I have posted a tutorial on "Understanding ExternalInterface in Flash 8" in the tutorial section of this site. Have a look at it here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

I have posted a tutorial on "Using the XPath API in Flash" in the tutorial section of this site. Have a look at it here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As a follow up on my post on "Using SWF Metadata in Flash 8", I have posted a mini-tutorial on automating the process of meta data insertion using JSAPI. Check it out here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have posted a tutorial on "Using SWF Metadata in Flash 8" in the tutorial section of this site. Have a look at it here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One thing I have always admired about Macromedia as a company is its openness and commitment towards its user community. Lot of companies makes software for the masses but there are very few companies that have the humane touch attached to their software. I strongly believe that one main and major reason for the success of Macromedia is due to their strong commitment towards the community. Macromedia has proved this time and again and now once again with Macromedia Labs.

Macromedia Labs is such a amazing concept, a place where you can keep updated on what's cooking up for the next release, how other developers around the globe are using Macromedia products, to see how people around the globe are pushing the limits of Macromedia products and what more do you want - you can interact with the developers directly and comment and contribute to the wiki. Name me one commercial software company which has opened its door so wide open to let their users do these things.

And for those who are interested in ActionScript 3.0, don't forget to check out the ActionScript 3.0 FAQ. It answers the following questions; I have linked the questions in the FAQ for convenience here:

1.1.1 Have any items been deprecated in ActionScript 3.0
1.1.2 How do I access the root time line of my content?
1.1.3 What is the difference between Stage.root and displayObject.root?
1.1.4 What are the default values that types are initialized to?
1.1.5 Can int / uint / Number contain a null value?
1.1.6 How can I check whether an object contains a property?

1.1.6.1 in operator
1.1.6.2 Object.hasOwnProperty(k)
1.1.6.3 Object.propertyIsEnumerable(k)

1.1.7 How can I specify a function with optional arguments
1.1.8 Does ActionScript 3.0 support metadata?
1.1.9 Can I use variables within metadata definitions?
1.1.10 Can I access metadata at runtime?
1.1.11 How can I get meta information about a class instance?
1.1.12 What are all the access modifiers in ActionScript 3.0, and what do they mean?
1.1.13 What is the default access modifier?
1.1.14 Are private functions inherited by subclasses?
1.1.15 What are primitive data types?
1.1.16 What are complex data types?
1.1.17 What is the difference between int, uint and Number?

1.1.17.1 int
1.1.17.2 unit
1.1.17.3 Number

1.1.18 Can I still use Trace in ActionScript 3.0?
1.1.19 Does ActionScript 3.0 support constants? If so, how?
1.1.20 Can you still declare classes as dynamic in ActionScript 3.0?
1.1.21 How do I put my class in a package?
1.1.22 How do I keep my classes from being extended?
1.1.23 What are namespaces?

1.2 Object Oriented Programming

1.2.1 Can a class implement multiple interfaces in ActionScript 3.0?
1.2.2 Are Abstract Classes supported in ActionScript 3.0?

1.3 Errors

1.3.1 Where can I find more information on what ActionScript 3.0 errors mean?

1.4 Loading Data

1.4.1 How do I load data from a remote URL?
1.4.2 How can I pass name/ values pairs to a remote server?

1.5 XML

1.5.1 Can I still use the old ActionScript 2.0 XML API?
1.5.2 What API is used to parse XML in ActionScript 3.0
1.5.3 How do I create a string of XML in code?
1.5.4 How do I load and parse XML from a remote URL?
1.5.5 How can I access elements within XML that has one or more namespaces?

1.6 Browser Integration

1.6.1 How do I tell the browser to navigate to a URL?
1.6.2 What API do I use for Flash / JavaScript communication?
1.6.3 What browsers are supported by the ExternalInterface API
1.6.4 How can I call a JavaScript function from ActionScript?
1.6.5 How can I call an ActionScript function from JavaScript?
1.6.6 How can I get return values from Flash / Javascript function calls?
1.6.7 Can I use flash.net.navigateToURL to communicate with JavaScript?
1.6.8 How can I access variables passed into a Flex Application from the URL or FlashVars?
1.6.9 Will multiple consecutive calls from ActionScript to JavaScript work?
1.6.10 How can I access variables passed into a Flash / Non-Flex Application from the URL or FlashVars?

1.7 Text

1.7.1 How can I capture user click events on hyperlinks in HTML text within Flash?

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think most of you would have read this news by now. For those who have not, here it is:

A 19 year old geek has used a worm with JavaScript, modified using XMLHTTP Request (within AJAX Web applications) to insert a code into the profiles of people who are visiting his page on MySpace and has gained tremendous popularity, overnight. Particularly this line "Upon executing the code, it would add me as one of their friends. This normally requires their approval, but this was all done in the background via Ajax." in his email interview by Philipp Lenssen is very threatening. You can find the explanation of his code here; very interesting to see how he has hacked his way in.

He has become so popular that Zazzle is selling T-shirts titled "Samy is My Hero"

While we have a very positive outlook towards Web 2.0 and likes, these kind of incidents reminds us that we should not miss out on the security threats that new technologies like AJAX posses.

Related readings :

The Web 2.0 MySpace Friend-Generating Worm
Samy. Their Hero
How to Make 1 Million Friends on MySpace
Hacker Makes Himself the Most Popular Person On MySpace
fast.info

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 02:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I was browsing through some LongHorn blogs and stumbled across this experiment by Valentin Iliescu. A 3D Chess game using WinFX, quite impressive but don't know how much of work it takes to get something similar done. Check it out here.

BTW you need WinFX runtime components installed in your machine to view this wba application. You can download WinFX donwloader from here. Initially it's a 2MB web download and then the installer downloads 34MB of WinFX runtime components.

If you already have WinFX runtime components installed you can directly have a look at the application here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

AJAX and the Richer Internet Application : This is an article on ZDNet Blogs about AJAX, Flex and DreamFactory, the three emerging RIA's. The author complains that AJAX lacks graphic capabilities which is where Flex leads the market. The interesting part about the whole story is not the content itself but this comment in the TalkBack section. I completely agree with Frank, many a times we get into a comparing mode and start comparing one against another, I am no exception myself, its a urge to do so. But in the process we completely forgot the possibilities of leveraging both of these competing technologies to deliver something better than what each one of them can achieve independently.

Now I have a question, why do you ever need fifty to sixty thousand moving pieces in your RIA? :)

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I have posted a new tutorial on "Creating a File upload application using FileReference API" in the tutorial section of the site. Check it out here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have created a prototype of a Post-It type guestbook application using new Flash 8 features and FileReference API to include user photos along with comments.

Check out the application here.

Still have to tune up the application a bit. Will post the source files once it's done.

The design is inspired by the Post-It experiment by Oscar Trelles.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the new features of Flash 8 which I am very impressed with is the onHTTPStatus handler, which saves a lot of development time spend in debugging RIA's. I have posted a new tutorial on the tutorial section of the site on using the onHTTPStatus handler. Have a look at it here:

Using the onHTTPStatus handler

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)