Nathan Levesque

As I had mentioned before I presented a demo application on Monday for Flex. The best example I could come up with that wasn’t another overused Flickr demo was an RSS feed reader named “Feeder”. It demonstrated simple data services (HTTPService), databinding, Flex Builder’s Design vs. Source views, and some ActionScript event handling. I also quickly copied the code over to an Adobe AIR application just to show that most code could be resused between vanilla Flex and Flex/AIR.

I also made a point to do this in as little code as possible. In fact, it came out to exactly 30 lines of code and took about 15 minutes to code/explain. Realistically, I could have done less, but I wanted to make an app a little more significant than something that displayed RSS items in a DataGrid.

I’ve attached the source code for your curiosity. Feel free to comment and I would love to see anything anyone creates with this:

Feeder MXML Code

Every time you upgrade to a new version of software it of course takes you a couple of weeks to get accustomed to changes and new features. For fun I’m going to highlight a few things I noticed within the first 24 hours of using Flex builder Beta 3 vs. Beta 2.

Application Menu

The first thing I noticed is a few new entries in the application menu. The are now immediate shortcuts to import Artwork and Web Services and to export a Release Build. Additionally, when you choose to import a project. You now have the option of importing a project folder, instead of just a zip file that must have been specially exported from Flex Builder. Thank you Flex Builder Team this is a huge feature. I no longer have to create new projects and copy folders because a code sample zip file wasn’t exported from Flex Builder.

Reorganized Help Docs

The help documentation files have been reorganized so it is much easier to find what you’re looking for without having to dig through seven layers of nested docs to find it. The only thing I would have appreciated here is some notes about what class methods/properties had been deprecated between Beta 2 and 3. This is especially noticeable in the AIR Beta 3 docs.

Advanced UI Constraints(Gone!)

Also noted here on Deepa Subramaniam’s blog, this feature has been dropped from Flex Builder 3. Sad to hear this, because honestly, this made Flex Builder 3 a pleasure to work with. But fortunately, the feature will be back in the future. On the bright side, a feature drop like this does give us an indication that the Flex Builder Team is really starting to finalize things for release. They obviously dropped it because they don’t have the time to make it work flawlessly before release. The Flex Builder Planning document states early 2008 as the release period for Flex Builder 3. Here’s hoping for March.

Can’t use Flex 2 License to Extend Trial Period

You should be happy for this feature. Flex Builder 3 Beta 3 expires after 90 days. Flex Builder 3 was released on 12/12/07. If you installed on 12/12/07, your Flex Builder will expire on 3/11/08. Take that how you will, but it looks like a good omen for a probable release date (or at least a projected release date). It’s just a guess, so don’t take my word on it, it’s not like I’m on the Flex Builder Team.

Today I added an About section that is basically a description of myself. Coming later this weekend I will be removing the Portfolio section in favor of a Projects section which will contain code examples, information on applications I’m currently working on, and other such material. This is a move on my part to add more substance to this site as presently most of the content is in the form of my blog posts.

Keep and eye out for this stuff over the next few days.

This morning felt like an early Christmas for some developers. For Flex Developers, Beta 3 of Flex 3 was released today, along with Beta 3 of Adobe AIR. This was hinted to at last week’s Flex Camp Boston (actually all they said was “wait until 12/12″, but I think anyone who had been following Flex knew what they meant). This means we’re one step closer to the release of AIR 1.0 and Flex 3.

Also released today was the release version of XNA Game Studio 2.0, which marks the first release use of the Windows Live and XBox Live on the XBox 360 for the casual developer. This new version also works with alternative editions of Visual Studio 2005 other than the Express version. Hopefully this will invite more commercial developers and help push the platform further.

All in all, I really don’t know which to program first tonight!