Flash Speaks Actionscript

The day that many Flash Developers/Designers have been waiting for is finally approaching.  Well…not quite exactly.  Earlier this week at Adobe Max 2009, Adobe provided a sneek-peek to some of the new features that Flash CS5 will be shipping with.  The one feature that is getting many excited(and for good reason) is the ability to export your Flash applications into Apple iPhone applications.

Export to iPhone

Flash Professional CS5 will allow you to set your publish settings to “iPhone”. This will compile your movie as a native iPhone application that can be submitted to the Apple AppStore.

A New Door Has Opened

This opens a whole new door for Flash Developers/Designers. The ability to get your content displayed to an already trendmously large iPhone user base.  Hey, if this is the compromise of not having a Flash Player based within Safari on the iPhone, then I can definitely live with that.  Quite honestly, this might turn out to be even a better solution.

Additonal New Features Shipping With Flash CS5

Along with being able to create iPhone applications, Flash CS5 provides some other sorely needed features like:

• Improved ActionScript editor
• Code Snippets panel
• Flash Builder integration
• XML based FLA files

Resources:

Article: Developing for the Apple iPhone using Flash

Aditya Bansodof of Adobe breaks down how this all came about.  He gives a breakdown on the technology behind this conversion and how to go about creating/submitting a Flash generated iPhone application.

Video: Building Applications For iPhone With Flash Professional CS5

Learn how Adobe is working to bring Adobe technologies out of the desktop and onto a the iPhone. Learn how Flash Professional and the Flash platform will add capabilities to help developers iPhone enable, test, and publish their content.

Current Flash Apps Already Available via the Apple App Store

Loving the hype!  You can already check out a handful of Flash generated iPhone applications via the Apple App Store.  The list of Applications include Chroma Circuit, Trading Stuff, Fickleblox, Just Letters, South Park, That Roach Game, and Red Hood. Enjoy!

For more additional resources and an update on release of Flash CS5, check out Flash CS5 on Adobe Labs.  Also, Flash CS5 beta is expected to be released prior to year’s end so be sure to sign up to get notified when that does happen.

Adobe TV gets a long awaited redesign that I am sure all users will come to love and appreciate.  While the original Adobe TV got the job done, it simply was not up to par in comparison to other popular video sharing sites.  I personally feel these new features add so much more value to Adobe TV.  It now feels more natural of an experience.

New Features Added to Adobe TV are:

• Loading speeds vastly improved
• Easier/faster search capabilities
• Customizable home pages
• Save your favorite videos to a personal library
• Post videos directly to your favorite social network

Video: Adobe TV Wasn’t Built in a Day

Check out this video and let the Adobe ones break down these new feature upgrades.  Also, don’t forget to visit Adobe TV to experience these new features yourself.

With Adobe Max 2009 slowly approaching, there is nothing like a little promotional humor.  With all the personalities in the industry, it is always nice to catch them in a moment of humor.  Check out this promotional Adobe Max video starring Lee Brimelow, Phillip Kerman and the PR guy.  Funny!

Struggling to get our foot off the ground with getting more intimate with ActionScript 3.0?

Doug Winnie has kicked off a series, ActionScript 1:1, which is designed for animators and designers using Flash CS4 who want to take their work to the next level but need some guidance adding custom interactivity using ActionScript 3.0.

These videos are aimed at Flash Designers looking to strengthen their knowledge of ActionScript 3.0.  We all have to start somewhere when learning to use ActionScript 3.0 and this series is great way to get that train moving along.

Below are all the episodes in the series.  You can also find Doug’s videos as a channel on Adobe TV and iTunes.  Enjoy!

Welcome to ActionScript 3

Doug Winnie gives an overview of his new series in which you will learn the fundamentals of ActionScript 3.0. Get up and running in Flash Professional using ActionScript 3.0.

Working with the Actions Panel

Understand how to use the Actions panel and use the trace statement. Doug Winnie walks you through the code to control objects created in Flash.

Accessing Object Parameters

Doug Winnie demonstrates how to access properties of an object such as size and location by using instance properties with ActionScript, sending messages to the output console.

Changing Object Parameters

In order to manipulate objects, Doug Winnie uses the assignment operator in ActionScript 3.0 to instantaneously overwrite values initially assigned in Flash.

Exploring Named Library Assets

Dive deeper with the Library panel and learn more about how to name instances on the stage, and how to use the Linkage panel to name objects in the Library panel.

Adding Named Objects to the Stage

In this video, Doug Winnie teaches you how to use ActionScript to dynamically add objects to the stage using code and the DisplayStack.

Working with Comments

You can use comments to document your ActionScript code for other Developers to use. Doug’s tutorial sums up the benefit of building up good coding practices.

Fundamentals of Functions

Doug Winnie provides an introduction to functions and explains how to efficiently use them in ActionScript by grouping commonly used tasks together as a named function.

Accepting Values in Functions

Doug continues his tutorial on how to efficiently use functions with ActionScript. With functions you can customize their functionality by assigning parameters and values.

Returning Values from Functions

Doug Winnie wraps up his lesson on functions by explaining how to retrieve results for the output panel with the return statement.

Mathematical Operators

Doug Winnie teaches the basics of calculating mathematical operations in ActionScript code, including commonly used shortcuts to save coding time.

Order of Mathematical Operations

In this video, Doug Winnie reviews how Flash calculates math based on a specific order of operations.

Events and MouseEvent Handlers

Discover the power of events and how you can quickly and easily build event handlers. In this episode, Doug covers how to use events to build interactivity with the mouse.

Create a Timer

Using your advanced knowledge of ActionScript, Doug Winnie walks you through on how to combine time events with event listeners to create and control time-based events.

Create a Clock

See Doug build a clock in Flash using ActionScript to manipulate objects’ properties and add mouse and timer events. Everything you’ve learned from his tutorials is combined into one project.

Over the years, the Flash Player has received such a bad rep for hogging computer system resources even while displaying static content. There were many times in which I would wonder “What the heck is Flash processing?”. As for Flash Developers/Designers, there was only so much we can do to optimize the SWF via runtime. That was then, this is now! In Lee’s latest video tutorial, he demonstrates how you can dynamically change your movie’s framerate to use only the resources it needs.

With its introduction in AS3, you can dynamically change the framerate of your SWF movie. In an earlier tutorial, I demonstrated how you can change the framerate of your SWF and how it will effect a frame by frame animation.

By leveraging the ability to dynamically change the framerate of your SWF, it will allow you to take advantage of idle moments in your Flash applications by changing the the framerate based on the content being displayed. It’s a simple, yet great concept.

Check out Lee’s video, SWF Framerate Optimization, to learn more on how to implement such a concept. Enjoy!

These days as a designer/developer rapid prototyping has become a key component to getting projects in and out the door much quicker.  To this effect, many prototyping tools have surfaced over the last year or so.  A new rapid prototyping tool, FlairBuilder, created in Adobe AIR has just hit the market and first looks of it look pretty impressive.

What is FlairBuilder?

FlairBuilder is a cross-platform tool for rapid authoring of interactive wireframes and software prototypes. FlairBuilder comes with a set of 40+ (and counting) components for prototyping both web and desktop application. These are functional components and not mere images or mock-ups.  A few components include a GoogleMap component, as well as YouTube or Vimeo video player, and even a WebCam.

FlairBuider looks to provide a usable solution to spending less time prototyping and more time developing.  Not only does FlairBuilder make things easier for its users, its free online viewer allows your clients to view the wireframes that you have created instantly using the Flash Player plug-in.

Video breakdown of what FlairBuilder has to offer

Feedback:

Congrats to the author, Cristian Pascu, for taking on such an innovative project.  If you happen to give FlairBuider a run through, take 5 minutes out to provide some constructive feedback.  Your feedback will help push this project further in the right direction.

Additional Resources:

• Install FlairBuilder
• Learn more about FlairBuilder
• Give the online demo a try

Now that some of the Flash Catalyst hype has died down some, this demo is sure to get some of its potential fans pretty excited all over again.  Here is Kevin Lynch’s Keynote from the Web 2.0 conference where he shows how to build a full application using Illustrator, Flash Catalyst, Flex Builder, Flex and the Facebook ActionScript 3 API.

I know Flash Catalyst was meant to bring life to static comps with extreme ease, but WOW it looks like it is bringing a whole new level to “ease of use”.  Hmmmm…I just wonder what that code looks like!   Enjoy the video!

With all the recent developments with 3rd party libraries being supported in AS3, I am still shocked to see people still asking the question “Why ActionScript 3.0?”.  I simply do not get it as AS3 presents so many more pros than cons.

It is almost as if ActionScript 3.0 is the monster in the closet that some people would rather just avoid then confront.   For those who have migrated over, we have found out that it is not the infamous monster in the closet.  Instead, it turned out to be a hanging sweater casting a monstrous shadow.

For those still asking themselves the question of  “Why ActionScript 3.0?”, check out this parody video on the topic.  Cracks me up every time!

Last week’s announcement of Adobe’s releasing of the new AS3 Facebook API definitely brought upon a cheerful buzz within the Flash/Flex community. So, now that there is a new look to the AS3 Facebook API, I am sure many of you would like to take a deeper look into how you can take advantage of this new library in your Flash/Flex projects.

In this video, Daniel Dura shows you how to use Flex Builder to develop your first Flash application on the Facebook Platform using the ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform API.  The video is about 12 minutes long and if you’ve got the time you should definitely check it out.

Yesterday, Adobe released the ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform API. The new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook API, fully supported by Facebook and Adobe, makes it easy to build applications that combine the strengths of the Flash Platform and Facebook Platform.

Just imagine the already innovative RIAs that have been developed and the new ones to come that can now take advantage of the social aspect of Facebook’s community.  Not only can you take advantage of the user generated content, but if done correctly you can tap into a community of application testers.  What better way to get feedback on the development of your next big application, than to take advantage of an already active community.

Along with this exiting news, they also released a video interview with Josh Elman from Facebook.  Check it out below.

Additional Resources:

• Grab the new API at Google Code
• Getting Started with the new Facebook API
• Getting your head around Flash on Facebook