JumpStart into Flash Builder (Beta)

Hello World,

A few weeks ago Adobe released Flash Builder 4 (beta) into Adobe Labs. No, this is not a new version of the Flash Professional IDE. This is the newest version of Flex Builder which, has been re-branded to Flash Builder. This is the same IDE that enables developers to very rapidly build Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using the Flex framework. This is the same Eclipse-based development tool you’ve come to know and love – but with a several new features.

The name isn’t the only thing Adobe changed. This version also includes many new features that focus on design, data, productivity, and testing. These new “feature themes” include:

• The designer and developer workflow – tight integration between Adobe Flash Professional and Adobe Flash Catalyst
• Data-centric development – easily connect and bind to server-based data and service models.
• IDE productivity and testing – getter and setting generation, conditional breakpoints in the debugger, Flex Unit support, and many more!

In my next series of articles I will introduce you to many of Flash Builder’s new features. Each article will focus on one features set and provide screen shots, code examples, and additional resources. In the meantime, check out these Adobe resources:

Download Adobe Flash Builder 4 beta

Adobe Labs – Tutorial and Demonstration Videos

What’s new in Flash Builder 4 beta?

What’s new in the Flex 4 SDK beta?

Differences between Flex 3 SDK and Flex 4 SDK beta

Ciao!

New Year, New Presentations

Hello World!

It’s been sometime since my last post. It has been a very busy few months and that’s a good thing. However it’s now a new year and with it comes new opportunities, new presentations. I will have the pleasure of appearing in front of fellow developers in the next few months. I hope to see some on hyou there;

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Web APIs in AIR: Twitter-licious

Capital Area Flex Users Group Meeting
Date: Wednesday, January 07 2009

In this presentation I will demonstrate how to use some of the more popular web-based public data sources and open APIs in a Flex/AIR applications. I have created a sample Flex/AIR application that uses the Delicious and SnipURL APIs to create a Twitter-like app. I will show you the API methods available and how to call upon them to retrieve its data.

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MATE: A Flex Framework “Extreme Makeover”

Maryland ColdFusion Users Group Meeting
Date: Wednesday, January 13 2009

MATE is a tag-based, event-driven framework for Flex development. Using MATE in your Flex development can help you build powerful, loosely coupled applications. During this presentation I will take a simple Flex application and show how you can perform an extreme makeover that will greatly enhance the application’s architecture, allowing it to scale properly.

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Skinning Components in Flex 4 (Gumbo)

Maryland ColdFusion Users Group Meeting
Date: Wednesday, April 13 2009

Adobe has made great improvements to the skinning architecture and process since Flex version 3. In this presentation I will demonstrate how to use Flex 4, currently known as GUMBO, to skin your Flex components.

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In addition to the user group presentations listed above I am very excited to have been invited and selected as a speaker at the following popular conferences.

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Essential Flex and ColdFusion Integration

cf.Objective() 2009 CONFERENCE
Date: Wednesday, May 14-16 2009

This presentation is designed for the experienced developer who wants to learn how to create Flex 3 application that can connect to server-side data using ColdFusion. It is also for the Flex developer who wants to learn how to effectively retrieve, manipulate, format, and communicate with ColdFusion-based server-side scripts.

I will provide developers with the essentials of connecting Flex 3 applications to remote data services using HTTPService, WebService, and RemoteObject calls. You will learn how to create and use the various Flex and ColdFusion classes that can be used to provide a one-to-one mapping between the client-side and server-side data. In addition, you will learn how to accept and manipulate the data in various formats such as XML. This presentation will cover topics such as handling results and faults, understanding value objects, manipulating complex data.

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Skinning Components in Flex 4 (Gumbo)

CFUNITED 2009 Conference
Date: Wednesday, August 12-15 2009

Adobe has made great improvements to the skinning architecture and process since Flex version 3. In this presentation I will demonstrate how to useFlex 4, currently known as GUMBO, to skin your Flex components. During this special conference presentation I will also demonstrate how to use some of the other Adobe tools to help in the skinning process, including Flash and Fireworks.

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Well, that’s it – so far. This year already looks to be a very exciting year for all of us. Not only are we looking forward to a very exciting release of Flex 4, code named GUMBO, 2009 also promises the following releases:

Centaur – This is the codename for the next release of ColdFusion. As of this writing beta applications are current being accepted.

Bolt – This is the codename for Adobe’s new eclipse-based development tool. As of this writing beta applications are current being accepted.

Flash Cataylst – Formerly called Thermo, this is Adobe’s new design tool for quickly creating application interfaces without coding.

… and many more. We have a lot to look forward to this year – new tools to learn, more exciting conferences and user group meetings, and thus more opportunities for all of us.

Ciao 😉

Dot 1 Release of AIR

HELLO WORLD,

On Monday, June 16th Adobe AIR 1.1 was made available for download on the Adobe.com site. To learn more about this dot release you can take a look at this FAQ (PDF);

http://www.adobe.com/go/air1-1faq

Items of note:

Matt Chotin has posted an article about developing Flex applications with AIR 1.1

The Flex SDK is including support for AIR 1.1 in the 3.0.2 stable build. You can download it from here.

Adobe AIR 1.1 documentation can be found here.

I find that it is a worthwhile upgrade.

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