Gurufaction

Printing Invoices with Flex 4.5

2011-07-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at a print preview control for Flex 4.5. I am not a component developer so it does not have a lot of features right now.It currently supports multiple pages, basic navigation and printing. The ability to export directly to pdf has some bugs so it might work for some people.

Air Mate Project Template for Flash Develop

2011-04-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

As a followup to my Flex 4 Mate Project Template I have created a Mate Project Template for Adobe Air. You can find all my project template over at my google code site.

Mate Project Template for Flash Develop

2011-04-06T13:51:00.001-07:00

I've been working with Silverlight and C# for a few years now and I really like the MVVM pattern. I've been wanting to implement the same pattern using the Flex framework which lead me to a really great Flex framework called Mate. It only took me a few hours to wrap my head around the framework and get an MVVM style application up and running with Flex. The only issue I ran into was the lack of Flex 4 specific documentation. So I've created a Flex 4 project template for Flash Develop that will get you started quickly.

Flash Player 10.1 Released

2010-06-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

Adobe has release Flash Player 10.1. Go get it!

IPod Touch and IPad Alternatives

2010-02-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

When Apple closes a door somebody opens a window :) Here are some alternative devices to Apples IPod Touch and upcoming IPad.

IPod Touch -> Zii
IPad -> Joojoo

Ajax vs Flex vs Silverlight vs Other

2009-06-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

HTML 5 has been causing a real stir in the RIA community recently. There has been a rise in "Flash Killer" articles and blog posts. I guess everybody has a right to their own opinion. The problem I have with nearly all of these stories is what they choose to compare. You can't just compare Flex to Silverlight for example because they're composite platforms. A more accurate comparison would be Flash Player vs Silverlight Runtime. Nearly every Flex vs Silverlight article I've read treats Flash and Flex as one entity and it's not. Here is a list of what I believe to be valid comparisons.

Flash Player vs Sliverlight Runtime
Flex SDK vs Silverlight SDK
Flash + Ajax vs Flash + Flex SDK

One comparison I would like to see more of is the Flash + Ajax vs Flash + Flex SDK. How does Ajax compare to Flex when you allow the use of Flash to fill the gaps in Ajax. When working with Ajax applications there is nothing wrong with using Flash just were you need it. I have recently discovered Ext JS and so far my experience has been alot better but only time will tell. I'm about to port a large Flex application to Ext JS :)

Flash Pivot Table Component

2009-04-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for a Flex based Pivot Table component. I found one offered by FlexMonster. It looks really cool and is able to handle large datasets. There is only one small problem. I can't download an evaluation and nobody is responding to my email. If anybody knows of a better way to get a hold of the guys at FlexMonster. Let me know :)

RadTools

2008-11-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

I have launched a google code project called RadTools. It's a place where I can post my collection of useful tools I use to make my application development a little faster and easier. My first tool is a PureMVC template for Flash Develop 3. I've had these project and file templates on my PC for months. Now I am able to give them an official home where they can be maintained. I have a WebOrb .NET project template for Flash Develop as well but its not quite ready but as soon as its done I will create a zip file for it.

It's my Birthday

2008-11-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

Today it's my birthday. I am 30 yrs old. Let see what the next 3o yrs will bring :)

Flex on TopCoder

2008-10-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

TopCoder is now offering Flex/Actionscript 3 competitions. In the past TopCoder has only offered Java and .NET competitions. This is a great opportunity for the Flex community to test their skills and earn a little cash. Let the games begin :)

Actionscript 3 HMAC: Keyed-Hashing

2008-10-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have implemented the HMAC (RFC2104) in actionscript 3 using the as3 core library. I have submitted a patch to as3 core lib. I developed the HMAC library because I needed it to perform the CRAM-MD5 for my actionscript 3 mail api project AsMailer. The HMAC library has been tested for MD5 and SHA1. The library can support other hash methods but they have not been tested.

asDox Alpha 2.1 Released

2008-09-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have updated the asDox project and release 1.0.0 alpha 2.1 which contains some minor bugs fixes with imports and file encoding. I like to thank Eamonn Faherty for reporting these issues. I have not had a lot of time to work on asDox but that is all about to change. I am working on a new Flex + WebOrb + Doctrine project in which I am using asDox to generate the Doctrine Records, PHP DTO's, and the PHP DAO's. I will try to blog my progress for those who are interested.

asDox Alpha 2 Released

2008-05-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

I have released asdox-1.0.0-alpha2 . The grammar has been rewritten and tested against the Flex 3 SDK. The wiki examples have been updated as well. This Alpha 2 version does not return JavaDoc tags information. I am planning to implement JavaDoc's in the next release.

New AS3 grammar for asDox

2008-04-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have been working on rewriting the Actionscript 3 grammar for asDox. The original grammar could not parse files from the Flex 3 SDK but the new grammar can parse all 647 source files. The Flex 3 SDK has been a really great test for my AS3 grammar and I learned quite a bit about what is valid AS3 syntax. Now that I can successfully parse AS3 files the next challenge is to assemble a model from each of the AS3 elements: Methods, Classes, Packages, Metadata, JavaDocs and Variables. I hope to get an Alpha 2 release out very soon :)

PureMVC Flash Develop Templates

2008-04-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

I have updated the PureMVC Flash Develop Project and File Templates to work with PureMVC v2.0.3 and Flash Develop Beta 6. You can download the latest templates here.

Generating PHP Value Objects with asDox

2008-02-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

I am working hard on documentation for asDox. The project is still in Alpha but I wanted to focus on some example uses for asDox. I have just posted a new Wiki page titled Generating PHP Value Objects . This is a great example of the how asDox can make life easier when creating Flex applications that use RemoteObjects. asDox can also be used the generate the DAO and SQL Scripts for your value objects.

asDox - Actionscript 3 Parser

2008-02-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

I very proud to announce the release of asDox 1.0.0-alpha. asDox is small Actionscript 3 parser build using PyParsing. It is based on the qDox project for Java. asDox's main goal is to provide code generation for Model Driven Development. Use asDox with any Python template engine will allow you to generate PHP, .NET, Java, Ruby, or even SQL scripts from Actionscript 3 Classes. The project is hosted at http://asdox.googlecode.com . This is an alpha release so there is very little documentation but I plan to get some more Wiki pages put up soon.

Fluorine FX

2008-01-15T14:40:00.000-08:00

The Silent Group launch a new open source .NET library. FluorineFx provides an implementation of Flex/Flash Remoting, Flex Data Services and real-time messaging functionality for the .NET framework.

http://www.fluorinefx.com/

PureMVC Project Template for Flash Develop

2008-01-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have updated my modification to the Flash Develop Project Manager Plugin. The plugin modification will work with Flash Develop Beta 5. You can download the updated files via the Flash Develop Forum . If I can find some extra time I will develop a Caringorm Project Template but if you are familiar with Caringorm feel free to develop a Project Template based off the PureMVC template. (It's actually very easy to do ).

AMF PHP Tutorial in German

2007-10-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

I recieved an email today from www.HowToForge.com reguarding my AMFPHP 1.9 tutorial. They were requesting my permission to translate my tutorial to German. I thought it was really cool. So if you speak German go check it out at www.HowToForge.de .

* Life Spoiler *

2007-08-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

You die at the end :)

Thought this was funny.

PureMVC Project Template Updated

2007-07-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have updated the Project Manager Plugin Mod for Flash Develop 3 making it easier to use. I also updated the PureMVC Project Template to take advantage of these recent changes.

http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?p=7792#7792

PureMVC Project Template for FlashDevelop 3

2007-07-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have modified the Project Manager Plugin for Flash Develop 3 to accomidate complex project templates. You can follow the process of this modification over at the Flash Develop forum http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?t=1719 . With this modification I have created a PureMVC Project template and associated Project File templates. I have posted some screenshot over at the PureMVC forum http://futurescale.com/forums/puremvc/index.php?topic=15.0 . And don't worry a Cairngorm Project template is soon to follow.

PureMVC: AS3 Framework

2007-06-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Cliff Hall has developed a AS3 MVC framework called PureMVC. Unlike Cairngorm the PureMVC frameworks targets any AS3 based application including Flex,Flash, and AIR. I recently convert the Cairngorm CafeTownsend demo to use the PureMVC framework. You can download the source and view the demo app over at http://puremvc.org .

Adobe AIR Developer Derby

2007-06-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

I am going to enter the Adobe AIR Developer Derby . I think I might have a change at winning a T-Shirt :) Next question is what to build ?

PHP 5 in Java

2007-05-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

Quercus is Caucho Technology's fast, open-source, 100% Java implementation of the PHP language. Quercus is a feature of Caucho Technology's Resin Application Server and is built into Resin - there is no additional download/install. Developers using Resin can launch PHP projects without having to install the standard PHP interpreter (http://www.php.net) as Quercus takes on the role of the PHP engine.

Quercus + Amfphp = Good Things :)

amfphp - Flash remoting for PHP

2007-05-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

amfphp has a new url: http://www.amf-php.org/ .I have been following the domain name mess and I know what a headache it can be. I have had a few client forget to renew their domain names and the @#$% hits the fan when websites go down and the email stops working.

Flex 2 Inline Item Renderer Tip

2007-05-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon an unknown property as I was trying to use an Inline Item Renderer on my DataGrid Columns. If you use the <mx:component> tag with your inline item renderer and try to have your component call an event in your main application you will get a nasty "Access to undefined method blah blah". This is because your Inline Item Renderer is unaware of what exists in your main application. But you can use the outerDocument property to access event handlers in you main application.

<mx:itemRenderer>
<mx:Component>
<mx:VBox >
<mx:Button label="Remove" click="outerDocument.remove()"/>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Component>
</mx:itemRenderer>

Fluorine Tutorial

2007-04-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

I wrote a tutorial on using Amfphp 1.9 with the Flex 2 SDK. One of the things I wanted to do was to convert my Amfphp tutorial into a Fluorine tutorial but just couldn't find the time to do so. Well as luck would have it I need to use Fluorine for on an application for a client. So I will begin development on a Fluorine with the Flex 2 SDK tutorial. I would like to publish this tutorial on HowToForge but I don't think that have a section for C#, .NET, or Flex 2.

Amfphp vs WebOrb PHP

2007-04-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed the great discussion over on Flex Coders.

Amfphp

I'll be releasing amfphp 2 before I retire, and I have someone here that is interested in picking up amfphp, someone I can't mention just yet but trust me that my successor will be a very talented and respected member of the community that I am sure will do an awesome job with the project.

As to which you should choose between amfphp and WebORB, it depends. Mark loves his WebORB, and I love amfphp, but they are different projects, and have different design goals, so that either one is most appropriate for different uses. The differences are subtle though, I'll be the first to admit, which is why I wasn't particularly thrilled about WebORB and SabreAmf when they first came out, as I felt it was a duplication of efforts (much like the well-publicized argument over SWX with Aral). But regardless, the effort has already been put in, so there's no use in stopping it now. I'll restate the design goals of amfphp from the homepage:

Nothing required - PHP4/PHP5 compatible, no extensions needed
Low footprint, lightweight, fast
Convention over configuration (service and class mapping)
Can be embedded into a framework (see CakeAmfphp, Seagull)
Services are "non-specific" PHP classes that are portable to anything without code change
Productivity tools included (service browser, code gen, profiling)
Batteries included - XML-RPC, JSON
Not a framework by itself (use your own)

I'd like if Mark could put up a similar statement of design goals for weborb so that users can make an informed decision.

As for the issue of the AMF extension, I've contacted Mark about it, and in theory weborb could be made compatible, and SabreAMF will be eventually (as far as I can tell). I don't think Mark wants to do it though, perhaps because of the way the serializer is implemented on their side. My personal feeling is that the serializer and unserializer in WebORB are misadapted to the realities of PHP, split into several classes for doing simple, computationally intensive things, but one could argue (and I'm sure that Mark would) that clarity of code was chosen over performance, a valid decision if it doesn't affect performance that much (and Mark is right, the 50-200ms difference won't really make a difference in most projects, but in some which have very high traffic it most definitely will, which is why the AMF extension was made).

Patrick

WebOrb PHP

Thanks Patrick, I'm happy to talk about the goals we have for WebORB.The vision for the product is to provide the best possibledesign/runtime platform for Flex applications and .NET/PHP/Rubybackends. Our goals include:

- non-intrusive approach
- ease-of-use
- simplicity of integration
- extensibility
- increased developer productivity

plus all the usual suspects expected anywhere from a one person shopto a major enterprise:

- performance
- reliability
- scalability

Currently we're wrapping up a new release for WebORB for .NET and assoon as it is out in production, we will port all the new features toPHP and Ruby. That said, it means all the features one would find inour .NET edition are going to be available in WebORB for PHP (andRuby). For example, take a look at WebORB Data Management for Flex(http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/dotnet/wdmf-faq.shtm), thisis something Flex/PHP developers would love to have. On top of thisadd real-time messaging, remote shared object support, data push, codegenerator, performance monitor, etc.

I highly value code clarity and elegant software design and I amstrongly convinced that a product with a clear and well-thought outdesign does NOT have to suffer in the area of performance. All ourproducts share the same design. As a result, porting features orfixing bugs takes only a fraction of time than creating a newimplementation from scratch. For instance, it took us only three weeksto create the very first release of WebORB for PHP.

And lastly, when choosing an open-source product (and this is strictlymy personal opinion) I would recommend going for one backed by acommercial entity. After all, if I bet my business on it, I want tomake sure I have someone to call at 3am in the morning if things go bad.

Cheers,

Mark

FlexCRUD

2007-03-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Check out FlexCRUD by Mike Crowe. I just started reading the documentation and I am very excited about what it can do. Let the coding begin.

-Mike: Can it also gather requirements :)

Amfphp 1.9 Tutorial. Good, Bad or Don't Care

2007-03-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

I recently had my tutorial published on http://www.HowToForge.com . I have not been getting very much feedback on it. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I expected to have a lot of errors being it was my very first tutorial. It took me a little over two weeks to write because of my day job but I truly enjoyed writting it. My plans are to write a similar tutorial for Fluorine and FDS Express but I thought I let the community decide. What should my next Flex tutorial be?

My Amfphp 1.9 Tutorial Posted on HowToForge

2007-02-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

My Amfphp 1.9 Tutorial has been posted on HowToForge. Check it out :)

Flex DataGrid Paging Example with Source

2007-02-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Many of you have requested the source to my Flex DataGrid paging example. Here it is http://develop.gurufaction.com/src/App.mxml and the example application can be viewed here http://develop.gurufaction.com/App.swf

Using Amfphp 1.9 with the Flex 2.01 SDK

2007-02-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

I have submitted my Amfphp tutorial to HowToForge.com. I hope it gets published. Meanwhile I will post my tutorial online at http://develop.gurufaction.com/AmfTutorial/docs/app/FlexHowTo.html . I would like some feedback from the community. I have tested it but let me know if it doesn't work :) You can also preview the working example at http://develop.gurufaction.com/AmfTutorial/Main.swf

DAO Best Practices

2007-02-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

I am currently working on a Flex 2 tutorial using AmfPhp 1.9 that I should have done by the end of the week :) While I was writing the DAO classes in PHP I stumbled upon a design issue. What should my CRUD methods return. They could return a boolean value that indicated that the methods completed successfully or I could return the new/updated value object. My example application uses a datagrid bound to an ArrayCollection of my VO's. Now upon successful completion of my CRUD method do I refresh the whole grid or just the VO that was changed? I am strongly leaning towards returning the VO. Any thoughts.

Smith 1.25 released.

2007-01-30T07:01:00.000-08:00

Smith is a freeware, cross-platform ColdFusion engine, written entirely in Java. Running on the top of Java Runtime Environment and Java Servlet Container, it can be virtually deployed on any operating system and work with any web server. Smith represents lightweight, yet reliable alternative to the existing ColdFusion servers.

Can you find the BUG!

2007-01-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

This problem was post on the Flex 2 Forum. This problem only happens with the Flex 2.01 release. Can you find the bug? The answer is posted here

BUG DESCRIPTION: errorString property is causing a buggy behavior, if i set an empty String to this property in order to clean a validation error for a TextInput control then its layout changes, it gets a weird black color on its border.

EXAMPLE:

< mx:application><mx:textinput id="buggy"></mx:textinput><mx:button label="Show Bug" click="buggy.errorString = ''"></mx:button></mx:application>

mx_internal var origBorderColor:Number;

/** A bunch of Code Here**/

/**
* @private
* Set the appropriate borderColor based on errorString.
* If we have an errorString, use errorColor. If we don't
* have an errorString, restore the original borderColor.
*/
private function setBorderColorForErrorString():void
{
if (!_errorString _errorString.length == 0)
{
setStyle("borderColor", origBorderColor);
saveBorderColor = true;
}
else
{
// Remember the original border color
if (saveBorderColor)
{
saveBorderColor = false;
origBorderColor = getStyle("borderColor");
}
setStyle("borderColor", getStyle("errorColor"));
}
styleChanged("themeColor");
var focusManager:IFocusManager = focusManager;
var focusObj:DisplayObject = focusManager ?
DisplayObject(focusManager.getFocus()) :
null;
if (focusManager && focusManager.showFocusIndicator &&
focusObj == this)
{
drawFocus(true);
}
}

ASDT . . are you alive?

2007-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

I currently using Flash Develop as my primary Flex 2/AS3 editor and I am very happy with it but I wanted to research some alternatives. I came across the ActionScript Development Tool(ASDT) for Eclipse. Does anybody know if this project is still active? I posted a message on their mailing list but got no response. I would really like to contribute to this project. ASDT . . .are you alive?

Flex Run-Time Error with itemRenderers

2007-01-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

Learning to use Flex 2 has been very rewarding. I have had a problem using the DataGrid control with ItemRenderers that I have not been able to resolve. I was able to reproduce the error in a small example. When adding and removing itemRenderers to a datagrid column at run-time I get a RTE. This alone does not seem to cause the RTE but I also set the datagrids dataProvider again which causes the error. You will need the Flash Player Debug version to actually see the error.You can view the example application at http://develop.gurufaction.com/flexbug/App.swf . The actual source can by found at App.mxml and LinkRenderer.mxml .

I thought I had a valid workaround when I stopped adding and removing the itemRenderer at Run-Time and just applied it to every column but I am still getting the error sometimes. My small example show the exact error I am getting so if anybody has any ideas please leave me a comment. The problem with learning new technologies is that you can never be sure if it is the technology or the programmer causing the problem. :)

SwfPlayer DNN Module

2006-12-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

SwfPlayer is a DNN module used to embed a Flash movie into your DNN portal. I created it using SwfObject by Geoff Stearns . I modified Geoff javascript code to use the playerProductInstall.swf provided by Adobe using the "Flash Installer" setting under module settings.

Flex Paging with Page Sets

2006-11-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

I am back. I was going to close my blog because I was not able to update it as often as I would have liked but now I have something worth posting. I noticed a blog article on Bruce Phillps' Blog that I found very interesting so I decided to expand on his Flex Paging with an example that included pages and page sets. You can preview it here.

Blogging Ends

2006-11-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have decided to stop updating my blog. I apologize if anybody out there actually reads it but since I do not have the time to keep it current I will close it.

Thanks
Michael

Db4o with Flex Data Services

2006-10-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

I have just recently begun experimenting with Flex Data Services and db4o. db4o is an embedded object database for Java and .NET. I think using Flex with db4o would be very cool. It basically comes down to configuring the destination correctly.If anybody has sucessfully integreated these two technologies please post a comment about your experience.

FDS Project Template Update

2006-10-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have update the FDS Project Template . I commented out the Tomcat specific library includes so that the build will work for those not using Tomcat. I have also changed the CATALINA.HOME property in the build.properties file to WEB.ROOT.

Java Application Server PE

2006-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to use the Flex Data Services Project Template with the Java Application Server PE you might get the following error.

Error: java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.lang.RuntimePermission createClassLoader)
Cause: the default settings of the SUN server policy settings does not allow classloaders within webapplications.

Solution: Simply replace the policy file with one that contains the following grant entry:

edit: C:\Sun\AppServer\domains\domain1\config\server.policy

add: This towards the bottom of the policy file.

grant {
// Allow everything for now
permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

Flex Data Services Project Template

2006-10-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

I just recently starting using Flash Develop 2.0. I was motivated by Keith Peter's ANT based project template that I created one for Flex Data Services. This tutorial is still in its early stages but I would like to get some feedback from other developer. This tutorial requires that you have Ant, Tomcat 5.5 and Flex Data Services installed. Flex Data Services Project Template Tutorial.

First Post

2006-10-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is my very first blog post. More to come :)