Flex

First thoughts on Adobe's Apollo

Submitted by Falken on

For an alpha release, Adobe's Flex-HTML-PDF desktop runtime is fairly funky.

There are gotchas (check the ApolloCoders mailing list) but in general it took an afternoon to go from writing web-based Flex (or Flash, or (D)HTML, if you prefer) applications to building installable desktop versions of the same - using both the free SDK and the plugin to Flex Builder / Eclipse.

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Flex tweening effects

Submitted by Falken on

So, you've been able to tween various properties of objects in Flex ([node:1354]) to make them fade in and out and what have you, but how do you get that cute 'bounce' effect where the property overshoots the end value and takes a while to settle down ?

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Serious bug in released version of Flex 2.0.1 SDK

Submitted by Falken on

My datagrid has a few columns that have visible="false" but they are
still showing up.
Recompiling the same app with the 2.0 SDK makes them hide as expected.

I've logged it everywhere that sprang to mind - the flexcoders mailing list, Adobe's wish list, and the beta site which still appears to be running even though the beta period is over and the software 'out there'.

If the beta hadn't run over Xmas, I'd have spotted this before now, bugger. As it is I'm going back to the old version untill it's fixed :-(

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Funny event names in Flex

Submitted by Falken on

Odd.

The event the DataChooser fires when a user changs the date or year by clicking the little arrows with their mouse is called 'scroll'.

At least I wont have to subclass it and work with the undocumented CalendarLayout class just to get that notification :-)

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CFDevCon: LIVE

Submitted by Falken on

Technology willing I'll be posting updates here every few hours over the course of Thursday conference. LiveJournal readers will need to check my real blog, sorry.

8:30: Met Ben Forta in the lobby, got checked in nice and quick, now watching the huge tele being built and apraising the swag

Cool feature in Flex 2's debugger

Submitted by Falken on
As I run Linux at work, I use the command line 'fdb' tool to debug running Flex applications, and for a long time have been swearing at how it dumps variables, and doesn't let you run public getters:

(fdb) print max
$4 = [Object 1600218345, class='Date']
(fdb) print max.getTime()
Variable getTime unknown
Expression could not be evaluated.

But, today, I typo'ed, and something amazing happened. If you put a single full stop after the name of the object, fdb dumps out the internal variables too !
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More Flex tweening

Submitted by Falken on
One thing I had to work out this week was how to tween something more complex than just a property, and the solution I went with goes like this:
var t:Tween=new Tween(this,from,to,duration);//Create a new Tween:

This will then call two functions in 'this' - onTweenUpdate and onTweenEnd.
Both functions are given as their argument the next value in the tween (so onTweenEnd gets the final value (i.e. 'to').

This enables you to get a nice progression of just about anything.
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Tweening Dates in Flex 2

Submitted by Falken on
Here is a Flex 2 effect that will let you apply a tween effect to a Date-based control, such as, ohhh, a DateTimeAxis on a chart.

You use it the same way as the AnimateProperty TweenEffect:

var ani:*=new AnimateDateTimeProperty(aChart.horizontalAxis);//have to use * to avoid type conflict on toValue
ani.property="minimum";
ani.toValue=new Date( minDateVal+minDate );
ani.play();
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