After digging around trying to get a fix to let QuickLook on Mac OSX Snow Leopard to show Actionscript and MXML files i have found a fix! I found a plugin and with a little bit of hacking i was able to show AS files now! At the bottom of this post is a download to the plugin.

Now here is what is did: I found a post by Gilles on how to get it working with normal Mac OSX. Then I found another post on how to make it work for Leopard.

Basically it tricks Finder into thinking that files ending in .as (which are locked in association with the applesingle mime-type because Adobe don’t export a profile with their apps) *can* be previewed in QuickLook, whereas ordinarily they can’t (applesingle being a kind of archive file).

So besides previewing the file it also color codes it So good times are here again! Below is a screenshot:

You can download the updated / hacked package here:
Max OSX Leopard version (download .zip)

Mac OSX version

Installing instructions:

To install QuickLook plugins, you should copy the “*.qlgenerator” file into /Library/QuickLook/ or ~/Library/QuickLook/.
Note that “*” in the filename will vary based on exactly which QuickLook item you choose to install.

If a QuickLook folder is no present, feel free to create one.

After copying the file into the directory you will need to logout and then back in to your account for it to become active. Alternatively, you can prevent having to logout by running the following command in Terminal:
qlmanage -r
This will force OS X to search /Library/QuickLook and ~/Library/QuickLook for plugins and load them accordingly.

Enjoy!

Today i’ve found a really cool app, called Flipboard. This concept is something me and my friends have been talking about building. Really glad somebody else did and in such a fantastic and groundbreaking way, because we need apps like this

Takes about 15 minutes and is realy spot on. Below are some quotes from the video.

Clay Shirky:

If I was going to start a news business tomorrow, I would start a news business designed to produce not one new bit of news, but instead to aggregate news for individuals in ways that mattered to them.

David Weinberger:

We are always going to be filtering the filters that filter our filters. That filter our filters.

Enjoy!

The ‘secure=false’ should make the communication between HTTP and HTTPS possible as described here. So that took care of that. Now the rest. We discovered the bug and though that buttons were not working in IE7/IE8. Then we figured out the button was working but the request was not being send
We used standard code for making a request:

var variables : URLVariables = new URLVariables();
variables.someVar = someValue;

var request : URLRequest = new URLRequest( "REQUEST TO HTTPS SERVER" );

var loader : URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.dataFormat = URLLoaderDataFormat.TEXT;
request.data = variables;
request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;

loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, handleRequestLoaded);
loader.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, handleIOError);
loader.load(request);

try {
	trace(request.url + " - " + variables.toString() + " - " + request.method);
	loader.load(request);
} catch (e : Error) {
	//trace(e);
}

What did we do to fix it?
Turns out that IE7/IE8 just fails silently when you do a request from HTTP to HTTPS, it just blocks the request, it does not even check for a crossdomain file on Domain B. (I checked this with Charles and Fiddler)

After reading several posts on the internets, i discovered that we needed to set the header of the PHP file. After doing this, it fixed the problem.
PHP Code:

header('Cache-Control: cache, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');

And now it all works (The machine serving the PHP was running version 5.2.12.)

var arr:Array = new Array();
arr.push({label:"One"});
arr.push({label:"Two"});
arr.push({label:"Three"});
arr.push({label:"Four"});
arr.push({label:"Five"});
arr.push({label:"Six"});

var cb:ComboBox = new ComboBox();
// embed fonts in main text field, ComboBox in its closed state.
cb.textField.setStyle("embedFonts", true);
cb.textField.setStyle("textFormat", tf);
// embed fonts in dropdown menu, ComboBox folded open.
cb.dropdown.setRendererStyle("embedFonts", true);
cb.dropdown.setRendererStyle("textFormat", tf);
cb.dataProvider = new DataProvider(arr);
cb.move(10, 10);
addChild(cb);

Also check the documentation for the ComboBox. Very usefull

Clipping values to stay between 0 and 1

That is what this post is all about, I’ve tried to compile a list with things that I think you need to know as a Flash Developer. (Some of it you can find here and here)

1. The Elastic Racetrack
You need to understand when events fire, when code is executed, and when the player renders. It’s really the foundational concept of Flash Player.

http://www.craftymind.com/2008/04/18/updated-elastic-racetrack-for-flash-9-and-avm2/

2. FlexSDK, mxmlc, compc, and all that jazz
You need to know what’s going on when you hit that “run” button in Eclipse.
http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/as3withmxmlc/
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=apparch_08.html

3. Player Events, Custom Events, Event Bubbling
I can’t imagine where flash player would be without frames and mouse clicks.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/event_handling_as3_03.html
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/flash/events/package-detail.html
http://www.tink.ws/blog/custom-events-in-as-30-dont-forget-to-override-the-clone-method/
http://jacwright.com/blog/70/how-to-listen-to-flash-events-that-dont-bubble/

4. Statements, Keywords, and Directives
You should never be surprised by a new “word” in as3. If you don’t know what “static” or “override” or others are, learn them. Now.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/2/langref/statements.html

5. ASDoc
Someday, you’ll re-read your code and have no idea what it does. The stress here is on proper documenting, but generating asdocs is nice too. ASDoc is a tool that does just that, generating documents from comments in code.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=asdoc_3.html

6. Managing visual assets (images, fonts, CSS, etc)
Flash is visual. So you need to know how to manage assets with code.
http://www.funky-monkey.nl/blog/2010/04/09/preloaders-the-best-way-of-doing-it/
http://www.funky-monkey.nl/blog/2008/05/05/font-embedding-in-as3/
http://code.google.com/p/queueloader-as3/
http://code.google.com/p/bulk-loader/

7. Arrays, Collections, Dictionaries, Mapping
You’re not just working with one MovieClip here, so you need to know how to control multiple objects at once.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/Array.html
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/07/as3_dictionary.html
http://code.google.com/p/as3ds/

8. Know the difference between MovieClip, Sprite and Shape.
And know when and how to use them. What is used for what circumstance and what is lighter.

9. Programmatic motion (tweening, easing)
If you wanted things to stay still, you should’ve stuck with HTML
http://blog.greensock.com/tweenmaxas3/
http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Actionscript-3-0-Animation-Making/dp/1590597915/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243014431&sr=8-1

10. Programmatic drawing (assets, gradients, fills, lines etc.)
Since Flash is all about being visual, take some time to understand why you need to draw stuff in comparison to using assets. Drawing is much faster and takes up less memory. Lots of assets bog down your application.
http://www.funky-monkey.nl/blog/2010/04/20/drawing-shapes-in-as3-a-class-to-draw-an-arc-star-gear-cog-wedge-and-a-burst/

11. Cleaning up.
Understand how the Garbage Collector works, how you can make use of it and how to dispose objects, listeners, graphics and other stuff you don’t use anymore.
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/06/as3_resource_ma.html
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/07/as3_resource_ma_1.html
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/08/as3_resource_ma_2.html
http://www.craftymind.com/2008/04/09/kick-starting-the-garbage-collector-in-actionscript-3-with-air/

12. OOP and Coding Against Frameworks
The days of a one huge .as file are over. You need to smartly move your code into organized and reusable objects. Also, now there are plenty of popular AS3 frameworks to help manage your code. Read up on them and start using one.
http://corlan.org/flex-frameworks/
http://tutorialfeed.blogspot.com/2010/05/10-open-source-flash-framework-for.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/oop_as3.html
http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/684/1/Object-Oriented-Programming-in-AS3/Page1.html

13. Version control
Unless you think your code is worthless, you need to learn how to back it up properly.
http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads – SVN Application for Windows
http://versionsapp.com/ – SVN App for Mac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control
http://git-scm.com/

14. ANT
If you start working with an industry standard IDE like Eclipse or FlashDevelop, there will be a day when you need to automate the build- or other processes with ANT. Its fun, its easy and you should learn it
http://blog.alanklement.com/2009/08/10/fdt-and-ant-a-users-guide-part-i/
http://blog.alanklement.com/2009/08/19/fdt-ant-part-two/

15. Know Your IDE
No matter what IDE or editor you use for writing code, make sure you knwo how it works, know the shortcuts, know the file compare function, know the search and replace. Let it work for you, not against you (or your time). If you don’t, make sure you spend some time getting to know it, it is well worth the time.
http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519544

http://blog.alanklement.com/2009/08/09/fdt-customize-your-workflow/

16. Know you MVC from your Factory.
Design patterns, use ‘em wisely.
http://www.as3dp.com/

17. Good Writing skills (for team / client communication, documentation, comments, etc)
I’d rather hire someone with good writing skills than someone who cant write. someone who writes knows how to structure things and can explain things clearly.

18. Verbal communication and interpersonal skills for team / client interaction
No explanation needed really

19. A drive to learn and experiment.

20. A love for problem solving.
And of course the ability to think logical and methodical. And look at problems from a higher level.

BONUS: 21. Community awareness.
What is happening around you in the development/Flash world? What libraries exsist? What framework are out there?

BONUS: 22. Reasonable understanding of UX and interaction design / feeling for design.

If you have more to share, don’t agree with something or want to shout at me, post a comment!

Below is the code and zip file with the entire project made in FDT 4. (So you can import it directly).

First you instantiate an new YouTubeLoader instance. Once the load is handled you pass the url bit of the movie on youtube.

_youTubeLoader = new YouTubeLoader();
_youTubeLoader.addEventListener(YouTubeLoaderEvent.LOADED, handleVideoLoaded, false, 0, true);
_youTubeLoader.addEventListener(YouTubeLoaderEvent.STATE_CHANGE, handleVideoStateChange, false, 0, true);
_youTubeLoader.create();

function handleVideoStateChange(event : YouTubeLoaderEvent) : void {
    switch(_youTubeLoader.getPlayerState( )) {
        case "0":
            _youTubeLoader.seekTo( 0 );
            break;
        }
}

function handleVideoLoaded(event : YouTubeLoaderEvent) : void {
    // This is the YouTube movie ID
    var id : String = "WbJX4RzfJ8E";

    trace( _youTubeLoader.getPlayerState( ) + "state", toString( ) );
    _youTubeLoader.loadVideoById( id );
    _youTubeLoader.setSize( 511, 383 );
    addChild( _youTubeLoader );
    _youTubeLoader.play();
}

The only thing left now is ta make sure the ExternalInterface communication with JavaScript works as it should. So you add this to your embed tag

    //init the youTubeLoader javascript methods
    SWFID = "application";

Then you complete embed tag becomes the following;

Here is the zip with the complete project.