Building You First Adobe Flex Application - Presentation

HELLO WORLD,

Sorry folks about the late post. My company has a urgent and looming deadline that must be met. So most of my time has been spent on that effort.
However, I would like to announce my presentation at the Annapolis Adobe User Group in Severn MD (link for directions here). I will doing a 90 minute tutorial on how to create your very first Flex application. I will keep it simple so that anyone can understand and follow along. Although this is not a hands-on class, you are welcome to bring your own laptop (with Flex 3 installed) and follow along.

So, if you ever wanted to find the time to get a jumpstart on learning Flex, here is your chance. Come on down (or up) to Annapolis (Severn, MD), network, learn something new, and get your questions answered.

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What’s in a CodeName? Flex 4 (Gumbo)

HELLO WORLD,

I love watching James Bond movies, especially the older ones. Bond is always equipped with  the latest in high-tech technology thanks to the efforts of MI6’s super geek, Q. As a fellow geek I loved it when Q would use “techno speak” to describe the various gadgets he has in store for Bond. So when Adobe announces another version of software or technology using some seemly meaningless codename, I muse over those days of “cloak and dagger”.

So what’s the word for today? …

GUMBO

This is the codename for Adobe’s next version of Flex. It seemed like Adobe just released Flex 3 … oh yeah, they did. Unlike Apollo (AIR 1.0), I don’t think that we will become so attached to Gumbo that we will start start creating web sites using that code name. Wait, let me go see if the domain is still available …. (2 minutes later) Darn! All gone.

So does this codename in any way reflect what we can expect to see in Flex 4? Well, what is a Gumbo?

Gumbo is a  soup that originated in Louisiana. It’s kinda a like a pot-luck soup containing a diverse choice of ingredients.

I love seafood gumbo - when it’s made properly. So can we expect to see a diverse choice of features added to the next release of Flex 4? Sorry, I don’t have the answer to this but we all can participate in its development.

If you haven’t already, join the Adobe Community and visit the Adobe Open Source Site to keep track of what’s going on and possible contribute. Ever since Adobe released Flex as Open Source, the direction and development of Flex has been in our hands. So we can either make this next version even better than the last OR we can end up with a “bad tasting gumbo”.

If you are interested, there is an interesting site that has documented the many codenames for Macromedia/Adobe products/technologies. You can find it here.

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My Entry in the Adobe AIR Marketplace!

HELLO WORLD,

My Flex/AIR application has finally made it into the Adobe AIR Marketplace listing. The app I created, originally for my FiftyTwoApps site, is called TurnAbout. You can view and download this app by going to the following url;

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1449018

The app uses the Connection Manager and Update Manager library from the EverythingFlex site. Thanks Rich! That library saved me loads of development time. This means that as I make updates to the app (such as more levels), the app will prompt the user to get the newest version.

I really would like to thank Shikha for Adobe for helping me get through a few of the issues that was prevent this app from being listed. Adobe has some of the friendliest people in the industry working for and with them.

Download the app, Install it, and challenge yourself!

Thanks! Ciao.