and a flexible approach to model and controller access, eliminating need for singleton classes.
- Sandy 3.0.2 : Sandy is an intuitive and user-friendly 3D open-source library.
- Sprouts : Sprouts is an open-source, cross-platform project generation and configuration tool for ActionScript 2, ActionScript 3, Adobe AIR and Flex projects.
- Universal Mind Extensions for Adobe Cairngorm : Universal Mind has extended the classic Adobe 2.2.x Cairngorm version to provide many productivity and maintenance enhancements.
- Video Tutorial on Compiling for Flash Player 10
- Virtual Space (AS 3.0) V. 1.0 : The Virtual Space is an AS3 component that can be used to create virtual-tour type visualizations very easily. Simply specify 6 images to be used for top, bottom, left, right, front, and back. Then, position the camera, set the initial view, and specify interaction parameters.
- TextArea Explorer
- Noise Explorer
- Perlin Explorer
- Threshold Explorer
- PixelBender
http://www.flash-
http://www.nielsbruin.nl/flex_
http://www.
http://examples.adobe.com/
http://examples.adobe.com/
http://examples.adobe.com/
http://examples.adobe.com/
http://demo.quietlyscheming.
http://www.onflex.org/code/
http://www.mieuxcoder.com/
http://flexbox.mrinalwadhwa.
http://www.flexonrails.net/
http://www.madeinflex.com/img/
http://www.cairngormdocs.org/
http://www.flex-flex.net/flex/
http://www.wabysabi.com/flex/
http://www.rubenswieringa.com/
http://www.alex-uhlmann.de/
http://demo.quietlyscheming.
http://www.wietseveenstra.nl/
http://www.stretchmedia.ca/
http://www.visualconcepts.ca/
http://www.renaun.com/flex2/
http://demo.quietlyscheming.
http://mark-shepherd.com/
http://www.sakri.net/
http://www.asfusion.com/
http://www.asfusion.com/
http://www.jamesward.com/
http://learn.adobe.com/wiki/
http://livedocs.adobe.com/
http://www.wietseveenstra.nl/
http://www.madeinflex.com/img/
http://labs.adobe.com/
http://s3.amazonaws.com/
http://arunbluebrain.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/
http://www.onflex.org/
http://www.thebetterside.com/
http://demo.quietlyscheming.
http://www.
http://sandboxviolation.
http://ryanswanson.com/regexp/
http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/
http://flex888.com/lab/geoweb/
http://www.ilog.com/products/
http://www.insideria.com/2009/
http://www.smashingapps.com/
http://lab.benstucki.net/
http://lab.benstucki.net/
http://lab.benstucki.net/
http://lab.benstucki.net/
http://dreamingwell.com/
http://blog.benstucki.net/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://seantheflashguy.com/
http://seantheflashguy.com/
http://www.ericfeminella.com/
http://away3d.com/away3d-21-
http://agileui.blogspot.com/
http://desuade.com/products/
http://projects.simb.net/
http://five3d.mathieu-badimon.
http://download.macromedia.
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/
http://opensource.adobe.com/
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://blog.extends.
http://code.google.com/p/foam-
http://code.google.com/p/
http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=
http://www.ilog.com/products/
http://www.munkiihouse.com/?p=
http://renaun.com/blog/flex-
http://mate.asfusion.com/
http://adamflater.blogspot.
http://www.bit-101.com/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://www.billdwhite.com/
http://www.bobjim.com/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://code.google.com/p/flex-
http://www.flashsandy.org/
http://www.projectsprouts.org/
http://code.google.com/p/
http://theflashblog.com/?p=383
http://www.afcomponents.com/
http://www.techizzles.com/
http://www.bit-101.com/
http://www.bit-101.com/
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?
http://labs.adobe.com/
- TiltShift Generator
- Flex 3 Regular Expression Explorer
Technical FAQ for Flex Developers
The "Integrated JRun" install does not support IIS connectors. If you are using full JRun or ColdFusion, visit the link below:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/96611248
For other application servers, see their respective documentation.
2. Can I dynamically instantiate a WebService or HTTPService in ActionScript?
Flex 1.5 does not support this. First declare the tags in MXML and then manipulate the URLs, request objects, and so forth using ActionScript.
See the simple "Beginner's Tips" examples on www.cflex.net, and see the Cairngorm Framework's Service Locator pattern for a more fully realized solution.
3. Can I load CSS style sheets dynamically at runtime?
Dynamic loading of CSS files is not supported in Flex. CSS in Flex is processed on the server side during MXML compilation rather than on the client side at runtime.
There is a trick though: A CSS file can be compiled into a separate SWF file and loaded dynamically into the application using the Loader component. Read more about this topic on Manish Jethani's blog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/mannu/286686.html.
4. When I set visible="false", the component still takes up space and appears in the tab order. Why is that?
You can often achieve the "display=none" effect by setting the height/width to zero when you set it invisible, and then set it back to a fixed value or to undefined when you make it visible again.
5. Why are my ValueObject member variables undefined in the results from my RemoteObject requests?
Flash Player deserializes objects in a special order that can confuse developers used to object serialization from other RPC systems. When a strongly typed object is returned to the player, it first creates an instance from the prototype of the registered class without calling the constructor. It then populates the object with the properties sent in the result. Finally, it calls the constructor without arguments.
If your ValueObject constructor expects arguments to initialize an instance, be sure to check whether arguments were actually sent to the constructor before overriding member variable values.
Note: Flash Player does not currently honor getter/setter properties in object serialization or deserialization.
6. Why do strongly typed objects appear as "undefined" in the NetConnection Debugger?
The NetConnection Debugger is an old utility from the early days of Flash Remoting that some developers still find useful. It has an issue, however, displaying types that have been registered with Object.registerClass(). If your Flex server is installed locally, we suggest enabling server-side "debug" level logging in /WEB-INF/flex/gateway-config.xml to watch the raw trace information in the Flex server console/logs from the AMF Gateway as it processes your RemoteObject requests.
Flex Builder also includes a Network Debugger that allows you to monitor AMF traffic.
7. How do I get access to the J2EE session from my RemoteObjects?
The AMF Gateway provides access to the current HttpServletRequest instance in a thread local variable. The session can be obtained from the request, as follows:
flashgateway.Gateway.getHttpRequest().getSession();
8. Can I resize the Internet Explorer browser window from Flex?
Use getURL() to communicate with JavaScript in the HTML wrapper:
getURL('javascript:window.resizeTo(1050,900)');
Note: This solution has been tested only in Internet Explorer.
Ans: The mechanism through which event objects are passed from the objects that generates an event up through the containership hierarchy
10. Can Flex applications communicate with each other on the client?
See the LocalConnection API in the documentation.
11. Is double-clicking supported on various components?
Unfortunately, double-clicking is not supported by default. If you wish to add this functionality to, say, a List or DataGrid component, you will have to add the following ActionScript 2.0 code to your application:
// used to detect a double-click
var someTimestamp:Number;
...
/**
* Double-click handler for some DataGrid component.
*/
public function doubleClickHandler( evt:Object ):Void {
var now = getTimer();
// we got a double-click
if( ( now - someTimestamp ) < sometimestamp =" now;">
2. In the General section, deselect the Enable MXML Design View option.
3. Click OK.
For Flex 2: Deselect the Build Automatically option. Deselect Project > Build Automatically option from the menu and you will see an increased performance, especially during save operations. Also, if you're not using a project, make sure you close it, making more memory available.
34. Why doesn't the Flex Builder debugging tool stop at breakpoints in components?
The safest way to set breakpoints in component files is to use the Files list. Start the debugging session, navigate in your application to where you want to start debugging. Click the Files button on the Debug Toolbar (select Menu Debug > Files). Select the component you want, usually the MXML or ActionScript files.
The list strips out underscores in filenames and can be very long, but this method always works. Flex Builder will open a temporary file and set the breakpoints. Now you can proceed.
35. Are there frameworks available for Flex?
Yes there are:
• Cairngorm: http://www.iterationtwo.com/open_source_cairngorm.html
• FlexUnit: http://www.iterationtwo.com/open_source_flexunit.html
• SynergyFLEX: http://www.mossyblog.com/archives/473.cfm (this link is for 1.0.0a)
• ARP: http://www.osflash.org/projects/arp/about
• AsUnit: http://www.asunit.org
36. Is vertical text possible in Flex?
Yes, that is possible. You have to embed the font outlines and then use the _rotationproperty of the control.
For example, you can use the Label _rotation property. But you would need to embed the font if you want to rotate a Label, TextInput, or TextArea:
@font-face
{
fontFamily:myfont;
src:url("file:///c:/windows/fonts/Georgia.TTF");
}
37. How do I print custom components in Flex 1.5? How do I customize printing in Flex 1.5?
See the following resources:
• Printing only a record set from a datagrid (Flexcoders list)
• Printing whole lotta pages? (Flexcoders list)
• Tips for using PrintingJob in Flex 1.5 by Lin Lin
• The Secret to Printing in Flex by Darron Schall
• Printing Custom Flex components using PrintJob by Abdul Qabiz
38. Can I upload files from a Flex 1.5 application?
Yes, see the following resources:
• Flex applications using Flash Player 8
• Flex applications using Flash Player 7
• File Uploading in Flex Using ColdFusion and JavaScript by Jack D. Minster
39. Can I call an ActionScript function in a Flex 1.5 application from JavaScript?
There is no direct way to call an ActionScript function from JavaScript with Flex 1.5 applications running Flash Player 7. Flash Player 8 has a new feature called ExternalInterface that allows two-way communication between ActionScript and JavaScript.
Because Flex 1.5 applications cannot take advantage of some of the new features in Flash