LiveCycle Data Services (LCDS) Goodies added to Tour de Flex!

Recently I’ve been given the opportunity to work on adding LiveCycle Data Services (LCDS) samples to Tour de Flex in an effort to help ‘de-mystify’ it for developers. In my opinion it seems that many find it a bit intimidating, at least anything beyond using HTTPService, WebService or RemoteObject anyway… I think much of this is due to the lack of information on how to use it exactly (other...

Attest 1.8.5 – Additional Flex 3/AIR mock exams released!

Tonight we released another update to Attest based on some user feedback received from our previous poll. Version 1.8.5 includes the addition of a bunch of questions and exams as requested, and some you may find a bit more challenging. We also covered some additional material with these questions, so people should feel that much more prepared for the exam. It also includes a new randomization feature in...

Attest 2.0 (Flex 3/AIR Certification Practice Exams) Feature Poll

Since releasing Attest late March, Dave Flatley from PXL Designs, Inc and I have gotten some awesome feedback from the community including how you’re using it, features to add, change etc. We had some ideas of our own as well and decided it might be a good idea to come to the community and take a vote for the most desired features for Attest 2.0. Below is a poll that we came up with to summarize some...

The Making of an Eclipse Plug-in – Part 1

Learn how to create a plug-in view for Eclipse or Flex Builder.

My Flex/AIR ACE Certification Experience

A couple of months ago I started considering taking my Flex 3/AIR Certification. I solicited feedback in a previous blog post and got some really great comments regarding the value of getting the certification. I wanted to write up a quick post about the experience myself and my overall feelings on the topic for the many people out there considering it. I know there are many opinions on taking the test and...

Tour de Flex – Web Version Released!

Tour de Flex for the Web was released today! It’s hosted on the Adobe Devnet site where we also now keep the Tour de Flex AIR app download, and looks almost identical to the AIR version, minus the AIR-only samples for obvious reasons. The web version contains deep linking integrated into it so it’s now very easy to bookmark samples for later reference, or to email a sample to a co-worker etc… This...

Get Flex/AIR Certified! Attest 1.5 mock exam AIR app released – FREE!

Recently I decided to research getting my Adobe Flex 3/AIR ACE Certification and quickly found there was not a whole lot in the way of test preparation besides using the Adobe LiveDocs and the various books on the subjects. What I really wanted was the ability to take a mock exam and see which areas I might not be as proficient in and need to study further. I stumbled across some software called Attest,...

Adobe Flex/AIR Certification?

So I’ve been contemplating studying for and taking the Adobe Flex 3 with AIR exam to become an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) and thought it would be good to solicit some feedback from the community. I would love to hear any details about how it may have helped you if you’ve already earned your certification (or if it seems to have made no difference), or any other details on the exam as far as how...

Flex/AIR Application Scope Tips

Since I’ve been developing in Flex, the one thing I’ve been trying to get a better handle on is how to go about accessing what I need and when. After digging in to the Flex SDK a bit, I have come to some conclusions on different properties and objects that can be used in different scenarios. The following summary is what I came up with and would like to share with others that may find it...

Tour de Flex Unveiled!

So I’ve just returned from Adobe MAX 2008 and I’m very excited about finally being able to talk about the latest and greatest application I had the pleasure of working on… Tour de Flex! If you haven’t already hear about it, Tour de Flex is an AIR application that allows you to explore and learn about Flex and AIR through a variety of code samples and illustrations. It includes samples for using the...

Flex/AIR to Java Communication Using Merapi

If you’re looking for a way to communicate between Flex and Java, there’s a great API available for doing just that. It’s called Merapi and is basically a bridge for sending messages between Java applications and Flex/AIR apps. I recently worked on a project for Adobe (shhh, until MAX!) where I used Merapi to communicate between an Eclipse plugin and an AIR app and found it extremely...

Generate PDF's from your Flash, Flex and AIR apps

If you’re looking to generate a client side PDF from your Flash, Flex or AIR applications, there is a great ActionScript 3 library available now for doing just that. It’s called AlivePDF and was built under an MIT license so you are free to use it in your applications. I downloaded it and tried it myself and was generating a PDF from my AIR app in seconds! I found it very easy to use, and without...

Data Binding Gone Wild!

The ability to base a property of an object off a dynamically changing value is a benefit of data binding that is often unknown or overlooked by Flex developers. However it is an extremely valuable feature and can save a lot of time coding and handling various events, not to mention much cleaner code! This is particularly true for those properties requiring a boolean, such as ‘enabled’ or...

WebManiacs Conference Review

I spent most of last week in Washington, DC attending the WebManiacs conference. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and maxed out my attendance to all the classes I could possibly fit in each day, spending most of my time in hands-on courses. I was impressed with the fact they provided the use of computers (except for the fact that they were running Windows!) and learned a ton in a very short period of...