In part 1 of this series I talked about the reasons why you would want to make a flex component out of something you can do in actionscript. In part 2 I discussed the basics of the component architecture. From that second article you can create a component that works however you still haven't handled most of the reasons to make a component in the first place. In this article I will take care of those issues the issues of data binding, event handling and making it easier for non coders( sometimes called designers or managers ) to work with.
Part 2 in my multipart series about creating a Flex component fromt he new Yahoo! map API for actionscript 3 is now available in the my.opera Flexcoders group blog.
In part 1 of my series on making a flex component out of the new Yahoo! Maps API for actionscript 3 I talked about the reasons I was taking the time to componentize something I could easily build with pure actionscript. Today I will be talking through the basics of creating a visual component. While these basics are covered at the LiveDocs for Flex 3, I will go over them in a slightly different way, as well as talk about how they affect the Yahoo! map component in particular.
Also make sure to join the Flexcoders group as it is new and looking for new members. At the very least, feel free to ask questions in the forum.
This week I am at the Flex 360 conference in Atlanta. As this is the first Flex conference I've been able to go to I am very excited. Today is the official first day and I am sure they will talk about how Flex 3 and AIR are now currently live, since that is exactly what happened as of sometime last night. I wonder what other nuggets of information they have in store for us. I'll share with you what I can.
I have already posted a Friday humor post today, but hey it's almost Christmas so consider it a present. Of course, being the holiday season you may not have time for the jibba jabba but this video is worth it.
I think the whole lolcats phenomenon is silly. It's kind of funny and some of the parodies are much better than the originals. However I think the following lol cat sums up the phenomenom quite well.
Today I was working on a project using the Flex TileList component to make an icon bank for a project I'm working on. The problem I ran into was deselecting the items. Like other ListBase Components, when an item gets selected in a TileList it stays selected until you select another item. I needed to unselect the icons when I clicked anywhere but an icon. My first thought was to use the onFocusOut event but that only worked when you clicked somewhere that took focus. Scanning through the list of events for the TileList component I saw the mouseFocusChange event that is fired by all DisplayObjects. I used it to change the selectedIndex to -1 and it worked as required.
I've been using AMFPHP for a while now. Up until recently I have been using dumb objects and simple NetConnections to pass things back and forth between Flex and PHP. Over time, the objects I was passing back and forth got more complex and strong typing of the objects looked like a better way to go, but there was a lot of code that would have to change in my libraries to make it happen so I kept putting it off.
The Yahoo! Maps Flash Component and API is a nice system to work with. For a simple to use map plug in for flash that looks decent without much work, its the best there is. However I like to work with it and see what hidden gems I can find. Or, as is the case in this article, delve deep inside of it and try to find out how to make it work as I want it to. It's still technically beta, so it has it's own little quirks.
I won't proclaim to be a linux geek, even though I'm geeky enough to try it out. This may be because the latest version of Ubuntu has taken the geekiness out of linux( or rather hidden it - it's still there ). But I do understand hardcore linux fanboys and their devotion to being cool because they program in Emacs or VI. Well, the adobe linux presentation at MAX Chicago played on this syndrome of linux geeks who always seem to be coding in command line text editors.
I'm the type of person who has to do it the hard way. It drives my wife nuts sometimes, but I've got to do it my way even if it's the difficult path. I like to be different. Being different is what led me to trying out linux. So in the beginning I tried out Fedora Core 4 and that experiment failed. When everybody went ga-ga over Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn release (7.04), it inspired me to try Fedora Core 7 which was released a couple of months later. Fedora is a great distro but it takes a bit more work than people less stubborn than me are willing to give. At least it does for things I think should be simple, like playing back certain media files that have patent issues. Fedora is very focused on spreading open source, and I applaud that philosophy. However, it also has them make it difficult to play files that have patent issues. However, I kept on hearing about how easy things are in Ubuntu.
A little while back I posted some details about a hack to get Flex Builder working in linux. I've also been watching the Adobe blogs and other Flex Builder associated information sources. The same question always comes up when Adobe asks, "Any questions?". Yes, when is Flex Builder coming out for Linux.
I'm jealous of all the people in Chicago at Adobe Max 2007. There is a lot going on this year that I am particularly interested in. I've seen a preview of flash player 10. Flex 3 and AIR beta 2 are out with some great new features people have been wanting to test out. One good thing though is there is much blogging going on.
Part 3 in my multi part series on building a flex component out of the Yahoo! Maps API is available over at the Flexcoders group.) to work with.
A little while back I posted some details about 
WIDGETIZE