DragController updated

Thanks to the hard work of Nicolas Zeh the component I did some time ago (draggable controller) has now lot of changes!

  • a new name: DragController
  • drag and drop multiple items at once if multipleSelection is set to true for a component
  • added the following methods to the DragEvent Object:
  • evt.checkType
  • evt.addItem
  • evt.removeItem
  • evt.addAndRemoveItem
  • the methods were renamed to fit Macromedias naming conventions for methods
  • i lowered the addReference restriction that both components have to be UIComponents. Now only the source has to be an UIComponent and the target suffices to be a MovieClip.
  • added a veto method for the “drag_start” event. So user can decide on this Event if he would like to allow dragging of this specific item.
  • added an onDropData method besides the Event handlers. So you can assign this method directly to a defined target component.
  • added flags similar to DragAndDropTree component. These are:
  • DENYDRAGFOLDER (only tree component)
  • DENYDRAGITEM (only tree component, as i makes no sense for other components)
  • DENYDROPINTOITEM (only tree component)
  • DENYDROPINTOFOLDER (only tree component)
  • DENYDROPINTO (only tree component)
  • DENYDROPINBETWEEN this option disallows setting a specific target index position and will add the item at the end of the List, DataGrid, Tree
  • removed some bugs concerning Focus on Component and selectedItems. But i am not sure if there aren’t some left due to Flash’s strange Focus mechanisms. (sure, I still haven’t understood the focus mechnism of MM components)

There’s also a very comprehensive help of the component (just look in the F1 flash help panel)

[attachments size=large docid=768 force_saveas=”1″ logged_users=”0″]

Flash Player 8 Public Beta

Released the Flash Player 8 public beta.
It’s a pre-release version of “the next major release of Flash Player. It is being made available for developers and consumers to test their content to ensure existing content plays back correctly and that there are no compatibility issues.
As usual there’s also the bug reporting form:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/fp_public_beta_feedback

http://www.macromedia.com/../public_beta

Will Flash 8 support E4X?

An unintentionally mail posted in the Flex mailing list talks about one of the new Flex 2.0 features, the support of E4X.
This means that probably the new flash player will support it also… This should be a great step over the old “DOM” flash support.. in this case XML entities will be threated as builtins objects Read more about ECMAScript for XML (E4X) Specification: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm

see the original post

Admin Tool

Some days ago a friend of mine showed me a “strange” (this is what i was thinking looking at that) application which made a complete debug of its flash movie.
Wow, incredible easier easier and easier than the Flash builtin debugger!!
Thus I immediately downloaded it and i was surprised of the impressive work this guy made!
Reading from admin tool’s web page: The AdminTool (AT) is a “snapshot viewer” of the current state of your Flash application without impacting the performance or the file size of your application. … It Works when published in the FlashIDE, local player, web browser. This means that you can debug your application at runtime from its intended location.
Basically it works with a Flash component (an mxp extension) which resides in your swf library and open a localconnection to the main admin tool interface.
Moreover you can change in realtime every property of your running swf to see what happens with that change.
And you can execute actionscript code in runtime from the admin tool, and see that code executed in you swf!! You can see also every video and sound from the swf.
The only requirement is that swf must be compiled for AS2 only. Downloads (mxp, win exe, mac exe and help files) are availables here: http://acmewebworks.typepad.com/…/admin_tool_down.html

Make your suggestion for the next Flash!

Hi, this message is for all Flash Users.
We’re collecting feedbacks and improvements, to turn subsequently to
Macromedia Flash Team, in order to obtain a wished list from who like you
use the program.
This operation has the sole scope to improve the development flash
enviroment and to adapt the software more to the requirements of the
customers.
You can propose new functionalities and improvements on those already
existing, trying to concentrate on aspects not too much general but on
detailed features lists that in your opinion lack or that you found
low-efficient for your daily job.

All messages should be sent to: flashwishlist@riadev.com

For example, some my suggestions:
– Improvements with XPath functionallity
– Regular expression implementation
– Make components smaller!
– Make a REAL try/catch implementation, expecially for runtime env

Strange issue with Flash Updater 7.2

I got this very strange behavior (let me say BUG) with the new flash updated version 7.2, and which drove me crazy for a while!

Create a new document, settings set to flash player 7 and AS2.
Create in the document a movieclip with exporting settings, export for ActionScript, and give the name “mc”. Delete the movieclip from the timeline.
try the code:

depth = _root.getNextHighestDepth()
trace(depth);
_root.attachMovie('mc','mc',depth)
mc.onRelease = function(){
this.removeMovieClip();
}

you will get a “0” in the trace output and once click on the movieclip, this will disappear.

NOW.
Drag a component on the stage, for example the tree component, and then delete it from the timeline. This is just in order to have it into the library.
Test the movie again.

I get in the trace output the value of “1048576” and the movieclip does not disappear now!

incredible!

Flash Updater 7.2 available now!

Flash 7.2Version 7.2 of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 is now available with improvements in performance, stability and documentation.

What’s changed?
* Faster initial launch time
* Compile times up to twice as fast
* More than 400 additional code examples
* Additional documentation on working with components
* Over 100 bug fixes. Read the details in the release notes.

The updater is available for the English version of Flash only, it seems others language we have to wait till end of summer.

Also a new class has been added: mx.utils.Delegate
and here a sample of usage:

import mx.utils.Delegate;
myDataGrid.addEventListener("change",Delegate.create(this,onMyDataGridChange));
myComboBox.addEventListener("change",Delegate.create(this,onMyComboBoxChange));
function onMyDataGridChange(eventObj:Object):Void{	trace("myDataGrid change event fired");}

function onMyComboBoxChange(eventObj:Object):Void{	trace("myComboBox change event fired");}