RIA Development with Adobe Flex and Flash

Adobe AIR 2 beta 2 was released today. Web developers can use the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of their choice, including Adobe tools such as Eclipse-based Flex Builder, Flash, and Dreamweaver to build Adobe AIR applications. Developers can build Adobe AIR applications using their existing web development skills with technologies such as HTML, Ajax, Flash and Flex.

Adobe Labs

Adobe AIR 2 Beta 2 Sample Applications

Continuing a long tradition of innovation, Adobe is pushing the boundaries of the Adobe Flash Platform with exciting new releases for Flash, Flex, and ColdFusion designers, developers, and administrators. Join us as Ben Forta, Adobe’s Director of Platform Evangelism, presents the future of ColdFusion, Flex, and more! On the ColdFusion side, Ben will talk about the upcoming releases of ColdFusion (currently known by the code name Centaur) and the highly anticipated first ColdFusion IDE from Adobe (currently known by the code name Bolt). You’ll learn about exciting new features and discover how Centaur and Bolt will accelerate your ColdFusion application development. On the Flex side, Ben will talk about the next release of Flex (currently known by the code name Gumbo). You’ll see product feature demos and learn how Gumbo breaks new ground for not only developers but also designers as it powers the design, development, and testing of rich Internet applications and content. And of course, Ben will explain and demonstrate the power of ColdFusion and the power of Adobe Flex working together!

If you have heard Ben present you already know how engaging and informative this presentation will be; if you haven’t ever had the pleasure of attending one of Ben’s presentations, trust us — you want to be there!

Who: Ben Forta
What: ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4 Pre-release Tour
When: Monday, June 8. 6:00 - 9:00PM
Where: EchoEleven - Adobe Software Training

Join us at the Atlanta Adobe® Flex User Group meeting this Wednesday night at the echoEleven offices - Adobe Authorized Training in Atlanta, Georgia. Below is a summary of the topics and speakers, but you can find out more detail at the Atlanta Flex User Group Meetup site.

Alan Queen on Dynamic Audio with Adobe® Flex/Flash/Air

We’ll explore the new capabilities for audio in Flash player 10 and discuss how these new features can be leveraged to create everything from music synthesizers to full blown multi-track audio sequencers.
We’ll also take a deep dive into the code on how to draw audio waveforms, and how to play and mix multiple audio streams in real time.

Kenny Bunch on Building Media and Video Applications.

We will explore some of the potential entertainment based applications that can be built with the Flash player. The exploration will utilize samples from Playstation, Adult Swim, and others as a basis for discussion. In addition, we’ll take a look at how the Dreamsocket Media Framework provides a foundation for delivering these types of apps.

This past week I found myself in a position of indepentently working from my home office again. After years working with the same productivity software on a daily basis, I found myself scrambling to figure out what open source and free software tools are on the market these days. My first decision was to decide what I could use to keep track of my time and record every step of my daily work routine. Wether you are in sales, software development, or project management, every minute you spend working that goes unaccounted for is like dropping a penny on the ground and not picking it up. Tracking your time accurately is essential to staying ahead of your competition and benchmarking your success.

The problem I find with most of the time tracking software that I see is that they are way to complex. I just need something simple that can track my daily work by the hour. That’s it, … plain and simple. So, I stumbled upon this sweet little Adobe® AIR app that is simple but not really plain at all. In fact it is a super hot looking application that has just the right combo of feelgood and lookgood.

Klok - Personal Time Tracking Made Easy has all the capabilities you would look for in such an app including the ability to track your work by client and project as well as a seemingly unlimited level of sub-projects or tasks. Each project item is color coded and it’s a piece of cake to drag and drop items to the timesheet or to the built in timer to create your entries.

It does not get any cheaper that FREE! Here are some great online tutorials for learning Adobe® FlexBuilder …. and there is not cost. Well, no cost beyond the time and dedication that it takes to sit down and actually go through the online training at: http://www.freeflextraining.com/ 

However, if you are like me, the challenge has never really been the cost of training. I have a yearly subscription to lynda.com and I can access all of the online learning on that site any time that I choose. Online learning is a great way to continue your education if you can actually sit down, carve out time in the schedule, and follow along with the videos. As my week typically gets crowded with work obligations and unexpected tasks I do my best to work though a tutorial during my lunch break or late at night to keep my skills sharp. This is sometimes easier said than done.

However, if you have a group of people that need to be trained in a new technology fast, there is still no substitute to Adobe Authorized Flex instrutor lead training. It is still the fastest, most effective way to learn a new technology or software solution.

Adobe has now released AIR 1.5 which is the second significant update to the AIR runtime since its debut on February 25, 2008. The developer community response to AIR has been outstanding with more and more applications appearing every day. With over 260 applications on the Adobe AIR Marketplace and well over 25 million installations of applications deployed using Adobe AIR. Some of the new features in this release include, encrypted local database, Flash Player 10 capabilities, better SEO Search Engine Optimization, and WebKit update.

Got a Netflix account? Now you can manage your Netflix queue right from your desktop using a new Adobe AIR application called Queued. This little application was created primarily to show how AIR and the Dojo Toolkit can be used together to create (RIAs) rich internet applications, Queued is open-source, BSD-licensed software. With Queued, you can access your Netflix queue from your desktop, search for movies to add to your queue, rate movies, and you can even view Instant Watch movies. More info at ReadWriteWeb including a youtube demo movie.

Adobe AIR Marketplace

Adobe launched a new version of the AIR Marketplace this week with a number of enhancements that should make it easier to find AIR applications as well as make the process for submitting them much easier. There are quite a few new applications being added and they are still offering a free developer certificate so that you can sign the AIR apps you create. Some of the new features include the following:

The ability for a developer to specify a link to purchase the application. While the Marketplace does not enable e-commerce transactions directly, users can click on a link to purchase an application from the the developer’s website.

Enhanced feedback support where users can rate, review, comment and flag an application to provide feedback to the developer. In addition, users can share applications with colleagues and friends and also subscribe to RSS feeds from the Marketplace.

A new self-service web interface that allows developers to manage their profile and applications. Developers can also view download statistics, ratings and reviews through a new application dashboard.

Need to take your website to the next level of excitement and interactivity. Look no further … we are about to be offering the latest version of Adobe Flash CS4 Hands on Training. Adobe Flash CS4 Professional software is the industry-leading authoring environment for creating engaging interactive experiences. Some of the new features that we will cover in the training include: object-based animation, inverse kinematics with the bones tool, procedural modeling with deco and spray brush, the new motion editor, and authoring for Adobe AIR.