AS3BloggerLib v0.1.1 Update
Another quick update on AS3BloggerLib. I changed the package name to reflect the nobien brand. It changed from 'org.mattwright...' to 'com.nobien...'. Why you ask? First, I don't want it to be confused with the most infamous Matt Wright in the internet world. And second, I want to push the nobien name a bit more. Oh, and yes, we have a .net domain name, but there's just something weird about starting a package name with 'net', don't you think?
At any rate, I've added a new download and deprecated the old one. I've also started adding some wiki pages. Hopefully this will give all you developers out there a quick glance at the library rather than having to download it and explore the packages.
The library has only been downloaded a couple times so far, and probably isn't really being used by anyone, but if you do happen to download it, I'm really looking for some feedback so that I can make this thing the best it can be.
AS3BloggerLib Update
Just a quick update. I've updated AS3BloggerLib with proper documentation, an SWC file, and added the first download. The project feels a bit more official now that these are up there. On top of adding this stuff I also did a bit of necessary encapsulation to clean the code up a bit. I'm sure more could be done to optimize the code, such as getting rid of the dependencies, but I'm happy with it for now. I will hopefully be providing some example files to download soon as well. Who will be the first to download?? Does anyone even care about an AS3 blogger library? Ha!
See You at FlashForward!
Hey everyone. Just a little reminder that Marc and myself will be speaking at FlashForward in Boston on this Thursday, September 20th. Our talk is entitled Designers vs. Developers: How to Avoid Fights on the Playground. We'll be hanging out the entire conference too, so if you see us, please feel free to say hello and share some of your stories about working with "the other side". We'd love to hear them and might perhaps be able to give some advice. Travel safely, everyone!
My new project: AS3BloggerLib
Ah, actionscript libraries. You can never have too many of them, right? Right. And not to mention that there's nothing better than someone writing code for you. In all honesty I haven't had much time to myself to use any of the wonderful AS3 libraries that are out there right now, but while working on a chapter for AIR Instant Results I was inspired to start my own project.
The chapter utilizes the Blogger Data API, but because it must be compressed into 30 or so pages, I have to develop a very simplified set of classes to handle the communication. Any OOP stickler would probably give me a hard time about the class structure, but thats a compromise that you sometimes have to make when writing a book. Yes, because I love OOP programming and can't get enough of it, it's certainly sad to have to make compromises. However, this hasn't stopped me from reconciling my own guilt. In my spare time I've been diligently working on a comprehensive AS3 library for the Blogger API. Hooray! Guilt-be-gone.
AS3BloggerLib is my first leap into creating my own open source Actionscript project, and I'm looking forward to fixing, updating, changing, and redesigning this thing until its picture perfect. In all honesty, it still needs some sprucing up (needs lots of encapsulation), but works pretty well for the most part. Certainly there are things that are missing, most notably documentation, but these things should appear in the near future.
No packaged downloads are available yet, so if you're interested in getting at the code you'll have to do an SVN checkout to get the source. Eventually there will be a packaged SWC, examples, and solid documentation. Also, I certainly am not opposed to any criticism or suggestions for improvement, so don't hesitate to start discussing things on the discussion group.
The last note I should make is that this library only works for installed (AIR) applications at the moment because Google does not host a crossdomain file. Other than that, I hope this goes over well!
Not So Thin AIR: Saffron UML
As of late, it seems that AIR has been gaining some popularity. Popularity that is certainly well deserved. Honestly, I had my doubts at first, but the deeper I get into the book we are working on I am finding it to be a really fantastic platform for application development. One particular application that has me extremely excited is an application entitled Saffron that is being developed by Samuel Agesilas Pastel. Its pretty apparent from what he has shown on his blog that the application looks to be one of the best practical uses of the Flex and AIR platforms. I can't help but notice just how beautiful the application looks as well. The interface seems to be delicately crafted and executed to perfection. Of course I'll have a better idea if I ever get to use the application, but needless to say, this application really gets me excited about the future of AIR.
WROX: AIR Instant Results
As you can probably assume from the general latency between posts, things have been pretty busy around here. Marc and I (and Todd) have been hard at work on our book for Wiley. We had not mentioned the title of the book prior, but now that the book is available for pre-order on Amazon, its safe to announce it. The book is titled AIR Instant Results. It has been a major work in progress the past few months as the alpha and beta releases of Apollo/AIR have changed a bit and at times did not deliver the functionality we assumed it might have. Alas, the book should hopefully be available not too long after AIR is officially released to the public.
The book is a "by example" book and each chapter teaches you how to create a different application using AIR within the Flex framework. It should be a great place to start learning about AIR if you have some experience with Flex already. The applications, for the most part, are not too complicated and be a good stepping stone into making your own versions of the same applications, or even spur some inspiration for applications of your own.
After working with AIR for the past few months, I have to admit, I'm very pleased with the direction the developers at Adobe are taking it in. Initially I had doubts about just how useful it would be. I had used MDM Zinc quite a bit at my previous job, and I had a feeling it was going to be similar, but I was completely wrong. Given the functionality that has been implemented so far, and the rumors of future additions, I can safely say that AIR will definitely be a useful technology that developers should consider learning and using. Surprisingly, there's already an initiative to start using the beta runtime over at Pownce. I personally have not used Pownce yet, but its nice to see it being put to good use. Marc and I have even tossed around the idea of whipping up our own application at some point, but not until we finish this book. So be on the look out!