In Professional Flex 3, I wrote a chapter on integrating Flex with Java-based Web Services  (see below to download actual chapter).  More specifically I used Grails (similar to Ruby on Rails, except for the Java world), which is based on Groovy (a dynamic language that compiles to the Java platform) to expose SOAP-based Web Services [...]

It’s Here!  For about a year I worked with a team of smart guys (Andrew Trice, Joseph Balderson, Peter Ent, Jun Heider, Tom Sugden, David Hassoun, Joe Berkovitz) to create what we think is one of the best books out there on Adobe Flex.  It’s around 1400 pages, nearly 5 pounds, of comprehensive knowledge.  It’s available [...]

Yesterday I came across a post over at Inside RIA (probably the best place to keep up on RIA ) about a handy new mockup Tool called Balsamiq Mockups.  In the past, I’ve used a lot of Viso and PowerPoint with various templates for doing mockups, so I’m always interested in tools that help me [...]

Now that Adobe’s released the final bits to Flex 3 with Adobe AIR support, my latest article Digitally signing Adobe AIR applications has been posted over on Adobe DevNet.
Read it if you’re interested in understanding a bit about the code signing process, including certificate acquisition, and signing from all the tools Adobe supports AIR application [...]

ABC.Com has been offering full episodes of shows to watch over the web, but what’s new is their offering of Lost in HD 720p.  Personally, I haven’t watched the show since Season 2, and it seems to have been getting a little long in the tooth with long drawn out plotlines traveling the road to [...]

An article of mine, based on a previous blog entry, has been posted to the Adobe AIR Developer Center for Flex.  Read about Building Flex and Adobe AIR applications from the same code base.  The Adobe Developer Network version goes into more detail and has a pretty UML diagram to make it all sensible.  Check [...]

Now that the AirDerby deadline has passed, people are starting to show off their cool applications.  I’ve been to a few sites that have an “Install Now” badge (like the Adobe AIR Sample Gallery).  These badges allow the user to click on a link and both the AIR runtime and AIR application will be installed [...]

Worked late last night to solidify the functionality of FOTOBlendr, my entry into the Adobe AIR Derby.  It’s an application for quickly building photo collages with community shared templates (in progress), as well as a free form tool using custom borders and slapping images on a Collage Canvas.
Currently, it supports the ability to grab images [...]

A little rant here.  I know Adobe AIR is new sexy and everyone’s trying to build apps that run naively on the desktop, but please, if you’re not making use of local filesystem, native windows, drag-and-drop, SQLLite, native menus, or any other of the useful AIR APIs, you should really consider not releasing it as [...]

Today, I decided it would be easier for me to demonstrate my AIR application to end users if they could just go to a link on a website.  However, getting AIR code to compile into a Flex SWF file, isn’t as simple as I initially thought.  Naturally, there’s the additional APIs that AIR allows the developer [...]