Working with Flex 3

Predictable as ever, requests for updates to our clients’ sites are picking up as everyone gears up for the Spring Sale season. It’s comforting to see that demand hasn’t slowed, despite the media’s constant attention on lost jobs and drooping sales.

From 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., I do updates. It’s dull work, but I’m grateful nonetheless. It’s become dull because there are only 15 sites left that need migrated from GoLive to Dreamweaver and 5 of them won’t count, since I plan on rebuilding them anyway. I stick to the daily grind because of an agreement with Rich: if I want to work on projects during busy season, I have to do updates during regular hours and the fun projects during overtime hours. I have to admit, it’s a nice managerial trick to keeping me focused and motivated to do what I have to do.

So why do I look forward to after hours work? Because we just bought Flex Builder 3
and four new technical manuals (full disclosure: these are my affiliate links). For the past three weeks I have taken a crash course in Rich Internet Application development in the form of MXML, ActionScript 3, XML and Flex Builder 3. So far I have figured out how to use MXML to create a static video player and a streaming video player. I tried to extend what I learned and connect an HSlider component to a Video Display method to create a scrub bar, but wasn’t successful.

Moving on, I’m another step closer to creating a web-based Flash Media Encoder. Currently it’s a free app available from Adobe for Windows XP/Vista only – with no Mac support, which is why I am building my own. I have built a small receiver, so users can watch a live stream that we broadcast out. It’s for learning and testing purposes only, so there aren’t any regular live streams happening. Next I’ll be working on building the broadcaster. Just getting the broadcaster to RUN is my first goal. Beyond that, I’ll work on auto-detecting bandwidth levels, error/exception handling, and handling multiple requests for the live stream.

The main goal is to have a functional prototype ready to use during the National Junior Angus Show. So my first big project due date is Sunday, July 19. I hope I can meet the deadline!