Developer's Blog

I was invited by Mihaela Barbu to Adobe Romania : we will talk about how I use Flex, what’s so God damn good about it, and most important, my Flex 4 wish list. Since the meeting is next week, I’ll have to put together a list – I usually write this kind of lists on my desktop or talk about them to my beloved one (someday I’ll buy her diamonds for the patience of listening me talking like a mad scientist). This time I will do it different, having the proof over time beside me – and hoping that all points will be checked (did you saw The Bucket List?).

Now seriously, why would a Flex developer complete such a list, immediately after Flex 3 SDK was released? And you see, all that comes into my mind is related to Flex Builder because as a developer, if I need something and the SDK permits it, I’ll just start building. Ok, there are some parts – like garbage collection – which will go to this wish list. So here is the thin list, three ways:

A. Wishes for the Adobe Flash Player

• #1. Chronologically, the first unresolved issue is the black application controls (there is no possibility to set the text selection color). I wish that the Flash player will let the developer choose the text selection color, or present an video inverse color scheme to avoid the workaround.
• #2. Encouraging the use of PDF : how nice it will be when the Flash player will contain code for saving PDF instead of printing and all that from a Flex application? I’m sure that the day when this is possible without needing third party software, will be a D-day for the Flex developers and Flex applications. I guess you’ve got my point…
• #3. This point is more about the wrapper, but is a very common scenario nowadays : since Internet Explorer refuses to die and I, developer, consider that more than 80% of the users around the world don’t know how to use their browsers, I wish that the wrapper somehow detect if someone’s IE doesn’t permit add-ons being started in “safe-mode”. I used quotes with safe-mode since there is no safe mode of using IE – start using FireFox now!
• #4. Access to the garbage collection please! Not only in the debugger. For the developers who really knows what are they doing – and I promise to became one soon after this feature is released – I know that this will be like getting hands on their own objects, feeling close to God and C++

Observation : I agree with the wish list (including some comments) published here.

B. Wishes for Flex SDK – this is really short

• #1. A better RichTextEditor – my guess is that it is still limited due to the sandbox, which makes the developer upload the picture before we can insert it into an RichTextEditor (with a custom control, of course). Using XHTML?
• #2. Page-able collections – in a more elegant manner than today.

Observation : I wish (for myself) to design applications which makes better use of the Model from the MVC – I’ll get back to this idea in a future post. The list for the SDK is short for a simple reason : we develop! Therefore, this wish list is constantly checked and rewritten.

C. Wishes for Flex Builder

• #1. internationalization helper tool – you select an STR_ID and call through a shortcut a wizard which inserts the same STR_ID into properties files (you’ve had let system know about) letting you complete the string after equal in all properties files;
• #2. test area – which lets you test a project (even a chunk of code), without create new project, without having to define a lot of stuff to see the Flex code running (generally, it will be used for taking a bug out of the system and treat it, or for optimization purposes – when you copy-paste a chunk of your code).
• #3. the coder has this area where he can collect all sort of tests in snippets and even in bug-solving collections which can be submitted to his personal blog or to a community site…
• #4. command line parameters wizard : every time I want to do something (complex?) with the command line I’ll have to check an external source for parameters (and I guess is not hard to build)

Among this list I should have written about documentation and samples. The great mistake about documentation is the manner in which it is organized. First, I wish there was a TextInput which filters a list of class names (I scroll to much and I’m getting tired, eventually bored and start looking somewhere else). Second, I wish there was a map (like cheat sheets has), made in Flex, in which you can go inside component methods and properties – lets say using the SpringGraph. Also, I’m imagining the day that documentation will talk about technique (and I’m not referring only Flex, but most of the good languages) – I agree, that’s the role of community and this is how you can find good inspirational websites, which explain “how you should do it!” with a bit of “why this way”.

I will get back on this subject, mostly with wishes for the SDK.

Mike Chambers offered a nice solution to this. Theoretically, my workaround is based on LocalConnection and another piece of software which can launch exe files without restrictions. If you really need to run external exe files, and there is no other way of solving your problem, then you will make sure that the user runs that another software before launching the AIR application. Let’s name this another software, Executor.

Ingredients:

1. Executor is built with embedded content, having inside a little piece of SWF which handles communications with your AIR application and launches upon request other applications, exe type. This can be built using SWF packers (projectors) like Zinc (which is allowed to launch exe files, and have a lot of functionality for all sort of things), or – if you have the know how – you can build it yourself (and I can’t tell you how nice it is), using for instance, Delphi.
2. Another class, which handles LocalConnection communications – will be included of you AIR application. If your AIR application cannot connect to Executor, you will announce the user to launch it, indicating the exact position of Executor (since you know where the installation took place).
3. Executor has the ability to minimize to tray, without interfering with AIR’s execution. Another ability of Executor, should be to close itself upon request (sky’s the limit here, talking about its abilities) just before closing your AIR application.

In the end, I’ll have to admit three things:

• Although I didn’t tested, Mike’s solution seems more elegant and probably works cross-platform. So, if you have the knowledge, adopt his solution.
• Talking about Zinc and AIR is like a pleonasm, since AIR is doing more or less what Zinc did even before Apollo was just the name for a Greek God and a space mission name. If you are adopting the above solution, you’ll have to have a very good reason (like FileStream usage or ByteArray, maybe the open-source Safari browser) since most of the support that Zinc has to offer applies to every aspect you might think. So, building a Flex project which is using Zinc’s functionality seems by far a better idea.
• I’ll have to declare myself disappointed realizing that AIR didn’t make it to the point that we’ll don’t have to buy third party software to do achieve something so simple. If it’s a desktop application, than should behave like one, isn’t it? Despite this, I still believe in AIR because I have a good preview and I’m certain that one day this workaround will be redundant.

In the news: I have published the first tutorial on Romanian Flex User Group. Take a look, if you are beginning to learn Flex and feel free to drop a note if you feel so.