Space of Flex/AIR technologies

This is really great news for all the Visual Studio fans that want to do Flash/Flax development with their favorite IDE. Amethyst IDE brings really incredible feature set of Visual Studio to Flash/Flex world. I really love how it handles component AS3 in a separate file, I hope something similar was available out of the box with Flash Builder! Really, really incredible!

Key Features of Amethyst Professional:

• Powerful editor with code coloring (76 options) and code folding
• Customizable code formatting
• IntelliSense with code completion and auto-expanding snippets
• Drag-and-drop Designer for Flex and AIR
• Designer integrates with Property panels, Event panels and Layout toolbar
• Multi-level undo/redo in editor and Designer
• Fast ‘Cylon’ debugger with breakpoints and call stack
• Step into/over/out in Debugger
• Conditional breakpoints and break-on-hitcount
• Expression evaluation in Immediate and Watch windows
• Hover and drill-down debugging in editor and Watch windows
• Debug multiple SWFs concurrently
• Find All References/Go To Definition
• Quick-find ToDo comments and User Tasks
• Auto-generate getter/setter ‘property’ methods
• Sophisticated refactoring with rename, move to package and refactoring previewer
• Source control support (TeamServer etc.)
• Import FLA to edit and debug Flash IDE projects
• Convert existing Flex or Flash Builder projects

All that is available at $249.

Checkout this video with Amethyst IDE in action:

Very recently I was speaking at a press conference of a new culinary service called Cooklet.com. Okay, you may be wondering what my role at that event. So first of all, the Cooklet team is located out of Wroclaw/Poland, but this obviously isn’t the primary reason What really brought me there is the fact that Cooklet is using a lot of Adobe technology, specifically our Platform technologies. Cooklet.com itself is a standard HTML based website but at the same time it has a desktop version that runs with Adobe AIR. There is also Cooklet Mobile built with Flash Lite and hosted as an application in the Nokia OVI store. Another very important fact is that this project was funded by the Open Screen Project initiative; you can find more details here as well a registration form to apply yourself.

The service itself has some unique and interesting features. What I really like is in-browser drag-and-drop capability that you can use to add new recipes to your cookbook or shopping list. The really cool thing here is that when you drag the recipe to the cooking list you instantly get access to it from your mobile phone. Another really cool thing is that the recipes get automatically translated into different languages. In the future this may give its users access to really tasty recipes from different cuisine.

Additionally the desktop version gives you offline access to your recipes that you may need in your kitchen. Also it has a great user experience and interactions that mimic reading real printed version of a cookbook.

Obviously Cooklet.com has much more interesting features and I encourage you to give it a try.

Check out the Cooklet Lite demo video below. Now I’m just waiting for the Cooklet team to provide an AIR for Mobile version that I can run on my Nexus One phone ;)

Właśnie dostałem link do świetnego bloga w języku polskim na temat Flex’a i AIR’a. Adres tak jak w tytule flexair.pl. Polecam wszystkim szczególnie tym zaczynającym swoją przygodę z Flex’em.

Dodatkowo powiem, że bloga redaguje dziewczyna Olga Grabek co w naszej społeczności jest prawdziwą rzadkością. Zachęcam do dodania tego bloga do swojego czytnika RSS, ja już to zrobiłem

Już w przyszły wtorek (18.05) w czasie imprezy CS5 Launch odbędzie się bezprecedensowe wydarzenie jakiego jeszcze w Polsce nie było! Będzie to programistyczno-graficzny hackathon, w trakcie którego będzie się można zmierzyć z najlepszymi w Polsce programistami oraz grafikami wykorzystującymi technologie Adobe.

Startujące w zawodach zespoły na samym początku dostaną temat aplikacji do wykonania w czasie 5 godzin. Każdy zespół otrzyma do użytku w trakcie zawodów komputer z zainstalowanym pakietem Adobe CS5 Master Collection. Przy wykonywaniu zadania będzie można skorzystać z dowolnego programu wchodzącego w skład pakietu, jednak wysoko punktowane będzie użycie nowych programów w pakiecie czyli Flash Builder oraz Flash Catalyst. Dokładne kryteria oceny są następujące:

• wykorzystanie nowych narzędzi w pakiecie CS5 (Flash Builder i Flash Catalyst) 40%
• kreatywność i projekt graficzny 40%
• przydatność, integracja z social media 20%

Nagrody są również bezprecedensowe:

• I miejsce Adobe CS5 Master Collection
• II miejsce Adobe CS5 Web Premium
• III miejsce Flash Builder oraz Flash Catalyst

W zawodach mogą brać udział dwuosobowe zespoły.

Na zgłoszenia  czekamy do dnia 17 maja.

O przyjęciu decyduje kolejność zgłoszenia;  ze względów logistycznych przyjmujemy maksymalnie 12 zespołów.  W przypadkach spornych organizatorzy poproszą o portfolio kandydatów, i na tej podstawie zadecydują o przyjęciu zespołu.

Termin konkursu: 18 maja 2010r w godz. 10.00 – 15.00 (5 h).  Ogłoszenie zwycięzców  i prezentacja 3 zwycięskich aplikacji odbędzie się o godz. 16.15. Nagrody w miarę dostępności zostaną wręczone podczas ogłoszenia wyników  lub wysłane pocztą.

Miejsce konkursu: ul. Wybrzeże Gdyńskie 4, 01-531 Warszawa

Kliknij tutaj by pobrać regulamin konkursu.

Kliknij tutaj by zarejestrować zespół.

As you probably know by now Flash Builder 4 with Flex 4 were released yesterday. Along with that, new content was published on Adobe TV. You can find there my video describing new styling and theming capabilities in Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4.

UPDATE (31.03.2010): You can also get this video through iTunes and on YouTube.

Other videos also published:

• Build your first desktop application
  Follow along as James Ward shows you how to build your first desktop application using Flash Builder, Flex and AIR.
  
  
• Flash Builder 4 for ColdFusion Developers
  ColdFusion Evangelist Terry Ryan highlights the flexibility of the data-centric features in Flash Builder 4. He shows off the new workflow for wiring a ColdFusion back-end to a Flex front-end.
  
  
• Build a Dashboard Application in Flex 4
  Adobe Platform Evangelist Michael Chaize offers a step-by-step tutorial on building a dashboard application. He walks you through a Flex 4 project created with the Flash Builder 4 IDE.
  
  
• Build your first Flex 4 application
  Platform Evangelist Serge Jespers describes how to build a Flex 4 application using Flash Builder 4. Discover the benefits of controlling components’ properties such as improved efficiency in managing data.
  
  
• Write Flex and PHP code using Flash Builder 4
  Platform Evangelist Mihai Corlan explains how to write Flex and PHP code using Flash Builder 4 and Zend Studio 7.1. He also illustrates how remoting enables your application to consume PHP services.
  
  
• Debug Flex and PHP code using Flash Builder 4
  In this video, Mihai Corlan discusses how to debug the code of a combined Flex and PHP project using Flash Builder 4 and Zend Studio 7.1. He reviews how to use breakpoints to test your application.
  
  
• Define events in Flex 4 with Flash Builder 4
  Platform Evangelist Mihai Corlan shows how to create components with Flash Builder 4 and ActionScript, and he simplifies how to customize an event dispatch in a Flex 4 project.
  
  
• Styling Flex 4 Components with Flash Builder 4
  Piotr Walczyszyn demonstrates the new theming capabilities in Flash Builder 4 and the new features of the CSS engine that come with Flex 4.

An interview with me was published on Marcin Zręda’s TestAndTry.com blog. Anyone interested in my predictions for the RIA scene in 2010 should have a look here

Adobe AIR 2.0 Beta 2 was just released; it is available here on Adobe Labs!

New features:

• Enhanced Printer Interaction: New printing support allows finer control of the way content is printed from an AIR application, including the choice of printer, paper size, and number of copies. New APIs allow a developer to retrieve additional printing information, such as printable area, whether the printer will print in color, and whether the print job is currently active. It is also possible to print without displaying the print dialog.

• Support for TLS/SSL socket communication: You can now connect to a server that requires TLSv1 or SSLv3 for socket communications.

• IME API and IME Text Input Enhancement: There are several new features added in this release to support better text input handling with IME software. The new API enhancements are designed for use with the new Flash Text Engine (FTE).

You can find updated sample applications here.

IMPORTANT: Applications built against Adobe AIR 2 Beta 1 will not run using the AIR 2 beta 2 runtime. In order for an AIR 2 Beta 1 application to run on the AIR 2 Beta 2 runtime, the namespace of the Beta 1 application descriptor file must first be updated to “2.0beta2″ and the application must be recompiled using the AIR 2 Beta 2 SDK.

I just got confirmations that I will be a TA (Teaching Assistant) on couple of sessions during MAX LA this year.

Duane Nickull – Building Flex and Adobe AIR Service Clients 2009
Monday, October 5 11:30AM (Duration: 90 minutes)

Leo Schuman – Flex 101: Introduction to Flex 4
Monday, October 5 05:00PM (Duration: 90 minutes)

Leo Schuman – Flex 101: Introduction to Flex 4
Tuesday, October 6 08:30AM (Duration: 90 minutes)

Matt Boles – Creating Custom Components in Flex 4
Tuesday, October 6 01:00PM (Duration: 90 minutes)

Dave Watts – Building Data-Centric Applications with Flash Builder 4 and ColdFusion 9
Wednesday, October 7 11:00AM (Duration: 90 minutes)

Matt Boles – Creating Custom Components in Flex 4
Wednesday, October 7 01:30PM (Duration: 90 minutes)

And of course don’t forget about my session Flex and Adobe AIR In Government: The e-Deklaracje Desktop that is on October 5 05:00PM, here is also direct link to it. Look also at some of my previous posts with more details about it!

Here is really cool MAX widget to check out:

Ostatnio coraz częściej zdarza mi się dostawać zapytania odnośnie poszukiwanych programistów (tzw. freelancerów) do współpracy przy projektach typu RIA. Z tego względu postanowiłem zrobić podstronę Polscy programiści RIA gdzie każdy zajmujący się tworzeniem aplikacji w technologiach Adobe Flex lub AIR będzie mógł zamieścić link do swojej strony oraz krótkie info o sobie w postaci komentarza. Wszystkich  developerów zapraszam do autopromocji na moim blogu!

W tej chwili jest to pewnego rodzaju eksperyment ale kto wie może kiedyś uda nam się z tego stworzyć coś bardziej zaawansowanego

*** Sorry to my English only speaking readers this is strictly Polish RIA community related stuff ***