All Things Flex, Flash, and ActionScript

The problem domain: An issue exists where in a modular application you want to be able to share events from different modules without creating a dependency between the two. Deeply nested objects make this even more apparent when you realize you can’t use bubbling since they don’t reside within the same branch line down to the root trunk.

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I’m putting this out there as a give back to other Flash-Flex developers that want to use Joomla! as a data repository for any projects, in part because Rune Skjoldborg Madsen has taken the time to build specific component views in php to change the transport layer to XML.

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Sometimes you start on a project, and get far enough into it, that it just seems like it shouldn’t be that hard. For me, this was precisely the case with recreating a child past-time favorite game of mine: Elevator Action. This started off in Flash 7, and the reasoning behind it at the time was to create a complex environment scroller and to release the source for other developers to see how things like this are programmed. Getting bogged down by work, and generally life itself, not to mention the frustrating limitations of AS2 at the time; I put it down for awhile thinking I’d get back to it.

Well, Flash 9 is now here and it’s probably been 2 years or so since I last touched this (like dogs, it’s at least 14+ programming years). AS3 has finally brought us more into line with what the rest of the OOP world expects with new initializers, additional accessors and the such, but this now means I’m faced with the same problem everyone else has in revisiting old projects: Do I try to monkey patch the old code, or start over? (more…)

Using XML-RPC as the data gateway:

Wordpress as of 2.2 already offers xml-rpc based access, so this cuts down the amount of outside code you need to write, however for anyone who has gone digging through the php will notice that while they include several different API’s, there is some key functionality that is missing in order to really take advantage of Flex – Flash based RIA solutions. (more…)

Generating Runtime Revision Control Between Dependent Applications

If there is one general weakness with the Flash Player technology as a whole, it is that it does not have very good capabilities, much less the tools, to detect runtime collisions: intentional or otherwise.

While this kind of problem is probably more rare than it is common, there is one issue that greatly increases the likelihood of encountering this problem: multi-packaged .swf files to a given project, and rises to the ranks of practically a given especially if any of those files use any of the same classes.

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With just about every SDK in a programming language there are some components while useful just get lost and squirreled away and never really get the glorified attention it deserves. The Repeater element is one of those in the Flex language, where of all the examples I see from other bloggers and the Flex community at large it just never shows up. This is an attempt to bring this little cockroach into the light to show off its skills and why it’s survived all this time.
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