Werth.

Flex fires unexpected errors during compiling, if we use in german so called “Umlaute” in the code- or targeting UTF-8 encoding. Unfortunately the UTF-8 XML-tag at the head of any Flex code ducument is not enough to reach the “freedom of UTF-8″. The document itself has to be saved UTF-8 encoded. This could be done by using an editor like Notepad++ or any other program containing save options like “save as UTF-8″.

stevie AIR 1.5, Action Script 3, Flex 3

Flex states are wonderful. What if we need substates?
A closer look to the lifedocs shows us an attribute which is providing this. The so called “basedOn-attribute”.

The mx:State tag has the following attributes:

  mx:State
  Properties
  basedOn="null"
  name="null"
  overrides="null"

stevie Flex 3

I had some problems to find a way to remove this light cyan effect on Grant Skinners custom install badge. And I was wondering to see so many badge implemantations still keeping this effect on there logo. So I was in in touch with the Adobe team.

They say that the badge is largely grayscale (intentionally so), but that there is a very subtle cyan “light” at the top of the screen. That can be easily disabled by just deleting it, or guiding / editing the “light” layer in the FLA. Great, but what to do if you just have no flash development environment on board, or can`t find the right layer?

They send me a sample_badge_without_cyan_effect.zip.
Grab it if you like. Maybe sometime there is a new version available.  Check it out at:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/badge_for_air.html

stevie AIR 1.5 AIR 1.5

To use multiple styles, themes, skins from within flex we need to compile corresponding layout data to a sfw-file. Some examples bellow.

Compile a simple css file on windows to use it as switchable style (style.swf):

C:\FLEX\flex_sdk_3\bin\mxmlc C:\AIRSDK\pslrss\css\style.css

Compile a theme/skin from fillcolors.com on windows:

C:\FLEX\flex_sdk_3\bin\mxmlc

-include-libraries=
C:\AIRSDK\pslrss\themes\rainbow\CSSPlus.swc,
C:\AIRSDK\pslrss\themes\rainbow\Mate3.swc

C:\AIRSDK\pslrss\themes\rainbow\Rainbow.css

stevie AIR 1.5, Flex 3 Flex Skin Switch, Flex Template Chooser, loadStyleDeclarations, Theme, Themes

Instead of using anonymous functions we can write something like this to access variables from within eventListeners:

private classVar:String    = 'A string just for fun';

private function myClassFunction():void{

    var FunctionVar:String = 'A string just for fun';

    var myHandler:Function = function(e:Event):void{

        classVar           = 'Something else';

        FunctionVar        = 'Something else';

        trace('----Event.CLOSE-----');

        pslnote.removeEventListener(Event.CLOSE, myhandler);

        pslnote            = null;

        return;

    }//handlerEnd

    pslnote.addEventListener(Event.CLOSE,myHandler);

}//functionEnd

stevie Action Script 3 AS3 Flex AIR

Wrapping Text in Flex is sometimes difficult.
To eleminate white space use the attribute:

condenseWhite=”true”

…For example this could be done by using a Textarea:

mx:String id=”myTextVar” source=”./myText.html”
mx:TextArea id=”textArea”
htmlText=”{myTextVar}”
condenseWhite=”true”
width=”100%”
height=”150″
editable=”false”

stevie Flex 3

Default rounded corners do not work on Textinputs (textInputs) but a textinput can have rounded corners try this:

mx:TextInput cornerRadius=”10″ borderStyle=”solid”

Without the borderStyle set to solid it doesn’t work. This might work on different other components like boxes etc. too.

stevie Flex 3

Have you ever tried to implement a theme chooser in Flex?
We know we have to compile the CSS files for a skin to a SWF to make this happen. But unfortunately the adobe livedocs dont tell something about the nessesarry unloadStyleDeclarations method:

StyleManager.unloadStyleDeclarations(oldStyleFile);

…which will prevent us from some random mysteriouse behavior ;-).
Here comes a complete AS 3 example for Flex:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

	
    
< ![CDATA[

    import mx.styles.StyleManager;

    [Bindable]
    private var themes: Array = [
        {label:"Smoke", data:"themes/Smoke/Smoke.swf"},
        {label:"Institutional", data:"themes/Institutional/Institutional.swf"},
        {label:"AeonGraphical", data:"themes/AeonGraphical/AeonGraphical.swf"},
        {label:"Shadow", data:"css/shadow.swf"},
        {label:"Default Flex Style", data:"css/style.swf"},
        {label:"Blend", data:"css/blend.swf"},
        {label:"Flex Skins", data:"css/flex_skins.swf"},
        {label:"Ice", data:"themes/Ice/Ice.swf"},
        {label:"Rainbow", data:"themes/rainbow/Rainbow.swf"},
        {label:"Carbon", data:"themes/carbon/carbon.swf"},
        {label:"yflexskin", data:"themes/yflexskin/yflexskin.swf"}

    ];

    private var oldStyleFile:String;

    private function myLoadStyle():void{
        var layout:String=theme.selectedItem.data;
        StyleManager.unloadStyleDeclarations(oldStyleFile);
        StyleManager.loadStyleDeclarations(layout);
        oldStyleFile = layout;
    }

    ]]>
	

	

Notice:

1. To avoid any flicker effects while switching themes, we can use fadeIn/fadeOut-flex-effects during style changes.

2. Style-Declarations have to be set equivalent from theme to theme. Otherwise we get some memory effect on forgotten declarations (still present styles after changing).

Exciting FLEX themes/skins can be found here:
http://www.scalenine.com/
http://www.fillcolors.com/
Unfortunately most of them require some modifications for special (or common) purposes ;-).

stevie AIR 1.5, Action Script 3, Flex 3 AIR 1.5, Flex 3, Flex Skin Switch, Flex Template Chooser, loadStyleDeclarations, StyleManager, Theme, Themes

In addition to Christophe Coenraets article “Using the SQLite Database Access API in AIR Part 3″ I made some modifications to enable inline editing and update the grid imidiately after every data change.

import mx.events.DataGridEvent;
private var em:EntityManager = EntityManager.getInstance();

public function saveItem():void
{
    em.save(contact);
    parentApplication.loadContacts();
}

public function saveItemInline(event:DataGridEvent):void
{
    var field:String = event.dataField;
    contact[field] =   event.currentTarget.itemEditorInstance.text;
    em.save(contact);
}

public function deleteItem():void
{
    em.remove(contact);
    parentApplication.loadContacts();
}

public function newItem():void
{
    contact = new Contact();
}

stevie AIR 1.5, Action Script 3, Flex 3 AIR 1.5, EntityManager, Flex 3, Flex ORM, Flex SQLite, newDB, SQLConnection

In the 80’s I payed 1 “Deutsche Mark” for every Astorid Game- never could imagine having this “onto” a personal blog site- just for free :-).

Click here to play Galaga!

Click here to play Galagon 2004



Click here to play Pacman II


Click here to play Strikers 1945


Click here to play Jetfighter


Click here to play Hybrid Fighter


Click here to play Space Bugs

stevie Lost and Found