Archive for March, 2007
Diggnation Epsiode 90 (March 22, 2007) has some interesting content, at least the first 6 minutes. This episode was sponsored by Adobe Apollo Project, they showed footage of the ApolloCamp, and they talked about Apollo Google Maps VCard Apollo application. The footage of the ApolloCamp has yours truly, you can find me looking at my laptop at about 5:03 of Episode 90.
Being at ApolloCamp is way better then making it on diggnation but it is cool to see the publicity Apollo is getting.
March 30th, 2007
Ok, all this integration across the products is nice, but the coolest feature I have seen so far is the “Copy motion to ActionScript 3.0″ feature.
The ability to take a Flash animators motion code and save/paste it as AS 3.0 is nice. The ideas are flowing…Version control motion code, Flex component cool motion effects,…
I can’t wait til the end of April to get my hands on the new CS3 suite.
March 27th, 2007
I found a step in the Adobe Flex 2 Installation (2.0.1 Update) that might when upgrading and trying to open existing projects.
Here is the step that I found useful:
Opening existing projects - The first time you open an existing Flex Builder project, you should refresh the workspace by using the -clean option. To do this, open a command window, navigate to the Flex Builder directory, and type FlexBuilder -clean -vmargs -Xmx512m.
March 24th, 2007
If you haven’t noticed Apollo made it up on Slashdot. Its always a chore to read through all the posts/tangents. Some of the funny things I kept seeing where people calling it “Appolo”. Alot of posts of course where on parts of the EULA and licensing lock down paranoia.
Here are some random posts (there is a lot to help people understand):
I’m sure the player will be free, the SDK not so free.
by Red Flayer (890720) on Monday March 19, @04:05PM
In which way is this different from Java webstart? AFAIK that does about everything described above? Maybe it has more shiny graphics? PSSST, Adobe, hear this…. Make some software which makes it easier to develop forms on websites. Make it connect to and auto-update from your servers.
by spectrokid (660550) on Monday March 19, @04:32PM
i think the advantage over Mozilla’s XUL (with an X) is that it does flash… which essentially means that it’s more friendly to flash designer types who can’t code, but can create basic flash apps via point and click. I’d also imagine that it would be easier to create highly customized, complex interfaces (i.e. outside the standard button, etc. components).
all that being said, there’s good gui logic why you wouldn’t want to create extremely customized, complex interfaces. there’s also overwhelming good reasons why flash designer types who can’t code should be kept in arenas where they don’t code… and thus, XUL would probably be a better choice for 80% of applications requiring a cross platform runtime environment.
by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19, @05:56PM
Thanks Adobe. Porting my viruses to Windows, OS X, Linux, *nix, *nix, *nix is such a pain in the ass.
Now I can do it in just one go! Oh sweet!
by BillGatesLoveChild (1046184) on Monday March 19, @05:49PM
Well go have fun responding to all the Slashdot responses, you could spend months over there trying (and probably only trying) to help people understand Apollo. People come up with their own ideas of what Apollo is and isn’t really quick.
March 23rd, 2007
When I read the release notes about Flex Data Services new release on labs, as well as the name change to LiveCycle Data Services, I was interested in learning more about the Apollo integration. Steven Webster’s website seems to have a good overview, an in particular the paragraph below explains a use case for LCDS and Apollo:
One of the exciting features about Apollo, is the ability to work completely offline with web-delivered applications - LiveCycle Data Services is poised to play a key role in that use-case for your offline yet data-oriented RIA. Flex applications using LCDS will receive improved support for local queuing of outbound messages when the client is disconnected, with management of these messages when server reconnect occurs. A local data cache further supports future Apollo application support, enabling you to cache client data requests and data changes on the local file system, for later retrieval when the application resumes. It’s exciting to see all these different pieces of the framework coming together to offer elegant architectures for the delivery of Rich Internet Applications in either an occasionally connected desktop or browser-based deployment model.
March 21st, 2007
I have updated the Flex 2 and AS 3.0 Resource List. But I am having a hard time trying to track down two O’Reilly Short Cuts. Both are by EffectiveUI and I can’t seem to find them, they are referenced in a paper insert given out at 360Flex conference. If any one knows where to find the proper information on line for the following two resources please let me know.
Agile Enterprise Application Development with Flex
By EffectiveUI
March 2007
Flex Early Evaluation: Assessing Flex and Your Project Needs
By EffectiveUI
March 2007
March 20th, 2007
Apollo Alpha is on Adobe Labs. If you have heard by now or need a look into what Apollo is check out the list of resources:
See a demonstration of how eBay is building an Apollo application to engage customers
Sample applications
Developer Videos
Documentation
FAQ
Apollo Forums
I have a few Apollo applications I am working on and hopefully will have a chance to make available here soon. Have fun with the Apollo code bits and code away.
March 18th, 2007
ApolloCamp CD bits has the Alpha1 (and alpha alpha1rc3 Flex Builder extensions). I am installing as I type…
Keynote started off by Kevin Lynch . Why Apollo? He talked about the history of the Adobe/Macromedia and his typical pitch about the channels of engagement (phone, computer, consumer electronics, cars). He went on to talk about the Flash Player and PDF penetration stats. Here is the why, RIA Technology Trends…. a slide hard to describe. But the idea is that Apollo builds on tools and technology that is already out there and move it further into Desktop RIA and phones (Apollo, Flash list).
Interesting note about reasons for choosing WebKit as the HTML engine. It was small, had a mobile version, Nokia has ported it…
On to the demo examples:
Amazon Item Widget (Built in Flex, Used Grease monkey to put a button on to their site to have it talk with Apollo app)
Fresh (Feed Reader knock off, done all in HTML… nice)
Buzzword (Built using Flex, this was shown at 360Flex by Ted)
FinanceCorp Desktop (Must be a built on newer builder, as it showed PDF support, pretty nice)
Finetune Desktop (did not show)
Maptacular (did not show)
TimeTracker (did not show)
eBay Desktop (did not show)
Questions (my answers are paraphrased):
Will you support the (HTML) embed tag (for plugins)?
No, because of cross-platform.
How is this different then Java WebStart?
Java is not quite crossplatform. Installing apps and application handling not so straight forward.
Kevin didn’t know what Moxie was!!!
How easy will it be to convert Flex 2 apps to Moxie?
Should be easy, note about porting Flex to Apollo will be quick.
Will the codename stick? or will it change?
Kevin, said we love it… but it comes back to rights and they can’t get the rights for Apollo, the alternate name is really cool. (Kevin says so).
Stragety for getting Apollo runtime out?
This is something we have done before and work on. Working through paternships and OEM-ing on it on the machine. Flash Player as the ability to install the Apollo runtime. They paid Netscape to put Flash Player into the newest player…. and a side note about Microsoft following suit.
Extending Apollo, will there be more then File App, 3rd party integration?
Starting with File i/O and we want to put more in, the developers will drive features. But it comes back to cross platform, security is a big issue also. Shockwave had “extras” but it causes apps not to really be cross platform.
Will we be able to do more CPU intensive apps?
Drawing, WordProcessor…
Compiling it down to Exe? Why didn’t you just by Zinc?
Zinc is cool… You can still use Zinc, our goal is not to make these native Exe’s, but an “air” file for any OS regardless of the OS exectuable extensions.
Databases?
Local storage for now, their is not yet a embedded database. Let the Apollo team know you use cases they it might happen.
March 16th, 2007
Hot pizza that is! Along with the great food and drinks there was some extreme swag!!!
Just a quick list:
Custom ApolloCamp shirt
Free Flex Builder
Apollo Alpha Code
Free O’Reilly Apollo Pocket Reference book
Free Mike Chambers Apollo training (Lynda.com publisher)
I couldn’t believe my eyes, nonetheless believe i was holding a free copy of Flex Builder.
Ok I’ll post more about the keynote and sessions as the night continues on….
March 16th, 2007
Ely Greenfield’s Flex Book component is easy to use. I went ahead and made a myFeedz mashup, where you can read a list of posts as a book. Check it out here!
Over all the FlexBook component was quite easy to use. It took me a bit to find that the “content” attribute is the method of assigning a dynamic Array of child components to the book, which is nice to use after finding it out. Ely went to the lengths of making many useful Style attributes as well as specific Front cover and Back cover page options. I still have explored the whole class but with just this first example the class looks quite extensive.
March 15th, 2007
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