Flash for IOS devices, Indeed a joke by Adobe.

I have worked on AS1,AS3 and using the Flash IDE for the past 9 years, and I love Flash for that rich internet experience. Recently after Steve jobs had banned flash on IOS devices, Adobe did want to give some help for flash developers. That is much appreciated, but there is huge gap on what the developers want and what Adobe is providing.

Why I now hate Adobe on Flash Programming for IOS devices?

1. Not enough resources on the Adobe site which tells developers on what Flash is capable of doing on an IOS devices.
2. There are enough resources you will find on the web on “Blitting for Flash”. Well you could speed up your game, but for what? if you don’t have an API for “Game Centre” or for the “Notifications”. That game is useless.
3. Flash is not powerful enough to work along with iPhone internal resources like “Address Book”, “Camera-roll”, “Calendar”, “Camera”, “Mic” etc some hinderance or the other.

The expectations of developer and where Adobe failed

1. You can’t think on a serious collaborative app because flash cannot offer “Notifications”
2. You may have serious plan for a game and offer the same code across different platforms “Desktop – Air”, “web – flash”, “IOS- APP”, “Android – APP”. But will not have “Game centre”

I just wasted a month on researching on the web and trying hands on experience in creating few apps. Adobe might be working on optimization and even think about releasing API’s which work across platforms. But with no support for notifications is turn down for most developers.

flash as3 JPG Encoder – Caution

Looking from the image, the white area is the flash swf canvas aka “stage”, blue area aka “_graphics_container” is the movie clip contents which you want to export as jpg even if it is larger than the mask – the green area aka “_graphics_mask”

While trying to export the contents of a movie clip as jpg image, you are about to experience an undesired result when mask is applied.

A word of caution: Remove the mask before converting the movieclip as bitmapdata and export as jpg, the undesired effect is the white space.
The solution: work around, set the graphics container mask to null
_graphics_container.mask = null;//_graphics_mask

once the image is exported
navigateToURL(jpgURLRequest, “_blank”);
_graphics_container.mask = _graphics_mask
set the mask back again for the container.

Hope that helps
tags: Flash, AS3, JPG encoder, word around

FusionCharts Free – Open-source Animated Flash Charts and Graphs for ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, RoR and other web applications

FusionCharts Free

FusionCharts Free is a completely free and open-source Flash charting component. It empowers you to create animated and interactive Flash charts for your web applications, desktop applications and presentations.

Who can use FusionCharts Free?

Developers No matter which script or database you are using, even if it is simple HTML, you can take care of all your basic charting needs with FusionCharts Free.

Designers With animated charts in both 2D/3D and with complete control over almost every pixel of the chart, you can generate the ‘wow’ factor with FusionCharts Free.

Corporates Reports or executive dashboards, whatever you need, FusionCharts Free can sum up tons of data into compact yet absolutely stunning visuals for you.

 

 

FusionCharts Free provides you the necessary chart types and features that cover all your basic charting needs. Some of the highlights are:

• 22 popular charts like Column, Line, Pie, Bar, Area, Stacked, Candlestick and Funnel Chart, that look the same across all browsers
• Animated and interactive charts that make your applications look “wow”
• Works with PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, ColdFusion, Python, RoR, simple HTML pages or even PowerPoint Presentations
• All the charts can pull data from any database and are AJAX enabled

If the chart types and features in FusionCharts Free satiate you, then you end up spending zilch for your charting requirements. But in case you need more chart types and advanced features in your charts, check out FusionCharts v3.

Why are we giving it out for free?

It’s very understandable to assume that a free product will have a catch somewhere. But with FusionCharts Free, none of those assumptions hold true. We have no catches, no tricks, not even a watermark.

Know More…

We are giving it out for free for one simple reason – so that you can relish the fluid beauty of flash charts. Lately, Flash charts have been spreading like forest fire on the web. A lot of big and small companies have been using Flash charts to deliver eye-catching and snazzy graphics out of boring data tables. At InfoSoft Global, we want you to be a part of this revolution.

And what better way to do it than using the leading flash charting product without having to pay anything?

Is there a difference between FusionCharts Free & FusionCharts v3 Evaluation?

Yes. FusionCharts Free and FusionCharts v3 Evaluation are vastly different products with entirely different licensing schemes.

Know More…

FusionCharts Free aims to fulfill your basic charting needs with a very commonly used set of charts, having the necessary but basic features. The product is completely free with no gimmicks and no hidden pitfalls. Its features however are a lot limited than FusionCharts v3.

FusionCharts v3, on the other hand, provides you advanced charting options like exporting chart as image/PDF, gradients, 3D lighting, better animation with an easy way for building your own animation styles, exporting chart data as CSV/XML, in-built debugger, enhanced AJAX support and advanced filter effects like shadow, blur and bevel which you can apply to the various chart elements. It also provides advanced chart types like true 3D charts, scroll charts, glass-effect column charts, dual Y-axis charts to name a few. FusionCharts v3 evaluation version allows you to try out all these advanced options and more.

 

via fusioncharts.com

Using Flash swf + Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit over HTTPS – IE issue fix

My product works over HTTPS and I had to serve a flash application, but there was one weird behavior in IE, the security Dialog box stated an Error

“This page contains both secure and non
secure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?” YES, NO

I was using Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit to embed my flash application as my application needed to communicate with Javascript variables.

I tried google to find some answers but was in vain. Finally started to look in to Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit js files to find the culprit. There was a hard coded URL in the js file “FlashTag.js”

flashTag += ‘codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=’+this.version+’” ‘;

flashTag += ‘pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>’;

All I had to do was replace http with https the problem got resolved

flashTag += ‘codebase=”https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=’+this.version+’” ‘;

flashTag += ‘pluginspage=”https://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>’;

You can even question me why should I use Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit in the first place when I have the “ExternalInterface” Class. If you are targeting flash player less than 8 version.

Thought this should be a useful to some one who got stuck up with the IE security error dialog box.

Happy flashing…

Technorati Tags: flash, actionscript, js, IE, security, https, fix

Flash Player 10 beta now available for Download

Hey all flash lovers

You can download and check the new features of flash 10 player right here
Technorati Tags: flash, beta, flash 10 player, flash player, Adobe, Macromedia

FusionCharts Free V2 – Free Flash Charts

Good news from IndSoft Global for Software/ Web developers. Now IndSoft Global is offering its Fusion charts V2 for Free.

Terms of use:

InfoSoft Global grants you a nonexclusive right to use FusionCharts Free subject to the following terms and conditions:

• FusionCharts Free can be used for free if you are a individual/research/commercial user.
• FusionCharts Free can be distributed for free with your free or commercial softwares, irrespective of whether they’re open source or closed source.
• You must not sell FusionCharts Free as a component in itself. However, your commercial product can embed FusionCharts Free.
• You must not represent in any way that you’re the author of FusionCharts Free.

That’s right it is free and the best part is the license, check the full terms of use right here.

Now your websites and products could offer RIA experience with interactive & meaningful flash charts.

You may want to know why the software is free and the comparison between the new Fusion Charts V3 and V2, find the info right here

Start downloading the Free Fusion charts V2 software right here

Like this link, care to share it with fellow developers.

Mp3 Player for Bloggers

Do you want to have your own mp3 player on your blogs?
I have created a small project using Adobe Flash, there are different files available, one with mp3 file embedded and other supports with external mp3 and both support streaming.

If you are interested you can download the source files here.
Currently there is no support available. And use it at your own risk.

If you are novice to Adobe Flash
Will make a detailed post of how to configure them and change skins etc.
Just post in my comments and will send you mail when detailed post is ready

Technorati Tags: mp3, mp3 player, blogger, blogging, streaming, source, download

Let the Game continue – NSFW

NSFW – Not safe for work.
The content isn’t that vulgar, depends on your boss “it could be your wife too . “
I would say the site should atleast score 5 stars for its execution. (hey sarathy uv are you listening, he is a budding director)  Good story boarding and ultimate use of technology (flash flv video).

Very less interactivity, all you need is little bit of extra time and you would enjoy the “AXE Product presentation” with lots of chases and wild sexy girls haunting this guy. Unilever parent company of HLL (Hindustan Lever Limited) has hosted this site.

Click Here for the site.

Technorati Tags: axe, product, presentation, video, story board, unilever, HLL, flash, flv, NSFW

Create StoryBoard/ presentation with toonDoo or Fix8

What is ToonDoo?
ToonDoo let you to create your own storyboard or presentation. Comic characters come to life with respect to your creativity. Well something like you don’t need a graphic artist or designer to create a cartoon character to tell the story of what you have in your mind.

So What is Fix8?
Well you can start expressing yourselves on your current mood or even tell stories with a live video. That is right, they have almost the similar type of avatars as ToonDoo.

So how does Fix8 work?
All you need is a web cam plugged in to your PC and with the help of their proprietary software installed on your PC.
The best part with Fix8, is that it comes with audio and 3D characters who can animate along with you, and you could record the animation and store it as digital video format. You could share it on youtube or myspace.

All you need is creativity and little bit of story boarding prior to creating still pictures or digital video.

With ToonDoo, you can express with still images
With Fix8 you can express through live videos and share it on youtube or myspace

Technorati Tags: toondoo, fix8, expression, creativity, presentation, storyboard, video, animation, pictures, photos

Google follows UI of WordPress

There was a mailer from Google analytics team saying they had made a new version of the product. First impression, The dashboard looks cool with bring colors, options are ultimate.

To my surprise Google Analytics reports UI looks much similar representation as WordPress blogger report UI, well even the hover of mouse. I know it is line graph any body can illustrate it. But Why line graph at the top just like WordPress is my question?

Kindly Note:Click on the image for a larger view

By the way Google Analytics offers much more detailed flash reports.
Thanks google and thanks wordpress for the inspiration.

Technorati Tags: google, wordpress, reports, analytics, fresh, UI, inspiration, flash, flash reports