lets Talk Flex

How to get Scrollbar for Constraint based Containers

mohitsambhar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:46:15 +0000

A quickie out here…In a recent project I am working on (Tryptich ebook reader in flex)..For the Demo part we had a requirement where in I had to insert this long image in a Vbox with width 100% and height 100%..The image got loaded but no scroll was there…Since it was all 100% …as expected the image squashed itself to fit in that 100%…I googled and found a cool solution (thanks to the guy who figured it out) Well, you just mention minHeight in the container which hosts the image and there you get the scrollbar by magic…

No time for details but do check the code below for reference…

    paddingBottom=”7″ paddingTop=”3″ horizontalScrollPolicy=”off”>

       styleName=”mainVBoxWhite” width=”100%” height=”100%” minHeight=”0″ minWidth=”0″>

Posted in Cheat Codes, Flex Development

Use WebServices in Flex4

mohitsambhar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:37:00 +0000

Taking cue from a very good tutorial from insideria.com, I made a small app in Flex4. My fisrt official app in Flex4 using Flash Builder. I’ve used a public webservice to fetch quotes based on topics. There’s a combo box populated with some topics. When you click a certain topic, the webservice uses another method to fetch the “quotes” on that topic. Pretty simple…Now, what’s different here…..anybody can do it in Flex2 or 3…Well, I used the new “Connect to Web Service” feature where in I added the webservice URL and Voila…I get some pre cooked code out there……I just have to strategise my app and not worry about the nitty gritty of code…Its kind of cool wherein you have to get in some quick plug in or small handy componenent…..

Thanks to Fortune Web Service

Here’s the DEMO version…(a bug – However I could not fire the call intially and get the quote when the app loads….will figure it out..)

and here’s the SourceCode to get going…

Parting Note: Flex 4 generated SWF files are much more heavier than Flex 3 SWF files. So Flex 4 SWF file for this Demo is 1.31 MB and its Flex 3 counterpart is only 433 KB, which makes Flex 4 SWF file approx 3 times heavier….Somebody listening…? A heavy price for all those jazzy effects and sleek shadows…

An Update: the DEMO just not might work as there’s some crossdomain.xml (Darn! I hate it) issue…Will fix it soon..

Posted in Flex 4 (Gumbo) Apps

Add cool effects in Flex 4!

mohitsambhar — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:33:18 +0000

Flex 4 (Gumbo) is real Jumbo in sheer power and the new features. Firstly, good news for developers out there, Coding in Flash Builder is a delight. There are so many new attractions viz a viz

You get a more descriptive Code Help with detail window showing the heirrachy of the attribute or object you would be adding. Check the screenshots below.
A whole new MXML with jarring things filtered out and keeping only the most essential ones.
You can’t put styles in the MXML tags now…it has to be a class and added in stylename attrb
Overall change of Layout containers and other components
By default the boring blue background in Flex 3 is not there anymore…

The only way to experience all the above goodies is to download the Flash Builder Beta and dive right in….

Chk this small example using the Flex documentation help out there…just scratched some surface

Posted in Flex Features, General

Working on Tryptich Book Reader development…

mohitsambhar — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:37:35 +0000

Developing a Flex tryptich book reader application these days. This is a ebook reader with standard features. Currently, I’m working on the prototype and subsequently, we’ll be extending this to full blown app…Also contains Cover flow, Fullscreen feature, drag drop docked panels, etc.. Really Flex rocks when it comes to robustness and power…Below is a concept shot of tryptich …but it has changed lot since then…

Posted in Flex Applications, Flex Development

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know – The Book

mohitsambhar — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:53:52 +0000

Chanced upon this very useful and must read book “97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know – The Book” by a bunch of reowned architects. A collection of 97 most innovative and thoughtful articles you’ll ever find bound in one place. Check this on Amazon.com

Also you can read it online on this wiki site

http://97-things.near-time.net/wiki/97-things-every-software-architect-should-know-the-book

Infact I created a new Catgory “Must Reads” to accomodate these awesome publications….Happy Reading over the weekend…

Posted in Must Reads

10 Ways to Improve Your Code on InfoQ.com

mohitsambhar — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:45:49 +0000

Watch this awesome presentation by Neal Ford an architect at ThoughtWorks on How you can improve your coding style and ATTITUDE…in 10 most useful ways. Infact, this is a must have potion for any developer and a Code loving guy…

Download the entire presentation in PDF format.

Get the preview of topics covered in the presentation. Courtesy : InfoQ.com

Composed Method

Divide your program into methods that perform one identifiable task.
Keep all of the operations in a method at the same level of abstraction.
This will naturally result in programs with many small methods, each a few lines long.

TDD - stands mostly for test-driven development but can also be viewed as test-driven design.

When one uses TDD, he starts thinking about the consumer of the code he is writing. This brings awareness on how his code is going to be used by another.
It forces the developer to mock dependent objects, resulting in a clearer picture of the relationship between the objects.
TDD encourages the creation of composed methods.

Static Analysis

It is quite useful to use tools like FindBugs which analyzes the bytecode to discover bugs.

Good Citizenship – refers to the way classes should react to one another

Singletons are a bad choice because they have mixed responsibilities and are not testable. They are the objectual correspondents of global variables.
The proposed solution is to create a regular POJO and use a factory to make sure that only one instance gets created.

YAGNI – You Ain’t Gonna Need It

One should write only the code that is used now.
Avoid speculative development which increases the software entropy of a code.
Top 10 Corporate Code Smells:

Question Authority - Some things should not be done just because that is the custom.

Single Level of Abstraction Principle – everything should be at the same level of abstraction

All lines of code in a method should be at the same level of abstraction

Polyglot Programming – use the best language for the problem while maintaining the same platform (JVM/.NET)

Learn Every Nuance – developers benefit from learning nuances of their language

Use the Anti-Objects Pattern – “an anti-object is a kind of object that appears to essentially do the opposite of what we generally think the object should be doing.”

Posted in General, Road to FlexDorado

Line Chart Graph in Flex

mohitsambhar — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:36:00 +0000

Recently, I created a small Line chart Tool, which is deployed on one of our projects on Salesforce.com. This graph draws a line chart curve when the data changes dynamically. I had real fun working 0n this small app.Once again, MVC pattern made it real easy, as I had my Model class binded to my view. The data gets updated in the model class, thus changing the graph dynamically… There are many other features such as Fullscreen view on doubleclick. Checkboxes to set the curve visibility on and off, etc.

For preview, I uploaded an intial prototype of the application. click here

Well, I wish I could have shared the source code also.

Line Chart Graph in Flex

Posted in Flex Applications

Syntax of Java 5 Vs ActionScript 3

mohitsambhar — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:25:45 +0000

Chanced upon this very useful post by Yakov fain from Farata Systems

“Comparing the syntax of Java 5 and ActionScript 3″

Its a long list to be included in this post, but the list is worth going through. Now this gives me a better reason to taste java fx also, slurp..

Posted in Java Flex

Recursive XML parsing in Flex

mohitsambhar — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:31:56 +0000

When I had to parse a long book.xml for CD Splitter tool I was working on recently, I had a hard time to get the xml parsed effectively and with minimum code lines. And I was hell bent, that i’ll not bother the good old friend google for this. Finally, after few attempts I got the solution.

private function onTemplateXMLLoad(event:ResultEvent):void


{
parseTemplateXML(XML(event.result));
}
private function parseTemplateXML(objXML:XML):void
{
if(objXML != null)
{
for each(var item:XML in objXML.children())
{
// trace("hasComplexContent*** : "+item.hasComplexContent());
if(item.hasComplexContent())
{
// recursive call
parseTemplateXML(item);
}
else
{
// this is the node value you are seeking
}
}
}

}

Posted in Flex Development

Video: Flex Best Practices – Guys Don’t miss it

mohitsambhar — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:45:32 +0000

Best Practices in Flex a presentation by James Ward. Check this article for this is a treasure. Infact in one of my official projects (We are developing & deploying a Flex Application on Salesforce platform), I have to document Best Practices for both Flex and Salesforce API and this will be a great help.

You can also download the “Best Practices” power point slides.

Posted in Flex Applications