Subtle touch-ups to their design. Cleaner HTML and CSS implemented.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Some of our long-awaited projects have been released, so I thought I would make note of them. Web Services now has a respectable web site to represent our department. Now that Creative Media and our department’s sites have launched, I wonder when we will be working on one for Special Services?

Our parent company has launched their touched-up design with a brand new back end.  A revamped Angus e-Classifieds site has also arrived, all ASP.NET powered and compliments of the IS department.

The e-classifieds site was the first project where the Web department had the chance to work directly with the IS department. It was exciting to get the chance to collaborate with them. From a technical standpoint it was refreshing to find others who read Lifehacker and wanted to argue the finer points of jQuery versus MooTools. From the business perspective, the e-classifieds will finally become a viable revenue source for our department. The old site was so archaic it was actually losing money every time someone called to post an ad.

One step forward: our e-lists are now sent using a less-spammy/less-amateurish method.

…and one step backward: our e-lists no longer have a limit to the number we can send per day. We used to tell clients that they needed to book in advance, because we only scheduled 2 full page e-mails to be sent every Tuesday and Thursday. (Still too many, IMHO.) Now we have no limits. April is one of our busiest months. We sent out 83 e-list messages in April alone. Talk about e-mail overload! It’s no surprise our e-list subscribers never hover far above the 4,000 mark.

There are other projects waiting for the IS department’s attention, but hopefully they can help us with the Sale Books problem next. Maybe they can help us create our own Issuu-like application. A Flex app (built by us) powered by ASP.NET with a Microsoft database (built by them).

Popularity: 3% [?]

Somewhat irrelevant news: Please excuse my absence. I decided to take a long break, since I experienced some complications and my son was delivered a month earlier than he was due. This post was scheduled for editing and posting on March 26.

With a magic little button, I managed to connect to the FMS. Then I bit off more than I could chew with a larger set of UI components. Now, with a little data binding and a lot of ActionScript 3, I have a basic broadcaster built. I’ve read more documentation and books on ActionScript 3, Flex 3 and Flash Media Server than I care to admit, but so far I have absorbed and applied everything I have read. Building my first RIA has been every bit of fun and frustration as I expected, only on a much slower timeline than I had hoped. For every 1 hour I expected to work on a task, I have actually worked 4.

Many of the things I built came from old sample projects. I translated them from Flash to Flex, then from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3. You can download my sample projects, supply your own RTMP address and see instant results:

• playback-stream.zip
• make-connection.zip
• nice-ui.zip
• data-binding.zip

I hope these examples help you learn Flex faster than I did.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Resources and Help

The best resources I found, in a variety of media:

Books

These were the top 3 books recommended over and over again by the Usenet groups I follow.

1. Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex [link]
2. Essential ActionScript 3.0 [link]
3. Programming Flash Communication Server [link]

Web

Documentation

If you have a project already in mind and understand object oriented code, you may want to jump right in with your idea.

1. Flex 3 docs [html | pdf]
2. ActionScript 3 docs [html | pdf]
3. Flash Media Server 3 docs [html | pdf]
4. Flash Media Server 3.5 docs [html | pdf]

Video Tutorials

While Lynda.com has been a great resource for learning Flex, these free video tutorials have proven just as handy:

1. Learn Flex in a Week [video tutorials]
2. Flash 411: Getting your video questions answered [video tutorials]

Sample Apps

Sometimes the best way to learn a new concept is to just jump right in and get your hands dirty. These sample applications are small, simple and great examples of the potential behind RIAs. Although the first one is created in Flash, it can be done in Flex, too.

1. Building a Simple Live Video Broadcaster and Receiver [sample app]*
2. Creating a Simple RIA [sample app]

* As someone new to Flex, I thought the broadcaster/receiver idea would have been really useful as a sample Flex project, so I rebuilt this one in Flex and translated it from ActionScript 2 into ActionScript 3. I’ll make the .zip file available for download in the next post.

People

For those really complex questions that can’t be answered by a definition in the documentation or isn’t covered in the books, you can connect to a pool of professionals via e-mail:

1. Flex Coders
2. Flash Tiger
3. Flash Coders
   

Popularity: 26% [?]

Flex Research

Rich Internet Applications are popping up all over the web. When I first saw them, I thought, “I want to do that too!” I started from level 0 when learning how to use Flex and Flash Media Server to build RIAs, and I had a lot of questions:

• What is Flex?
• What makes the Flash Media Server so special?
• Why are developers using Flex & FMS to build their Rich Internet Applications?

Defining Flex

Flex is confusing. Like Flash, it can mean many different things, depending on the conversation. If you are familiar with the multiple meanings of “Flash,” it will help you understand “Flex.” As you are probably already aware, “Flash” can refer to:

1. the software – an IDE, such as Flash MX 2004
2. an animation or game built from the software – like homestarrunner.com
3. the .swf – the most common compiled file created by the software
4. the player – such as Flash Player 10, a web browser plug in

Its logic is driven by a script language called ActionScript. “Flex” can mean:

1. the software – an IDE, such as Flex Builder 3
2. the framework – the SDK, such as Flex SDK
3. Rich Internet Applications built from the software

Flex creates .swf files for the client, just like Flash. It uses Flash Player, just like Flash. Its logic is driven by ActionScript and can also incorporate a server-side language, such as Coldfusion, PHP or asp.NET.

The applications I develop for my company will use a symphony created from Flex, Flash Media Server, ActionScript 3 and asp.NET.

The Flash Media Server

FMS is a powerful tool that is simple to implement. If you want to manipulate online video and deliver it in an efficient manner without knowing much about video, FMS is a good, albeit expensive, answer. Dynamic video streaming and live streaming video with fast setup and use. Once FMS was installed it was easy to jump right in and begin adding stream-on-demand videos for our clients. The Flash Media Encoder allows you to start streaming live video with less than 5 minutes of time setting up the program. The major flaw of the Flash Media Encoder is that it supports Windows only- no Linux or Mac version of the software is available.

Rich Internet Application Development – Why FMS  and Flex?

FMS makes it easy to deploy video as well as coordinate any real-time tasks by using RTMP. Flex allows rapid prototype development thanks to the multitude of components and libraries available in the framework. Create your application in Flex, publish the resulting .swf file, have it coordinate with FMS for any real-time tasks you have, and voilà! you just produced: an online video chat, a live auction complete with audio, video and real-time bidding, or a live business presentation across countries.

Popularity: 31% [?]