Creating AIR Projects with Flash CS3

Currently, you can only create AIR (formerly Apollo) applications with FlexBuilder. Adobe has already announced that they will be adding support to Flash CS3 to create AIR projects, but we wanted a solution in the meantime. As such, we’ve built a panel that lets you test, configure and compile AIR applications from within Flash CS3.

A Flash of Silverlight? My Analysis.

There have been a lot of posts on the topic of Flash versus Silverlight, but I thought I would chime in with my own thoughts on the subject. From my perspective, the discussion can be broken into four categories: opportunity, runtime, tools, and intent.

Flash CS3 Components Revealed

I had the pleasure (and stress!) of leading the architecture and development of the new set of components for Flash CS3. At FitC Toronto, I will be giving a full tour of the v3 components. I’ll be talking about the goals and philosophy behind the new architecture, skinning, styling, and extensibility.

Using Flash Symbols with ActionScript in Flex

I’ve developed a technique called Shake’n’Bake SWFs, which allows you to utilize Flash symbols in Flex projects with all AS intact. This technique is relatively easy to implement, but I’ve also built a class called FlashLib that handles most of the details for you, and a jsfl script that will set up and update the class for you with one click.

Bitmap Fonts in Flex (via Flash)

One font related feature that’s completely missing from Flex though is support for creating bitmap fonts. This is a shame, because bitmap fonts are sharp and aliased, and look great at small sizes. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to create a bitmap font in Flash, and embed it in Flex. Simply follow these steps…

Flex Loves Flash? Embed and Beyond.

..existing approaches like asset embed and strategies for organizing those assets, “shake and bake SWFs”, using classes/symbols from SWFs that are loaded at runtime, new integration techniques that will work with Flash CS3, and some of the approaches I am working with Adobe to develop that will help simplify this integration. Also related topics like data embedding, and how to use bitmap fonts in Flex.