Please check out the continuation of this blog at:
http://blog.flashmech.net

Don’t forget to check out my portfolio site while you’re there!
http://www.flashmech.net

<strings>
<string id="someString">
<![CDATA[Sentence one\nSentence two]]>
</string>
</strings>

Does the above code looks flawed to you? Take a moment and look it through. :)

var txt:TextField = createTextField( "txt", _root.getNextHighestDepth(), 100, 100, 200, 200 );
txt.text = "Sentence one\nSentence two";

Happily, I ported all these original strings into an XML and got it loaded. What puzzled me was that, when these text were actually loaded, the \n didn’t work! The textfield simply displayed "Sentence one\nSentence two" without the newline. I sought help from a fellow colleague, Arul, and together, we still could not see what’s wrong with it. We left office without solving that "bug".

That night, Arul called to say, "Hey, with CDATA, we don’t need the \n! We simply just need to hit <enter>!" Immediately it struck me, oh ya! That’s the whole idea of using CDATA isn’t it? We got too engrossed with the wrong problem! :D

The next day, I changed all the \n to <enter> key, and expected things to work. Unfortunately though, the text did not turn out as expected. Flash had interpreted my <enter> in XML as double <enter>s when it’s being displayed on the textfield!

I sought Arul’s advice again and this is what I got. Flash interprets <enter> in external text sources as "\r\n", which explains the double <enter>s being rendered. So, what I actually had to do is to run through the string, strips off the "\r", and change it to "" (empty string).

Here’s the code that solves the above issue.
function _processString ( s:String ):String
{
if ( s.indexOf( "\r" ) ) s = s.split("\r").join("");
return s;
}

Hope this helps! ;)

Codename: Apollo
Name: Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
Info: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/
Description: Adobe® AIR™, formerly code-named Apollo, is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to use their existing web development skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.
Download Runtime (Beta) | Download SDK (Beta)

Codename: Moxie
Name: Flex 3
Info: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/
Description: Adobe® Flex™ 3 is a cross platform, open source framework for creating rich Internet applications that run identically in all major browsers and operating systems.
Download Builder (Beta) | Download SDK (Beta)

Codename: Frogstar
Name: Flash Player Update 3
Info: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/
Description: Adobe® Flash® Player is the high-performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices.
Download Player (Beta)

Along with the above mentioned series of exciting betas, there’s also a contest going on called Adobe AIR Developer Derby! Read more here!

I’ve installed and uninstalled Adobe CS3 Design Premium twice, and with each uninstall, the size on my hard disk seems to have gone down quite a bit (~600mb). I can’t confirm the actual size because in between the installation I’ve been adding some files on my computer but definitely not ~1.2gb worth.

After each uninstall, I’ll be emptying whatever contents (if any) in my recycle bin, cleaning up the temporary internet folders, and even defragmenting my registry and doing disk clean up. Tried to look into the Program Files folder to find any repository of temporary installation files that might have facilitated the installation, but to no avail. All that couldn’t get me back my lost space.

Anyone experienced this as well?

Even though the history panel made it’s way into Flash since the MX 2004 days, I couldn’t find a good reason to use it. I mean, why would I need an extra panel to clutter up my screen estate when it’s already tough to juggle between the designer and developer related panels? I could easily do a Ctrl-Z(Undo) and Ctrl-Y(Redo) at any time that I want~

Well, times have changed. :D Since I’ve started messing around with JSFL, the history panel becomes the basic tool to learn JSFL commands. Don’t believe me? Follow me through then. ;)

1. In Flash IDE, go to Window –> Other Panels –> History (Ctrl-F10)

2. Click on the options button , under View, you should see a menu as follows:

The Default view that you see, shows the commands in normal layman English that everyone will understand. I have still yet to find any purpose with the Arguments in Panel view, so I’m gonna skip that. The JavaScript in Panel view is what we’re interested with.

3. Here’s the JavaScript in Panel view.

Did you notice the lines and lines of codes in the history panel now? Well those are JSFL codes! If there’s something that you wish to create for Flash IDE, and have no slightest idea where to begin, yet you know that there’s something similar been done already, you now know where to look!

Further Reads:
Using History and Flash Panels for Faster Development

Of course at that time, I had no clues about what JSFL was and I’m not bothered to find out what it might do. I’m more pressed with the concern that my Flash file is failing on me. :D (The dateline was so tight, JSFL don’t blame me. :P)

Recently, while reading Grant Skinner’s blog, I stumbled upon his gAlign extension tool for Flash IDE. In that blog post, he mentioned about using “custom JSFL calls” to accomplish his stuff. Seeing how JSFL is able to manipulate Flash IDE’s content, that got me seriously curious about the technology behind it.

Googled for JSFL as I had absolutely no idea where to start from, and found this introductory article by Guy Watson. In the article, he establishes facts about JSFL and where did it came from. Unfortunately, it didn’t seems to be what I’m looking for.

How can one ever forget about Flash Help? :D I did a search in there and found exactly what I needed. All the treasures and secrets about JSFL were all lying in the book Extending Flash, waiting for me to uncover them. hehe..

So now, I’m getting all excited about this new discovered “power” (of course the power itself is not new, and existent for a pretty long while. it’s just my ignorance. :D but no more!). Got some opinions from friends about what should I develop as an extension for flash, and Arul in particular gave an interesting one.

My first JSFL project will hence be a series of custom drawing tools!

Stay tuned!

Project: Flexas
Duration: 30 Days
Objective: To learn Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0 within 30 days, after which, able to confidently develop and deploy projects using the skills learnt.

How does this name come about you ask? Well.. simple! ActionScript is called AS in short, so by simply concatenating “Flex” with “AS”, you get Flexas! :)

Part of my technology ride that I’ve recently began, I’ve been very very busy and absorbed daily by Flexas! The original motivation started when Adobe announced the launch of the alpha version of Apollo. I want to be able to deploy something on Apollo!!

Looking back at the last 10 days, they had been very fruitful. I’m now able to navigate confidently around in the Flex IDE, and able to do simple events and states setup, loading of external XML and doing some basic ActionScript 3.0.

Unfortunately though, I think I’m not pushing myself hard enough. Mmm… I seem to be lagging behind my milestones. Gotta keep pushing!!

Wish me luck! :)

Here comes my current excitement!

Design Patterns!

Just started reading on this book, Head First Design Patterns. Observer, Delegation, Command, MVC, Singleton!!!

Design Patterns here I come!!! w00t~!!~ (Kinda feel that I’m sounding like a complete geek now. :P )