Archive for the 'News' Category

MAX 2007 Registration has now opened! Visit AdobeMAX2007.com for more info and to register. This year is going to be great, especially considering the sessions on AIR & Flex 3. MAX is usually a great event where you’ll be sure to take home loads of great info, and meet some great people.

Also, when you register for MAX, be sure to represent! Tell them that uFlash sent you. On the third page of the registration process at the top of the page there is a box to check that says “Check here if you are a member of a community or user group.” Checking that will pop up another text box that says “Please input your community leader or user group manager’s name” (Josh Buhler).

Doing this serves two purposes: one, it lets Adobe know how many members from our group will be attending. The other is a bit more selfish: if 5 or more members of our group register, I can attend for free. (I tried to change this to being a registration that we can raffle off to the group, but no luck there - sorry.)

Either way, I’ll be attending, so hopefully I’ll see you there!

One last reminder about tonight’s meeting on Adobe AIR w/ Daniel Dura of Adobe.

It’s tonight, at 6:00 pm.

The meeting will take place at the Certiport offices, starting at 6:00 PM:

Certiport, Inc.
1276 South 820 East
Suite 200
American Fork, UT 84003

Google Maps Link

Coming from Orem: Take exit 175 (Pleasant Grove) off I-15. Turn left. Go straight through the traffic lights. Take the next right. Take the next left. You’ll see the Certiport office building on the right.

If you arrive and the doors are locked, we’ll be upstairs, so either start yelling really loud, or give me a ring on my cell and we’ll let you in. (I’ll post the number on the door)

Only two more days until our meeting on Adobe AIR (formerlly Apollo) with Daniel Dura of Adobe.

Here’s a quick update on what will be discussed:

Innovating with Apollo

Introducing Adobe’s Apollo project. Learn about the next generation of rich experiences - cross-platform desktop RIAs built using standard web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, Flash, PDF, and SQL.

Adobe’s Apollo project, still under development, will allow web developers the ability to use the tools, skills, and existing code to build rich desktop applications that leverage the capabilities of the web with the power of the desktop. We will discuss the features of Apollo, such as online/offline API, file system access, local databases, windowing support, etc. We will also give a sneak peak of the upcoming beta release and show off how you can build these applications using Flash, Flex, and Dreamweaver.

Meeting Update - Special Date, Time, & Location

Our June meeting will be held this month at a special date & time. Our meeting will be held on Thursday, June 14. We’ll be hearing from a special guest presenter, Daniel Dura of Adobe.

Daniel will be in town to speak to us about Adobe Apollo. More details will follow, but here is the basic info you need to know now:

The meeting will take place at the Certiport offices, starting at 6:00 PM:

Certiport, Inc.
1276 South 820 East
Suite 200
American Fork, UT 84003

Google Maps Link

Coming from Orem: Take exit 175 (Pleasant Grove) off I-15. Turn left. Go straight through the traffic lights. Take the next right. Take the next left. You’ll see the Certiport office building on the right.

If you arrive and the doors are locked, we’ll be upstairs, so either start yelling really loud, or give me a ring on my cell and we’ll let you in. (I’ll post the number on the door)

As a result of this meeting, Rob Taylor’s presentation on using modules in Flex will be moved back to our July meeting.

We’ll also still be having our June software raffle, as well as raffling off a few prizes donated by our friends at O’Reilly, Friends of Ed, & Pearson Ed.

Don’t forget - we’re meeting this week, and will have two presenters.

Sinead Hogan will first be presenting on making accessible Flash content. She’ll then be followed by Rob Taylor, who will enlighten us in the ways of helping Flash content communicate with Flex-based content.

This is our last meeting before our big software giveaway next month, so make sure that you come, as every meeting you attend, is one more entry into next month’s raffle.

And as always, we’ll be meeting on Thursday evening, at 6:00 pm, at the mediaRAIN offices.

Yesterday’s meeting focused on Apollo. We had 2 presenters, Josh Buhler and myself (Jacob Wright). I promised I would put what we covered in my part of the presontation online.

The HTMLControl is the new DisplayObject which allows Apollo to have HTML inside of your Flash application. We created a quick browser/Rich Text editor with the component to demonstrate how you can work with the HTMLControl. It allowed us to browse the internet and then edit any web page we wanted. We had fun editing google.com mostly. Linked below is the MXML code as well as the AIR file that was created.

First we layed out the UI for our editor. We included a URL text field to keep track of where we were or to type in a new URL to navigate to. We added an Edit toggle button which allowed us to turn the page editing on and off. We added buttons labeled Bold, Italic, Underline, and Create Link to play with the HTML when it was in edit mode. And we had a text box to go along with the Create Link button so that we could specify where to link to. After the buttons we of course had our HTMLControl filling most of the screen. The actual UIComponent that wraps HTMLControl is just called HTML and can be found in the Apollo section of the components.

Once we layed everything out we added our listeners and methods so that the URL input box was updated whenever we got to a new page as well as the edit toggle was reset. We also made sure we alwasy had the most recent document object stored so we could edit things. We added a few other methods and hooked up our buttons to do their stuff. Tada! We can now edit the web!

MXML file and AIR file for an editable browser

The Flex Show podcast is giving away a few copies of Adobe Flex Builder. All you need to do to enter is to build a cool Flex application, and then send it their way.

Get the details by listening to the show: The Flex Show: Episode 10

http://www.uflash.org/sponsors/

Many of the books & other prizes that we give away at our meetings are donated by companies and publishers other than Adobe. Periodically, they offer user group members discounts when ordering their products. As we receive these discount offers, or donated products to give away, they’ll be posted on our Sponsors page.

Check back often, as these offers may not always be available!

The time has come, and we are in need of speakers for upcoming meetings. I’m sure that as much as you guys like me, you’re probably getting tired of hearing me talk, and would like to limit that time as much as possible.

So, we are asking for speakers. What we’d like to see is uFlash starting to cover a few different topics each night. There will still be a few meetings where we devote the entire night to one topic depending the amount of material that would need to be covered.

Here’s what we need/would like:

• Volunteers willing to present 20-30 minutes on a particular topic
• Examples / demo code to distribute after the meeting

Think of whatever you want for a topic to present on - this could include an intro to the Flex debugger, using the SoundSpectrum, using SWFObject, using the Flex SDK instead of FlexBuilder, etc. You don’t need to be an authority, and know everything and anything related to the topic. You just need a willingness to learn and share what you’ve learned with the group. We’d love to see the community grow and one of the best ways to help each other out is to be willing to teach and share your knowledge. You’ll gain some extra skills in preparing your preso, and you’ll be able to learn more by coming to the meeting, as we’ll be covering more each night. It’s really a win/win for everyone involved.

Also, for those that have presented at our meetings, you’ll also earn an extra entry into our June software raffle. You’ll already earn one entry for coming to the meeting, and then a bonus entry for presenting.

If you’re interested in presenting, just let us know. Send me an email at josh@joshbuhler.com, and let me know what you’d like to talk about, and when you’d like to do it. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Want one of those Flex API posters we’ve been giving away? I’m not sure how long this offer is available, but head on over to Flex.org for details on how to get your hands on one.

http://www.flex.org/posters/

Fill out the form, blog or link to Flex.org, and you should receive a poster within 1-3 weeks.