RIA Journal

In silverlight you can easily add images thru the XAML or the classes (ie: c#)

To add it thru the XAML all you have to write is this:

 
<img Source="Picture.jpg" x:Name="MyImage" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />

Here is the whole code:

 
 <usercontrol x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.Page"></usercontrol>xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Width="400" Height="300"&gt;
<grid Background="White" x:Name="LayoutRoot"></grid>
<img Source="Picture.jpg" x:Name="MyImage" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />  
 
<button Content="Hello World!!" Width="200" Height="50" Click="onButtonClick" Background="Aquamarine" x:Name="test"></button>

You can see a demo here: demo

Next I will explore a third party class TWEENER, that works very similar to the TWEENER class build for ActionScript.

http://www.shu-player.com/ 

"Shu enables you to increase the power and reach of Adobe AIR. With Shu your AIR applications can quickly be converted into standalone applications to run on PC or Mac machines without the AIR runtime installed! Shu applications can also be run from a CD or network share and do not require installation.

In addition Shu provides you the developer with a toolkit of commands to extend the system capabilities of your AIR application, features include, controlling external applications, opening external files, database connectivity and control, system path retrieval and screen capture functionality. With Shu you can now truly harness the power of your AIR applications from the desktop and beyond!"

When using webservice classes in an "actionscript-only" Flex project, you have to make sure to include these lines of code before anything else in you class:

 
 var resourceManagerImpl:Object = ApplicationDomain.currentDomain.getDefinition("mx.resources::ResourceManagerImpl");
 Singleton.registerClass("mx.resources::IResourceManager", Class(resourceManagerImpl));
 

If you don't include this code you will get an error like this:

 
Error: No class registered for interface 'mx.resources::IResourceManager'.
at mx.core::Singleton$/getInstance()
at mx.resources::ResourceManager$/getInstance()
 

This is due to a bug in Flex3 compiler, read more info on this bug here:  http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-12205

Handy add-on to swfobject that allows the developer to specify a minimum width & height for a full-browser flash movie:http://blog.pixelbreaker.com/flash/swfforcesize/

When people hear Flex, they inmediately think about file size, and in my experience a Flex project starts to get heavy when you add components and when you use MXML. Flex lets you create two types of projects:

1. Actionscript-only
2. MXML

When creating actionscript only project, the file size is the same or smaller it would be if you were using flash.

I think that for the types of projects I am creating, I don't have much use for MXML, since I am not using any build-in components. Also all MXML is converted by the compiler to AS3 code.

It seems that there are some functionalities that are somewhat tied to MXML, for example when using Webservices in FLEX3 in an actionscript-only project, the compiler expects "ResourceManagerImpl" to be instantiated, this is done automatically when you create a MXML project, so when creating an actionscript-only project, you have to do it manually. This is a bug in Flex3.0 (http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-12205), it will be fixed in the next release of the flex 3 sdk.

I, like many of you, have been developing RIAs since before they were called that, yet only in the past few years, have I stopped to try to understand computers. I do not have a degree in Compsci, but I have realized recently why it is in my best interestes to pursue one. Everything I know about programming I have taught myself.

As programmers, we often forget-or don't know yet know-about the way computers interpret our commands, instead focusing on the tasks we need to accomplish. Indeed, our day is filled with adding more and more code to fix bugs or create new content in a program already bulging at the seams.

I suggest that as programmers it is really our duty to make the program as efficient as possible; a lean, mean fighting machine! As I being to attend classes, I intend to log and comment on my experiences, and how it is affecting the way I program. My first classes begin this fall-Precalculus and Java I-so expect to see more from me soon!

Since Flash CS3 and AS3 came out I been thinking about Flex, most of the projects I seen in Flex were impressive from an architecture/programming point of view but not visually. So that discourage me from using flex.At the same time in AS2 I was used to not having to have a FLA for my projects but instead I would compile the SWFs using MTASC, this way it was easier to automate the compile process (using ANT or nANT), and also that forced me to keep all assets outside of the flash library which made it easier to update/replace by the designers in the team.In AS3 you cannot compile using MTASC but there is the FLEX compiler (mxmlc.exe) that basically allows you to compile AS and MXML files as SWFs.  mxmlc allows you to compile AS files without the need of MXML files.The other advantage of using the command line compiler (mxmlc) is that it allows you to use many classes not available in flash cs3. For some reason ADOBE decided to include certain things in FLEX and not in Flash and also decided to remove some classes that were available in as2. Here is some stuff I found that ADOBE has in Flex and not in Flash:

• Ability to exclude classes at compile time
• Export a subset of characters for a particular font
• Webservice API
• Flash Remoting API

 I created a small project using flash and as3 and to compile it with mxmlc all I had to do were two small changes:

1. The main class has to extend Sprite
2. Add a SWF meta data: (ie.:[SWF(width="900", height="320", backgroundColor="#ffffff", frameRate="30")])

In conclusion I think that by compiling with the flex command line program I get the benefits of flex, ability to automate the compile process, and if you combine this with external assets and the use of a flash library (if necessary) you can also create a project that is visually impressive as well.