Flex Feeds Most Recent Stories

Making Components Work Together

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:08:17 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 5, 2008 @ 4:08am]

Silverlight and Encryption

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:16:30 +0000

While working on a recent projec While working on a recent project involving Silverlight security, I was excited by the amount of options we now have available to us (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.cryptography(VS.95).aspx). One of the major uses for this is to encrypt data in isolated storage. This is a pretty simple procedure and makes perfect sense for storing sensitive data to the client (the docs provide a nice sample of use http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.cryptography.aesmanaged(VS.95).aspx ). While this is the primary use case in Silverlight for encryption, having these framework libraries available opens up some interesting options.

One possible use for this would be to encrypt communication between xaps using the html bridge. A perfect example of this might be a portal type app, where the Silverlight apps exist in islands which may need to share data real time. Imagine an HR application builting using a content management system, which has been updated with small silverlight applications dropped in. By encrypting the data in one xap, you can then pass it through the bridge to then be decrypted by another xap sharing the same encryption code. This adds a level of security by ensuring that the data is not harvested by a malicious application on the client’s machine.

In this example you can click on the transfer button which serializes the complex object and encrypts the data. The data is then sent through the html bridge encrypted, and then passed back to the second xap to then be decrypted and deserialized.

Another possible use for this would be encrypting data from point to point message-level "like" security. With Silverlight 2, we now have the ability to call web services via over, but sadly not ws-security where the entire soap message is encrypted using message-level security. One possible stop gap for this would be to encrypt the data coming from Silverlight, pass it over https, and then decrypted on the server. With the ability to have shared source between the Silverlight client and the WCF Web Service, this encryption code can be the exact same code and, in fact, the exact same file (using a linked file in visual studio).

Silverlight Class Library	Web Application with linked source
Data encrypted from the Silverlight application decrypted on the service tier

I think this shows the real power of Silverlight, not only do you get the power of .net in the browser, but you also get the interoperability of the same CODE on browser / WCF Service / desktop client etc.

(DISCLAIMER: this strategy is provided as a proof of concept, and not a direct assertion of best practices) [via http://cynergysystems.com/blogs/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 9:16pm]

Google Earth + Google Earth API on Mac

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:10:52 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 7:10pm]

Adobe Max 2008 Milan, Italy-Interview with Mark Niemann-Ross

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:34:05 +0000

Mark is a Developer Evangelist for Adobe Systems Inc. I asked Mark to summarize his sessions on the topic of Flex and Air. Check out the complete transcript at http://www.wowtechminute.com

Author: WebProfessionals
Keywords: adobe max 2008 milan flex air
Added: December 4, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 4, 2008 @ 6:34pm]

Anvil - a Flash and Java-Based Open Source Portal Server

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:10:06 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 5:10pm]

JavaFX Officially Released

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:16:58 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 3:16pm]

Building a Simple Progress Bar Using the Scriptaculous Morph Function

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:16:58 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 3:16pm]

Visualizing LARGE Data Sets

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:44:38 +0000

Recently I heard someone bashing Flex/Flash for having slow data rendering for charts, and of course I had to disagree. Not only did I fervently disagree that point, but I decided to write some examples to prove it. The Flash player has amazing graphical capabilities, and makes visual representations of data very easy and very powerful.

The complaint (and assumption) was that the Flash player's graphics are slow because Flex charts can't handle large data sets. By "large", i mean hundreds of thousands, or even millions of data points.

Well... the first part of this is to not confuse the speed of a framework component with the speed of the graphics capabilities of the flash player. This is not a bashing of the Flex framework; I love Flex and what it can do.

Let's first take a look at what the Flex framework is: It is a framework built on top of Flash Player APIs that enables rapid development of Flash-based applications. Flex is a productivity tool. Adobe has done all of the hard work in creating an application framework. The framework is there to provide generic out-of-the-box components that work for the vast majority of situations and are highly customizable; which it does exceptionally well. The Flex charting components work with a variety of data types, are completely customizable, and make data visualization very easy.

Not everything that you do has to be done through existing Flex framework components. One of the beauties of developing in Flex is that you can customize everything. That could be down to the drawing API level, or (if you are brave enough) down to the pixel manipulation level.

If you are trying to visualize VERY large data sets, chances are the default Flex charting components actually won't cut it. You need to trade generic, customizable objects for specialized visualization objects. The biggest problem with large data sets is that they take a long time to render visually. This is where specialized and optimized code goes a long way.

Let's take a look at a few examples. Keep in mind, all of the data is randomly generated on the client within just a few seconds. No data serialization is taking place -- that could incur additional processing time in large data sets.

The first one is a standard Flex scatter plot chart that display. When you click the "Generate Data" button, this example will randomly generate 5,000 data points and display them within the scatter plot. While there is no "hard" upper bounds on the number of data points that can be visualized within a standard Flex chart, as that number increases, so does the amount of time taken to render the chart. I've pushed this to 10,000 data points, but things definitely start to slow down.

Click the "Generate Data Set" button to view the data visualization.

please be patient if it's running slow on your machine! there's a lot going on here

Now, let's take a look at what's happening in the code. It's actually very simple... data is being generated and set as the dataProvider of the chart instance.

<mx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
    
    private function generateData() : void
    {
      var array : Array = new Array();
      var i : int = 0;
      while ( i < 5000 )
      {
        var o : Object = {};
        o.x = 50 + Math.sin(i) * Math.random() * 75;
        o.y = 50 + Math.cos(i) * Math.random() * 50;
        array.push( o );
        i++;
      }
      chart.dataProvider = array;
    }
    
  ]]>
</mx:Script>

<mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
  
  <mx:Button 
    label="Generate Data Set"
    click="generateData()" />
  
</mx:ApplicationControlBar>

<mx:PlotChart 
  id="chart"
  top="10" bottom="10" left="10" right="10" >
  
  <mx:series>
    <mx:PlotSeries yField="y" xField="x"/>
  </mx:series>
  
</mx:PlotChart>

One approach to creating faster (and more specialized) data visualizations is to do them yourself using the Flash player's drawing API. The next example shows how to use the drawing API to create a customized scatter plot. A small circle is draw for each data point in the scatter plot. this example shows 15,000 data points. With custom charts, you have complete control over how the data is displayed, and it gets easier to customize each individual data point (for example different color per point, or different shape per point).

I've pushed this one upwards of 50,000 data points before it starts to bog down. One thing to keep in mind when using the drawing API and custom visualizations is that transparency negatively impacts rendering performance. The more transparency, the slower it will render, and fewer data points you will be able to show.

Click the "Generate Data Set" button to view the data visualization.

once again, please be patient if it's running slow on your machine! there's a lot going on here

Now, let's take a look this code. Data is being generated by the generateData() function, and data is being rendered by the renderData() function.

<mx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
    import mx.events.IndexChangedEvent;
    import flash.utils.getTimer;
    
    private var datum : Array = [];
    
    private function generateData() : void
    {
      datum = [];
      var i : int = 0;
      while ( i < 15000 )
      {
        var o : Object = {};
        o.x = .5 + Math.sin(i) * Math.random() * .5;
        o.y = .5 + Math.cos(i) * Math.random() * .5;
        datum.push( o );
        i++;
      }
      renderData();
    }
    
    private function renderData() : void
    {
      var i : int = 0;
      var w : int = chart.width;
      var h : int = chart.height;
      var g:Graphics = chart.graphics;
      
      g.clear();
      
      
      //draw the background
      g.beginFill( 0xFFFFFF, 1 )
      g.drawRect( 0,0, w,h );
      g.endFill();
      
      g.lineStyle(1, 0, .5);
      
      //draw each data point
      for each (var o : Object in datum)
      {
        g.beginFill( o.x * 0xFFFFFF, 1 )
        g.drawCircle( o.x * w, h-(o.y * h), 2 );
        g.endFill();
      }
      
      //draw the overlaying grid
      g.lineStyle(1, 0);
      g.drawRect( 0,0,w,h );
      
      var segments : int = 10;
      var interval : int = w/segments;
      
      for ( i = interval; i<w-interval; i += interval )
      {
        g.moveTo( i, 0 );
        g.lineTo( i, h );
      }
      
      interval = h/segments;
      
      for ( i = interval; i<h-interval; i += interval )
      {
        g.moveTo( 0, i );
        g.lineTo( w, i );
      }
    }
    
  ]]>
</mx:Script>

<mx:ApplicationControlBar
  dock="true">
  
  <mx:Button 
    label="Generate Data Set"
    click="generateData()" />
  
</mx:ApplicationControlBar>

<mx:UIComponent 
  id="chart"
  top="10" bottom="10" left="10" right="10"
  cacheAsBitmap="true"
  mask="{ maskCanvas }" 
  resize="renderData()" />

<mx:Canvas
  id="maskCanvas"
  top="10" bottom="9" left="10" right="9"
  backgroundColor="#FFFFFF" />

Now, let's get down to business... Let's say that you have a million data points. Yes, you heard me... That is a one followed by six zeros: 1,000,000. Surely that can't be rendered in a Flex UI, can it?

Actually, yes it can.

You might have some trouble using the drawing API's moveTo, lineTo, and other methods with this much data, however you can use an Image object and set BitmapData pixels directly. This is the absolute fastest way to render large datasets. By no coincidence, this is also the hardest way and requires a lot of work (and potentially a lot of manual calculation). The drawing API makes the complex tasks of drawing shapes (with anti aliasing) easy, but they are also processing intensive by comparison to simply setting pixel values.

The next example shows a scatter-plot visualization that displays data for 1 million data points. It generates the data, and sets individual pixel values based on the x,y position of the data points. I've actually pushed this example to render 5 million (5,000,000) data points, but there are obvious performance issues with this much data.

Click the "Generate Data Set" button to view the data visualization.

again, please be patient if it's running slow on your machine! that's a million data points!

<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
  import flash.utils.getTimer;

  private var datum : Array = [];

  private function generateData() : void
  {
    datum = [];
    var i : int = 0;
    while ( i < 1000000 )
    {
      var o : Object = {};

      o.x = .5 + Math.sin(i) * Math.random() * .5;
      o.y = .5 + Math.cos(i) * Math.random() * .5;

      datum.push( o );
      i++;
    }
    renderData();

  }

  private function renderData() : void
  {
    var i : Number = 0;

    var w : int = chart.width;
    var h : int = chart.height;

    //create a new bitmapdata object
    var bd : BitmapData = new BitmapData( w, h, false, 0xFFFFFF );


    //render each data point by setting a pixel
    for each (var o : Object in datum)
    {
      bd.setPixel( o.x * w, h-(o.y * h), o.y * 0xFFFFFF ); 
    }


    //render the grid overlay
    var segments : int = 10;
    var interval : Number = w/segments;
    var q:Number;

    for ( i = 0; i<=w; i += interval )
    {
      for ( var j : int = 0; j < w; j ++ )
      {
        bd.setPixel( i, j, 0 );
      }
    }

    interval = h/segments;
    for ( i = 0; i<=h; i += interval )
    {
      for ( j = 0; j < w; j ++ )
      {
        bd.setPixel( j, i, 0 );
      }
    }

    //set the image source to the manipulated bitmap
    chart.source = new Bitmap( bd );
  }

]]>
</mx:Script>

<mx:ApplicationControlBar
dock="true">

<mx:Button 
  label="Generate Data Set"
  click="generateData()" />

</mx:ApplicationControlBar>

<mx:Image 
id="chart"
top="10" bottom="10" left="10" right="10"
cacheAsBitmap="true" 
resize="renderData()" />

This is just a simple example for pixel manipulation, which is only intended to demonstrate the technique. The data that is rendered is only between the values 0 and 1, so it is easy to calculate each data point's X,Y placement. "Real" data will require additional logic to determine the value range of the scatter plot, the X,Y position of each data point, and any kind of labels or axes. I'm also not accounting for multiple points that may overlap on the same pixel, and you will also notice that the chart is not interactive.

In conclusion, the Flash player can handle lots of data. Again, this is by no means a bash on the Flex charting components. Out of the box, they support complex visualization, they are extremely customizable, they are very easy to animate, they are easy to use, and they are great. However, if you are working with extremely large data sets, then you need to explore other means to visually represent your data. [via http://cynergysystems.com/blogs/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 2:44pm]

Weekly RoundUp Returns Next Week

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:07:00 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 4, 2008 @ 6:07am]

CS4 Installers: The Inside Scoop

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:16:05 +0000

John Nack with the inside scoop on CS4 installers, and plans for CS5. [via http://eismann-sf.com/news/ @ December 3, 2008 @ 10:16pm]

Tom's Flex based Tic-Tac-Toe Game on the Playstation 3

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:20:06 +0000

A quick little video to demonstrate that you can run Flex Applications on the PS3!

Author: TomOrtegaII
Keywords: Playstation3 PS3 Adobe Flex Flash Player Games
Added: December 3, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 3, 2008 @ 4:20pm]

Flex Show Episode 62: The Merapi Project w/ Adam Flater, Andrew Powell, and Dave Meeker

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode we chatted with Adam Flater, Andy Powell, and Dave Meeker about the Merapi Project. This was recorded slightly before Max, so you'll have to excuse some of the dated references.

Notes

Contact

[via http://www.theflexshow.com/blog/ @ December 3, 2008 @ 2:00pm]

The Grid System

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:09:46 +0000

Antonio Carusone, is the man and he has most definitely done it again with his new project/site: The Grid System. It aims to be the ultimate resource in grid systems. Hats off to him, and infinite props on his continued and ardent dedication to all that is grid related. When you visit site be sure to [...] [via http://eismann-sf.com/news/ @ December 3, 2008 @ 3:09am]

Information Overflow

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:04:29 +0000

From the NYtimes: But several say that their biggest surprise came when they learned more about how President Bush spends his day, and how he gets his information. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this in the coming months. Apparently Bush is logged into this crazy sophisticated network of real-time information flows: battle-cams, talking heads from [...] [via http://eismann-sf.com/news/ @ December 3, 2008 @ 3:04am]

Framework Simplicity Can Hide Pitfalls.

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:16:42 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 2, 2008 @ 6:16pm]

FrameworkQuest 2008: Introduction

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:06:57 +0000

[via http://www.insideria.com/ @ December 2, 2008 @ 3:06pm]

Adobe MAX Europe :: Milan :: Wii

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:49:03 +0000

http://fcolaco.com for details / more videos

Author: fernandocolaco
Keywords: adobe max europe milan milano milão flex flash wii
Added: December 1, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 2, 2008 @ 7:49am]

Adobe MAX Europe :: Milan :: Adobe alcool

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:45:14 +0000

http://fcolaco.com for details / more videos

Author: fernandocolaco
Keywords: adobe max europe milan milano milão flex flash
Added: December 1, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 2, 2008 @ 7:45am]

Adobe MAX Europe :: Milan :: Evangelists distributing beer

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:42:35 +0000

http://fcolaco.com for details / more videos

Author: fernandocolaco
Keywords: adobe max europe milan milano milão flex flash evangelists
Added: December 1, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 2, 2008 @ 7:42am]

This Outlier Is the Real Deal

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:45:09 +0000

My good friend Abe from NYC has put together something incredible. Introducing Outlier - tailored performance wear for all you fixed and road cyclists out there. The designs are tight, the fabric super-strength, and although I don’t yet have my hands on the goods, knowing Abe the quality is bar none. I’m soon to invest [...] [via http://eismann-sf.com/news/ @ December 2, 2008 @ 6:45am]

MAX08 Europe Milan DAY 01 Keynote

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:18:02 +0000

Keynote at Adobe MAX 08 Europe in Milan.

Author: richswat
Keywords: Adobe Keynote MAX Milan
Added: December 1, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 1, 2008 @ 8:18pm]

PositiveWare 2.4

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:19:43 +0000

Roland takes a look at the revamped, Adobe Flex-powered Plan Manager in our 2.4 release.

Author: positiveware
Keywords: contract management subcontractor freelancer time tracking project professional services pr marketing it Adobe Flex
Added: December 1, 2008

[via http://youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+flex&search_sort=video_date_uploaded @ December 1, 2008 @ 6:19pm]

“Model Driven Development using Flex and LCDS Next” at FlexCamp Boston on Dec 12th

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:08:55 +0000

If you are not attending MAX Europe in Milan this week, I will present my “Model Driven Development using Flex Builder 4 and LCDS Next” session at FlexCamp Boston on December 12th as well. Hope to see you there! [via http://coenraets.org/blog/ @ December 1, 2008 @ 5:08pm]

MAX Europe New Session: Model Driven Development using Flex Builder 4 and LCDS Next

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:33:10 +0000

We just added a new session (not in the printed agenda) to talk about a brand new feature the LCDS and Flex Builder teams are working on… Session details: “Model Driven Development using Flex Builder 4 and LCDS Next”. Wednesday, December 3, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm, Yellow 2 In this session we take a Sneak Peek at [...] [via http://coenraets.org/blog/ @ December 1, 2008 @ 4:33pm]

Using the SQLite Database Access API in AIR… Part 3: Annotation-Based ORM Framework

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:01:12 +0000

In the second version of our contact management application, we encapsulated the data access logic for the Contact entity in a Data Access Object (ContactDAO). This separation of concerns represented a major improvement compared to our first approach. The remaining limitation we identified was the amount of SQL we had to write “manually”. In this third [...] [via http://coenraets.org/blog/ @ December 1, 2008 @ 4:01pm]