FSI Navigator Alpha 2 released

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I have released the alpha 2 version of my FSI Navigator AIR Application. The only new feature is that it uses the AIR Update Framework to check for an update once a day. At this point the updates are automatic only, with no way to manually update. Manual update checks will be available before the 1.0 release.

It is recommended that all current users update to this version so that they can keep up with the latest news in the pre-release process.

Also, don't forget to report bugs and request features at my issue tracking site:
http://www.ducharme.cc/mantis/

Language Lessons 2 - My first decent AIR app

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A while ago I wrote a blog post titled "Language Lessons." It was a post designed to showcase some of the 'cheap as free'™ ways to study a language. One of those ways was fsi-language-courses.com, a website dedicated to making the public domain FSI language courses freely available in an electronic format. While it is a great resource, the site isn't extremely usable. Adobe Integrated Runtime(AIR) to the rescue. ...

For all my talk of being a Flash/Flex expert ( Flexpert? ), I have yet to make a decent AIR app. Sure I've made a couple of tools to help me out with some minor tasks( get map lat/lon coordinates, creating a tool to help me learn degrafa ) but nothing very usable for anybody else ( or exciting to make ).

With all that in mind it is with great excitement that I announce my first alpha release of th AIR FSI Navigator. This tool allows you to navigate their different language programs and view the pdfs while you listen to the accompanying audio ( if they are available of course ). As with most alpha software, this has a long way to go before it is considered released ( and I will most likely release it as open source long before that ), but you might find it useful.


FSI_Navigator.air
This application requires Adobe AIR 1.1 be installed on your computer. If it is not you can download it from the Adobe website.UPDATE: It is easier to just use the install badge at the bottom of this post.

Known Issues ( not an exhaustive list )

  • Certain courses do not work. Especially if the course contents are located in a zip file.
  • PDFs take a while to load and there is no download notification. Be patient, if you have Adobe Acrobat 8.1 and the screen is black,it just means the PDF is loading ( some of them are quite large ).
  • Closing the MP3 Playback window shade and then reopening it decreases its height.
  • Downloads are not saved to your hard drive for offline work. This feature is planned for the future, in fact it will be the default so that files don't have to be downloaded from the server every time.
  • Volume thumb bar isn't visible when the program starts. Just click on the volume adjustment area and it will show up.

Update: I thought I'd do a quick attempt to add an install badge for this:

Flexcoders @ my.opera

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I just created a Flexcoders group for my.opera. I figure there are a lot of programmer type people in this community who may at least be interested in the technology and this could be a good place to look for answers in the community. It's my first group though so please be patient as I learn the ropes. For those of you who don't know what Flex is, you can either read some of my posts on the subject or go to Adobe's website. The group will be their to focus on anything in the Flex framework ecosystem, much of which is still in development.

Last Day of Flex 360

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Yesterday was the last day of the Flex 360 conference and it was a whirlwind. Along with checking out of the hotel and making sure to get to the airport on time I still had a conference to attend, including the final keynote. I don't have all my notes about what I did yesterday, so bear with me as I describe the highlights of the day. ...

The morning started out with the final keynote of the conference that included short talks on some community projects. One cool non-project community development was Flex Authority, which is a community driven zine that will be coming out in early summer. As for projects there were short demonstrations of OpenFlux and Degrafa that were great. The highlight was the last project which was a social musical notation program complete with keyboard( QWERTY not the 88s ) entry. A very cool program that I think is still not open to the public and unfortunately, no name was given.

Of the talks I went to yesterday, 2 stand out for very different reasons. One talk was about video in Flex and the other was about architecting AIR applications.

The presentation on video in flex stands out because, I realized I actually understand this concept quite a bit. The company I work for, Provis Media Group, is all about the powerful use of video on the web and I've been dealing with video and the flash player since day one. This doesn't mean I didn't learn anything. One glaring detail I learned is about the index on H.264 files that can keep HD videos from streaming progressively. The answer to that problem can be found here. The main thing I got out of this session, that can be applied to more than just video, is the usefulness of creating components based on the flex framework. It takes a little extra work up front but it can save a ton of time in the long run.

Architecting AIR applications stood out because it made me realize how much I hadn't thought of. The talk was led by a former .NET developer who went to web applications and now, thanks to AIR, is back to making desktop applications. Because of his background, he had a perspective about architecting an occasionally connected app that was different than the standard line. It was a great talk and I've got a lot of researching to do on new approaches. The main thing that got driven home was while tools like Cairngorm and Pure MVC have their uses, especially for web apps, their are some limitations when creating a desktop app. It's important to have many more tools and good OOP knowledge and practice under your belt so that you don't fall into the 'Golden Hammer' syndrome.

To finalize, Flex 360 was awesome and I hope to go to many more of these types of events. There is a Flex 360 event in Europe happening in April, I believe and I would love to go there, even though I know I wouldn't really get to see any of Europe. So if you are in Europe, check out 360 Flex Europe coming to Milan very soon.

Flex 360 - Day 1

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Monday was the official first Day of the Flex 360 conference here in Atlanta, GA and so far it has been a blast. I took some classes on FlexUnit, Custom Components, the Ribbit API and building a brand as an independent developer. Then after the classes we had the Adobe party that was the party to mark the release of Flex 3, AIR and Blaze DS. ...

The first class I took was on Flex Unit, a unit testing library for Flex, Flash CS3 and Actionscript 3 files. I got to see a good workflow for using it, including automation using apache Ant. I also learned about a relatively new testing framework called dpUnit that I really want to check out. It's created by the guys at Digital Primates.

The second class I took was about creating polished custom components. In this class the presenter used the example of FlexMDI, a window management system that he was a part of creating, to show some of the important things you need to take into consideration when creating a reusable component. A great presentation and I got to see some of the inner workings of an awesome library for flex.

The third presentation I went to was about the Ribbit API, a way to handle telephony through flash. With this system you can make and receive calls, as well as make and receive messages. There are also some new features of the system coming through the pike. It will be fun to see what I can create with this API.

The final presentation was led by a Doug Mccune and from Scale Nine, Juan Sanchez. It was all about building the brand that is you. It reinspired me to build the Daryl Ducharme brand. Let's just say, I think I will be blogging more about Flex, AIR and other fun related topics.

After that we walked over to the Stats sports bar for the Adobe party to celebrate the release of a few products in the Flex family. Don't forget the official launch of Flex as an open source project. This party had a ton of people and we all were talking Flex, AIR and related issues. It's nice to just be able to geek out sometimes. Some people played Rock Band and Guitar Hero until they closed the private lounge area we were in. Good times, I just wish I had a chance to talk to more of the people at the party. Well, there are 2 more days to this conference. I better get to bed so I can get the most out of all the sessions tomorrow.

AIR for Linux in the works

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For those who do not know AIR stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. It is Adobe's way of taking your Flex, Flash, Javascript and HTML knowledge and allowing you to create desktop applications. It is very cool technology that should have version 1.0 coming out soon. Always touted as cross platform, AIR has really only worked on 2 operating systems Windows and Mac. However I just read a post on the Adobe Blogs that says they are looking for pre-beta release testers for AIR on Linux. ...

AIR on Linux will allow Adobe's technology to spread more in the open source community, which has often belittled Adobe for its proprietary ways. As Adobe opens up more and more, mainstream users of Adobe products might see the possibilities available to them in Open Source software. Since Apps that are built on the AIR platform could be run on Windows, Mac and Linux - these apps could help people make the transition. So if you are interested in helping to get Penguins into the AIR then visit James Ward's RIA Cowboy blog to found out what you need to do.

MTV Adobe Air Challenge

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I'm jealous of all the people in Chicago at Adobe Max 2007. There is a lot going on this year that I am particularly interested in. I've seen a preview of flash player 10. Flex 3 and AIR beta 2 are out with some great new features people have been wanting to test out. One good thing though is there is much blogging going on. ...

In one of the most recent blogs I saw a link mentioned in passing. The link led me to the homepage for the MTV/Adobe AIR Challenge. I'm pondering if I should look into building something. There are a lot of smart people who will be doing some stuff as well. Of course, failure sometimes is the best option so I probably will. Now, what should I build? I haven't watched MTV since Tough Enough season 3 ( the last season? ).

If you have any ideas, I would love to read them.

The AIR in Adobe's sails

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Recently I have been doing some research on Adobe's alpha software that was code named Apollo. This is very exciting software that is going to make it much easier for web developers to become desktop application developers. Yesterday, Adobe changed Apollo to its official name AIR, which stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. They also released the beta version of the AIR SDK and to go with it the beta version of Flex Builder 3 ( which was codenamed Moxie ). ...

This is very exciting because it makes it very easy to use what you already know to make a desktop application. In the first release, Adobe is focusing on helping you create occasionally connected ( to the internet ) desktop applications. I am very excited to have the opportunity to build desktop applications for clients and myself to do some of the tasks I already know how to program on the web.

The Apollo runtime allows file I/O, so you can read and write quite easily to the computer. It is cross platform and version 1.0 will allow you to build stuff that will work on Macs, PCs and shortly after release, Linux as well. The new beta build has also bundled SQLite functionality so you can have a simple database that you can count on being on all systems.

If you want to find out more, check out AIR on Adobe labs.